lk;
hereafter, shortly, sir, I shall give them strong meat." What the Union
lost by that fatal duel, the Deity only knows.

Coleman was a writer of grammatical excellence, though occasionally sadly
at fault in force of diction. Under the influence of some perverse
conceits, he would labor for months to establish a theoretical doctrine,
or to elucidate a useless proposition. It was hardly in the power of
mortals ever to alter his opinions when once formed. That yellow fever was
as contagious as small-pox; that skull-cap (the _scutellaria_) was a
specific for hydrophobia; that Napoleon wanted the requisites of a
military chieftain, were among the crotchets of his brain. The everlasting
tractates which he put forth on these and other subjects, would in the
present day of editorial prowess scarcely be tolerated in a chronicle
depending on public patronage. Coleman had read extensively on medical
topics, and was the principal writer of that able and elaborate Criticism
of Miller's Report on the Yellow Fever in New-York, addressed to Governor
Lewis, and printed in the second volume of the _American Medical and
Philosophical Register_.

Coleman would underrate the best public services, if rendered by a
political opponent. Chancellor Livingston found no quarters with him for
his instrumentality in the Louisiana purchase. He would ride a hobby to
death. During the many years in which I read the _Post_, I can summon to
recollection no contributions on any subject, made to that paper, that
ever awakened one half the attention which was enlisted by the felicitous
productions of our poet Halleck, and the lamented Dr. Drake, under the
names of Croaker, and Croaker & Co.

For numerous years I have well known Charles Holt, once editor of the
_Bee_, during John Adams's administration, and afterwards of the New-York
_Columbian_, during Dewitt Clinton's gubernatorial career. I am unable to
tell you whether he is still among the living. I would estimate his age,
if so, as approaching ninety years. He was a lump of benevolence, and a
strenuous advocate of the great internal improvement policy of New-York.
He comes forcibly to my mind this evening, because in 1798 he wrote a
history of the yellow fever in New London, and every now and then I find
him quoted in medical books as Dr. Holt, just as his predecessor, who
wrote on the yellow fever in Philadelphia, of 1793, stands in bold relief
as Dr. Matthew Carey.

Nathaniel Carter is vividly