John Floyer (physician)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Sir John Floyer (3 March 1649 – 1 February 1734) was an English physician and writer.

Early life

John Floyer was born on 3 March 1649. He was the third child and second son of Elizabeth Babington and Richard Floyer, of Hints Hall, a since demolished country house. Hints is a quiet village lying a short distance from Lichfield in Staffordshire.<ref>Sir John Floyer, M</ref> He was educated at The Queen's College, University of Oxford.

Career

He practised in Lichfield, and it was by his advice that Dr Johnson, when a child, was taken by his mother to be touched by Queen Anne for the king's evil on 30 March 1714. As a physician, Floyer was best known for introducing the practice of pulse rate measurement, and creating a special watch for this purpose. He was an advocate of cold bathing, and gave an early account of the pathological changes in the lungs associated with emphysema.Template:Sfn

Personal life

Floyer was married to Mary Fleetwood of Lichfield, a widow, in April 1680.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Their son John Floyer (Template:Circa1681–1762) was a Tory Member of Parliament for Tamworth from 1741 to 1742.<ref name="histparl-john-floyer-d1762">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He died on 1 February 1734.

Bibliography

• Pharmako-Basanos: or the Touchstone of Medicines, discovering the virtues of Vegetables, Minerals and Animals, by their Tastes and Smells (2 vols, 1687)
• The praeternatural State of animal Humours described by their sensible Qualities (1696)
• An Enquiry into the right Use and Abuses of the hot, cold and temperate Baths in England (1697)
• A Treatise of the Asthma (1st edition, 1698)
• The ancient psychrolousia revived, or an Essay to prove cold bathing both safe and useful (London, 1702; several editions 8vo; abridged, Manchester, 1844, 12mo) See online version below.
  • Template:Cite book Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
• The Physician's Pulse-watch (1707–1710)
• Template:Cite book Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
  • See also: Sibylline oracles article.
• Template:Cite book Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
  • the first Essay concerning the Creation, Aetherial Bodies, and Offices of good and bad Angels
  • the second Essay concerning the Mosaic System of the World (Nottingham, 1717)
• An Exposition of the Revelations (1719)
• An Essay to restore the Dipping of Infants in their Baptism (1722)
• Medicina Gerocomica, or the Galenic Art of preserving old Men's Healths (1st edition, 1724)
• A Comment on forty-two Histories described by Hippocrates (1726).Template:Sfn

References

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External links

• Floyer of Hints, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Bernard Burke, 1862
• Sir John Floyer, Dr. Samuel Johnson and the Stanhope Family, The Johnson Society (Lichfield), lichfieldrambler.co.uk
• Template:Cite DNB