Butter, William

, M. D. a native of Derbyshire, or according to Mr. Bosvvell, of Scotland, was born“in 1726, After the usual school education, he went to Edinburgh, where he resided about seven years, and during his medical course of study, publishedA method of cure for the Stone, chiefly by injections,“1754, 12mo, and” Dissertatio de frigore quatenus morborom causa,“1757, Hvo. In 1761 he took his degree of M. D. and published far his inaugural thesis,” Dissertatio Medica et Chirurgica tie Arteriotomia,“a subject on which he is said to have held some bold opinions, and when at Edinburgh, made an attempt publicly to open the carotid artery of a patient in the hospital, but after making the first incision, the patient fainted, and the operation, which he intended to renew next day, was prevented by the interference of the managers of the hospital. He afterwards practised medicine for several years at Derby, whence, in 1778, he removed and settled in London. In 1773 he published a treatise | on the kink-cough, the name he gives to the tussis convulsiva, or whooping-cough. In the cure he relied principally on the efficacy of the extract of hemlock, which he considered as a specific in the complaint. Two years after, he gave an account of the puerperal fever, as it appeared in Derbyshire and some of the adjacent counties, 8vo; in 1782,A Treatise on the Worm Fever;“in 1783,” An improved method of opening the Temporal Artery;“and in 1794, a treatise on the angina pectoris, first described by Dr. Heberden. His account of it is published in the second volume of” Medical Transactions,“by the royal college of physicians. Dr. Butter calls it the diaphragmatic gout, and thinks it generally curable. In the fit he gives opium with aromatics, and for the cure he recommends pills with aloes and soap, to keep the body soluble. These, with temperance, he says, will usually succeed in putting an end to the complaint. In 1801, he publishedA Treatise on the Venereal Rose," in which he considers virulent gonorrhea as a species of erysipelas, and resorts to his favourite hemlock for a cure. He died at his house in Lower Grosvenor-street, March 21, 1805. His practice in London was not very extensive, nor had he the good fortune to procure the approbation of his, brethren to his writings. Striving to be an inventor, he became a nostrum-monger, and in his latter days his manners had none of that polish which procures respect. 1

1

Gent. Mag. vol. LXXV.—European Mag.—New Catalogue of Living English Authors.—Boswell’s Life of Johnson.