[Rarebooks] fa: 1783 Life of JOHN FOTHERGILL, M.D. - Quaker Friend of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Auction ending Sunday, Oct. 5. More details and photos can be found at  
the URL below...

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Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.



John Coakley Lettsom: Some Account of the Late 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.  
London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry ; L. Davis, Holborn ; T.  
Cadell, in the Strand ; and J. Phillips, in George-Yard, Lombard- 
Street, 1783. FIRST EDITION...

Uncommon true first edition of Dr. Lettsom's biography of his friend  
and colleague, the eminent physician, botanist, Quaker leader, and  
friend of the American colonies... John Fothergill (1712-1780) was  
among the foremost physicians of his time. He was the first to record  
coronary arteriosclerosis in association with angina pectoris and his  
Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers (1748) contains one of  
the first descriptions of diphtheria in English. A Fellow of the Royal  
Society, his interest in botany and "natural philosophy" led him to  
establish an extensive botanical garden at Upton, and he was among the  
first to recognize the significance of Benjamin Franklin's experiments  
with electricity, writing the foreword for the pamphlet in which they  
were first published  (1751). As a Quaker, the son of a preacher and  
missionary, he was a leader of the Society of Friends, publishing  
Anthony Purver's "Quaker Bible" (1764) at his own expense.

But it is for his intimate involvement in the backstage efforts to  
avert the Revolutionary War that Fothergill is perhaps best remembered  
today. His religion, profession and scientific interests had all  
combined to place him in a unique position to try and avert the coming  
cataclysm. By the 1770s, he had been corresponding with Franklin and  
other American scientists, as well as the Society of Friends in  
Pennsylvania, for more than a quarter century. Long  familiar with,  
and sympathetic to, the colonies, he had vigorously opposed the Stamp  
Act of 1765. And as London's foremost doctor (he had once been offered  
and had refused the post of Royal Physician to George III), he was the  
personal physician of three of the leading figures in Anglo-American  
relations: Thomas Penn, absentee proprietor of the Pennsylvania  
Colony; Lord Dartmouth. Secretary of State for the North American  
Colonies; and, from his arrival in England in 1758, Benjamin Franklin.  
It was in Fothergill's home in Bloomsbury, in December, 1774, that  
Franklin first presented his 17 proposals, or "Hints" (the tea duty  
act to be repealed; the tea destroyed to be paid for; etc.) — a last- 
ditch, and unavailing, effort to affect a reconciliation between  
England and the colonies. The complete text of the "Hints," including  
those parts expunged by Franklin at Fothergill's suggestion, is  
included in the present volume, as is the condoling letter Franklin  
wrote on hearing of Fothergill's death in 1780. Franklin is among  
those singled out by name for thanks in Lettsom's prefatory remarks.