Doctor Walter Oudney was born, of humble parentage, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, in the month of December, 1790. From his boyhood he discovered an uncommon disposition and aptitude for learning; so that he could scarcely be induced to take the necessary hours of repose. It does not appear, however, that at this early period he manifested that inclination for travelling or adventure which afterwards operated so powerfully on his mind, and which seems to have been entirely the result of his professional occupation as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. Having found the means of attending the medical classes in the university of Edinburgh, he applied himself with indefatigable ardour to his studies, though we are not aware that he gained any other distinction beyond that of the esteem of his class-fellows, and the approbation of the respective professors under whom he studied; with some of whom he continued on terms of intimate friendship till the day of his death. Having passed the necessary examinations, and taken his surgeon’s degree, he experienced little difficulty, during the late extensive and long continued war with France, of obtaining an appointment as a surgeon in the royal navy. In this capacity he was employed, during a series of years, on various stations, and among others in the Indian ocean; and throughout the whole of that important period of his life, while he was assiduous in the prosecution of his professional studies, he was, at the same time, particularly careful to increase the quantity, and to extend the sphere of his general knowledge. For this laudable purpose, he applied himself with diligence to the reading of the Greek and Latin classics, and made great progress in the acquisition of the French, the Italian, and several other of the modern languages of Europe.