Among other notable men of the sixteenth century must be mentioned William Gilbert, M.D., a native of Colchester, who was born in 1540, and became senior fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1569. Having settled in London in 1573, his distinction was such that he became physician to Queen Elizabeth. But he was one of the first of the illustrious series of English physicians who employed their leisure in philosophical research. By his book, “On the Magnet, on Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet the Earth,” published in 1600, he had the good fortune to become the stimulator of Galileo himself to the study of magnetism, and that master described him as “great to a degree which might be envied.” Queen Elizabeth added to her titles to regard by conferring a pension on Gilbert, which aided him in prosecuting his experiments. Gilbert was in fact a great originator in science, having discovered the earth’s magnetism, and that to this is due both the direction of the magnetic needle north and south, and the variation and dipping of the needle. Thus he stands as the discoverer of the facts on which the science of magnetism was based. He is said to have been no less exact in chemistry, but unfortunately nothing of his is extant on that subject. Fuller says of him in the “Worthies”—“Mahomet’s tomb at Mecca is said strangely to hang up, attracted by some invisible loadstone; but the memory of this doctor will never fall to the ground, which his incomparable book, ‘De Magnete,’ will support to eternity.” Gilbert died in 1603, shortly after being appointed physician to James I.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Life of Thomas Linacre. By J. Noble Johnson, M.D. London, 1835.
[2] “Of Englishe Dogges:” 170 Strand, W.C.
[3] “Epidemics of the Middle Ages.” Sydenham Soc. Publ. London 1844.
[CHAPTER II.]
WILLIAM HARVEY AND THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
“Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost,
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
Being all descended to the labouring heart,
Who in the conflict that he holds with death,