Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martine, George (1702-1741)
MARTINE, GEORGE, the younger (1702–1741), physician, born in Scotland in 1702, was the son of George Martine the elder [q. v.] He was educated at St. Andrews, where, on the occasion of the Jacobite rebellion in 1715, he headed a riot of some students of the college, who rang the college bells on the day that the Pretender was proclaimed. He later studied medicine, first at Edinburgh (1720), and afterwards at Leyden (1721; Peacock, Index, p. 65), graduating M.D. there in 1725. He then returned to Scotland and settled in practice at St. Andrews. In October 1740 he accompanied Charles, eighth baron Cathcart, as physician to the forces on the American expedition. After the death of that nobleman (at Dominica, 20 Dec. 1740) he was attached as first physician to the expedition against Carthagena under Admiral Vernon, and while at that place contracted a bilious fever, of which he died in 1741 (Gent. Mag. 1741, p. 108).
Martine wrote: 1. ‘De Similibus Animalibus et de Animalibus Calore libri duo,’ 8vo, London, 1740. 2. ‘Essays Medical and Philosophical,’ 8vo, London, 1740, a collection of six essays, of which two, ‘Essays and Observations on the Construction and Graduation of Thermometers,’ and ‘An Essay towards a Natural and Experimental History of the Various Degrees of Heat in Bodies,’ were reissued together as a second edition, 12mo, Edinburgh, in 1772, and again in 1792. 3. ‘In B. Eustachii Tabulas Anatomicas Commentarii,’ published by Dr. Monro, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1755. He also contributed papers on medical subjects to the ‘Edinburgh Medical Essays’ and the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ According to a manuscript note on the title-page of the copy in the British Museum, the ‘Examination of the Newtonian Argument for the Emptiness of Space,’ 8vo, London, 1740, was also by him.
[Encyclop. Brit. 8th ed. vol. i., Dissertation 5, by Sir J. Leslie, p. 758 (note); Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; information kindly supplied by J. Maitland Anderson, esq., of St. Andrews.]