Robert James (1703 – 23 March 1776) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

who is best known as the author of ''A Medicinal Dictionary'', as the inventor of a popular "fever powder", and as a friend of

Samuel 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 ...

Life

James was born in 1703, at Kinvaston in

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 ...

, to Edward James, a major in the English army, and his wife Frances, a sister of Sir Robert Clarke. His early education was at

Lichfield Grammar School 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 ...

, where he became acquainted with his fellow student Samuel Johnson. He then attended

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

, from which he received the degree of

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

on 5 July 1726. He was admitted as an extra-licentiate of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

on 12 January 1727/8, and in May of the same year was created doctor of medicine at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

by royal mandate. He practised at

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, Lichfield, and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

before moving to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he was admitted as a licentiate of the Royal College on 25 June 1765. He died on 23 March 1776, aged seventy-three. James's most notable publication was his three-volume ''Medicinal Dictionary'' (1743–1745), for which his friend Samuel Johnson wrote the "proposals", as well as several of the dictionary's articles (mainly at the beginning of the alphabet), including those for ''

actuarius ''Actuarius'' or ''actarius'', rendered in Greek as ''aktouarios'' (), was the title applied to officials of varying functions in the late Roman and Byzantine empires. In the late Roman Empire, the ''actuarius'' was an official charged with the dis ...

'' and

Aretaeus Aretaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀρεταῖος) is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek physicians. Little is known of his life. He presumably was a native or at least a citizen of Cappadocia, a Roman province in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey ...

. This work was immediately translated into French (as ''Dictionnaire universel de médecine'', 1746–1748) by the team of

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

François-Vincent Toussaint François-Vincent Toussaint (21 December 1715 - 22 June 1772) was a French writer most famous for ''Les Mœurs'' (The Manners). The book was published in 1748 and banned the same year; it was prosecuted and burned by the French court of justice. ...

, and Marc-Antoine Eidous; and it retained its popularity for so long that

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

felt justified in writing a scathing critique of it nearly 150 years later, in 1890.

Quackery

His fever powder, which he patented in 1747, was one of the most successful of 18th-century

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

s, though he is said to have "tarnished his image by patenting his powders, and falsifying their specification". (It was considered unbecomingly mercenary to patent a medicine, and his falsification of the ingredients in the patent documentation would have been designed to prevent others from replicating his formulation.) The use of this preparation, a compound of

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

and

phosphate of lime Calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P2O7) is a chemical compound, an insoluble calcium salt containing the pyrophosphate anion. There are a number of forms reported: an anhydrous form, a dihydrate, Ca2P2O7·2H2O and a tetrahydrate, Ca2P2O7·4H2O. Deposition ...

, has been cited as a contributing factor in the death of

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...

. James' fever powder has been cited as an example of

quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, ...

Selected writings

Translations

*''Dissertation on Endemical Diseases'' y_Friedrich_Hoffmann.html" ;"title="Friedrich_Hoffmann.html" ;"title="y Friedrich Hoffmann">y Friedrich Hoffmann">Friedrich_Hoffmann.html" ;"title="y Friedrich Hoffmann">y Friedrich Hoffmannand ''Treatise on the Diseases of Tradesmen'' [by Bernardino Ramazzini], 1746 *''The Presages of Life and Death in Diseases'' [by Prospero Alpini], 1746 *''Health's Improvement'' [by Thomas Muffet], 1746 *''A Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee and Chocolate'' [by

Simon Paulli Simon Paulli (6 April 1603 – 25 April 1680), was a Danish physician and naturalist. He was a professor of anatomy, surgery and botany at the University of Copenhagen. The genus ''Paullinia'' is named after him.

], 1746 *''The Modern Practice of Physick'' y_Herman_Boerhaave,_with_annotations_by_Gerard_van_Swieten.html" ;"title="Herman_Boerhaave.html" ;"title="y Herman Boerhaave">y Herman Boerhaave, with annotations by Gerard van Swieten">Herman_Boerhaave.html" ;"title="y Herman Boerhaave">y Herman Boerhaave, with annotations by Gerard van Swieten and additions from Friedrich Hoffmann], 1746

Original works

*''A Medicinal Dictionary, Including Physic, Surgery, Anatomy, Chymistry, and Botany, in All Their Branches Relative to Medicine; Together with a History of Drugs, an Account of Their Various Preparations, Combinations, and Uses; and an Introductory Preface, Tracing the Progress of Physic and Explaining the Theories Which Have Principally Prevail'd in All Ages of the World'', 1743–45 *''A Treatise on the Gout and Rheumatism'', 1745 *''A Dissertation on Fevers and Inflammatory Distempers'', 1748 *''A Treatise on Canine Madness'', 1760 *''A Vindication of the Fever Powder, with a Short Treatise on the Disorders of Children'', 1778Information in the "Selected writings" section is from

Life

Quackery

Selected writings

Translations

Original works

See also

References

Further reading