John FreindDied 26 Jul 1728 (born 1675).English physician and politician who was a scholar, though not one of the great physicians, but was still highly esteemed. He gave nine chemistry lectures at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1704). He applied Newtonian attraction to estimate forces between particles in chemical processes. He then pursued a medical career and dabbled in politics. Under unjust suspicion of treason, he was imprisoned for a few months in the Tower of London (1722). During this time he planned his History of Physic, about medical treatments. His release was arranged when his friend Richard Mead made that a precondition for treating Sir Robert Walpole, then Prime Minister, for renal calculi. Freind may have suggested the creation of the Christ Church Science Laboratory at Oxford University. In 1727, he became physician to Queen Caroline.« |
