William Cockburn

William Cockburn was born in 1669. A Scottish physician, he is noted for his remedy for dysentery, which became a staple treatment in the British Navy for 40 years. Educated at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, where he was influenced by Archibald Pitcairne, Cockburn became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London in 1694 and served as a physician to the fleet. His notable works include 'Œconomia Corporis Animalis' (1695), which reflected mechanistic theories in medicine, and 'The Nature and Cure of Distempers of Seafaring People' (1696), based on his naval experience. Cockburn was also Jonathan Swift's doctor and later served as physician to Greenwich Hospital. He died in 1739 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.