George Motherby

George Motherby M.D. (baptised 1731 – 1793) was an English physician and medical writer.[1] He is noted for the early definition of the medical term placebo in the 1785 edition of his medical dictionary.[2]

Life

He was born in Yorkshire, the son of George Motherby and his wife Anne Hotham; Robert Motherby was a younger brother, and his elder sister Anne married the London bookseller George Robinson (1736–1801). He gained an MD degree at King's College, Aberdeen in 1767.[1]

Motherby then practised as a physician at Königsberg, in the Kingdom of Prussia.[1] Through Robert, he came to be on good terms there with Johann Georg Hamann;[3] and vaccinated one of his sons.[4]

Motherby was later at Highgate, Middlesex. He died at Beverley, Yorkshire, in July 1793.[1]

Works

Motherby compiled A new Medical Dictionary, London, 1775 (2nd edit. 1785). Other editions, revised by George Wallis, M.D., appeared in 1791, 1795, and 1801; the two final editions were in two volumes.[1][5] The articles included citations. A study of the first edition concluded that the most cited authorities were William Lewis (when his translation from Caspar Neumann is included), John Ray, and Herman Boerhaave; followed by Hippocrates and Galen.[6]

Notes

Baigent, Elizabeth. "Motherby, George (bap. 1731, d. 1793)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19418. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Shapiro, Arthur K.; Shapiro, Elaine (17 October 2000). The Powerful Placebo: From Ancient Priest to Modern Physician. JHU Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8018-6675-3.
Hamann, Johann Georg (1999). Lettere (in Italian). Vita e Pensiero. p. 422 note 4.14. ISBN 978-88-343-1768-6.
Ebstein, Wilhelm (1910). "George und William Motherby in ihren Beziehungen zur Variolation und der Kuhpockenimpfung". Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin. 4 (1): 31–42. ISSN 2191-3870. JSTOR 20772895.
Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Motherby, George" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Considine, John (12 October 2010). Adventuring in Dictionaries: New Studies in the History of Lexicography. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-4438-2626-6.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Motherby, George". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. {{subst:}}

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[ODNB-1] Baigent, Elizabeth. "Motherby, George (bap. 1731, d. 1793)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19418. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[2] Shapiro, Arthur K.; Shapiro, Elaine (17 October 2000). The Powerful Placebo: From Ancient Priest to Modern Physician. JHU Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8018-6675-3.

[3] Hamann, Johann Georg (1999). Lettere (in Italian). Vita e Pensiero. p. 422 note 4.14. ISBN 978-88-343-1768-6.

[4] Ebstein, Wilhelm (1910). "George und William Motherby in ihren Beziehungen zur Variolation und der Kuhpockenimpfung". Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin. 4 (1): 31–42. ISSN 2191-3870. JSTOR 20772895.

[5] Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Motherby, George" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[6] Considine, John (12 October 2010). Adventuring in Dictionaries: New Studies in the History of Lexicography. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-4438-2626-6.