Dr John Fothergill and Eighteenth-Century Medicine

Lettsom JC . The Works of John Fothergill, md, Member of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. London: Robinson, 1784

Wilmot E. Lectures on Materia Medica, Vol. II. Manuscript by Dr John Fothergill taken at St Thomas' Hospital, London, 1737. MS at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

Fothergill J. An Account of Sore Throat Attended with Ulcers, which hath of late years appeared in this city and the parts adjacent (4th edn). London: C Davis, printer to the Royal Society, 1754

Huxham J. A Dissertation of the Malignant Ulcerous Sore Throat. London: C Davis, printer to the Royal Society, 1754

Fox RH . Dr John Fothergill and His Friends. London: Macmillan, 1919

Hardy A. Tracheostomy versus intubation: surgical intervention in diphtheria. Bull Hist Med. 1992; 66: 536–9

My grandfather, the bacteriologist and physician Dr Hugo Carl Plaut (1858–1928), was frequently asked to treat children with diphtheria. Some of them recovered unexpectedly quickly, even though their appearance and especially the malodorous sloughs on the tonsils closely resembled diphtheria. Bacteriology of throat swabs revealed fusiform and spirochaetal organisms, instead of the expected Corynebacterium. An outbreak of the condition in the French army, six years later, was described by JH Vincent. The condition is now known as Vincent's angina, although its bacteriology had been elucidated by my grandfather in 1892. (It is not suggested that the epidemic described by John Fothergill was Vincent's angina.)

Elliott J. A Complete Collection of the Medical and Philosophical Works of John Fothergill md frs . London: Robinson, 1781

Booth CC . John Fothergill and the angina pectoris. Med Hist 1957; 1: 115–22

Firkin BG Whitworth JA . Medical Eponyms. Carnforth: Parthenon Publishing, 1987: 167

Corner BC Singer DW . Dr John Fothergill — peacemaker. Proc Am Phil Soc 1954; 98: 11–22

Hardy A. Development of the prison medical services 1774–1895. In: Crease R Bynum WF Beam J , Eds. The Health of Prisoners: Historical Essays. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995: 59–80

Abraham JJ . The two Fothergills. Trans Med Soc Lond 1946; 64: 276–91

Fothergill J. An Account of Some Observations and Experiments Made in Sibiria, extracted from the Preface to the Flora Sibirica, sive historia plantarum Sibirae…, auct D. Gmelin … Manuscript by John Fothergill, 1748. MS at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

Bradbury J. Ginko biloba extract might slow progression of dementia. Lancet 1997; 250: 1229

Drew CDM . The Fothergillian medallists. Trans Med Soc Lond 1994; 111: 20, xviii