f>74 NEEDHA M. 
the fide of the parliament, under the title of “ Mercurius 
Britannicus,” and was confidered as a ufeful partifan in 
that caufe. About the fame time he turned his ftudies 
to phyfic, and began to praftife in it in 1645. Upon 
fome occafion of difguft he quitted his party; and, re¬ 
pairing to the king at Hampton Court, obtained his par¬ 
don and favour, and began a new weekly paper, entitled 
<{ Mercurius Pragmnticus. In this he was as fatirical 
and jocular againft the prelbyterians, as in the former he 
had been againft the royalifts. This freedom, however, 
could not be permitted ; he was therefore lodged in New¬ 
gate ; and his life would have been endangered had he 
not been favoured by Lenthal and Bradfhaw. Being en¬ 
larged, lie was perfuaded to take up his pen for the in¬ 
dependents, now the prevalent party ; and in their fervice 
he publilhed a third weekly paper, “ entitled “ Mercurius 
Politicus,” commenced in 1649. It contained many dif- 
-courfes againft monarchy, and in favour of a republic, 
and was continued till 1660, when it was fupprefl'ed by 
order of the council of ftate. After the reftoration he 
lay concealed till he had obtained a pardon under the 
great feal, upon which he refumed the practice of phyfic 
with confiderable encouragement among the diflenters, 
till his death in 1678. He is defcribed as being a man of 
quick parts, humorous and fatirical. The verfatility of 
his principles is apparent from the preceding Iketch of 
his life. 
Befides the Mercuries above mentioned, he was the 
author of a great number of fugitive and temporary poli¬ 
tical trafts, which it is now fuperfluous to enumerate. 
One work of his, however, has efcaped oblivion. Its title 
is, “ A Difcourfe on the Excellency of a Free State above 
Kingly Government,” firft inferted in the Mercurius Po¬ 
liticals, then printed feparately in 1650, and reprinted fo 
lately as 1767. It is a learned and methodical work, full 
of illuftrations from Greek and Roman hiftory, often un- 
necelfarily repeated. Its foundation is the natural fo- 
-vereignty of the people, which principle is ably fupported 
and vindicated. This piece was thought worthy of a 
French tranfiation in the year 1791. Another of his po¬ 
litical works which may be noticed, was a tranfiation of 
Selden’s Mare Ciaufum, printed in 1652, with “ Addi¬ 
tional Evidences” in favour of the fovereignty of the 
Englifh kings on the fea. This was corrected and re¬ 
printed in 1662 by James Howell. Our author likewife 
difplayed his free principles in his own profefiion, by a 
work entitled “ Medela Medicinae,” in which he attempt¬ 
ed to prove that every man ought to be allowed to under¬ 
take the practice of medicine without previous ftudy in 
fchools, or the examination of colleges. This medical 
herefy was refuted by two fellows of the College of Phy- 
ficians. Wood's A then. Oxon. Monthly JRev. 
NEE'DHAM (Walter), a phylician and anatomift, pro¬ 
bably received his education at Cambridge, where he 
mentions his having made anatomical obfervations in 
Trinity College about 1654, and afterwards at Queen’s 
College. In 1659 he w'as invited to praftife phyfic 
at Shrewfimry. Some time after, the fame of the anato¬ 
mical fchool at Oxford drew him thither, and he at¬ 
tended the diffeftions of Lower, Willis, and Millington, 
occafionally taking the knife himfelf, and deinonftrating 
what he had before difcovered at Cambridge. He re¬ 
moved to "London, where he was made phyfician to the 
Charter-houfe. In 1667 he was admitted into the Royal 
Society; and in that year, at the inftigation of the Hon. 
Robert Boyle, drew up his treatife “ De Formato Fcetu,” 
which is dedicated to that eminent perfon. He died in 
3691. The above-mentioned work of this writer ranks 
among the valuable anatomical writings of the time. Al¬ 
though, in common with the other Englilh anatomifts of 
that period, he enjoyed few opportunities of human dif- 
feftion, and was obliged to draw his remarks chiefly from 
brutes, he has correfted various errors then current con¬ 
cerning the courfe of the lymph, the mode of nutrition 
in the fcetus, the adraiftion of air into the blood, &c. and 
has given various fafts from original obfervation. This 
work was reprinted at Amfterdam, and in the colleftioit 
of Maagetus. He has an anatomical paper in the Philo- 
fophical Tranfaftions; and Birch, in his Hiftory of the 
Royal Society, gives a diflertation of his, of fome length* 
relative to the blood, bile, lymph, and other animal fluids. 
Halleri Bill. Anat. 
NEE'DHAM (J. Turberville), an ingenious phyfiolo- 
gift, was born at London in 1713. He was defcended 
from a younger branch of the noble family of Kilrnorey, 
and was brought up at Douay in the Roman-catholic re¬ 
ligion, in which he took prieft’s orders. For fome time 
he was a profeifor in that univerfity ; and he afterwards 
palled feveral years as a travelling-tutor to Englilh and 
Irilh noblemen. He relided at different times both in 
London and Paris ; in the latter capital occupying an 
apartment in the Englifh feminary. His philolophical 
reputation caufed him to be elefted a fellow of the Royal 
Society in London, and he is faid to have been the firft 
catholic prieft who had this honour. The French Aca¬ 
demy of Sciences alfo chofe him a correfpondent member. 
In 1769 he was invited by the government of the Lovr 
Countries to afiift in the formation of a literary fociety. 
This was the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of 
Bruflels, of which he was reftor at the time of his death 
in that city, in 1781. 
Mr. Needham diftinguilhed himfelf by his experimental 
labours and his fpeculations concerning the formation of 
organized bodies. 1. In the Philofophical Tranfaftions, 
N° 411, he publilhed an account of certain moving fibres, 
refembling eels, generated from fmutty wheat. 2. In 
1745 h e publilhed Microfcopical Difcoveries, containing 
Obfervations on the Calamary and its Milt-veffels, &c. &c. 
Loud. 8vo. tranflated into French in 1747. Many curious 
particulars relative to the ftrufture and produ 61 ion of mi¬ 
nute animals are defcribed in this work. 3. It was fol¬ 
lowed by Nouvelles Obfervations Microfcopiques ; avec 
des Decouvertes intereflantes fur la Compofition et la 
Decompofition des Corps organifes; Paris, 1750, i2mo. 
Of this publication the firft part is the preceding work, 
with fome notes by the tranflator; the fecond part (pub- 
lilhed alfo in the Phil. Tranf.) contains many ideas in 
common with Buffon, oppofingthe doftrine of evolution, 
and fupporting that of fpontaneous generation by organi- 
cal particles. 4. He purfued thefe fpeculations iunher in 
his Nouvelles Recherches fur les Decouvertes Micro¬ 
fcopiques de Spallanzani, avec des Notes, des Recherches 
Phyfiques et Metaphyfiques fur la Nature, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. 
Par. 1769. 5. Finding that the author of the Syfteme de 
la Nature, Voltaire, and others, had reprefented his opi¬ 
nions as favourable to materialifm, he thought proper to 
publifli, in 1776, “ Idee fommaire, ou vue generale du 
Syfteme Pkyfique et Metaphyfique de M. Needham fur lx 
Generation des Corps Organifes ;” Bruflels, 8vo. 6 . A 
traft which he publilhed in 1763, De Infcriptione quon¬ 
dam EEgyptiaca Taurini inventa, &c. fupported the no¬ 
tion which had been advanced by fome academicians, and 
ridiculed by Voltaire, that the Chinefe were defcended 
from the Egyptians. It was replied to by Edward Wort- 
ley Montague, who expofed the credulity of Mr. Need¬ 
ham with refpeft to the infcription in queftion. The ftyle 
of our author in his philofophical works is fomewhat ob- 
fcure, and his ideas, though profound, not remarkably 
lucid ; but Haller fpeaks of him as one who has contri¬ 
buted much that is worthy of attention to phyfiological 
fcience. Gen. Blog. Monthly Rev. 
NEE'DHAM-MAR'KET, a fmall market-town in tht 
county of Suffolk, feven miles north-weft from Ipfwich, 
on the road to Bury St. Edmund’s, and feventy-three 
miles from London. It is faid to have been, in forme* 
times, a place of confiderable manufafturingimportar.ee; 
but now fcarcely any trade is carried on in it. Indeed, fo 
funk was this place at the commencement of the laft cen¬ 
tury, that the author of the Magna Britannia fays, its 
poverty had become proverbial. The principal fupport 
4 0 i 
