Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paxton, Peter
PAXTON, PETER (d. 1711), medical writer and pamphleteer, was admitted to the degree of M.D. per literas regias, at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1687. His name does not appear in the admission-book of Pembroke College, and he may have come from Oxford for an ad eundem degree. In 1704 he lived in Beaufort Street, London. His last work, ‘Specimen Physico-medicum,’ is posthumous, and the bookseller speaks of the author as recently dead. Paxton wrote: 1. ‘An Essay concerning the Body of Man, wherein its Changes or Diseases are consider'd and the Operations of Medicines observed,’ London, 1701. This work, which traces all diseases to the fluids in the body, was reviewed in ‘History of the Works of the Learned’ for March 1701 (iii. 177–83). 2. ‘The Grounds of Physick examined, and the Reasons of the Abuses prov'd to be different from what have been usually assign'd; in answer to a Letter from the ingenious Dr. G.,’ London, 1703, 8vo; an attack on apothecaries. 3. ‘A Discourse concerning the Nature, Advantage, and Improvement of Trade, with some Considerations why the charges of the Poor do and will increase,’ London, 1704 (a sensible and remarkable exposition of laissez faire). 4. ‘A Scheme for Union between England and Scotland, with Advantages to both Kingdoms,’ London, 1705. 5. ‘A Directory Physico-medical, composed for the Use and Benefit of all such as design to study and practise the Art of Physick, wherein proper Methods and Rules are prescrib'd for the better understanding of that Art, and Catalogues of such Authors exhibited as are necessary to be consulted by all young Students,’ London, 1707. 6. ‘Specimen Physico-medicum de corpore humano et ejus morbis: or an Essay concerning the Knowledge and Cure of most Diseases affecting Human Bodies, to which is annex'd a short Account of Salivation and the use of Mercury, with a copious Index,’ London, 1711, posthumous; an expansion by Paxton himself of No. 1, and written in Latin, ‘but I find,’ says the printer to the reader, ‘that he preferred to have it turned into English, and I have done so’ (History of the Works of the Learned, xiii. 97).
[Paxton's Tracts in the Brit. Mus.; Luard's Grad. Cantabr.; information kindly supplied by the Rev. C. E. Searle, formerly master of Pembroke.]