Sir John Floyer (3 March 1649 – 1 February 1734) was an English

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and author.

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 Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. He was educated at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Career

He practised in Lichfield, and it was by his advice that

Dr Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

, 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 Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

Personal life

Floyer was married to Mary Fleetwood of Lichfield, a widow, in April 1680. Their son John Floyer (1681–1762) was a Tory Member of Parliament for Tamworth from 1741 to 1742. 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 ed., 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. ** Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
''The Physician's Pulse-watch''
(1707–1710) * Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org) **See also: Sibylline oracles article. * 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 ed., 1724) *''A Comment on forty-two Histories described by

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...

'' (1726).

Notes

References

External links

Floyer of Hints, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Bernard Burke, 1862
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Floyer, John 1649 births 1734 deaths English knights Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford 17th-century English medical doctors 18th-century English medical doctors People from Lichfield Hydrotherapists