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    » then the most celebrated school of medicine in Europe . Having completed his course , he delivered for his degree , a Thesis " On the Influence of the Passions in causing and healing Diseases / ' This inaugural dissertation may be considered as the first draught of his work on the Passions .

    Having graduated , he began to practise as a physician in Holland ; led , probably , to the choice of this country for his residence by his having obtained in marriage the daughter of &n opulent merchant , of the name of Groen , of Amsterdam , with whom he

    received a considerable fortune . He resided successively at Amsterdam , Leyden aud Rotterdam . His growing reputation induced him to try his profession in his own country , and he accordingly came to London and took up his abode in Paternoster-Row . He

    devoted himself chiefly to midwifery , in which he had , for some years , an extensive practice . The severe duties of his profession , and the confinement of the metropolis brought on a liver complaint ; and in the year 1780 , he resigned his connexion to Dr . John Sims , who is still a practitioner in high

    repute . While he was a physician in London , Dr . Cogan had the satisfaction and honour of being instrumental in flic establishment of the Royal Humane

    Society . The idea of such an institution was first conceived in Holland , where accidents by water are frequent . In the year 1767 , was formed at Amsterdam , a society , which offered premiums to such as sthpuld save the life

    of a citizen in danger of perishing by waterr it also proposed to publish the methods of treatment , and to give an account of the cases of recovery . The first publication of these memoirs excited great and universal interest , and in 1773 , Dr . Coean translated them

    into English , " in order to convince the British public of the practicability , in many instances , of recovering persons who were apparently dead , firoih drowning . Mo sooner were they translated , than they engaged the humane arid benevolent mind of Dr .

    Hawes . His very soul was absorbed with the animating hope of saving the lives of his fellow-creatures : but , in making the attempt , he had to encounter both with ridicule and oppo-

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    sition . The practicability of resuscitation was denied . He ascertained its practicability , by advertising to reward persons , who , between Westminster and London bridges , should , within a certain time after the

    accident , rescue drowned persons from the water , and bring them ashore to places appointed for their reception , where means might be used for their recovery , and give immediate notice to himr . ¦ Many lives were thus saved by himself and other medical men ; which would otherwise haye been

    lost . For twelve months he paid the rewards in these cases ; which amounted to a considerable sum . Dr . Cogan remonstrated with him on the injury whjjch his private fortune would sustain from a perseverance in these expenses ; he therefore consented to

    share them with the public . They accordingly agreed to unite tlieir strength , and each of them to bring sixteen friends to a meeting at the Chapter Coffee-house , with the express intention of establishing a

    Humane Society in London : this- was happily accomplished in the summer of 1774 . The object of this Society was then , like that at Amsterdam , confined to the recovery of persons who were apparently dead from drowning .

    " For the first six years Dr . Cogan prepared the Reports of the Society from year to year ; nor was Dr . Hawes less attentive in aiding the designs and promoting the views of this Institution : * '

    The Royal Humane Society has , since this period s grow ft to a pitch of usefulness and prosperity which its wise and benevolent projectors could have scarcely hopeiLf Whilst he lived , Dr . Cogan took a lively interest

    in its proceedings , and , when opportunity permitted , failed not to attend the annual meetings , where he of all others must have been gratified by the p rocession of the persons restored to life by the Society ' s methods . By

    * -Annual Report of the Royal Humane Society , 1818 , pp . 2—4 . f It is stated in the Monthly Magazine , XIV . p . 136 , that in the period often year £ , that is from 1774 to . 1784 , about thi « e thousand persons had been rescued by the Society ' s ipeang from premature death .

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    g Memoir of the late Dr . Cogan *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1819, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1768/page/2/