William Johnson

1610 (age 55)

England

Johnson began his career as a chemist about 1648. In June 1648 the College of Physicians of London had decided to erect a laboratory for the preparation of chemical medicines by the doctors. Soon afterward, however, Johnson was allowed to fit up and man a laboratory at the west end of the College garden at his own expense. His effort to make this a commercial venture in which both the public and the College were served with his chemical preparations was unanimously condemned by the College; nevertheless Johnson soon became known as the operator to the Royal College of Physicians. As operator to the College, Johnson prepared chemical medicines and ingredients as samples and for sale. He instructed Collegians and possibly the public in chemical operations and analyzed suspicious medicines for the College, using, in part, a rudimentary comparison by weights. Johnson served his profession with the publication of Lexicon chemicum (1652), which he freely admitted was simply gleaned and rearranged from such German authors as Basilius Valentinus, J. B. van Helmont, and especially Ruland. At least five printings attest to the usefulness of such a dictionary, in which the dark phrases of chemists were ordered and classified. Because of the Lexicon and a less orderly publication, issued in the same year, Johnson was placed among the early followers of Helmont but later was considered a traitor by the dogmatic iatrochemists, who soon were challenging the established legal medical practice of London. One of the more important of these chemists was George Thomson, in reply to whose Galeno-pale (London, 1665) Johnson wrote Some Brief Animadversions on behalf of the College of Physicians. The College expressed its pleasure with a gift of £100. While the medical theories at stake are of great interest, for Johnson they were secondary to more immediate questions of the technical competence and professional status of the writers. His defense of chemical Galenism rarely attempted to tackle the philosophical issues raised. The urgency of this debate was increased by the outbreak of the plague, which took the lives of some of the chief participants, including Johnson, who had taken part in the dissection of the body of a plague victim.

William Johnson

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chemist scientist author

Background

William Johnson was born c. 1610 in England, probably in a well-to-do family.

Education

Johnson was probably educated for the clergy.

Career

Johnson began his career as a chemist about 1648. In June 1648 the College of Physicians of London had decided to erect a laboratory for the preparation of chemical medicines by the doctors. Soon afterward, however, Johnson was allowed to fit up and man a laboratory at the west end of the College garden at his own expense. His effort to make this a commercial venture in which both the public and the College were served with his chemical preparations was unanimously condemned by the College; nevertheless Johnson soon became known as the operator to the Royal College of Physicians.

As operator to the College, Johnson prepared chemical medicines and ingredients as samples and for sale. He instructed Collegians and possibly the public in chemical operations and analyzed suspicious medicines for the College, using, in part, a rudimentary comparison by weights.

Johnson served his profession with the publication of Lexicon chemicum (1652), which he freely admitted was simply gleaned and rearranged from such German authors as Basilius Valentinus, J. B. van Helmont, and especially Ruland. At least five printings attest to the usefulness of such a dictionary, in which the dark phrases of chemists were ordered and classified.

Because of the Lexicon and a less orderly publication, issued in the same year, Johnson was placed among the early followers of Helmont but later was considered a traitor by the dogmatic iatrochemists, who soon were challenging the established legal medical practice of London. One of the more important of these chemists was George Thomson, in reply to whose Galeno-pale (London, 1665) Johnson wrote Some Brief Animadversions on behalf of the College of Physicians. The College expressed its pleasure with a gift of £100. While the medical theories at stake are of great interest, for Johnson they were secondary to more immediate questions of the technical competence and professional status of the writers. His defense of chemical Galenism rarely attempted to tackle the philosophical issues raised.

The urgency of this debate was increased by the outbreak of the plague, which took the lives of some of the chief participants, including Johnson, who had taken part in the dissection of the body of a plague victim.

Achievements

William Johnson is remembered as a prominent English chemist and operator to the College of Physicians. He is also remembered for his work Lexicon chemicum.

Works

Lexicon chymicum cum obscuriorum verborum, et rerum hermeticarum, tum phrasium Paracelsicarum, in scriptis ejus Lexicon chymicum cum obscuriorum verborum, et rerum hermeticarum, tum phrasium Paracelsicarum, in scriptis ejus

book
- Lexicon chymicum cum obscuriorum verborum, et rerum hermeticarum, tum phrasium Paracelsicarum, in scriptis ejus 1652

References

Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7
1973

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Lexicon chymicum cum obscuriorum verborum, et rerum hermeticarum, tum phrasium Paracelsicarum, in scriptis ejus

William Johnson

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1648 - 1664

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