FLUDD, ltoBERT ( 1574-1637) . An English physician and mystic philosopher. Ile was born at Bearsted, Kent. England, was educated at Ox ford, where he took the master's degree in 1508. and spent six years in study and travel on the Continent. Having returned to England, he studied medicine. was admitted to practice in 1606, and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1609. While on the Continent he had become interested in scientific experiments and natural philosophy, and maintained a laboratory where he constructed various sorts of odd mechanisms, such as an automatic dragon and a self-playing lyre. Some of his inventions were more useful, and some writers contend that he was the original inventor of the barometer. In 1615 lie became interested in the doctrines of the mys terious fraternity of the Rosicrncians, and wrote in Latin several elaborate vindications and ex positions of it. He also became a follower of Para eelsus, and attempted to formulate a system of philosophy based on his teachings, and setting forth the identity of physical and spiritual truth.
Ills writings attracted the attention of Kepler, Gassendi, and Mersenne, all of whom considered them of enough importance to demand refutation. Among his published works were: Apologia Com pendiaria, Praternitatem fie Rosen Cruse AbillellS (1616) ; Tractatus Apologeticus Integritatem eictatis de Rosen Cruse defendens (HU); Trac tatlIS Theologophilosophicus, etc. (1617). a trea tise in three parts. dedicated to the Rosicrucian Fraternity: rcritatis Proscenium (1621), a reply to Kepler; Philosophia Sacra et Fere Christiana ( I629); Sophia' CUM Muria Certainen, etc. (1629). and Summum Bonorum (1629). both re plies to Mersenne; Doctor Mudd's Answer 'unto M. Poster, or the Squcsing of Parson Foster's Sponge (1631 ) ; and Philosophia .Mosaic? (163S; English edition Moaa l 1 'h ilosoph y, 1658). Consult Waite, The Real History of the Rosiern cinns (London, 18S7).