Richard Brookes (fl. 1721 – 1763) was an English physician and author of compilations and translations on medicine, surgery, natural history, and geography, most of which went through several editions.
Life
editHe was at one time a rural practitioner in Surrey (Dedication of Art of Angling). At some time previous to 1762 he had travelled both in America and Africa (Preface to Natural History).
Works
editHis General Gazetteer (1762) filled a gap in the market and went through many editions, up to that of Alexander George Findlay in the later nineteenth century.[1] Other works were:
- History of the most remarkable Pestilential Distempers, 1721.
- The Art of Angling, Rock and Sea Fishing, with the Natural History of River, Pond, and Sea Fish, 1740.
- The General Practice of Physic, 1751.
- An Introduction to Physic and Surgery, 2 vols. 1754.
- A System of Natural History, 6 vols. 1763. Includes Volume 5, known in the early history of palaeontology.[2] In this volume Brookes noted a bone, known previously to Robert Plot, and now identified as coming from Megalosaurus;[3] found in a quarry at Cornwell, Oxfordshire, it is known as the "Cornwell bone".[4] Brookes named the creature from which it came Scrotum Humanum in 1763, referring to anatomical similarities with the human scrotum.[5]
His main translations are The Natural History of Chocolate (1724), from the French Histoire Naturelle du Cacao et du Sucre (1719) of Quelus (de Chélus), 2nd ed. 1730; and Jean-Baptiste Du Halde's History of China, 4 vols. 1736.
References
edit- ^ Richard Brookes (1786), The General Gazetteer (6th ed.), London: J.F.C. Rivington, OL 7130197M
- ^ The Natural History of Waters, Earths, Stones, Fossils and Minerals, with their Virtues, Properties, and Medicinal Uses, to which is added, the Method in which Linnaeus has treated these subjects. London: J. Newbery.
- ^ "1763 Dinosaur bone misidentified scrotum". www.sciencephoto.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ "Intro". palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 June 2001. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Brookes's analysis compared to Plot
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Brookes, Richard". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
Further reading
edit- Richard Brookes (1820), General Gazetteer (17th ed.), London: F.C. and J. Rivington
External links
edit- Works by Richard Brookes at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Richard Brookes at the Internet Archive
- Works by Richard Brookes at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)