A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: DR. JOHN TWISTON DAVIES by SUZANNE TWISTON-DAVIES I WONDER whether any Welshman to-day can claim the remarkable qualities of my great-great-uncle, Dr. John Twiston Davies of Caerwys? Without the doubtful benefits of television and other distractions, the men of a century ago seemed able to fit so much more into their lives that was worthwhile-and the description of Dr. John's career shows such a shining example of this as to leave one breathless. John Twiston Davies was born in 1816 at Treffynnon, and lived to the age of 73. He was a son of the celebrated Reverend Samuel Davies, who was one of the leaders of the Wesleyan Ministry in Wales during the early 1800s. John followed not only in his father's footsteps but in those of several other of his forebears as well, for he seems to have been a man of incredibly varied achievements. At first he trained to become a chemist, and it was during this period that, through various outside influences, he became deeply religious. When he wrote the news to his friend, the Reverend William Owen, that he had seen the light", the latter was overcome, and replied post- haste: The moment in which I came to the paragraph in which you state the fact, the joyful, the soul-saving, and the soul-comfort- ing, never-to-be-forgotten fact-why, man, my eyes began to fill, and I could not help shouting Glory be to God! Qualifying as a chemist was not enough for a man of his energy, and in the late 1830s, John decided to go further and become a doctor. We have in the family a large selection of his medical notes, written both in English and in Welsh in beautiful copper- plate handwriting. In all of them, the deep religious feeling comes through: essays on temperature, respiratory disorders, and the chemistry of the digestive organs are interspersed with long passages from the Bible, or with stem quotations such as "An idle person is the Devil's cushion on which he rolls at pleasure." In 1847, some time after qualifying as a doctor, John married Miss Ann Humphreys of Cotton Hall, and bought a large farm at Llanfair Talhaeam, where he kept horses and pigs and somehow found time to farm on quite a large scale. It seems that he was much respected as an amateur veterinary surgeon, and was often