George Pearson (doctor)

George Pearson, MD, FRS (1751-1828), physician, chemist and early advocate of Jenner's cowpox vaccination.

Davies Gilbert, who was then President of the Royal Society, began his 1829 memoir (written anonymously) of Dr. Pearson thus::'THIS eminent physician, celebrated chemist, and amiable though singular individual has, at an advanced age, fallen under the stroke of his ancient but indomitable enemy.'He continued::'Dr. Pearson was born at Rotherham in Yorkshire. [His father, John, was an apothecary] . His grandfather Nathanael, was for years Vicar of Stainton, in that neighbourhood, and died in 1767 at the age of 88. His uncle, George after whom he was named, was a wine-merchant at Doncaster for upwards of thirty years a member of the Corporation, and twice Mayor of the Borough.'

Pearson studied in Edinburgh, took his MD in 1771 and went to study for a year at St. Thomas's Hospital. He settled in Doncaster in 1777. In his six years there he became a close friend of John Philip Kemble and analyised the water at Buxton, about which he produced a two-volume work.In 1783 he moved to London and was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1784. He began to lecture. He was elected (chief) Physician of St. George's Hospital on 23 February 1787. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 23 June 1791. (He served on the Society's Council in 1802 and in 1827, in which year he gave the Bakerian Lecture).

Davies went on::'Dr. Pearon was acknowledged by good judges, to be a sound Greek and Latin scholar. He was a hospitable landlord, a disinterested friend, and a very good-humoured and jocose companion : he abounded in nanecdotes, which he took with excellent effect. He would often observe to his friends, that he knew he was growing old; but that he had made up his mind to die 'in harness."

On Sunday November 9th 1828 he died at his home in George Street, Hanover Square, in Davies' words: 'in consequence of a fall down stairs'.

He left two daughters; one, Frances Priscilla, married John Dodson, DCL (and formerly M. P.), and the other was, once again as Davies put it in 1828, single.

A few Selected Works

*George Pearson, "Observations and Experiments forinvestigating the Chymical History of the Tepid Springs of Buxton; intended for the improvement of Natural Science and the Art of Physic", two vols., 8vo., J. Johnson, London, 1783.
*George Pearson, "Directions for Impregnating the Buxton Waters with its own and other Gases, and for composing Artificial Buxton Water", J. Johnson, London, 1785.
*George Pearson, "An account of the preparation and uses of the phosphorated soda; being an abstract of a paper on that subject inserted in the Journal de Physique, August 1788", London, 1789.
*George Pearson, "Experiments and Observations on the Constituent Parts of the Potatoe Root", London, 1795.
*George Pearson, "An examination of the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the claims of remuneration for the vaccine pock inoculation, containing a statement of the principal historical facts of the vaccina", J. Johnson, 1802.
*George Pearson, "Researches to discover the faculties of pulmonary absorption with respect to charcoal", Bakerian lecture, delivered to thew Royal Society, 20 December 1827.

References

* 'Memoir of George Pearson, M.D., F.R.S.' by Davies Gilbert PRS, February, 1829, pps. 129-132, in "The Gentleman's Magazine", vol. 99, edited by Sylvanus Urban, 1829.
* 'George Pearson MD, FRS (1751-1828): 'THE GREATEST CHEMIST IN ENGLAND'?', by Noel G. Coley, in "Notes and Records of the Royal Society", volume 57, 2003.