James Jurin FRS FRCP (baptised 15 December 168429 March 1750) was an English scientist and physician, particularly remembered for his early work in

capillary action Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of, or even in opposition to, any external forces li ...

and in the

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evide ...

smallpox vaccination The smallpox vaccine is the first vaccine to be developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox ...

. He was a staunch proponent of the work of Sir

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

and often used his gift for satire in Newton's defence.

Early life

Jurin's father was John Jurin, a London dyer. His mother was John's wife Dorcas Cotesworth. He was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

where he won a scholarship to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, graduating BA in 1705, and being elected

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

the following year. Becoming the ''protégé'' of the master of Trinity, Richard Bentley, Jurin became tutor to Mordecai Cary, travelling with him internationally. Jurin achieved his MA in 1709 and became

headteacher A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

of the

Royal Grammar School, Newcastle (By Learning, You Will Lead) , established = , closed = , type = Grammar SchoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Geoffrey Stanford , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , cha ...

. Jurin became a frequent public speaker on mathematics and the work of Sir

. Jurin returned to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, 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. Cam ...

in 1715 to study medicine, becoming MD the following year and establishing a successful practice in London and

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

. In 1722, he lectured on

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

to the Company of Surgeons. From 1725 to 1732 he worked as a physician at Guy's Hospital, thereafter becoming a governor of the hospital. In 1724, Jurin married Mary Douglas, ''née'' Harris (died 1784), wealthy widow of Oley Douglas, and they had five daughters and one son.

Medical practice

Jurin rose to a position of some eminence in medicine and science. He is described as "witty, satirical, ambitious, and professionally and financially successful". He was a powerful advocate of the smallpox

variolation Variolation was the method of inoculation first used to immunize individuals against smallpox (''Variola'') with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result. Var ...

, a procedure involving scratching pus or material from the scabs of smallpox sores into the veins of a non-immune person to create a mild case of the disease that would confer lifelong immunity. Jurin used an early statistical study to compare the

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environm ...

s of variolation with those from contracting the disease naturally. He studied mortality statistics for London for the fourteen years prior to 1723 and concluded that one fourteenth of the population had died from smallpox, up to 40 percent during epidemics. He advertised in the '' Proceedings of the Royal Society'' for readers to report their personal and professional experiences and received over sixty replies, most from other physicians or surgeons, but most significantly from Thomas Nettleton who reported his own calculations from his experience in several communities in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. Jurin's analysis concluded that the

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speakin ...

of death from variolation was roughly 1 in 50, while the probability of death from naturally contracted smallpox was 1 in 7 or 8. He published his results in a series of annual pamphlets, ''An Account of the Success of Inoculating the Small-Pox'' (1723–1727). His work was very influential in establishing smallpox variolation in England some seventy years before Edward Jenner introduced the more effective method of "vaccination" using cowpox material in place of human smallpox. Jurin claimed that he had given "plain Proof from Experience and Matters of Fact that the Small Pox procured by inoculation ... is far less Dangerous than the same Distemper has been for many Years in the Natural Way."

Newtonian scientist

Jurin was an "ardent Newtonian". He had studied under

Roger Cotes Roger Cotes (10 July 1682 – 5 June 1716) was an English mathematician, known for working closely with Isaac Newton by proofreading the second edition of his famous book, the '' Principia'', before publication. He also invented the quadratur ...

and

William Whiston William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to inst ...

at Cambridge but only came to know Newton at the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, where Jurin was Secretary towards the end of Newton's

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

. Always advocating the Newtonian position, he was a keen controversialist, corresponding with

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent ...

and Émilie du Châtelet. He took an active part in defending Newton and attacking

Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathem ...

in the debate over ''vis viva'', opposing the views of Benjamin Robins and Pietro Antonio Michelotti. Jurin fostered international observational research into weather and

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

, and studied the phenomenon of

, deriving the rule that the height of liquid in a capillary tube is inversely proportional to the

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...

of the tube at the surface of the liquid only, a law sometimes known as

Jurin's law Jurin's law, or capillary rise, is the simplest analysis of capillary action—the induced motion of liquids in small channels—and states that the maximum height of a liquid in a capillary tube is inversely proportional to the tube's diameter. Ca ...

. He published on hydrodynamics and was critical of

Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

and Daniel Bernoulli's work. Jurin worked on

iatrophysics Iatrophysics or iatromechanics (fr. Greek) is the medical application of physics. It provides an explanation for medical practices with mechanical principles. It was a school of medicine in the seventeenth century which attempted to explain phys ...

, investigating the mechanical behaviour of the

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

and the

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water at its densest ...

of blood, debating the heart with James Keill and Jean-Baptiste de Sénac. He wrote an addendum (1738) ''On Distinct and Indistinct Vision'' to Robert Smith's ''Opticks'' and engaged in a lively epistollary exchange with Robins on the topic.

Controversy with Berkeley

In 1734, George Berkeley published '' The Analyst'' in which he attacked the

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

as flawed and ultimately absurd. Between 1734 and 1742, Jurin published over three hundred pages in robust rebuttal of Berkeley, many of them employing his favourite weapon of satire. The publications, some under the pseudonym ''Philalethes Cantabrigensis'', included ''Geometry no Friend to Infidelity'', or ''A Defence of Sir Isaac Newton & the British Mathematicians'' (1734) and ''The Minute Mathematician'', or ''The Freethinker no Just Thinker'' (1735). Berkeley quickly withdrew from the debate and Jurin turned his attentions on Robins and

Henry Pemberton Henry Pemberton (1694 – 9 March 1771) was an English physician and man of letters. He became Gresham Professor of Physic, and edited the third edition of ''Principia Mathematica''. Life Born in London, he received a general education in ...

. The controversy was re-ignited years later when Jurin wrote negatively in response to Berkeley's promotion of tar-water.

Later life

Jurin attended Robert Walpole as his physician and prescribed '' lixivium lithontripticum'' for Walpole's

bladder stone A bladder stone is a stone found in the urinary bladder. Signs and symptoms Bladder stones are small mineral deposits that can form in the bladder. In most cases bladder stones develop when the urine becomes very concentrated or when one is ...

s. Jurin had used a similar prescription for himself but Walpole died and Jurin was blamed for his death, again necessitating an energetic pamphlet campaign to defend his practice. Jurin died in London and was buried at St James Garlickhythe. His estate was valued at £35,000 (£4.9 million at 2003 prices). His bust, by

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influenc ...

stands in

.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis

Offices and honours

References

Works cited

* * * * * * Rusnock, A. (1995) "The weight of evidence and the burden of authority: case histories, medical statistics and smallpox inoculation", in R. Porter, ''Medicine in the Enlightenment'', Rodopi B.V. Editions, , ''pp''289–315 * *

External links

The Correspondence of James Jurin
i
EMLO
* * Jurin's (1734
''Geometry no friend to infidelity''
- Linda Hall Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Jurin, James 1684 births 1750 deaths Mathematicians from London 18th-century English medical doctors English scientists 18th-century English mathematicians English statisticians Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge British public health doctors People educated at Christ's Hospital Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England Physicians of Guy's Hospital