would be formed in the process of distillation, and also to the good canary wine in which it was ultimately dissolved. In Anthony's last work he relates the history of numerous cures which he says he performed on various distinguished persons. This brought upon him a violent attack from a Dr. Cotta, one of whose patients was spoken of. In spite of these attacks the potable gold became a very popular remedy.
The popular belief in the virtues of gold, though based on fanciful grounds, was too deeply rooted to be shaken, and even Robert Boyle, in 1685, says that, though prejudiced against ‘aurum potabiles and the like ’ (sic), he found a certain tincture of gold which had marvellous effects (Boyle on Specifick Medicines, London, 1685). It is now known that preparations of gold have some, though not very potent, medicinal properties; but certainly not the marvellous powers attributed to preparations which, after all, did not contain it.
[Goodall's Royal College of Physicians, London, and an Historical Account of the College's Proceedings against Empiricks, &c., London, 1684; Biogr. Britannica, 1747; Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, s. v. ‘Gwinne,’ i. 513, ed. 1721; Cotta's Antiapology, showing the Counterfeitness of Dr. Anthony's Aurum Potabile, Oxford, 1623.]
ANTHONY, JOHN (1585–1655), physician, was the son of Francis Anthony. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge; graduated M.B. 1613, M.D. 1619; was admitted licentiate of College of Physicians, London, 1625. According to the ‘Biographia Britannica’ he gained a handsome income from the sale of his father's ‘Aurum Potabile;’ according to Dr. Munk, he succeeded to the more reputable part of his father's practice. A John Anthony served in the civil war, on the parliamentary side, as surgeon to Colonel Sandys (Mercurius Rusticus, ed. 1685, p. 125). He was the author of a devotional work, ‘The Comfort of the Soul, laid down by way of Meditation … by John Anthony, Dr. of Physick, London, 1654, 4to.’ The same work in the same impression was afterwards issued with a new title-page as ‘Lucas Redivivus, or the Gospell Physitian, by J. A., Dr. of Physick, London, 1656, 4to.’ In the British Museum (Sloane MS. 489) is a small note-book, bound with the arms of Charles I, entitled ‘Joannis Antonii Praxis Medica,’ containing notes in Latin on various diseases and their treatment. In it Paracelsus is quoted as the authority for a certain prescription. The notes are evidently for private use, not intended for publication, but clearly belong to this John Anthony.
[Biog. Britannica; Munk's Roll of College of Physicians, 2nd ed. i. 185.]
ANTON, ROBERT (fl. 1616), poetical writer, supposed to have been a son of George Anton, recorder of Lincoln, graduated B.A. of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1609-10. He is the author of a quarto volume of satires, published in 1616, under the title of the ‘Philosophers Satyrs.’ A second edition appeared in the following year, bearing the title ‘Vices Anatomic Scourged and Corrected in New Satires.’ There are seven pieces, each being named after one of the seven planets (an idea borrowed from Ariosto). The chief interest of the book, which is written in curiously strained language, lies in the references to Beaumont, Spenser, Jonson, Chapman, and Daniel. One Shakespearian allusion occurs—‘What Comedies of errors swell the stage,’ &c. There is preserved in Sir Charles Isham's library at Lamport Hall a unique prose tract of Anton's, in black letter, entitled ‘Moriomachia, imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, 1613,’ 4to.
[Corser's Collectanea; Hazlitt's Second Series of Bibliographical Collections; Cooper's New Biographical Dictionary.]
ANTRIM, Earl of. [See MacDonnell.]
APLIN, PETER (1753–1817), admiral, was midshipman of the Roebuck on 9 Oct. 1776, when her first lieutenant was killed in action with the batteries at the mouth of North River [see Parker, Hyde (2)], and was promoted to the vacancy caused by his death. Aplin's further promotion was rapid, and on 23 Nov. 1780 he was appointed captain of the Fowey frigate of 24 guns. He was still in her at Yorktown in the following October, when she was destroyed by the enemy's red-hot shot; after which he served, with his crew, on shore under the orders of Lord Cornwallis. He had no further service at sea until, in 1797, he was appointed to the Hector of 74 guns, which, after the battle off Cape St. Vincent, reinforced the fleet off Cadiz. He continued in this command for nearly two years, when he was promoted to flag rank. As an admiral, however, he never served, although, he passed through the several gradations by seniority, and attained the high rank of admiral of the white before his death, which occurred on 17 April 1817.
[Gent. Mag. lxxxvii. 89.]
APPLETON, CHARLES EDWARD CUTTS BIRCH (1841–1879), man of letters, was the second son of the Rev. Robert Apple-
