With regard to Sir HENRY HOLLAND, it is with regret that we own how comparatively slight are his claims to a place in the gallery of great medical men. He was accomplished beyond most men, but one is compelled to ask, what did he accomplish with his great opportunities? Whom did he teach? what did he teach? what did he discover? His travelling excursions extended over almost the whole globe except Australia. He was intimate for more than half a century with many men and women of mark on both Continents. He knew well the Presidents and statesmen of the United States; prescribed for six Prime Ministers of England, as well as for its sovereigns and princes. But even in regard to information of moment which he might justifiably have given concerning them, he has been strikingly reticent in his “Recollections of Past Life.” Henry Holland, the son of Peter Holland, a much-respected medical practitioner, was born at Knutsford in Cheshire, on October 27, 1788. His maternal grandmother was a sister of Josiah Wedgwood, the eminent potter, and grandfather of Charles Darwin. Holland was also a cousin of Mrs. Gaskell, the author of “Mary Barton,” and biographer of Charlotte Brontë. He was educated first at Newcastle-on-Tyne under the Rev. W. Turner, and early showed his predilection for travel by making long pedestrian excursions in the neighbourhood. In 1803, he went for a year to Dr. Estlin’s school, near Bristol, where he succeeded at once to the position of head boy, left vacant by John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton, and where he also commenced his long friendship with Richard Bright, who has already been mentioned in this work. His classical and literary tastes here developed, and were further fostered by a vacation passed at Dr. Aikin’s at Stoke Newington, and in the society of his sister Mrs. Barbauld and his daughter Lucy Aikin. Still, young Holland leaned towards a commercial life, and entered a Liverpool merchant’s office, with the stipulation that he was to spend two sessions at Glasgow University. These saved him from being bound to a merchant’s desk; for after his second session, 1805-6, he sought and obtained release, and took up medicine. At Glasgow he had become intimate with William Hamilton (afterwards Sir William), his discussions with whom had doubtless a considerable influence on his mental development. Holland’s literary talent already began to show itself, for he was selected at the age of eighteen to draw up a Statistical Report on the Agriculture of Cheshire for Government, and received for it £200, double the sum proposed.