(Dr John), was about the year 1730 born at Leeds in Yorkshire, and educated at the grammar school in that town. His father, who was a merchant, and a native of Holland, intended him for trade; and with that view sent him at an early age to Germany, in order to learn foreign languages. After continuing a few years in that country, he made the tour of Europe in company with one or more English noblemen. On their return to Germany they visited Berlin, where Mr Berkenhout met with a near relation of his father's, the Baron de Bielfeldt, a nobleman then in high estimation with Frederick the Great king of Prussia; distinguished as one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and universally known as a politician and a man of letters. With this relation our young traveller fixed his abode for some time; and, regardless of his original destination, became a cadet in a Prussian regiment of foot. He soon obtained an ensign's commission, and in the space of a few years was advanced to the rank of captain. He quitted the Prussian service on the declaration of war between England and France in 1756, and was honoured with the command of a company in the service of his native country. When peace was concluded in 1760, not choosing, we suppose, to lead a life of inactivity on half pay, he went down to Edinburgh, and commenced student of physic. During his residence at that university, he published his Clavis Anglicae Linguae Botanicae; a book of great utility to all students of botany.

Having continued some years at Edinburgh, Mr Berkenhout kenhout went to the university of Leyden, where he was admitted to the degree of M.D. in the year 1765. On this occasion he published a thesis, intitled, "Dissertation medica inauguralis de Podagra," which he dedicated to his relation Baron de Biefeldt. Returning to England, Dr Berkenhout settled at Illeworth in Middlesex, and soon after published his "Pharmacopoeia Medici," the third edition of which was printed in 1782. In 1778 he was sent by government with the commissioners to America. Neither the commissioners nor their secretary were suffered by the congress to proceed further than New York. Dr Berkenhout, however, found means to penetrate as far as Philadelphia, where the congress was then assembled. He appears to have remained in that city for some time without molestation; but at last they began to suspect that he was sent by Lord North for the purpose of tampering with some of their leading members. The Doctor was immediately seized and committed to prison.

How long he remained a state prisoner, or by what means he obtained his liberty, we are not informed; but we find from the public prints, that he rejoined the commissioners at New York, and returned with them to England. For this temporary sacrifice of the emoluments of his profession, and in consideration of his having, in the service of his sovereign, committed himself to the mercy of a congress of enraged republicans, he obtained a pension.

Many years previous to this event, Dr Berkenhout had published his "Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland," in three volumes, 12mo; a work which established his reputation as a naturalist. In the year 1773 he wrote a pamphlet, intitled, "An Essay on the Bite of a Mad Dog, in which the Claim to Infallibility of the Principal Preventive Remedies against the Hydrophobia is examined." This pamphlet is inscribed to Sir George Baker, and deserves to be universally read.

In the year following Dr Berkenhout published his "Symptomatology;" a book which is too universally known to require any recommendation.

At the beginning of the year 1788 he published a work, intitled, "First Lines of the Theory and Practice of Philosophical Chemistry," which he dedicated to Mr Eden, now Lord Auckland, who had been one of the commissioners whom he accompanied to America.

These, we believe, are the Doctor's principal publications in the line of his profession; but he wrote on many other subjects with equal ability. His translation of Count Tiffin's Letters, which was his first publication, and dedicated to the present king when prince of Wales, evinces his knowledge of the Swedish language, and shows him to have been a good poet. His Essay on Ways and Means proves him to have been better acquainted with the system of taxation than most other men who have written on the subject. His biographical powers appear in his "Biographia Literaria;" and in all his works are sufficient proofs of his classical learning, and that the Italian, French, German, and Dutch languages, were familiar to him. He possessed likewise a very considerable degree of mathematical science, which he acquired in the course of his military studies; and to those more solid attainments he is said to have added no small skill in the fine arts of painting and music. This eminent man, who, for the variety and promptitude of his knowledge, has been compared to the Admirable Bernoulli.