Patrick Browne (1720–1790) was an Irish
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
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
.
Career
Browne was born in Woodstock,
County Mayo in 1720, sent to relatives on
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
in 1737 and returned to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
due to ill health after two years. He studied medicine, natural history and especially botany at
Reims,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and
Leyden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
, qualifying in 1743. He worked as a physician at
St. Thomas's Hospital, London, visited
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
,
Montserrat,
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
, and
St. Kitts in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and settled as physician in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
in 1746.
He corresponded with the botanist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
, among whose papers were found fragments of articles on
venereal diseases
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral s ...
and
yaws
Yaws is a tropical infection of the skin, bones, and joints caused by the spirochete bacterium ''Treponema pallidum pertenue''. The disease begins with a round, hard swelling of the skin, in diameter. The center may break open and form an ulce ...
by Browne.
His major work, ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica'' (1756), illustrated by the botanic artist
Georg Dionysius Ehret
Georg Dionysius Ehret (30 January 1708 – 9 September 1770) was a German botanist and entomologist known for his botanical illustrations.
Life
Ehret was born in Germany to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, a gardener and competent draughtsman, a ...
, contains new names for 104
genera.
[Patrick Browne author, 1756 - Climatoloy, Medical - 503 pages ]
He retired to Rushbrook, near
Claremorris
Claremorris (; ) is a town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at the junction of the N17 and the N60 national routes. It is the fastest growing town in the county. There was a 31% increase in the town's population between 2006 and 2011 an ...
,
County Mayo in 1771.
References
Other sources
* Nelson, E. C. ''
Huntia'' 11 (1): 5-16. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University.
* Nelson, E. C., & Walshe, W. F. (1995). ''Flowers of Mayo''
Ricorso* National Centre for Biotechnology Information
* ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. In Three Parts.'' (1756
Archive.org: Full online version, including 50 plates.
External links
* http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/PatrickBrowne.php
1720 births
1790 deaths
Botanists with author abbreviations
18th-century Irish botanists
People from County Mayo
18th-century Irish medical doctors
Botanists active in the Caribbean
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