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John Fothergill

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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JOHN FOTHERGILL (1712-1780), English physician, was born of a Quaker family on the 8th of March 1712 at Carr End in Yorkshire. He took the degree of M.D. at Edinburgh in 1736, and after visiting the continent of Europe he in 1740 settled in London, where he gained an extensive practice. In the epidemics of influenza in 1775 and 1776 he is said to have had sixty patients daily. In his leisure he made a study of conchology and botany; and at Upton, near Stratford, he had an extensive botanical garden where he grew many rare plants obtained from various parts of the world. He was the patron of Sidney Parkinson, the South Sea voyager. A translation of the Bible (1764 sq.) by Anthony Purver, a Quaker, was made and printed at his expense. His pamphlet entitled "Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers" (1748) contains one of the first descriptions of diphtheria in English, and was translated into several languages. He died in London on the 26th of December 1780.