John Milner Fothergill, M.D. (11 April 1841 – 28 June 1888), was a British physician and medical writer.

Biography

Fothergill, son of surgeon George Fothergill and his wife Sarah Milner, was born at Morland,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, on 11 April 1841, studied at the University of Edinburgh, and there graduated M.D. 1865.

scan Scan may refer to: Acronyms * Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), a psychiatric diagnostic tool developed by WHO * Shared Check Authorization Network (SCAN), a database of bad check writers and collection agency for bad ...

He afterwards studied at Vienna and Berlin and began professional work as a general practitioner at Morland. Soon after moved to Leeds, and in 1872 came to London, where he was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians and endeavoured to get into practice as a physician. He obtained appointments at two small hospitals, the

City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest The London Chest Hospital, located in Bethnal Green in London, adjacent to Victoria Park, was a hospital with a national reputation for treatment of cardiac and pulmonary disease. Since 1999 it had been run by the Barts Health NHS Trust. It c ...

and the

West London Hospital The West London Hospital was founded in 1856 as the Fulham and Hammersmith General Dispensary, which was housed in a small 6-roomed building in Queen Street, Hammersmith. It catered for acute conditions and later for geriatric, maternity, rehabili ...

; but when asked some years later how he throve, replied, "The private patient seems to me to be an extinct animal." He was a man of enormous weight, with a large head and very thick neck, and so continued until he died of diabetes, from which and from gout he had long suffered. He resided in Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, and there died on 28 June 1888.

Writings

Among Fothergill's works are ''The Heart and its Diseases,'' ''The Practitioner's Handbook of Treatment,'' ''The Physical Factor in Diagnosis,'' ''Vaso renal Change versus Bright's Disease,'' and his posthumous ''The Town Dweller: His Needs and His Wants.'' In his writings his expressions about those with whom he did not agree are violent, and he often made positive general assertions without sufficient grounds for them; but he sometimes admitted his errors, and struggled hard with numerous difficulties in life. The ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' records that "a distinguished lecturer on materia medica" has expressed the opinion that the most valuable of Fothergill's writings are ''An Essay on the Action of Digitalis,'' written in his early life, and ''The Antagonism of Therapeutic Agents, and what it teaches'', published in 1878.

Selected publications

''The Heart and its Diseases With Their Treatment''
(1879)
''A Presumptive Diagnosis of Gout''
(1881)
''Gout in its Protean Aspects''
(1883)
''The Physiological Factor in Diagnosis''
(1883)
''A Manual of Dietetics''
(1886)
''The Will Power: Its Range in Action''
(1888)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fothergill, John Milner 1841 births 1888 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British medical writers Deaths from diabetes in the United Kingdom Dietitians Gout researchers People from Westmorland