Hugh Martin
(1822-1885), minister of the free church of Scotland, born at Aberdeen on 11
Aug. 1822, was son of Alexander Martin, and was educated at the grammar
school and Marischal College of his native city. He had a distinguished
career in the university classes, obtaining, among numerous prizes, the Gray
bursary, the highest mathematical reward at Marischal College. He graduated
M.A. in April 1839, and subsequently attended the theological classes at
King's College, Aberdeen. He was in his student days opposed to the
'non-intrusion' party, which in 1843 became the free church; but at the
general assembly of the church of Scotland in 1842 he was converted by a
speech of Dr. Cunningham to free church principles. Licensed as a minister
in 1843, he was appointed in 1844 to Panbride, near Carnoustie, in the
presbytery of Arbroath, to build up the free church charge after the
disruption. Martin remained at Panbride till 1858, when he was called to the
important charge of Free Greyfriars in Edinburgh. This position he held till
June 1865, Avhen he retired owing to ill-health. In 1866-8 Martin acted as
examiner in mathematics for the degree of MA. in the university of
Edinburgh, which conferred upon him in 1872 the degree of doctor of
divinity. In the debates in the general assembly of the free church Martin
was a frequent and an able speaker. On his retirement from Greyfriars,
Martin took a house at Lasswade, near Edinburgh, where he occupied himself
with music and mathematics. He died 14 June 1885.
Martin was a frequent contributor to the 'British and Foreign Evangelical
Review', and the 'Transactions of the London Mathematical Society.' His
works comprise: 1. 'Christ's Presence in the Gospel History,' 8vo, London,
1860. 2. 'The Prophet Jonah, his Character and Mission to Nineveh,' 8vo,
London, 1866. 3. 'A Study of Trilinear Coordinates,' 8vo, Cambridge, 1867.
4. 'The Atonement,' 8vo, London, 1870. 5. 'National Education,' 8vo,
Edinburgh, 1872. 6. 'Mutual Eligibility,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1872. 7.
'Relations between Christ's Headship over Church and State,' 8vo, Edinburgh,
1875. 8. 'The Shadow of Calvary,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1875. 9. 'The Westminster
Doctrine of the Inspiration of Scripture,' 8vo, London, 1877 (this work
reached a fifth edition in the same year). 10. 'A Sequel to "The Westminster
Doctrine of the Inspiration of Scripture,"' 8vo, London, 1877.
[Information obtained from Dr. Martin's son, the Rev. Alexander Martin,
M.A., one of the ministers of Morningside Free Church, Edinburgh.]
James Martin (fl.
1577), philosophical writer, a native of Dunkeld, Perthshire, is said to
have been educated at Oxford. A James Martin, whose college is not
mentioned, commenced M.A. at Oxford on 31 March 1522 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf.
Hist. Soc., i. 124). He was professor of philosophy at Paris. In 1556 he was
proctor of the Germans in the university of Paris (Du BOULAY, Hist. Univ.
Paris, vi. 490), and in May 1557 was chosen by the same nation to negotiate
with the king concerning a tax which he desired to impose on the university,
much to its disgust (ib. pp. 490, 518). He subsequently is said to have
become professor at Turin. Burton (The Scot Abroad, p. 296) says he was
professor at Rome, but this is probably a slip. He was dead by 1584.
Martin wrote a treatise in refutation of some of Aristotle's dogmas entitled
'De prima simplicium & concretorum corporum Generatione. . . disputatio,'
4to, Turin, 1577. Another edition, with a preface by William Temple, M.A.,
of King's College, Cambridge, was published at Cambridge in 1584, 8vo, and
again at Frankfort in 1589. A reply by Andreas Libavius appeared at
Frankfort in 1591.
Other treatises by Martin are vaguely mentioned by Tanner, viz.: 1. 'In
Artem Memorise,' Paris. 2. 'De Intelligentiis Motricibus,' Turin. 3. 'In
Libros Aristotelis de Ortu et Interitu,' Paris, 1555, but none of them
appear to be now extant.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. 1718, p. 515.] G.G.
Sir James Martin (1793-1874), surgeon, son of the Rev. Donald Martin,
was born in 1793 at Kilmuir, Isle of Skye, and received his school education
at the Royal Academy of Inverness. In 1813 he became a student of St.
George's Hospital, and in 1817, having become a member of the College of
Surgeons in London, he obtained an appointment as surgeon on the Bengal
medical establishment of the East India Company. He first spent three years
in Orissa. The governor-general in 1821 made him surgeon to his body-guard,
and he served in the first Burmese war. In 1826 he married a daughter of
Colonel Patten, C.B., began civil practice in Calcutta, and soon attained
success. He was made presidency surgeon in 1830, and also surgeon to the
general hospital in Calcutta. He published at Calcutta in 1837 'Notes on the
Medical Topography of Calcutta' which gives a readable account of sanitary
advantages and disadvantages from the time of the 'large shady tree' under
which Job Charnock sat in 1689, down to 1837, followed by a clear general
account of the diseases of Bengal and their remedies. He left India after
publishing two important memoirs 'On the Draining of the Salt-water Lake'
and 'On the Reoccupation of Negrais Island,' and settled in practice in
London, where he lived for some time in Grosvenor Street. The Royal College
of Surgeons elected him a fellow in 1843, and the Royal Society in 1845. He
became inspector-general of army hospitals and a member of the army sanitary
commission.
He wrote with Dr. James Johnson in 1841 a work 'On the Influence of Tropical
Climates on European Constitutions.' On its reaching in 1856 a seventh
edition Martin completely rewrote this voluminous book. It contains many
interesting records of cases and shows extensive reading in the medical
books of its own period. Another edition appeared in 1861. He published for
private circulation in 1847 'A Brief Topographical and Historical Notice of
Calcutta,' and also wrote the article on 'Hospitals' in Holmes's 'System of
Surgery,' as well as some pamphlets on subjects connected with the medical
service of the army. In 1860 he was made C.B. and was knighted in the same
year. He was one of the first surgeons who used injections of iodine for the
cure of hydrocele. He became somewhat deaf in old age, but discharged
official duties till a fortnight before his death, which was due to
pneumonia, and took place at his house in Upper Brook Street, London, 27
Nov. 1874.
Martin Martin (d. 1719), author, born in the Island of Skye, became
factor to the Laird of Macleod and, mainly at the request of Sir Robert
Sibbald [q. v.] the antiquary, travelled over the western islands of
Scotland, collecting information regarding the condition and habits of the
islanders.
In 1697 he contributed a short paper on the subject to the Royal Society's
'Philosophical Proceedings,' xix. 727. This was elaborated and published,
with a map, in London in 1703, under the title of 'A Description of
theWestern Islands of Scotland.' It has been wrongly stated (Toland, notes,
infra) that for this work Martin was made a fellow of the Royal Society.
Several editions of the book were published, and it has been reprinted, the
last reprint being issued in Glasgow in 1884. On 29 May 1697, in company
with the minister of Harris, he sailed in an open boat to St. Kilda, and in
the following year appeared his 'Voyage to St. Kilda,' describing the island
and its inhabitants. It reached a fourth edition in 1753, and it too has
been reprinted (PATERSON, Voyages, &c.) In the 'Philosophical Transactions'
xxv. 2469, there is a second paper by him on 'A Relation of a Deaf and Dumb
Person who recovered his Speech and Hearing after a Violent Fever.' 'Martinus
Martin, Scoto-Britannus,' entered Leyden University G March 1710, and
graduated M.D. there (PEACOCK, Index of Leyden Students, p. 65). He died in
London in 1719.
Martin's 'Description of the Western Islands' was given to Dr. Johnson to
read by his father, and roused the doctor's interest in Scotland, which
afterwards resulted in the famous tour. Although Johnson was interested in
the work and took it with him to the highlands, he had a poor opinion of its
literary merits. 'No man,' he said, 'now writes so ill as Martin's account
of the Hebrides is written.'
Peter John Martin (1786-1860), geologist, was born in 1786 at
Pulborough, Sussex, where his father, Peter Patrick Martin, a native of
Scotland, was a practitioner of medicine. He was chiefly educated by his
father and an elder brother, and studied medicine, first at the United
Hospital, as it then was, of Guy's and St. Thomas's, and afterwards at
Edinburgh. Father and sons alike had literary tastes, and the former
ultimately retired from practice and resided in Paris, where he died at the
age of ninety.
Martin as a boy had written in a periodical called 'The Preceptor.' As he
became older his love for literature suffered no check by the growth of an
enthusiasm for science. At Edinburgh his mind had been directed to geology.
On settling down at Pulborough as M.R.C.S. to join his father in practice he
devoted himself more especially to the study of the neighbouring district,
and contributed several papers to the publications of the Geological
Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1833, and to the 'Philosophical
Magazine.' He was hardly less interested in the archaeology of Sussex. An
account of a British settlement and walled tumulus near Pulborough was
contributed by him to the 'Sussex Archaeological Collections' (ix.109), and
a paper on 'The Stane Street Causeway' (ib. xi. 127). In 1833-4 he delivered
three lectures, afterwards published, to the Philosophical and Literary
Society of Chichester, on 'A Parallel between Shakespeare and Scott, and the
Kindred Nature of their Genius.' He was also a musician and an enthusiastic
gardener, writing often under the signature of 'P. P.' in the
'Gardener'sChronicle,' chiefly between 1841 and 1845.
He was very successful in his profession, and was generally respected and
trusted as a friend and adviser in matters other than medical. In 1821 he
married Mary, daughter of Adam and Eliza Watson of Dunbar, and died on 13
May 1860, after an illness of some duration, leaving a family of three
daughters and one son, who was an M.D. of Cambridge and physician to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital. Martin's geological writings consist of a series of
papers 'On the Anticlinal Line of the London and Hampshire Basins,'
published in the 'Philosophical Magazine for 1829, 1851, 1856, and 1857, the
longest, that of 1851, being mainly a paper read before the Geological
Society in 1840, and unaccountably mislaid by its officials till 1848. Three
communications on Sussex geology were also published by that society in
1834, 1842, and 1856. But Martin's most important work was a separately
published 'Geological Memoir on a part of Western Sussex, with some
Observations upon Chalk Basins, the Weald Denudation and Outliers by
Protrusion,' a thin quarto volume, with a map and four plates, 1828. As a
geologist Martin belonged to the school whose motto was 'catastrophe and
cataclysm,' and these ideas so far pervade his writings that they are now
rarely consulted.
He was, however, right, though he went a little too far in insisting that
the tertiary 'basins' of London and Hampshire were not originally separated,
but that the severance was the result of subsequent earth-movements. To
these movements he attributed, in common with W. Hopkins, the valleys of the
Weald. That these are fractures in any proper sense of the word few would
now venture to assert with Martin, but the course of the streams may have
been directed to some extent, and their action facilitated, by lines of
weakness due to the upheaval of the district. Judicious remarks are often
scattered through his writings, but his strength as a geologist seems to
have lain in the direction of accurate observation rather than of inductive
reasoning.
[Obituary notices in Gent. Mag. 1860, ii. 198, in the British Medical
Journal, 1860, p. 402, and in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society, 1861, Proc. p. xxxii.] T. G. B. |