- John Freind
John Freind (1675 –
26 July 1728 ), Englishphysician , younger brother ofRobert Freind (1667-1751), headmaster ofWestminster School , was born at Croton inNorthamptonshire .He made great progress in classical knowledge under
Richard Busby at Westminster, and atChrist Church, Oxford , under Dean Aldrich, and while still very young, produced, along withPeter Foulkes , an excellent edition of the speeches ofAeschines andDemosthenes on the affair ofCtesiphon (orator) .After this he began the study of medicine, and having proved his scientific attainments by various treatises was appointed a lecturer on chemistry at Oxford in 1704. In the following year he accompanied the English army, under the
earl of Peterborough , intoSpain , and on returning home in 1707, wrote an account of the expedition, which attained great popularity.Two years later he published his "Prelectiones chimicae", which he dedicated to
Sir Isaac Newton . Shortly after his return in 1713 fromFlanders , whither he had accompanied the British troops, he took up his residence inLondon , where he soon obtained a great reputation as a physician.In 1716 he became fellow of the college of physicians, of which he was chosen one of the censors in 1718, and Harveian orator in 1720. In 1722 he entered the House of Commons as
Member of Parliament (MP) for Launceston inCornwall , but, being suspected of favoring the cause of the exiled Stuarts, he spent half of that year in the Tower.During his imprisonment he conceived the plan of his most important work, "The History of Physic", of which the first part appeared in 1725, and the second in the following year. Included in this volume was a paper by Dr.
Henry Levett , also written in Latin, addressing the treatment of smallpox. In the latter year Freind was appointed physician to Queen Caroline, an office which he held till his death.A complete edition of his Latin works, with a Latin translation of the "History of Physic", edited by Dr John Wigan, was published in London in 1732.
References
*1911
*Rayment
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