John Arbuthnot

Dr. John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, (baptised April 29, 1667 – February 27, 1735), was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered today for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club (where he inspired both Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels book III and Alexander Pope's Peri Bathos, Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus, and possibly The Dunciad), and for inventing the figure of John Bull.

Life during the Hanoverians

In 1717, Arbuthnot contributed somewhat to Pope and Gay's play, Three Hours after Marriage, which ran for seven nights. He also became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Music and was a friend to Handel. He managed Handel's Italian operas in London from 1719-1729.

Related Topics:
1717 - Royal Academy of Music - Handel - Italian opera - 1719 - 1729

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In 1719 he took part in a pamphlet war over the treatment of smallpox. In particular, he attacked Dr. Woodward, who had again presented a dogmatic and, Arbuthnot thought, irrational opinion. In 1723, Arbuthnot was made one of the censors of the Royal College of Physicians, and as such he was one of the campaigners to inspect and improve the drugs sold by apothecaries in London. In 1723, the apothecaries sued the RCP, and Arbuthnot wrote Reasons humbly offered by the ... upholders (undertakers) against part of the bill for the better viewing, searching, and examining of drugs. The pamphlet suggested that the funeral directors of London would wish to sue the RCP as well to ensure that drug safety remained poor. In 1727, he was made an elect of the Royal College of Physicians.

Related Topics:
Smallpox - 1723 - Undertaker - 1727

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In 1726 and 1727, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope reunited at Arbuthnot's house during visits, and Swift showed Arbuthnot the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels ahead of time. The detailed parody of ongoing Royal Society projects in book III of Gulliver's Travels likely came from "hints" from Arbuthnot. The visit also bore fruit in Pope's The Dunciad of 1729 (the second edition), where Arbuthnot probably wrote the "Virgilius restauratus" satirizing Richard Bentley.

Related Topics:
1726 - 1727 - Gulliver's Travels - The Dunciad - 1729 - Richard Bentley

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In 1730, Arbuthnot's wife died. The next year, he produced a work of popular medicine, An essay concerning the nature of ailments, and the choice of them, according to the different constitutions of human bodies. The book was quite popular, and a second edition, with advice on diet, came out the next year. It would have four more full editions and translations into French and German. In 1733 he wrote another very popular work of medicine called An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies. As with the former work, it went through multiple editions and translations. He argued that the air itself had to have enormous effects on the personality and persons of humanity, and he believed that the air of locations would result in characteristics of the people, as well as particular maladies. He advised his readers to ventilate sickrooms and to seek fresh air in cities. Although the idea that airs carried sickness was incorrect, the practical upshot of Arbuthnot's advice was efficacious, as crowded, poorly santized Augustan era cities had bad air and infectious air.

Related Topics:
1730 - French - German - 1733

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His son Charles, studying to be a divine at Christ Church, Oxford, died in 1731, the same year that the Swift and Pope Miscellanies, Volume the Third (which was the first volume) appeared. He contributed "An Essay of the Learned Martinus Scriblerus Concerning the Origine of the Sciences" to the volume.

Related Topics:
Christ Church, Oxford - 1731

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In 1734, his health began to decline. He had kidney stones and asthma, and he was also overweight. He died in London on February 27, 1735. Pope published soon after the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.

Related Topics:
1734 - Asthma - February 27 - 1735

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