John Anthony

Who was John Anthony?

John Anthony was an English physician.

Anthony was the son of Francis Anthony. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating as M.B. in 1613, M.D. in 1619. He was admitted as a licentiate of the College of Physicians, London, in 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. 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 is a small notebook, 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.