John Brown
bap. 1735 d. 1788
Scottish physician. Son of a weaver. Attended medical lectures in Edinburgh. Acted as a private tutor, and from 1765, ran a boarding house. MD, St Andrews, 1779. Moved to London, 1786. Developed a system of treatment, known as Brunonianism, based on equilibrium between stimulus and excitability. He classified diseases as sthenic or asthenic, the former treated with bloodletting and purging, the latter with stimulants like opium and alcohol. Published Elementa medicinae (1780).
Source
ODNB.
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
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