David Abercromby was a 17th-century
Scottish physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
and writer, thought to have died in 1702.
[ Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article pp. 2-7.] Brought up at
Douai
Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, Dou ...
as a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
by
Jesuit priests, he was converted to
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
in 1682 and came to abjure
popery
The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...
, and published ''Protestancy proved Safer than Popery'' (1686).
Works
His medical reputation was based on his ''Tuta ac efficax luis venereae saepe absque mercurio ac semper absque salivatione mercuriali curando methodus'' (1684) which was translated into
French,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
. Two other works by him were ''De Pulsus Variatione'' (1685), and ''Ars explorandi medicas facultates plantarum ex solo sapore'' (1688); his ''Opuscula'' were collected in 1687. These professional writings gave him a place and memorial in
Albrecht von Haller, ''Bibliotheca Medicinae Practicae'' (1779). According to Haller he was alive early in the 18th century.
He also wrote some books in
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and
philosophy, controversial in their time but little remembered today. But the most noticeable of his productions is ''A Discourse of Wit'' (1685), which contains some of the most characteristic metaphysical opinions of the Scottish philosophy of common sense. It was followed by ''Academia Scientiarum'' (1687), and by ''A Moral Discourse of the Power of Interest'' (1690), dedicated to
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...
,
[ Abercromby's patron in the 1680s. He later wrote ''Reasons Why A Protestant Should not Turn Papist'' (1687), which has often wrongly been attributed to Boyle. ''A Short Account of Scots Divines'', by him, was printed at ]Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
in 1833, edited by James Maidment.[
]
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
Works of David Abercromby
at Early English Books Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abercromby, David
17th-century Scottish medical doctors
17th-century Scottish writers
Year of birth missing
1702 deaths
Converts to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism