RADCLIFFE, Dr John, an English physician of great eminence in his time, was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1650. He was educated at Oxford, and enrolled himself as a student of physic; but it was remarked that he recommended himself much more by his ready wit and
vivacity than by any extraordinary acquisitions in learning. He began to practise at Oxford in 1675, but never paid any regard to established rules, which he censured whenever he thought fit with great freedom and acrimony; and as this drew all the old practitioners upon him, he lived in a state of continual hostility. He died in 1714; and if he never attempted to write anything himself, he has perpetuated his memory by founding a fine library at Oxford, named after its founder the "Radcliffe Library," and which cost the sum of £40,000. (See LIBRARIES.)