John BostockBaptized 29 Jun 1773; died 6 Aug 1846 at age 73.English physician and chemist who in his early career trained in medicine (as his father had before him), earned an M.D. in 1798, and practiced in Liverpool until moving to London (1817). He there turned to lecturing on chemistry at Guy's Hospital, and pursued some interest also in geology. On 16 Mar 1819, he read the first paper describing hay fever. He was the first to detect a reciprocal relationship between the amount of urea in urine dropping as it increased in the blood. In tandem, the albumin in the blood decreased as that in the urine rose. In 1818, he published An Account of the History and Present State of Galvanisum. His chief medical work was System of Physiology (1824). On the Purification of Thames Water (1826) was his only geological work. He died of cholera, caught while in Paris.« |