Origins & Early Life

John Arbuthnot FRS (baptised 29 April 1667 – 27 February 1735), often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club (where he inspired Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels book III and Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry, Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus, and possibly The Dunciad), and for inventing the figure of John Bull. In his mid-life, Arbuthnot, complaining of the work of Edmund Curll, among others, who commissioned and invented a biography as soon as an author died, said, "Biography is one of the new terrors of death," and so a biography of Arbuthnot is made difficult by his own reluctance to leave records. Alexander Pope noted to Joseph Spence that Arbuthnot allowed his infant children to play with, and even burn, his writings.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Throughout his professional life, Arbuthnot exhibited a strong humility and social conviviality, and his friends often complained that he did not take sufficient credit for his own work. Arbuthnot was born in Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire, on the north-eastern coast of Scotland...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

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• Francesco Borromini — Contemporary (Died in 1667) (1667): Master of Roman Baroque architecture, known for inventive geometry and dramatic forms.
• Johann Bernoulli — Contemporary (Born in 1667) (1667): Swiss mathematician known for calculus and educating Leonhard Euler.
• Alexander Mack — Contemporary (Died in 1735) (1735): German clergyman and founder of the Schwarzenau Brethren movement.
• Granville Sharp — Contemporary (Born in 1735) (1735): Pioneering English scholar, philanthropist, and leading abolitionist campaigner.
• John Adams — Contemporary (Born in 1735) (1735): Founding Father and Second U.S. President, instrumental in the American Revolution.
• Al-Qurtubi — Shared historical date (04-29 · Died) (1273): Polymath jurist and scholar renowned for Tafsir al-Qurtubi in Al-Andalus.
• Albert Hofmann — Shared historical date (04-29 · Died) (2008): Swiss chemist renowned for synthesizing LSD and pioneering psychedelic research.
• Alan Guth — Shared historical date (02-27 · Born) (1947): Pioneering cosmologist known for developing the theory of cosmic inflation.
• Alice Hamilton — Shared historical date (02-27 · Born) (1869): Pioneering toxicologist and advocate for occupational health and safety.
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