BROCKLESBY, RICHARD, an eminent physician, was descended of a wealthy and respectable Irish family ; and was born at Minehead, in Somersetshire, on the I lth of August 1722, when his mother was on a visit to her relations. His parents, who resided at Cork, belonged to the society of Quakers, and seem to have been more anxious to imbue the mind of their son with the ele ments of a liberal education, than with the peculiar tenets of their sect. At the academy of Ballytore, where he went at an early age, he contracted an ac quaintance with the celebrated Edmund Burke, which grew into the warmest. friendship, when both of them appeared as public characters in London. After finish ing his grammar education, Mr Brocklesby attended a course of medical lectures at the university of Edin burgh, and afterwards went to Leyden, where he took his degree of doctor of medicine in 1745, and delivered a thesis, entitled De Saliva Sana et Morbosa. Upon his return to England in 1746, he settled as a physician in London ; but, like all young practitioners, his time was less occupied in the practice of his profession, than in accommodating his wants to the narrowness of his in come. His fame, however, began to extend, after the publication of his Essay on the mortality of the horned cattle. In the year 1751, he was admitted a licentiate in the Royal College of Physicians. The honorary degree of doctor in medicine was conferred upon him by the university of Dublin in 1754 ; and he received the same honour from the university of Cambridge in 1755. In June 1756, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Col lege of Physicians.
The practice of Dr Brocklesby now began to extend with his reputation. The mildness of his disposition endeared him to his professional brethren, while his kind attention to the wants and diseases of the poor, gained him the affections of a more extensive circle. In the year 1758, he was appointed physician to the anny by Lord Barrington; and, in this capacity he. served in Germany during tile greater part of the seven years war. He was afterwards chosen physician to the hospitals for British forces; and he returned to London in 1763, a few months before the termination of the war. In 1764, he published, in one volume, 8vo. Economical and Me dical Observations from• 1738 to 1763, tending to the im/irovenzent of Medical Hospitals This work, which contains the valuable results of his experience on the continent, abounds with excellent practical remarks on the history and treatment of various disorders, and with many useful hints respecting the management of hos pitals.
By the death of his father, Dr Brocklesby was left an estate of 6001. per annum. From his prolession, he de rived a clear income of 10001. a year, and, as he enjoy ed half pay from the army, and also a pension from his friend the Duke of Richmond,* he was enabled not only to live in splendour, but to amass a very considerable fortune. Dr Brocklesby was now elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He contributed several papers to the tranpactions of that learned body ; and his leisure hours were devoted to the society of his literary and political friends. By his advice, a professorship of chemistry was added to the establishment of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich ; and he had also the merit of recommending to that professorship the cele brated Dr Adair Crawford. About this time, the Duke of Richmond appointed him physician-general to the royal regiment of artillery and corps of engineers. The infirmities of old age, however, now began to interfere with the active duties of his profession, and induced him to abandon his medical practice, except among his par ticular friends. In December 1797, he went to Bea consfield, on a visit to the widow of his late friend Mr Burke ; and, on the 11th of that month, he returned to dine with his two nephews, Dr Young and Mr Beeby, of whose education he had taken the principal charge. Though a little fatigued with the journey, he talked with cheerfulness, repeated passages from his favourite classics, and appeared in his usual health ; but, whets he retired to rest about nine o'clock in the evening, he found the labour of ascenditig the stairs almost too great for him, and, a few minutes after he went to bed, he dropped asleep, and almost instantly expired, without the least appearance of pain. He bequeathed his books, pictures, and plate, with a handsome legacy, to his ne phew Dr Thomas Young, now foreign secretary to the Royal Society of London, a philosopher to whom science is under numerous obligations. With the exception of these and a few other legacies, the rest of Dr Brockles hy's fortune, which amounted altogether to about S0,000/. was left to his other nephew Mr Beeby.