Doctor Brown was a man of fine personal appearance and manners; an accomplished scholar, gifted with a natural eloquence and humor that made him one of the most fascinating lecturers of his day. Learned in many branches, he was an enthusiast in his own profession, scrupulous in regard to etiquette and exceedingly benevolent and liberal of his time and services to the poor. Although active in scientific pursuits he left no extensive work, and but a few detached writings to perpetuate his fame. [Illustration: DOCTOR SAMUEL BROWN. From Jouett's Portrait at Frankfort.] His name appears among those of the contributors to the _American Philosophical Transactions_, and to the medical and scientific periodicals of the day, both in this country and in Europe. In those _Transactions_ and in _Bruce's Journal of Mineralogy_, etc., he described a remarkably large nitre cavern on Crooked Creek in Madison County (now Rockcastle County), Kentucky. In this and in a subsequent communication in Volume I of _Silliman's Journal_ he described the process of nitre manufacture in caves, and gave the best theory of its formation, according to the science of the day. In various other journals he described several interesting cases which occurred in his own practice, and in the renowned _Medical Logic_, by the distinguished Gilbert Blane, of London, Doctor Samuel Brown, of Lexington, is quoted as authority for a certain scientific fact. "To him we are indebted for the first introduction in the West of the prophylactic use of the cow-pox. As early as 1802 he had vaccinated upwards of five hundred persons, when in New York and Philadelphia physicians were only just making their first experimental attempts. The virus he used was taken from its original source, the teats of the cow, and used in Lexington even before Jenner could gain the confidence of the people of his own country."[9] A curious anecdote, illustrating _progress_, was told of Doctor Samuel Brown by his nephew, the late Orlando Brown, Esquire, of Frankfort, in a letter to the present writer: "I remember once when talking of calomel, he said he never would forget the first dose of it he gave a patient. It was looked upon as 'the Hercules,' and he used it accordingly. The case was desperate and he resolved to venture upon calomel and give a _strong dose_. He accordingly weighed out with scrupulous accuracy _four grains_--gave it to his patient, _and sat up all night to watch its effects_. The man got well and the Doctor afterwards used calomel more freely." What would he have thought of the heaping tablespoonful doses--quickly repeated _pro re nata_--or the _pound of calomel_ taken in a day--and survived--which characterized the cholera treatment of one of the later Professors of Transylvania Medical School? DOCTOR FREDERICK RIDGELY,