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James Jurin

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James Jurin
FRSFRCP
Bornbaptised 15 December 1684
London, England
Died29 March 1750(1750-03-29)(aged 65)
London, England
NationalityEnglish/British
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
Known forJurin's law
Iatrophysics
Scientific career
FieldsScientist and physician
InstitutionsRoyal Grammar School, Newcastle
Guy's Hospital
Academic advisorsRoger Cotes
William Whiston
Richard Bentley
Notable studentsMordecai Cary

James JurinFRSFRCP(baptised 15 December 1684 – 29 March 1750) was an English scientist and physician, particularly remembered for his early work incapillary actionand in theepidemiologyofsmallpox vaccination.He was a staunch proponent of the work of SirIsaac Newtonand often used his gift for satire in Newton's defence.

Early life

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Jurin's father was John Jurin, a Londondyer.His mother was John's wife Dorcas Cotesworth. He was educated atChrist's Hospitalwhere he won a scholarship toTrinity College, Cambridge,graduating BA in 1705, and being electedfellowthe following year.[1]Becoming theprotégéof the master of Trinity,Richard Bentley,Jurin became tutor toMordecai Cary,travelling with him internationally. Jurin achieved hisMAin 1709 and becameheadteacherof theRoyal Grammar School, Newcastle.Jurin became a frequent public speaker on mathematics and the work of SirIsaac Newton.[2]Jurin returned toCambridgein 1715 to study medicine, becoming MD the following year and establishing a successful practice in London andTunbridge Wells.In 1722, he lectured onanatomyto theCompany of Surgeons.[2]From 1725 to 1732 he worked as a physician atGuy's Hospital,thereafter becoming a governor of the hospital. In 1724, Jurin married Mary Douglas,néeHarris (died 1784), wealthy widow ofOley Douglas,and they had five daughters and one son.[2]

Medical practice

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Jurin rose to a position of some eminence in medicine and science. He is described as "witty, satirical, ambitious, and professionally and financially successful".[2]He was a powerful advocate of the smallpoxvariolation,a procedure involving scratching pus or material from the scabs of smallpox sores into the veins of a non-immune person to create a mild case of the disease that would confer lifelong immunity. Jurin used an early statistical study to compare therisksof variolation with those from contracting the disease naturally. He studiedmortalitystatistics for London for the fourteen years prior to 1723 and concluded that one fourteenth of the population had died from smallpox, up to 40 percent during epidemics.[3]He advertised in theProceedings of the Royal Societyfor readers to report their personal and professional experiences and received over sixty replies, most from other physicians or surgeons,[2]but most significantly fromThomas Nettletonwho reported his own calculations from his experience in several communities inYorkshire.[3]Jurin's analysis concluded that theprobabilityof death from variolation was roughly 1 in 50, while the probability of death from naturally contracted smallpox was 1 in 7 or 8. He published his results in a series of annual pamphlets,An Account of the Success of Inoculating the Small-Pox(1723–1727). His work was very influential in establishing smallpox variolation in England some seventy years before Edward Jenner introduced the more effective method of "vaccination" using cowpox material in place of human smallpox.[2]Jurin claimed that he had given "plain Proof from Experience and Matters of Fact that the Small Pox procured by inoculation... is far less Dangerous than the same Distemper has been for many Years in the Natural Way."[3]

Newtonian scientist

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Jurin was an "ardent Newtonian". He had studied underRoger CotesandWilliam Whistonat Cambridge but only came to know Newton at theRoyal Society,where Jurin was Secretary towards the end of Newton'sPresidency.Always advocating the Newtonian position, he was a keen controversialist, corresponding withVoltaire,Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonandÉmilie du Châtelet.He took an active part in defending Newton and attackingGottfried Leibnizinthe debate overvis viva,[2]opposing the views ofBenjamin RobinsandPietro Antonio Michelotti.[4]Jurin fostered international observational research into weather andmeteorology,[2]and studied the phenomenon ofcapillary action,deriving the rule that the height of liquid in a capillary tube is inversely proportional to thediameterof the tube at the surface of the liquid only, a law sometimes known asJurin's law.[5][6]He published onhydrodynamicsand was critical ofJeanandDaniel Bernoulli's work.[2]Jurin worked oniatrophysics,investigating the mechanical behaviour of theheartand thespecific gravityof blood, debating the heart withJames KeillandJean-Baptiste de Sénac.He wrote an addendum (1738)On Distinct and Indistinct VisiontoRobert Smith'sOpticksand engaged in a lively epistollary exchange with Robins on the topic.[2]With help fromEdmond Halleyand Roger Cotes, Jurin published a revised and translatedGeographia Generalis,based on Newton's editions of the work.[7]This was partly to counter theCartesianismmovement at Cambridge who had taken to using the text, and to advanceNewtonianism.[7]

Controversy with Berkeley

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In 1734,George BerkeleypublishedThe Analystin which he attacked thecalculusas flawed and ultimately absurd. Between 1734 and 1742, Jurin published over three hundred pages in robust rebuttal of Berkeley, many of them employing his favourite weapon of satire. The publications, some under the pseudonymPhilalethes Cantabrigensis,includedGeometry no Friend to Infidelity,orA Defence of Sir Isaac Newton & the British Mathematicians(1734)[8]andThe Minute Mathematician,orThe Freethinker no Just Thinker(1735).[9]Berkeley quickly withdrew from the debate and Jurin turned his attentions on Robins andHenry Pemberton.[2]The controversy was re-ignited years later when Jurin wrote negatively in response to Berkeley's promotion of tar-water.[10]

Later life

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Jurin attendedRobert Walpoleas his physician and prescribedlixivium lithontripticumfor Walpole'sbladder stones.Jurin had used a similar prescription for himself but Walpole died and Jurin was blamed for his death, again necessitating an energetic pamphlet campaign to defend his practice.[2]Jurin died in London and was buried atSt James Garlickhythe.Hisestatewas valued at £35,000 (£4.9 million at 2003 prices[11]).[2]

His bust, byPeter Scheemakersstands inTrinity College, Cambridge.[12]

Offices and honours

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Royal Society Royal College of Physicians
Fellow, (1717) Candidate, (1718)
Secretary, (1721–1727) Fellow, (1719)
Editor of volumes 31–34 of thePhilosophical Transactions Censorfive times during the period 1724–1750
Consilarius,withRichard Mead,(1749)
President, (1750)

References

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  1. ^"Jurin, James (JRN702J)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.Retrieved21 October2019.
  2. ^abcdefghijklmRusnock 2004.
  3. ^abcPorter 1997,p. 275.
  4. ^Munk 1878,pp. 64–67.
  5. ^"Jurin rule".McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms.McGraw-Hill on Answers.com. 2003.Retrieved5 September2007.
  6. ^Jurin 1719.
  7. ^abWarntz, William (1989)."Newton, the Newtonians, and the Geographia Generalis Varenii".Annals of the Association of American Geographers.79(2): 165–191.doi:10.2307/621272.JSTOR621272.Retrieved9 June2024.
  8. ^"Geometry No Friend to Infidelity".The 'Analyst' Controversy.D. R. Wilkins, Trinity College Dublin.Retrieved6 September2007.
  9. ^"The Minute Mathematician".The 'Analyst' Controversy.D. R. Wilkins, Trinity College Dublin.Retrieved6 September2007.
  10. ^Jurin, James (1744).A Letter to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Cloyne, Occasion'd by His Lordship's Treatise on the Virtues of Tar-Water.London: Jacob Robinson.
  11. ^O'Donoghue, J.; et al. (2004)."Consumer Price Inflation since 1750".Economic Trends.604:38–46, March.
  12. ^Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis

Works cited

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See also

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