BROWN, John, Scottish physician, author of the Brunonian system in medicine: b. Buncle, Berwickshire, 1735; d. London, 17 Oct. 1788. His parents were in a very humble sphere in life, his father being merely a day laborer. Like the children of other Scottish cottars, however, he had the advantage of being edu cated at the parish school, where he was very soon distinguished for his abilities and the rapid progress he made in his studies. His father having died, his mother married a weaver, and young Brown was bound an ap prentice to that business, but the distaste he evinced for it was so great as to induce his stepfather to cancel his indentures and remove him to the grammar school of Dunse, where he was looked upon as a prodigy — reading all the Latin authors with the greatest facility, and soon making considerable progress in Greek. In 1755 he went to Edinburgh, with the inten tion of studying divinity and entering the Church, but soon abandoned• his theological studies. Having been employed by a medical student to translate his thesis into Latin, he sue ceeded so well that the elegance and purity of the language attracted the notice and enco miums of the professors and led to his com mencing the study of medicine. In the year
1765 he married, and opened a boarding-house for the accommodation of medical students; but being irregular and intemperate in his habits was soon reduced to bankruptcy. Hav ing taken the degree of doctor in medicine at Saint Andrew's, he commenced practice in Edin burgh, and produced his celebrated work, en titled the 'Elements of Medicine.' He then commenced lecturing on the practice of physic, and made use of this work as his textbook He divided all diseases into two classes, those resulting from a deficiency, and those resulting from an excess of excitement; the one class to be treated with stimulants, the other with debilitating medicines. Becoming involved in pecuniary embarrassments, he removed to Lon don in 1786. The system of physic which he taught, though no longer accepted as a system, had a distinct influence on subsequent practice.