BROW N. 



Tins vva5 about the year f;fiO, Hi did not, liowtver, de- 

 cline praftice when lie came to I^undoii, goinp; whtrcvtr he 

 was ffiit for ; but as he was a liumoiirlll, ami had many riiig\i- 

 larities in Iiisdrtis, manners, and fonvcrfation, he never beeamt 

 very popularasa phylicianin tliis^lace. 'I'hisdid notprevtiit iiis 

 receiving all the honours the college could bellow npon !iim. 

 They gratilied his vanity, his ruling padion, by cltcting hlin 

 prefident two fueccctling years. It was the culloni, Sir Wil- 

 liam tells u?, in his farewell oration, " to coritiniie the pre- 

 fident, an entire Inftrnin, five years. 15ut two year's, he 

 adds, more than fatisfy me ; that each of the t lefts may, in 

 his turn, hold the feeptre ol prudence, no tenure plcafiug 

 longer than a year." Ho felt, however, this deviation from 

 tht-ir cuftom, and the college probably loft a legacy ; but 

 they were obliged to pafs him by, as his fingularitics had 

 aitra<S\c-d the notice of Mr. Foot, the Arillopliancs of the 

 age, who appeared in the Dcvd upon Two Sticks, one of 

 his farces, in the colhnnc of the doclor ; the wig, the coat, 

 the glafs, and every atlion fo exadtly imitated, that no one 

 could doubt who was intended to be reprefented. At one 

 of the exhibitions of this piece the dottor was prcfeiit, and 

 the next day he fent a card to Mr. Foot, complimcntitig 

 him on having fo happily reprefented him ; but finding he 

 )iad forgot the muft, he had lent him his own. This good- 

 natured reproof difarmed Foot, and the imitation was dif- 

 continued. About the fame time he became the fubjeCl of 

 a print, in which he was caricatured not by diltorting, but 

 by giving an exacl delineation of his perfon, drefs, and gcf- 

 ture : the infcriptiori is Fufcus, cques, medicus, rhetor, dux, 

 atqne poeta. Ecce ! 17 71. The dodlor, however, took all in 

 good part, and continued rather to follow his own humour, 

 than the manners and falhions of the world. As proofs of 

 his good nature, and proofs of his being perfectly at peace 

 with himfelf, we may mention that when he was at Lynn, a 

 pamphlet being publilbed to ridicule him, he nailed it to the 

 outfide of his door, that it might be read by all who palfc*! 

 by ; and when he was in the 80th year of his age, he went 

 to Batfon's cofFee-houfe, on St. Luke's day, in his laced 

 coat and band, with fringed white gloves, to <hew himfcif to 

 Mr. Crofby, then lord-mayor. A gentleman prefent ob- 

 fcrving how well he looked, the dottor obferved, '• He 

 had neither wife nor debts." He had, however, been 

 married, and left one daughter, who became the wife 

 of Martin Folkes, and mother to Sir Martin Browne 

 Folkes, bart. From the time of his coming to London he 

 lived in Queen fqnare, Great Ormond llreet, where he ended 

 liis days on the 10th of March, 1774, in the S2d year of 

 his age. He had always been lond ot fcribbiing, and in the 

 early part of his life printed (for they could hardly be faid 

 to be publiflied, the circulation of them being nearly con- 

 fined to his friends) " Trandations, or Imitations, of cer- 

 tain Odes of Horace ;" and afterwards, when in London, 

 his " Harveian Oration," and " A Vindication of the Col- 

 lege of Phylicians againll the Licentiates, and their Advo- 

 cate, folicitor-general Murray." Thefe he collected toge- 

 ther, and in 1765, printed under the title of " Opufeula 

 Varia, &c." He alfo publifhed a farewell oration, on 

 quitting the prefidency of the college, from which the prin- 

 cipal traits of his life here given have been taken. New 

 and General Biog. Dift. 



Brown, John, a furgcon of eminence in London, pub- 

 liHied in 1678, " A Treatife of Glandules, and Strumas, the 

 King's Evil, &c." 4to. ; and in 16S1, " A complete Trea- 

 tife of the Mufcles, as they appear in the Human Body," 

 folio, London. This has been tranflated into Latin, and 

 printed at Leyden, Amfterdam, Berlin, &c. though now 

 fuperfeded by more accurate defcriptions. The plates are 



principally takta iVom Julius Cafl.iiiuj. He alio commu- 

 nicated to the Royal Socitty, an account of a dilcnfid livtr, 

 which is publilhc-d in their 'i'ranfaCtions. Halkr. Bib. Anat. 



Browx, P.\trick, M D. praftifed medicine at Jamaica, 

 and pubhihed 111 I7,'j6, (olio, " The civil and natural llif- 

 torv or Jamaica, containing an Account of its natural Pro- 

 ductions, Foffils, Vigttablcs, and.-\nimals." He difcribcsthc 

 manner praClifed tlure, of cnllivating the fiigar-cane, colTce- 

 tixe, cotton, ginger, gn<l indigo, and of colletling aloes 

 from incifions made in the kavti of the plant. Ii;illcr. Bib. 

 Bot. 



Brown, John, a ctkbrated tmchcrof medici:x, boin in 

 the paridi of Bnuele in the county ot Berwick, in tlie year 

 17^1;, of parents in a ncau fitnation in life. In common 

 witli the childicn of other villagas in Scotland, he received 

 his education at a gianmiar fchool. As his mind was much 

 above the rank he was born in, his progrefs in literature was 

 pioportionabiy fuperior to the rell ot his icliool icllnws. He 

 there imbibed a talle for letters ; fo that when he was after- 

 wards put apprentice to a weaver, inllead ol attending to 

 his bufincls, h^s whole mind was bent on procuring books, 

 which he read with great eagernefs. Fmdmg this difpofi- 

 tion could not be conquered, his father took him from the 

 loom, and fent him to tiie grammar Ichool at Dunfc, where 

 the famous Duns Scotus had been educated. Here, u:ider 

 the tuition of Mr. Cruicklhanks, he made fuch progreis, 

 that he was foon regarded as a prodigy. He read all the 

 Latin clafiics with the greatcll facility, and was no mean 

 proficient in the knowledge of the Greek laiguage. " His 

 habits," we are told, "were fobcr ; he was ol a religious turn, 

 and was fo ilrongly attached to the feil of Seceders, or 

 whigs, as they arc called in Scotland, in which he had been 

 bred, that he would have thought his falvation hazarded, if 

 he had attended the meetings of the eilablilhcd church. He 

 afpired to be a preacher of a purer religion." An accident, 

 hovi'ever, difgulted him with this fociety, before he was of 

 an age to be ehofen a pallor, for which it appears he was 

 intended. Having been prevailed on, by fome of hit' fchool- 

 fellows, to attend divine fervice at the par' Ih church at Dunfe, 

 he was fummoned before the feflion of the feceding congre- 

 gation, to anfwer for this offence ; but Ins higli Ipirit not 

 brooking to make an apology, to avoid the cenlurcs of his 

 brethren, and the ignominy of being expelled [lieir commu- 

 nity, he abdicated his principles, and profeficd hinilelf a 

 member of the ellablifhed church. As tiis talents for lite- 

 rature were well known, he was taken, at the age of twenty, 

 to the honfe of a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Dunfe, 

 as tutor to his fon. Here he did not long refide, for what 

 caufe is not known, but went the fame year, 1755, to Edin- 

 burgh, where he applied to the lludy of theology, in which 

 he proceeded fo far as to deliver, in the public hall, a dif- 

 courfe upon a prefcribed portion of fcripture, the ufual ftcp 

 preliminary to ordination. But here his theological ftudies 

 appear to have ended, and he fuddenly left Edinburgh, and 

 returned to Dunfe, and officiated as an ulher in the ichool 

 where he had been educated. He now exhibited himfelf as 

 a free-liver and free. thinker, his difcourfe and manners being 

 equally licentious and irregular ; which accounts for his 

 derelidtion of the ftudy of theology. At Dunfe he con- 

 tinued twelve months, from Michaelmas l/jS, to the fame 

 time in the year 1759. During this time, a vacancy hap- 

 pening in one of the claffts in the high fchool at Edinburgh, 

 Brown appeared as a candidate, but was not fucccfsful. 

 Soon after he w-as applied toby a Undent in medicine, at 

 Edinburgh, to put his inaugural thefis into Latin. This 

 taflc he performed in fo fuperior a manner, that it gained 

 him great reputation : it opened to him a path, which he 

 I had 



