Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maynwaring, Everard
MAYNWARING, EVERARD, M.D. (1628–1699?), medical writer, born in 1628, was son of Kenelm Maynwaring, rector of Gravesend, Kent, and was educated at the grammar school there. On 21 June 1645 he was admitted a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, and proceeded M.B. on 1 July 1652 (Reg. of Admissions, ed. Mayor, pt. i. p. 71). He afterwards visited America, where he formed a lasting friendship with Christopher Lawrence, M.D. of Dublin. At Lawrence's invitation he went to Dublin in 1655 and was there created M.D. on 17 Aug. By September 1663 he had set up in business as ‘doctor in physick and hermetick phylosophy’ next to the Blue Boar on Ludgate Hill. He had a profound belief in specifics of his own compounding, and considered tobacco smoking productive of diseases such as scurvy, but he was in advance of his time in condemning the use of violent purgatives and indiscriminate bloodletting. During the plague year of 1665 he was entrusted by the society for employing the poor in Middlesex with the care of their pest-house, and he boasted that of eighty patients committed to him he returned fifty-six safe and sound. In 1666 he removed to a house in Clerkenwell Close, and is subsequently found residing in Fetter Lane (1671), Wine Office Court, Fleet Street (November 1678), Old Southampton Buildings by Gray's Inn (January 1690), and lastly in Gray's Inn Lane by King's Gate (1693). His contemporaries regarded him as an empiric, and one of the last acts of his life was to circulate copies of his diplomas at the end of his ‘Ignota Febris’ (1698). Latterly he fell into poverty, the public having lost faith in the efficacy of his ‘catholick medicine.’
Maynwaring wrote: 1. ‘Tutela Sanitatis, sive Vita protracta: the Protection of Long Life. … With a Treatise of issues. Whereunto is annexed, Bellum necessarium, sive Medicus belligerans: the … Physitian reviewing his Armory,’ 8vo, London, 1664. 2. ‘Morbus Polyrhizos et Polymorphæus: a Treatise of the Scurvy (Antiscorbutick Medecines, etc.),’ 2 pts. 8vo, London, 1664–1665; 2nd edit. 1666, 3rd edit. 1669, 4th edit. 1672. 3. ‘Solamen Ægrorum, sive Ternarius Medicamentorum chymicorum. Ad omnes fere morbos curandum … remedia,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1665. 4. ‘Nova medendi Ratio: a short … Method of Curing. Exemplified by a ternary of Radical Medicines universal in their respective classes,’ 4to, London, 1666. 5. ‘Tabidorum Narratio: a Treatise of Consumptions,’ 8vo, London, 1667; 2nd edit. 1668. 6. ‘Useful Discoveries and Practical Observations in some late remarkable Cures of the Scurvy,’ 8vo, London, 1668. 7. ‘Medicus Absolutus … The Compleat Physitian, qualified and dignified. The Rise and Progress of Physick … illustrated,’ 8vo, London, 1668. 8. ‘Vita sana & longa. The Preservation of Health and Prolongation of Life proposed and proved, &c. (The Pharmacopœian Physician's Repository, &c.),’ 2 pts. 8vo, London, 1669. 9. ‘Praxis Medicorum Antiqua & Nova: the Ancient and Modern Practice of Physick examined,’ &c., 4to, London, 1671, in which he attacks many of the fellows of the College of Physicians. 10. ‘Historia et Mysterium Luis Venereæ,’ 8vo, Frankfort and Hamburg, 1675, also in English as ‘The Mystery of the Venereal Lues.’ 11. ‘Pains afflicting Humane Bodies, their … causes. … With a Tract of issues and setons,’ 8vo, London, 1682. 12. ‘The Method and Means of Enjoying Health, Vigour, and Long Life,’ 8vo, London, 1683. 13. ‘The Test and Tryal of Medicines, and the different Modes of Medical Practice,’ 4to, London, 1690. 14. ‘Monarchia Microcosmi: the origin, vicissitudes, and period of vital government in man, for a farther discovery of diseases incident to Human Nature (Inquiries into the General Catalogue of Diseases. The Practice of Physick reformed. A brief Account of the Catholick Medicine),’ 4 pts. 8vo, London, 1692. 15. ‘The Mystery of Curing comprehensively: explained and confirmed by exemplar of the Catholic Medicine,’ 4to, London, 1693; 2nd edit. 1694. 16. ‘Ignota Febris. Fevers mistaken in notion & practice,’ 8vo, London, 1698.
Maynwaring's portrait by R. White, dated 1668, is prefixed to his ‘Medicus Absolutus,’ ‘Vita Sana,’ ‘Pains,’ and the fourth impression of ‘Morbus Polyrhizos.’
[Maynwaring's Works; Granger's Biog. Hist. of Engl. 2nd edit. iv. 19–20; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ii. 506, iii. 198; Pinks's Clerkenwell (Wood).]