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CHEYNE, GEORGE, a physician
of considerable eminence, was born in 1671, of a good family,
though neither the name of his father, nor the place of his birth, has
been commemorated. He received a regular and liberal education, and was at
first designed by his parents for the church. But though his mind was
naturally of a studious and abstracted turn, he afterwards preferred the
medical profession. He studied physic at Edinburgh, under the celebrated
Dr Pitcairne, to whom he became much attached, and whom he styles, in the
preface to his Essay on Health and Long Life, "his great master and
generous friend." He has informed us that he was, at this period of
his life, addicted to gay studies and indulgences; but that he was soon
apprised by the shaking of his hands and a disposition to be easily
ruffled on a surprise, of the unfitness of his constitution for
intemperance. When about thirty years of age, having taken the degree of
M. D. he repaired to London, and there commenced practice as a physician.
It affords a curious picture of the times, that he found it necessary to
become a frequenter of taverns in order to get into practice. His cheerful
temper, and vivacious conversation soon rendered him the favourite of the
other gentlemen who frequented those places; he "grew daily," he
says, "in bulk, and in friendship with those gay men, and their
acquaintances." But this could not last long. He soon became
excessively fat, short-winded, and lethargic, and being further admonished
by an attack of vertigo, nearly approaching to apoplexy, he was obliged to
abandon that style of life altogether.
Previous to this period, he
had written, at the request of Dr Pitcairne, "A new Theory of Acute
and Slow continued Fevers; wherein, besides the appearances of such, and
the manner of their cure, occasionally, the structure of the glands, and
the Manner and Laws of Secretion, the operation of purgative, vomitive,
and mercurial medicines, are mechanically explained." Dr Pitcairne
had wished to write such a work himself; in order to overthrow the
opposing theories of some of his brethren, but was prevented from doing so
by his constant application to practice, and therefore desired Dr Cheyne
to undertake the task in his place. The work was hastily produced, and,
though it was favourably received, the author never thought it worthy of
receiving his name. The next work of Dr Cheyne was entitled, "Fluxionum
Methodus Inversa: sive quantitatum fluentium leges generales." Like
many men who are eminent in one professional branch of knowledge, he was
anxious to display an amateur’s accomplishment in another; and hence
this attempt at throwing light upon the mysteries of abstract geometry. In
later life, he had the candour to say of this work, that it was
"brought forth in ambition, and brought up in vanity. There are some
things in it," he adds, "tolerable for the time, when the
methods of quadratures, the mensuration of ratios, and transformation of
curves into those of other kinds, were not advanced to such heights as
they now are. But it is a long time since I was forced to forego these
barren and airy studies for more substantial and commodious speculations:
indulging and rioting in these so exquisitely bewitching contemplations
being only proper to public professors, and those who are under no outward
necessities. Besides, to own a great but grievous truth, though
they may quicken and sharpen the invention, strengthen and extend the
imagination, improve and refine the reasoning faculty, and are of use both
in the necessary and luxurious refinement of mechanical arts; yet, having
no tendency to rectify the will, sweeten the temper, or mend the heart,
they often leave a stiffness, positiveness, and sufficiency on weak minds,
much more pernicious to society, and the interests of the great ends of
our being, than all the advantages they can bring can recompense."
On finding his health so
materially affected by intemperance, Dr Cheyne left off eating suppers
entirely, and in his other meals took only a little animal food, and
hardly any fermented liquor. He informs us, that being now confined to the
penitential solitude of a sick chamber, he had occasion to experience the
faithlessness of all friendship formed on the principle of a common taste
for sensual indulgences. His boon companions, even those who had been
particularly obliged to him, left him like the stricken deer, to bewail
his own unhappy condition; "so that at last," says the doctor,
"I was forced into the country alone, reduced to the state of
cardinal Wolsey, when he said, ‘if he had served his Maker as faithfully
and warmly as he had his prince, he would not have forsaken him in that
extremity;’ and so will every one find, when union and friendship is not
founded on solid virtue; and in conformity to the divine order, but in
mere jollity. Being thus forsaken, dejected, melancholy, and confined in
my country retirement, my body melting away like a snow-ball in summer, I
had a long season for reflection. Having had a regular and liberal
education, with the instruction and example of pious parents, I had
preserved a firm persuasion of the great fundamental principles of all
virtue and morality; namely, pure religion; in which I had been confirmed
from abstract reasonings, as well as from the best natural philosophy.
This led me to consider who of all my acquaintance I could wish to
resemble most, or which of them had received and lived up to the plain
truths and precepts contained in the gospels, or particularly our Saviour’s
sermon on the Mount. I then fixed on one, a worthy and learned clergyman;
and as in studying mathematics, and in turning over Sir Isaac Newton’s
philosophical works, I always marked down the authors and writings mostly
used and recomnmended, so in this case I purchased and studied such
spiritual and dogmatic authors as I knew this venerable man approved. Thus
I collected a set of religious books of the first ages since Christianity,
with a few of the most spiritual of the moderns, which have been my study,
delight, and entertainment ever since, and on these I have formed my
ideas, principles, and sentiments, which have never been shaken." Dr
Cheyne further informs us, that this reformation in his religious
temperament, contributed greatly to forward the cure of his nervous
diseases, which he perfected by a visit to Bath.
On his return to London, Dr
Cheyne commenced living upon a milk diet, which he found remarkably
salutary; but after a long course of years he gradually relapsed into a
freer style of living, and though he never indulged to the least excess
either in eating or drinking, his fat returned upon him, and at last he
weighed upwards of thirty-two stone. Being again admonished of the evil
effects of his indulgences, he all at once reverted to his milk diet, and
in time regained his usual health. From this moderate style of living he
never again departed; and accordingly he enjoyed tolerable health till
1743, when, on the 12th of April, he died at Bath, in full possession of
his faculties to the last, and without experiencing a pang.
Besides the works already
mentioned, Dr Cheyne published, in 1705, his "Philosophical
Principles of Natural Religion, containing the Elements of Natural
Philosophy, and the Proofs for Natural Religion, arising from them."
This work he dedicated to the earl of Roxburgh, at whose request, and for
whose instruction, it appears to have been originally written, he also
published "An Essay on the True Nature and Due Method of treating the
Gout, together with an account of the Nature and Quality of the Bath
Waters," which passed through at least five editions, and was
followed by "An Essay on health and Long Life." The latter work
he afterwards published in Latin. In 1733 appeared his "English
Malady, or a Treatise on Nervous Diseases of all kinds, as Spleen, Vapours,
Lowness of Spirits, Hypochondriacal and hysterical Distempers." From
the preface of this work we have derived the particulars here related
respecting his own health through life. In 1740, Dr Cheyne published
"An Essay on Regimen." His last work, which he dedicated to his
friend and correspondent the earl of Chesterfield, was entitled, "The
Natural Method of Curing the Diseases of the human Body, and the Disorders
of the Mind attending on the Body."
Dr Cheyne was eminently the
physician of nervous distempers. He wrote chiefly to the studious, the
voluptuous, and those who inherited bad constitutions from their parents.
As a physician, he seemed to proceed, like Hippocrates of old, and
Sydenham of modern times, upon a few great perceptible truths. He s to be
ranked among those who have accounted for the operations of medicine, and
the morbid alterations which take place upon the human body, upon
mechanical principles. A spirit of piety and benevolence, and an ardent
zeal for the interests of virtue, run through all his writings. It was
commonly said, that most of the physicians of his own day were secretly or
openly tainted with irreligion; but from this charge Dr Cheyne rendered
himself an illustrious exception. He was as much the enemy of irreligion
in general society, as of intemperance in his professional character. Some
of the metaphysical notions which he has introduced in his writings, may
be thought fanciful and ill-grounded; but there is an agreeable vivacity
in his productions, together with much candour and frankness, and, in
general, great perspicuity. Of his relatives, his half-brother, the Rev.
William Cheyne, vicar of Weston, near Bath, died September 6, 1767, and
his son, the Rev. John Cheyne, vicar of Brigstock, Northamptonshire died
August 11, 1768.
[Note: According to "The
Scottish Nation", Dr. George Cheyne was born at Auchencreive, Methlick,
Aberdeenshire in 1671. This date is based solely on his age at death in
1743 (72). The only Cheyne family living at Auchencreive is headed by
James Cheyne who was one of the commissioners appointed for the Poll Tax
record of 1696. James had a son George baptized on 24 Feb 1673 (Methlick
OPR). I believe this to be Dr. George Cheyne's baptism. Other supporting
evidence is the fact that George had half brothers. James Cheyne's first
wife, Marie Maitland, was buried at Methlick on 8 Jun 1692. In the Poll
Tax record of 1696, James does not mention his wife. His second wife,
Margaret Anderson, was buried on 22 Jul 1707. Amongst her children were
John (C.30 Sep 1697) and William (C.20 Jan 1704) Cheynes. As an aside
there is probably a family connection to Charles Maitland, the small-pox
vaccination pioneer (not on your list). Charles and George may have been
cousins.
Bob Fyvie, Accredited
Genealogist] |
