A Hero of Donegal : a Memoir of Dr. William
Smyth. By Frederick Douglas How. (Isbister and Co. 28. ed. not.)—In 1882 Dr. William Smyth, then a young man of twenty-three, was appointed to the dispensary district of Dunglow and Burtonport. This is equivalent to being " parish doctor " in England, only that the extent of work could hardly be matched in this country. (Dunglow district occupies a considerable part of the coastline and islands of Donegal.) He had already won a reputation for courage and kindness, and this overcame the prejudices against him as a Protestant and a Loyalist (Father McFadden was an eminent person in the neighbourhood). Here he worked for nearly twenty years, and here he died of the deadly typhus, a disease which is now very seldom seen in England, but is a too common visitant in some parts of Ireland. It is a fine picture that Mr. How has given us, not without shadows, but, on the whole, not painful to regard. The local authorities of Burton- port made a spiteful attempt to get rid of their indefatigable medical officer ; but then ho had condemned their town as insani- tary ; and where are the local authorities who could endure such an affront? And they had the grace a few months after to record their solemn opinion that Dr. Smyth was "a very efficient officer."
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