John, M.D., a physician, poet, and miscellaneous writer, the friend of Thomson, Mallet, and Wilkes, was born about the year 1709, in Castletown parish, Roxburghshire, where his father and brother successively were ministers of the Scottish church. He completed his education at the University of Edinburgh, where he took his degree in Physic, Feb. 4, 1732, with much reputation. His professional success, however, does not seem to have been at any time considerable, as he probably paid more attention to literary than to medical labours. He took up his residence in London, and in 1746 was appointed one of the physicians to the Hospital for lame and sick soldiers behind Buckingham House. In 1760 he was appointed physician to the army in Germany, which appointment he held till the peace of 1763. In a poetical epistle to John Wilkes in 1761, he drew upon himself the enmity of the satirist Churchill, and afterwards quarrelled with Wilkes himself. His latter years seem to have been embittered by disappointments, as is evinced by the tone of his writings, in which he particularly directs his sarcasms against his medical brethren and the reviewers. He died in 1779, and was found, notwithstanding his want of professional success, to have saved upwards of L3000.

Dr Armstrong's first publication was a humorous pamphlet, entitled An Essay for Abridging the Study of Physic, &c., containing much clever and well-directed satire. It appeared anonymously in 1735. Of his numerous subsequent essays, sketches, and poems, the only one by which he is now remembered is his didactic poem, entitled The Art of Preserving Health, first published in 1744. As a poetical composition, its value is but small. It contains, however, some passages of considerable merit; and, considering the nature of the subject, is perhaps as successful a performance as could have been expected. His smaller pieces, including Benevolence, a poetical epistle; Taste, an epistle to a young critic; Sketches by Launcelot Temple, Esq., &c., were published along with the Art of Preserving Health, in 1770, under the title of Miscellanies. They generally display much humour and acuteness of observation.

John, M.D., an eminent physician and medical writer, was born in 1784, at Bishop Wearmouth in Durham. Having received some preliminary education, he completed his studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained his medical degree in 1807. He then became a candidate for practice in his native place, but soon afterwards removed to Sunderland, where he engaged in extensive practice, and became physician to the dispensary in that town. This situation he resigned in 1817, and settled in London, where the reputation he had already acquired by his writings prepared the way for his future success. As a lecturer, also, in the Webb Street School at London, Dr Armstrong was highly popular. His lectures, edited by Joseph Rix, were published in 1834 in one volume 8vo. His principal work is that entitled Practical Illustrations of Typhus Fever and other Febrile and Inflammatory Diseases, which was published in 1816. Dr Armstrong died of pulmonary consumption in 1829. He is represented as a man of estimable character,—yet it is to be regretted that he had the temerity to depreciate such men as Mead, Cullen, and Heberden; though their reputation indeed, stands too high to be affected by such criticism.