PRINGLE, SIR JOHN, a distinguished physician, was the younger son of Sir John Pringle of Stichel, Roxburghshire, and was born on the 10th of April 1707. He was educated at home under a private tutor, and subsequently at St Andrews, at Edinburgh, and at Leyden, where he took the degree of Doctor of Physic. He at first settled in Edinburgh as a physician, but was soon after appointed assistant and successor to the professor of moral philosophy in the university. In 1742 he became physician to the Earl of Stair, then commanding the British army in Flanders; and in the same year he was constituted physician to the military hospital there. On the resignation of the Earl of Stair in 1745, Dr Pringle was appointed by the Duke of Cumberland physician-general to the forces in the Low Countries. He returned to Britain during the same year, and was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society on his passing through London. In 1747 and 1748 he attended the army abroad; and in 1749, having settled in London, he was made physician in ordinary to the Duke of Cumber-
land. He read a series of papers to the Royal Society, which are to be found in the Transactions, and which gained for him the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley. He married in 1752 a daughter of Dr Oliver, a physician in Bath; and in the same year he published his great work, entitled Observations on the Disorders of the Army in Camp and Garrison. In 1761 he was made physician to the household of the young Queen Charlotte, and physician in ordinary to the Queen in 1763. He was raised to the dignity of baronet of Great Britain in 1766, and was in 1768 made physician in ordinary to the King's mother, with a salary of £100 a year. After having acted for many years as a member of the council of the Royal Society, he was, in November 1772, elected president of that distinguished body. He received his last medical honour in 1774, as physician extraordinary to the King. After passing his seventieth year, he resigned his presidency, and resolved to spend the remainder of his days in his native country. Removing to Edinburgh in 1780, he was doomed to disappointment. He found the place much changed; the keen winds of the northern metropolis were too severe for him; and perhaps these evils were exaggerated by his increasing infirmities. He returned to London in September 1781, and died in the January following, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. There is a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, executed by Nollekens.