Banister, John

, an eminent physician of the sixteenth century, studied philosophy for some time at Oxford, and afterwards having entered upon the department of physic, applied himself entirely to that faculty and surgery. In July 1573, he took the decree of bachelor in physic, and was admitted to practice. He removed from Oxford to Nottingham, where he lived many years, and was in high esteem for his skill in physic and surgery. The time of his death is not known. His works are: 1 “A needfull, new, and necessary treatise of Chirurgery, briefly comprehending the general and particular curation of ulcers,” 1575, 8vo. 2. “Certain experiments of his own invention,” &c. 3. “History of man, sucked from the sap of the most approved anatomists, &c. in | nine books,” 1578. 4. “Compendious Chirurgery, gathered and translated especially out of Wecker,” &c. 1589, 8vo. 5. “Antidotary chirurgical, containing variety of all sorts of medicines,” &c. 1589, 8vo. Several years after his death, in 1663, his works were published at London in 4to, in six books. The first three books, Of tumours, wounds, and ulcers in general and particular. 4. Of fractures and luxations. 5. Of the curation of ulcers and 6. The antidotary above-mentioned.

There was another physician named Richard Banister, who wrote, “A treatise of one hundred and thirteen Diseases of the Eyes and Eyelids” commonly called Banister’s Breviary of the Eyes and “An appendant part of a treatise of one hunched and thirteen Diseases of the Eyes and Eyelids, called Cewisia Medicata, Purging Ale, with divers Aphorisms and Principles.” From this book it appears that the author was living in 1617, and 1619, and probably in 1622, when the second edition was published. When it was first published, cannot be found. But in 1622, “The treatise of the one hundred and thirteen Diseases, &c.” was reprinted. In Chapter IV. of the “Appendant part, &c.” he says “In my treatise of the Eyes I have named the best oculists that have been in this land for fifty or sixty years, who were no graduates, either in Cambridge or Oxon.” ¹