[2] I was assured by the late Dr. _Johnson_, that _Ward_ was the weakest, and _Taylor_ the most ignorant, of the whole empiric tribe. The latter once asserted, that when he was at _St. Petersburg_, he travelled as far as _Archangel_ to meet Prince _Herculaneum_. Now _Archangel_ being the extreme point from _European Asia_, had the tale been true, the oculist must have marched so far backwards out of the route of Prince _Heraclius_, whose name he had blundered into _Herculaneum_. The present likeness of our oculist, however, we may suppose to have been a strong one, as it much resembles a mezzotinto by _Faber_, from a picture painted at _Rome_ by the Chevalier _Riche_. Under it is the following inscription: "_Joannes Taylor_, Medicus in Optica expertissimus multisque in Academiis celeberrimis Socius." Eight _Latin_ verses follow, which are not worth transcription. _Taylor_ made presents of this print to his friends. It is now become scarce. [3] One of the physicians to _St. Bartholomew's_ Hospital. He died _August_ 6, 1754. His merits were thus celebrated by Dr. _Theobald_, a contemporary physician: "O raro merito quem juncta scientia dudum Illustrem sacris medico stellam addidit orbi Auspiciis, pura nunquam non luce corusce! Utcunque incolumem virtutum aversa tueri Gens humana solet, non ni post fata corona Donandam merita, potitus melioribus astris, Invidia major, tu præsens alter haberis _Hippocrates_, pleno jam nunc cumulatus honore. Te seu, corporea tandem compage soluta, Accipiet, doctis clarescentem artibus, alta _Coi_ sphæra senis; seu tu venerabilis aureo _Romani Celsi_ rite effulgebis in orbe; O sit adhuc tarda illa dies, sit tarda, precamur, Illa dies, nostris et multum ferior annis, Cum tua mens, membris seducta fluentibus, almas Advolet, angelicis immixta cohortibus, arces! Hic potius Musas, thematis dulcedine captas, Delecta, atque audi laudes vel _Apolline_ dignas." [4] A celebrated anatomist, physician, and man-midwife, to whose estate the present _Gascoyne_ family succeeded, and whose surname has been given as a Christian name to two of them. [5] Some indifferent verses on this event were printed in _The Gentleman's Magazine_, 1736, p. 484. [6] General _Churchill_ was "the primary puffer of _Ward's_ pill at court;" and Lord Chief Baron _Reynolds_ soon after published "its miraculous effects on a maid servant," as I learn by some doggrel verses of Sir _William Browne_, addressed to "Dr. _Ward_, a Quack, of merry memory," under the title of "The Pill-Plot. On _The Daily Courant's_ miraculous Discovery, upon the ever-memorable 28th day of _November_ 1734, from the Doctor himself being a Papist, and distributing his Pills to the poor _gratis_, by the hands of the Lady _Gage_ also a Papist, that the Pill must be beyond all doubt a deep-laid Plot, to introduce popery."