Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kinglake, Robert

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KINGLAKE, ROBERT, M.D. (1765–1842), medical writer, born in 1765, graduated M.D. at Göttingen, and also studied at Edinburgh. After practising for some years as a surgeon at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, he removed to Chilton-upon-Polden, Somerset, and in 1802 to Taunton in the same county. At Taunton he frequently attended public meetings and made many eloquent speeches in support of the first Reform Bill. He died on 26 Sept. 1842 at West Monkton rectory, near Taunton, the residence of his son, the Rev. W. C. Kinglake (Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 556). He was a member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, the Physical Society of Göttingen, and other learned bodies.

Kinglake attracted considerable attention by his writings on gout, in which he advocated the cooling treatment. His first papers on the subject appeared in 1801 and 1803 in the ‘Medical and Physical Journal’ (Nos. 33 and 48). His views were combated by Wadd, W. Perry, John Hunt, J. King, and others. He replied to his antagonists in:

1. ‘A Dissertation on Gout’ (with appendix), 8vo, London, 1804.
2. ‘Reply to Mr. Edlin's two Cases of Gout,’ 8vo, Taunton, 1804.
3. ‘Additional Cases of Gout,’ 8vo, Taunton, 1807.
4. ‘Strictures on Mr. Parkinson's Observations on the Nature and Cure of Gout. … To which are added, Two Letters to Dr. Haygarth, containing Remarks on the Opinions he has lately published on Acute Rheumatism,’ 8vo, Taunton, 1807.

He also published some curious ‘Observations on the Medical Effects of Digitalis’ in the ‘Medical and Physical Journal’ for 1800, iii. 120. In Macnish's ‘Anatomy of Drunkenness,’ there is a short article by the author on Kinglake's experiment with ether.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit.]