The works of John Fothergill, M.D. Member Of The Royal College Of Physicians, And Fellow Of The Royal Society, Of London; Fellow Of The Royal College Of Physicians In Edinburgh; And Corresponding Member Of The Royal Medical Society Of Paris, And Of The American Philosophical Society At Philadelphia. With some account of his life / by John Coakley Lettsom.

  • Fothergill, John, 1712-1780.
Date:
1784
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Fothergill, M.D. Member Of The Royal College Of Physicians, And Fellow Of The Royal Society, Of London; Fellow Of The Royal College Of Physicians In Edinburgh; And Corresponding Member Of The Royal Medical Society Of Paris, And Of The American Philosophical Society At Philadelphia. With some account of his life / by John Coakley Lettsom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    proving upon both, which it may not be improper to mention here: it is what he has fince recommended to me; and whoever follows his example, will be apt to recommend it to others; for much is due to him who firfl breaks the way to knowledge, and leaves only to his fuccefiors the talk of fmoothing it. He took notes of the heads of each lecture, and on his return to his lodgings, he tranllated thofe into Latin which had been given in Englilh, and then carefully confulted and compared the opinions both of the ancients and moderns upon the fiubjedt of the ledtures, with the ledtures themfelves; after which he added fuch remarks on each, as his reading and refledtion furnilhed: by this means he gained a knowledge of the ancients, as well as the mo- derns ; he enlarged his ideas, and acquired the early habit of examining opinions, and difcriminating between thofe merely fpeculative, and thofe which refulted from fadt and experiment;—in a word, he hereby neceffarily acquired new powers of refledtion, and an encreafed energy of judgment*. A mode, not diffimilar, he followed in his ftudies: when any me- dical cafe occurred worthy of remark, and there are few cafes but to a Itudent of medicine are important, he examined various authorities upon the fame fubjedt, and from thefe combined means drew a compa- rative refult: what he had adopted with fd much fuccefs, he recom- mended many years afterwards, in an epiflolary addrefs with which he condefcended to favour me -f-, wherein he concludes with recommend- ing the “ careful perufal of Hippocrates, and alfo of Aretasus and “ Celfus ; one can never,” he adds, “ be too well acquainted with (i the knowledge contained in the firfl, nor with the elegant ex- “ prefilons of the laft.” Soon after he had finifhed his ftudies at Edinburgh, the celebrated profeffor I have already mentioned, who was completing the fourth edition of his great work of Ofleology, which has ever lince been deemed the moft perfect performance in this branch of anatomy, and whofe genius led him to enliven his fubjedt with ample refledtion, * This relation I had from the Dodtor himfelf; and fince his deceafe, I faw his Materia Medica Ledtures, which were fent to me by my ingenious friend J. Cockfield, of Upton. f Letter to the Editor. 9 and