235 
J O H 
where he applied to anatomy under Heurnius, and Falck- 
enberg, and to botany under Vorftius. Having then re¬ 
turned to England, he improved himfelf at London and 
Cambridge in the different branches of knowledge he had 
acquired j and, after fome flay, went back to Poland, 
where he engaged, in 163a, to accompany two young no¬ 
blemen to Holland. While he refided with his pupils at 
Leyden, he took his degree as M. D. in that univerfity ; 
and then went a third time to England, where the fame 
honour was conferred on him by the univerfity of Cam¬ 
bridge. He next proceeded with his pupils to Italy, where 
he vifited the moll eminent literary men of that period, 
and returned to Poland in November 1636. In 1637 he 
married j but, his wife dying foon after, he again married, 
in 1638, a lady of the name Vichner, by whom he had fe- 
veral children. In 164.2 the eleftorof Brandenburg offered 
him the medical chair at Frankfort, and afirnilar offer was 
niade to him by the curators of the univerfity of Leyden ; 
but, being fond of literary retirement, both thefe offices 
he declined. The troubles, however, which broke out in 
Poland in confequence of war, obliged him to quit that 
country in quelt of a peaceful afylum, and to repair to 
Leignitz in Lower Silena, where he purchafed an eflate, 
and (pent the reft of his life in ftudy and in the pradtice 
of medicine. He died in June 1675, in the feventy-fe- 
cond year of his age. Of his numerous works, the bell 
known are the following relative to natural hiftory : 1. 
Thaumatographia Naturalis, in Claffes decern divifa, Amft. 
1632, 1633, 1661, nmo. 2. Hill. Nat. de Pifcibtis & 
Cetis, Lib. V. item de Exanguibus Aquaticis, Lib. IV. 
Francof. 164.9, fol. cum fig. 3 - Hill. Nat. de Quadruped. 
Ibid. 1652. fol cum fig. 4. Hilt. Nat. de Inl'eclis. Lib. 
III. De Serpentibus 5 c Draconibus, Lib. II. Ibid. 1653. 
fol. cum fig. 5. Hift. Nat. de Avibus, Lib. VI. Ibid. 1650. 
fol. c um fig. 6. Syntagma Dendrologicum, Lernse, 1646, 
4to. 7. Dendrologias, five Hift. Nat. de Arboribus & 
Frudtibus, Lib. X. Francof. 1662. fol. cum fig. S. No- 
titia Regni Vegetab. feu Piantarum, a veteribus Oblervat. 
cum Synop. Grsecis & Latinis. Lipf. 1661, izmo. 9, 
Notitia Regni Mineral. Ibid 1661. In thefe works he is 
chiefly a compiler, and exhibits more learning than judg¬ 
ment. He alio wrote various works on hiftory, medicine, 
&c. which are now forgotten. Did. Hiji. & Critique , par 
Chaufepie. 
JOHN'STON, a county of Rhode Ifland, one of the 
United American States. 
JOHN'STON, a townfhip of the American States, in 
Providence county, Rhode Ifland, welterly of the town of 
Providence, having 1320 inhabitants. 
JOHN'STON, a townfhip in Franklin county, in Ver¬ 
mont; it contains ninety-three inhabitants. 
JOHN'STON, a poft-towmof the American States, and 
the capital of Montgomery county, New-York, iituated 
on the north-bank of Mohawk river, twenty-four miles 
weft of Scheneftady. The compaft part of the town is a 
little back from the river, and contains about feventy 
houfes, a prefbyterian and an epifcopal church, a court- 
houfe and gaol. In the townfhip 593 of the inhabitants 
are electors. 
JOllN'STON, a town of South Carolina: forty-fix miles 
north-north-weft of Queenborough. 
JOHN'STON, a town of Canada, on the St. Laurence. 
Lat. 44. 43. N. Ion. 75. 27. 
JOHN'STON’s ISLAND. See Lord North’s Island. 
JOHN'STON KIRK, a town of Scotland, in the 
county of Dumfries : fix miles north of Lochmaben. 
JOHN'STON’s STRAITS, a channel of the Pacific 
Ocean, between the ifland of Quadra and Vancouver, and 
the weft coaft of North America. This flrait branches 
off from the northern part of the gulf of Georgia, from 
Point Chatham to the weft, bearing a little north, for 
about fixty miles in length; the breadth being from two 
to four. Lat. 50. 20. to 50. 53. N. Ion. 234. 46. E. 
JOHN'STONE (James, M. D.), who pradtifed as a 
J o H 
phyfician more than fifty years in the city and county of 
Worcefter, with eminent fkill and reputation, was the 
fourth fon of John Johnftone, efq. of Gnlabank, one of 
the moll ancient branches of the family of Johnftone of 
Johnftone. He was born at Annan in 1730, and received 
the rudiments of his caffical education under tlie Rev. Dr. 
Henry, celebrated for his Hiftory of Great Britain. In 
the fchool of Edinburgh, under Whytt, Plummer, Monro, 
and Rutherford, he learnt the fcience of medicine; and 
in Paris, under Ferrein and Rouelle, he perfected himfelf 
in anatomy and chemiftry. In 1750, before he had com¬ 
pleted twenty-one years, he took the degree of M. D, 
publifhing a thefis DeAeris fadilii hnperioin Corpore humano, 
which gained him much credit, and fome valuable friends. 
The following year he feated himfelf at Kidderminfter in 
Worcefterfhire ; at that time, and fome years afterwards, 
fubjedt to a putrid fever of fuch peculiar malignity, as to 
be called the Kidderminfter fever. His name firft became 
known by the fuccefsful treatment he adopted for the 
cure of this dreadful diforder. Inftead of bleeding and 
purging, means then in common life, he recommended 
bark, wine, mineral acids, free ventilation of air, and the 
aft’ufion of water and vinegar; and fo prominent was his 
fuccefs, that he was immediately introduced into confider- 
able practice. Of this fever, as it appeared in 1756, he 
publiftied an account in 1758, which proves him to be the 
dilcoverer of the power of mineral acid vapors to correct 
or deftroy putrid febrile contagion : he orders for this 
purpofe, vitriolic acid to be poured uporLcommon fait, in 
a convenient veffel. over a proper heat. It is not a little 
fingular, that the fame means fhould be recommended by 
the celebrated Guyton de Morveau for the fame purpolc, 
more than twenty years after they were publifhed by 
Dr. Johnftone, and then be cried up as a great difeovery ! 
The fame principle has been applied Hill more lately, and 
a claim for remuneration from parliament founded upon 
it. The firft (ketches of Dr. Johntlone’s phyfiological in¬ 
quiry into the ufes of the glanglions of the nerves, were 
publiftied in the 54th, 57th, and 60th, vblumesof the Phil. 
Tranf. They were afterwards enlarged, and printed fe- 
parately. In this inquiry, he confiders glanglions as “lit¬ 
tle brains, fubordinate fprings and relervoirs of nervous 
power, the immediate fources of the nerves lent to organs 
moved involuntarily, and the check or caufe which hin¬ 
ders our volitions from extending to them. In a word, 
glanglions limit the exercife of the foul’s authority in the 
animal ceconomy, and put it out of our power, by a fiqgle 
volition, to flop the motions of the heartland in one ca¬ 
pricious moment irrecoverably to end our lives.” In a 
treatife on the Walton water, which in quality ftrongly 
refembles the Cheltenham, he has pointed out the proba¬ 
ble funftion of the lymphatic glands, luppofing them to 
be organs deftined to purify, digeft, and animalize, the 
matters feledted and abforbed by the lafteals and other 
lymphatics, thus fitting them for their union with the 
blood, and the nutrition of the body. At Kidderminfter 
Dr. Johnftone continued to adt in a wide fphere of coun¬ 
try practice, till the death of his eldeft fon, a phyfician 
fafl rifing into eminence, who fell a martyr to humanity 
in attending the prifoners at Worcefter, infedted with gaol- 
fever; and the coincidence of the death of his deareft friend 
the Rev. Job Orton, induced him to remove to Worcefter. 
In this city, famous from the days of Dr. Cole, the friend of 
Sydenham, for its phyficians, lie continued vigorous, ac¬ 
tive, ufeful to the community, and beloved by his friends, 
to pradtife, till a few days previous to his death. He had 
been fubjedt to pulmonary complaints in his youth, which 
had been averted by temperance and caution. In his 
later years they recurred; and his ftrength gradually de¬ 
cayed, leaving his intellect clear and unimpaired. His 
death was a perfect euthanafia : he expired after a fiiort 
and in no wife, painful Itruggle ; having fat up and con- 
verfed with his family, till within a few hours of the aw¬ 
ful change, cheerful, patient, and refigned. He furvived 
