Record

Authorised form of nameCockburn; William (1669 - 1739); physician
Dates1669 - 1739
NationalityBritish
Date of birth1669
Place of deathLondon, England
Date of deathNovember 1739
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
The middle aisle of Westminster Abbey, London (24 November 1739)
OccupationPhysician
ActivityEducation:
Edinburgh; MA (1688); Leyden (admitted 1691); King's College, Aberdeen; MD (1697)
Career:
Physician to the Fleet (c1694); created a secret remedy for dysentery, which he supplied to the Fleet and the Army on foreign service as well as private patients, thereby making his fortune; practised in London; Physician to Greenwich Hospital (1731)
Memberships:
LRCP (1694)
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election30/11/1696
RSActivityRoyal Society roles:
Council: 1703, 1705, 1707, 1709
RelationshipsParents: Sir William Cockburn, Bart, of Ryslaw and Cockburn.
Spouse: 1) Mary de Baudisson, a widow; 2) Mary, daughter of Basil Fielding, 4th Earl of Denbigh
PublishedWorksRCN 33743
OtherInfoLittle is known of his early life.
While at Leiden he attended the lectures of Scot Archibald Pitcairne, and was strongly influenced by Pitcairne's combination of iatromechanism and Newtonian matter theory.
His first book, Oeconomia corporis animalis, is a scheme of general pathology, or first principles of physic.
Produced a small work entitled 'An account of the nature, causes, symptoms and cure of the distempers that are incident to seafaring people', which was a record of his two years' experience as ship's doctor on the home station.
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Image

Cockburn W, IM000903.jpg

SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Innes Smith
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/10782288
CodeNA5735
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
IM/000903Cockburn, Williamnd
LBO/28/66Copy letter from Dr Brady to William Cockburnnd
CLP/22i/53Paper, Account of the book 'The nature and causes of loosenesses [dysentery] plainly discovered' by William Cockburn[1701]
CLP/12i/66Paper, 'An account of the cure of two sinuous ulcers possessing the space of the whole arm with an extraordinary supply of a callus which fully answers the purposes of the os humeri lost in time of cure' in a letter from John Fawler to William Cockburn[1707]
EL/B2/62Letter, from Sam Brady to Dr William Cockburn1705
EL/K/22Letter, from John Keill to William Cockburn1708
CLP/14ii/40Paper, 'Concerning the difficulty in curing fluxes' by Wm [William] Cockburn[1732]
CLP/14i/63Paper, 'The practice of purging and vomiting medicine according to Dr Cockburn's solution of his problem' by Dr [William] Cockburn[1708]
EL/C2/37Letter, from W[illiam] Cockburn [to the Royal Society], dated at London13 February 1704
RBO/18/15Concerns the use of 'Ipecacuanha' in France by William Cockburn after reading Monsieur Jussieu's 'Memoire'1732
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