Arbuthnot, John 1667-1735
Scottish physician and writer

Born in Inverbervie, Kincardineshire, he studied at Aberdeen, Oxford and St Andrews universities. He became a close friend of Jonathan Swift and all the literary celebrities of the day, as well as a physician-in-ordinary to Queen Anne (1705), and in London was much admired for his good humour, wit and erudition. In 1712 he published five satirical pamphlets against the Duke of Marlborough, called The History of John Bull, which was the origin of the popular image of John Bull as the typical Englishman. With Swift, Pope, John Gay and others he founded the Scriblerus Club, and he was the chief contributor to the Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus (1741). As a physician he was ahead of his time, writing An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments (1731) which stressed the value of suitable diet in the treatment of disease.

Bibliography: Lester Middleswarth Beattie, John Arbuthnot, mathematician and satirist (1935)