Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dent, Peter
DENT, PETER (d. 1689), naturalist, son of Peter Dent of Cambridge, became a member of Trinity College in that university, but obtained the degree of M.B. from Lambeth on 9 March 1677–8 (Gent. Mag. ccxvi. 636; Tanner MS. 41, f. 90). He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1680 (Addit. MS. 5884, f. 11 b). He practised as a physician and apothecary at Cambridge, and, dying in 1689, was buried on 5 Oct. at St. Sepulchre's in that town. Ray says he was much obliged to Dent for many observations in his great work, ‘Historia Plantarum;’ and in the preface to Willoughby's ‘Historia Piscium’ (1686) Ray remarks: ‘Dominus Petrus Dent, &c., observationes nonnullas de Piscibus cartilagineis planis, præcipue de Utero et Ovis Raiarum, et elegantes tum ipsorum Piscium, tum Partium eorundem internarum Delineationes communicavit.’
[Addit. MS. 5867, f. 24; Cooper's MS. Collections for Athenæ Cantab.; Hackman's Cat. of Tanner MSS. p. 154.]