Nathan Alcock
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Nathan Alcock (September 1707−8 December 1779), was a noted English physician.
He was the second son of David Alcock of Runcorn, Cheshire, by his wife Mary Breck, and was born there. His father was a decendent of Bishop John Alcock, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge.[1] His parents taught him to read and write before placing him in a neighbouring school, which he soon left in disgust. After a period of idleness, he returned voluntarily to school. He agreed to qualify in medicine, on condition that his father gave him a small estate, worth about £50 a year, which would provide him with an income. His father agreed, and Alcock was placed in the care of his brother-in-law, Mr. Cowley, master of a public grammar school in Lancashire. He studied Greek and Latin, mathematics, etc. then moved to Edinburgh, and studied at the medical school. Here the fame of Boerhaave was so often echoed by the professors, who had been his pupils, that Alcock felt an irresistible desire to complete his medical studies under him. He therefore went to Leiden, where he was taught, not only by Boerhaave, but by his contemporaries, Gaubius, Albinus, and Gravesand. He concluded his studies there by taking the degree of M.D. in 1737; and the following year returned to England to settle.
He intended to lecture on anatomy and chemistry at Oxford, where the existing teaching of those subjects was limited; but he was obstructed by the regular lecturers, and was permitted only to read privately in a room furnished him by the indulgence of the principal and fellows of Jesus College. He showed uncommon talent and enthusiasm, which made him popular, and on November 17, 1741, he was incorporated M.A. of Jesus College, by decree of convocation; and about 1749 read his lectures in the museum, although without the appointment of the Regius professor. He proceeded B.M. in 1744, and D.M. in 1749. In 1744 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1754 was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, to which city he had many urgent invitations, as the most proper place for one whose medical fame was now completely established. But his health had been for some time affected by a gouty disorder, which debilitated both body and mind in such a degree, as to oblige him even to leave his favourite Oxford. Accordingly in 1759, he retired to his native place, Runcorn, where it was hoped that freedom from lecturing and extensive practice, with change of air and exercise, might enable him to resume his profession. On his arrival, however, at Runcorn, he insensibly fell into practice, which he did not think proper to decline, as it obliged him to frequent and short journeys, and change of air; and this restored, in some measure, his usual vigour and spirits. But after some years, his old disorder began to return at shorter intervals, and with more violence, accompanied with hypochondriacal affections and giddiness, which terminated in a paralytic stroke, of which he died Dec. 8, 1779, and was buried in Runcorn church. He was a man of great knowledge in his art, and had a familiar acquaintance with natural philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. In practice, he was uncommonly successful.
Politically he was a whig and theologically he was a follower of Bishop Hoadly[2]. As an author, we know not of any thing he published during his life; but he had sketched some treatises on physical and philosophical subjects, with a view to publication; and in 1759, just before leaving Oxford, he began to print a treatise "On the Effects of Climate on the constitutions and manners of men," some sheets of which remained for many years in the possession of his printer, Mr. Jackson, but were probably removed by him before his death. He had also begun to prepare a work "on Air," as a sequel to the former; and a few weeks before his death, he informed his biographer of his intention to publish a collection of "Formulae," with notes and cases. After his death his brother Thomas, vicar of Runcorn, wrote his biography, entitled Some Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Nathan Alcock.[3] Thomas also edited and published Nathan's The Rise of Mahomet, Accounted for on Natural and Civil Principles in 1796[4].
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[edit] Sources
- Chalmers, Alexander. The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time / by Alexander Chalmers. new ed. rev. and enl. London: Nichols [et al.], 1812-1817. 32 vols.
- Nickson, Charles History of Runcorn, Mackie & Co., London and Warrington, 1887.
- Starkey, H. F. Old Runcorn, Halton Borough Council, 1990.
- Moore, Norman, ‘Alcock, Nathan (1709–1779)’, rev. Caroline Overy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], accessed 1 March 2007
