JOHN

See also:

• JOHN FOTHERGILL (1712—1780)

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 1795 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 .