RADCLIFFE, DR JOHN, an English phyfician of great eminence in his time, born at Wakefield in Yorkfhire in 1650. He was educated at Oxford, and enrolled himfelf upon the phyfical line; but it was remarkable that he recommended himfelf more by his ready wit and vivacity, than by any extraordinary acquiritions in learning. He began to praftice at Oxford in 1675; but never paid any regard to eftablifhed rules, which he cenfured whenever he thought fit, with great freedom and acrimony; and as this drew all the old praftitioners upon him, he lived in a continual ftate of hoftility with them. Nevertheless, his reputation increafed with his experience; fo that, before he had been two years in bufinefs, his praftice was very extenfive among perfons of high rank. In 1684 he removed to
London, and settled in Bow-street, Covent Garden, where in less than a year he got into great employment. In 1687 the princess Anne of Denmark made him her physician: yet when her husband and she joined the prince of Orange, Radcliffe, either not choosing to declare himself, or unwilling to favour the measures then in agitation, excused himself from attending them, on the plea of the multitude of his patients. Nevertheless, he was often sent for to King William and other great personages, though he did not incline to be a courtier. He incurred some censure for his treatment of Queen Mary, who died of the smallpox; and soon after lost his place about the princess Anne, by his attachment to his bottle. He also totally lost the favour of King William by his uncourtly freedom; for, in 1699, when the king showed him his swollen ankles, while the rest of his body was emaciated, and asked him what he thought of them? "Why truly I would not have your majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms," replied Radcliffe. He continued increasing in business and insolence as long as he lived, continually at war with his brethren the physicians; who considered him in no other light than that of an active ingenious empiric, whom constant practice had at length brought to some degree of skill in his profession. He died in 1714; and if he never attempted to write any thing himself, has perpetuated his memory by founding a fine library at Oxford, to preserve the writings of other men.