Sir Edward Alston (1595–24 December 1669), was the president of the
College of Physicians A college of physicians is a national or provincial organisation concerned with the practice of medicine.
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Such institutions include:
* American College of Physicians
* Ceylon College of Physicians
* College of Phy ...
.
Alston was born in
Suffolk, son of Edward Alston of
Edwardstone, and was educated at
St. John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...
. He graduated B.A. 1615, M.D. 1626.
In 1631 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, and was president from 1655 until 1666. At the
Restoration he was knighted (3 September 1660). He increased the power of the college by a judicious inclusion of physicians who during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
had practised without the college license. Thus seventy honorary fellows were created at once. Their diploma fees filled the almost empty college chest, but while the college was unguarded during the
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
, thieves carried off the money. When in the following year
The Great Fire of London inflicted a still more serious loss on the society, Alston promised money to rebuild the college, but a quarrel arose as to the site, and at the annual election he was not again chosen president. He withdrew his promise of money and never renewed it. He published in quarto ‘A Collection of Grants to the College of Physicians,’ London, 1660. He lived in
Great St. Helens,
Bishopsgate, and died very rich 24 December 1669.
References
1595 births
1669 deaths
Medical doctors from Suffolk
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
17th-century English medical doctors
Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians
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