- John Fothergill (physician)
:::"For other people called "John Fothergill" see
John Fothergill ."John Fothergill FRS (
8 March ,1712 –26 December ,1780 ), was an Englishphysician , plant collector, philanthropist and Quaker.Life and work
Fothergill was born of at
Carr End ,Misterton inYorkshire , the son of John Fothergill (1676–1745), a Quaker preacher and farmer, and his first wife, Margaret Hough (1677–1719).ODNB article by Margaret DeLacy, ‘Fothergill, John (1712–1780)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9979] , accessed 24 Feb 2008.] After studying atSedbergh School , Fothergill was apprenticed to an apothecary. He later took the degree ofM.D. at Edinburgh, in 1736, followed by further studies atSt Thomas' Hospital , London. After visiting continentalEurope in 1740, he settled inLondon , where he gained an extensive practice. For example, during theepidemics ofinfluenza in 1775 and 1776 he is said to have had sixty patients daily.Fothergill's pamphlet, "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. His rejection of ineffective traditional therapies for this disease saved many lives.In his leisure, John Fothergill made a study of
conchology andbotany . At Upton, near Stratford, he had an extensivebotanical garden where he grew many rare plants obtained from various parts of the world (now West Ham Park).He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1763.He was the patron of
Sydney Parkinson , theSouth Sea voyager, and also ofWilliam Bartram , the American botanist.A translation of the
Bible , known as theQuaker Bible (1764 sq.) by Anthony Purver, a Quaker, was made and printed at his expense.He founded
Ackworth School ,Pontefract , Yorkshire in 1779.John Fothergill died in London aged 68 on 26 December 1780.
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Fothergill's sign Further reading
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*- contains information on John Fothergill, the author's father
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