John Hill

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John Hill

John Hill (* around 1716, probably in Peterborough , Northamptonshire , † November 21, 1775 in London ) was an English pharmacist , doctor , botanist and writer . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Hill ".

Live and act

He was a trained pharmacist and had a shop in Westminster. He also had a medical degree from Edinburgh. He traveled widely in the UK in search of rare plants and built a reputation for his herbs made from natural plants.

Hill's first publication was a translation of Theophrast's History of Stones (1746). Since then he has written tirelessly, his publications include over 70 works. Including the extensive botanical work The vegetable system in 26 volumes with images on 1600 copper plates. For this he received the Wasa Order in Sweden in 1774. It was created at the suggestion of his patron Lord Bute and employed him from 1759 to 1775.

He was editor of the British Magazine (1746-1750) and wrote a daily column for the London Advertiser and Literary Gazette between 1751 and 1753 under the pseudonym The Inspector , making Hill the world's first newspaper columnist. In addition to scientific works, he also wrote novels and plays and contributed to a large extent on the supplement of Ephraim Chambers ' Cyclopaedia . In 1761 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

After his admission to the Royal Society failed, he began to anonymously polemicize against this and articles published in the Philosophical Transactions. He was also involved in literary disputes (for example with Henry Fielding and David Garrick ).

He wrote the first report (1761) on the connection between cancer and tobacco. He observed that on his patients (snuff and nasal cancer).

Taxonomic honor

After him the plant genus Hillia Jacq. from the family of the redness plants named (Rubiaceae).

Works (in selection)

  • The British Herbal , 1756-1757
  • The sleep of plants , 1757, 2nd edition 1762, German edition 1768
  • Flora Britanica , 1760
  • The Vegetable System… , 26 volumes, 1759–1775
  • Exotic Botany ... , 1759
  • Herbarium Britannicum… , 1769-1770
  • The construction of timber ... , 1770
  • Hortus Kewensis , 1768 and 1769
  • A decade of curios insects , London 1773 (artificial, curious creatures made from parts of different insects)

literature

  • A Short Account of the Life, Writings and Character of the late Sir John Hill , 1779 (mostly a descriptive catalog raisonné)
  • George Rousseau (Ed.): The Letters and Private Papers of Sir John Hill , New York: AMS Press, 1981.
  • George Rousseau: The Notorious Sir John Hill: The Man Destroyed by Ambition in the Era of Celebrity , Lehigh University Press, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: 2012

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donald Eugene Redmond, Tobacco and Cancer: The First Clinical Report, 1761, New England J. Medicine, Vol. 282, 1970, pp. 18-23
  2. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Hill, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hill, John Edward Christopher (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English pharmacist, doctor, botanist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1716
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Peterborough , Northamptonshire
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1775
Place of death London