Arbuthnot entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1681 where he studied the standard arts course taken by all students at this time.
Connections
collaborator: Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope, 1688 – 1744, 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, including Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, and for his translation of Homer.
collaborator: John Gay
John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club.
collaborator: Thomas Parnell
Thomas Parnell, 1679 – 1718, Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
Mr. Maitland's account of inoculating the smallpox vindicated, from Dr. Wagstaffe's misrepresentations of that practice, with some remarks on Mr. Massey's sermon.
An appendix to John Bull still in his senses or, Law is a bottomless-pit
(An appendix to John Bull still in his senses or, Law is a...)
An appendix to John Bull still in his senses or, Law is a bottomless-pit Arbuthnot, John The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others.
Law Is a Bottomless Pit. Or, the History of John Bull. in Two Parts. by Dr. Arbuthnot
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Tables of Antient Coins, Weights, and Measures, Explained and Exemplified in Several Dissertations. by John Arbuthnot, ... the Second Edition. to ... Observations on Dr. Arbuthnot's Dissertation
(Proposals for printing a very curious discourse by John A...)
Proposals for printing a very curious discourse by John Arbuthnot The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
John Arbuthnot was a British physician, satirist, and polymath of a Scottish origin. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, for being a founder of the Scriblerus Club, and for his satirical writings, which include a political allegory, The History of John Bull.
Background
John Arbuthnot was born on April 29, 1667 in Kincardineshire, Scotland. His father, Alexander Arbuthnot, was an episcopalian minister who was deprived of his living in 1689 by his patron, Viscount Arbuthnott, for refusing to conform to the Presbyterian system. Alexander Arbuthnott was well educated having studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen. He probably gave his son John a good grounding in Latin and Greek. John was the oldest of his parents seven surviving children. He had two younger brothers, Robert born in 1669 and Alexander born in 1675, as well as four sisters.
Education
Arbuthnot entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1681 where he studied the standard arts course taken by all students at this time. It contained a reasonable amount of mathematics and natural philosophy. Arbuthnot graduated in 1685 and there is no record of what he did in the next six years. In fact the next few years were dramatic ones in Scotland, and in particular for the Arbuthnot family.
John Arbuthnot graduated with his M. D. degree from the St. Andrews University, and then took his doctor’s degree in medicine at St. Andrews in 1696.
In September 1689 Arbuthnot's father, Alexander, refused to sigh an oath to the rulers William and Mary who had been victorious over the Jacobites, and he was dismissed from his parish. He did not go quietly, however, for he took the session book with him. After he died in 1691 his sons were required to return the session book which John Arbuthnot did in order that his father might be buried. However John's request to erect a headstone at his father's grave was only granted with strict conditions as what might be inscribed on the stone and in the circumstances no stone was put up.
After settling his father's affairs, Arbuthnot went to London where he earned his living giving lessons in mathematics. He translated Huygens' tract De ratiociniis in ludo aleae on probability and extended it by adding to it a few further games of chance such as backgammon, the Royal Oak lottery, raffling, whist, and games with dice. In 1692 Arbuthnot also published Of the Laws of Chance, based on the Latin version, De Ratociniis in ludo aleae, of a Dutch treatise by Christiaan Huygens.
After taking his doctor’s degree in medicine at St. Andrews in 1696, Arbuthnot settled in London in 1697. In An Examination of Dr Woodward's Account of the Deluge (1697) he confuted an extraordinary theory advanced by Dr William Woodward.
He had the good fortune to be called in at Epsom to prescribe for Prince George of Denmark. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1704 and was appointed a physician extraordinary to Queen Anne in 1705 (he became ordinary physician in 1709). The Royal College of Physicians elected him a fellow in 1710.
The death of Queen Anne put an end to Arbuthnot's position at court, but he still had an extensive practice, and in 1727 he delivered the Harveian oration before the Royal College of Physicians. Lord Chesterfield and William Pulteney were among his patients and friends; also Mrs Howard (Lady Suffolk) and William Congreve. In January 1735 was published the " Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, " which forms the prologue to Pope's satires.
Overweight, with asthma and kidney stones, John Arbuthnot died on February 27, 1735 in London.
John Arbuthnot grew up in the family where both of his parents were associated with the Episcopalian Church, with his father being the minister of Arbuthnott and his mother being the daughter of the minister of Farnell and dean of Brechin.
Views
Arbuthnot was well acquainted with the theory of probability. It is certain that he published an English translation of Christian Huygens’ De ratiociniis in ludo aleae (probably to be identified with a work said to have appeared in 1692, and with the first edition of part of an anonymous work that appeared in a fourth edition in 1738 in London under the title Of the Laws of Chance . . . ). His scientific importance, however, resides in a short paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, which has been taken as the very origin of mathematical statistics. Entitled “An Argument for Divine Providence, Taken From the Constant Regularity Observ’d in the Birth of Both Sexes,” it begins:
Among innumerable footsteps of divine providence to be found in the works of nature, there is a very remarkable one to be observed in the exact balance that is maintained, between the numbers of men and women; for by this means it is provided, that the species never may fail, nor perish, since every male may have its female, and of proportionable age. This equality of males and females is not the effect of chance but divine providence, working for a good end, which I thus demonstrate.
He first shows by numerical examples that if sex is determined by a die with two sides, M and F, it is quite improbable that in a large number of tosses there will be as many M as F. However, it is also quite improbable that the number of M will greatly exceed that of F. Nevertheless, there are more male infants born than female infants—clearly through divine providence—to make good the greater losses of males in external accidents.
Arbuthnot’s argument is the first known example of a mathematical statistical inference and, in fact, is the ancestor of modern statistical reasoning. It immediately drew the attention of Continental scientists, particularly the Dutch physicist’s Gravesande, as is shown by contemporary correspondence. Daniel Bernoulli used it in 1732 to show that it could not be by chance that the planetary orbits are only slightly inclined to the ecliptic. In 1757 John Michell proved the existence of double stars by showing that stars are found close to each other more often than mere chance would allow.
Quotations:
“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.”
“Mathematical Knowledge adds a manly Vigour to the Mind, frees it from Prejudice, Credulity, and Superstition.”
“There are very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning; and when they cannot it's a sign our knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and when a Mathematical Reasoning can be had it's as great a folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark, when you have a Candle standing by you.”
"Biography is one of the new terrors of death."
Membership
Arbuthnot was a member of the Royal Society, where he was associated with Isaac Newton and Hans Sloane; as physician to Queen Anne. He was also a member of the Scriblerus Club, which he founded along with Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay and Thomas Parnell in 1713, whose purpose was to satirise bad poetry and pedantry.
Personality
Arbuthnot was indifferent to literary fame, and many of his witticisms and ideas for satires were later developed by and credited to his more famous literary friends.
Physical Characteristics:
During the last years of his life Arbuthnot suffered from obesity, had asthma, and kidney stones.
Quotes from others about the person
Dr. Johnson wrote:
"[Arbuthnot] was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliancy of wit; a wit, who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal."
Connections
Around 1702 John Arbuthnot married Margaret, whose maiden name is possibly Wemyss. Arbuthnot's youngest son, who had just completed his education, died in December 1731.
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The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
Excerpt from The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians All who are interested in the literary and social history of the eighteenth century are to some extent familiar with the name and character of Doctor Arbuthnot; but, gener ally speaking, knowledge of him is confined to what may be gathered from the correspondence of his friends, Pope and Swift. The letters Arbuthnot sent to and received from those f