ARBUTHNOT, John, Scotch physician and author: b. Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire, Scotland, 29 April 1667; d. London, 27 Feb. 1735. Arbuthnot was the eldest child of Alex ander Arbuthnot, rector of Arbuthnot, and Margaret ILammy] Arbuthnot. Little is known of John Arbuthnot's early life•, he was probably educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, but almost nothing else can be stated of his minority. It is known, however, that as a result of the Revolution of 1688, his father who was a stout supporter of the Stuarts, lost his preferment and, on his death in 1691, his sons were obliged to seek their fortunes abroad. John went to London, where he supported himself by teaching mathe matics. The following year he probably pub lished a little book entitled Laws of Chance,) but it may not be definitely assigned to him. In October 1694 he entered University College, Oxford, and September, two years later, took his doctor's degree in medicine at Saint Andrews. Shortly afterward, in all prob ability, he settled in London for the remainder of his life.
Arbuthnot's first important work was Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge) (1697), a work in which Arbuthnot showed his interest in questions of science and the candor and fairness of his mind. His next piece, (An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathe matical Learning,) appeared in 1701. His prog ress in distinction was so rapid that in 1704 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the following year was made Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. In 1709 he was appointed Physician in Ordinary to the Queen, and the following year was admitted as Fellow to the College of Physicians. His publications of the period are of a somewhat miscellaneous character: (Tables of the Grecian, Roman and Jewish Measures, Weights and Coins, Reduced to the English Standard) (1705), Sermon Preached to the People at the Mercat-Cross of Edinburgh; on the subject of the Union' (1706) and 'An Argument for Divine Provi dence, taken from the Constant Regularity Observed in the Births of Both Sexes' (1710). Because of his well-known good humor, fair ness of mind and ability he was frequently named to settle vexed questions and rival claims.
Arbuthnot is remembered in English litera ture chiefly for the friendships which he made and the work that he did during the next four years. He became acquainted with Swift in 1711 and with Pope two years later, and both friendships were close and life-long, It was possibly under the influence of the former that he contributed several interesting satires to the support of the Tory administration. In Feb ruary 1712 appeared Story of the Saint Albans Ghost, or the Apparition of Mother Haggy,) a satire upon the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. In the spring and summer of the same year there appeared in five instalments, the much more important (Law is a Bottomless Pit> called later and better known as History of John Bull.) Both were attributed to Swift and have been included frequently in his published works, in spite of his denial of them. Bull' is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of English political satire of the milder sort. It pursues throughout the method of the narrative parts of Swift's of a Tub> and it gives an account of the history of English foreign politics of the time, but its quality is more genially humorous than vio lently satirical. It is particularl notable for
the name and character of John Bull, which Arbuthnot created. In October of the same year Arbuthnot published Art of Politi cal Lying,' a satire of an extraordinary rather than a dramatic cast.
The friendship of Arbuthnot with Swift, Pope and the Tory leaders resulted, in a society for the diversion of its members in times of political turmoil. Out of that sprang the Scriblerus Club. The object of the club was, in the words of Pope, *to have ridiculed all the false tastes in learning, under' the character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in each.* The members were Arbuthnot, Swift, Pope, Gay, and Parnell, but almost exclusively to Arbuthnot alone belong the 'Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus,) probably written in 1713-14, but published in 1741 by Pope. The
are usually included in Pope's works, who wrote only the excellent
On the death of Queen Anne in 1714, Arbuth not, along 'with the Tory ministers and their supporters, lost their •places at •court, but Ar buthnot retained his favor with influential peo ple. In his profession he was honored by being made, in 1723, Second Censor by the College of Physicians and, possibly in 1730, Physician to the Queen. His writing up to his death con sisted of an amplification of his 'Tables of Ancient Coins' (1727), some satirical notes, with Swift, to the 'Duncaid' (1729), a popular 'Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments and the Choice of Them> (1731), to which the fol lowing year he added 'Practical Rules of Diet,' an 'Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies' (1733), and a poem, 'Know Thyself > (1734). Alone and in collaboration with his friends he probably wrote a number of satirical pieces, which are often included in his works but which cannot be definitely assigned to him. The last 10 years of his life were marked by several illnesses, but he never lost his cheerfulness and good-nature. A few weeks before his death appeared Pope's masterly 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot> which is interesting in part as a proof of the esteem in which he was held by his friends and by which he is best known to the average reader.
Bibliography.— The chief source of in formation about Arbuthnot is George A. Ait ken's 'The Life and Works of John Arbuth not' (Oxford 1892), A wherein all that is defi nitely known to be Arbuthnot's is included ex cept the technical treatises. The other chief source of information is Leslie Stephen's arti cle in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' References to the history of the Scriblerus Club and Arbuthnot's relations to the great men of letters of the time are to be found in the separate lives of these men and in the literary histories.