John Milner Fothergill

John Milner Fothergill, M.D. (11 April 1841 – 28 June 1888), was a British physician and medical writer.

Biography Fothergill, son of surgeon George Fothergill and his wife Sarah Milner, was born at Morland, Westmorland, on 11 April 1841, studied at the University of Edinburgh, and there graduated M.D. 1865. He afterwards studied at Vienna and Berlin and began professional work as a general practitioner at Morland.

Writings

Among Fothergill's works are The Heart and its Diseases, The Practitioner's Handbook of Treatment, The Physical Factor in Diagnosis, Vaso renal Change versus Bright's Disease, and his posthumous The Town Dweller: His Needs and His Wants. In his writings his expressions about those with whom he did not agree are violent, and he often made positive general assertions without sufficient grounds for them; but he sometimes admitted his errors, and struggled hard with numerous difficulties in life.

The Dictionary of National Biography records that "a distinguished lecturer on materia medica" has expressed the opinion that the most valuable of Fothergill's writings are An Essay on the Action of Digitalis, written in his early life, and The Antagonism of Therapeutic Agents, and what it teaches, published in 1878.

Selected publications

The Heart and its Diseases With Their Treatment (1879) A Presumptive Diagnosis of Gout (1881) Gout in its Protean Aspects (1883) The Physiological Factor in Diagnosis (1883) A Manual of Dietetics (1886) The Will Power: Its Range in Action (1888)