William Atkins

Portrait of William Atkins attached to his Discourse.

William Atkins ( 1694) was an English quack of the Restoration period. He gained some fame and wealth for his supposed cure of gout, the subject of his only published work: A Discourse Shewing the Nature of the Gout (1694).

Life Atkins originally lived on Old Bailey, According to the title page, this book was printed for Thomas Fabian, to be sold at the Bible and Three Crowns, a bookshop at the lower end of Cheapside, but also up for sale at Atkins' house alongside his medicines. The advertisement to the work also noted, for any prospective clients, that "they may hear of me at any Bookseller's or Coffee-House near the Exchange, by the name of the Gout-Doctor". Atkins apparently printed his own likeness on flyers for his medical services, depicted as surrounded by instruments and souvenirs of his medical profession, including rotten teeth, pills, and gallipots.