Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/126

Charleton must have sometimes thought he deserved more success than he obtained, he nowhere complains, and seems to have found permanent pleasure in the exercise and increase of his accumulations of learning. In religion he was a high churchman, in philosophy an epicurean, and in politics one of the last of the old royalists. In the British Museum copy of his 'Three Anatomic Lectures' (1683) is a list by himself, headed 'Scripta jam in lucem emissa,' which names twenty-one works, but it is not without mistakes. His works are: 1. 'Spiritus Gorgonicus,' Leyden, 1650, a treatise in which the formation of calculi in the human body is attributed to a definite stone-forming spirit. The College of Physicians' copy has notes in his own handwriting. 2. 'Ternary of Paradoxes,' 1650, a translation from Van Helmont. The British Museum copy was presented by Charleton to a Mr. Kim. 3. 'Deliramenta Catarrhi, or the incongruities couched under the vulgar opinion of Defluxions,' London, 1650. A translation from Van Helmont. 4. 'The Darkness of Atheism expelled by the Light of Nature,' London, 1652. 5. 'Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana, or a Fabrick of Science natural upon the Hypothesis of Atoms,' London, 1654. The microscope, he says, demonstrates the divisibility of matter (p. 117); atoms are the first and universal matter (p. 99); since the letters of the alphabet permit of 295,232,790,039,604,140,847,618,609,643,520,000,000 combinations, it is obvious that the combinations of numerous atoms may produce all known bodies. The College of Physicians' copy was presented by Charleton. 6. 'Epicurus, his Morals,' London, 1656. 7. 'The Immortality of the Human Soul demonstrated by the Light of Nature,' London, 1657. Two dialogues between Athanasius (Charleton) and Lucretius in the garden and presence of Iso-dicastes (Marquis of Dorchester). 8. 'The Ephesian and Cimmerian Matrons,' London, 1658. Another edition, 1668, translated into Latin by Bartholomew Harris, 1665. 9. 'Œconomia Animalis,' London, 1659. A general treatise on physiology. A fourth edition was published, London, 1669, and editions abroad, Amsterdam 1654, Leyden 1678, Hague 1681. 10. 'Dissertatio epistolica de ortu animæ humanæ,' 1659. Addressed to Dr. Henry Yerburie [q. v.] To this is appended a short letter of advice to a patient, the Genoese ambassador. 11. 'Natural History of Nutrition,' London, 1659. An English version of 9. 12. 'Exercitationes Physico-anatomicæ,' Amsterdam, 1659. A slightly altered reprint of 9. 13. 'A Character of his most Sacred Majesty Charles the Second,' London, 1661. 14. 'Exercitationes Pathologicæ,' London, 1661. A collection of hypotheses on the causes of disease; for example, that hatred causes epilepsy and the gout, and that surprise causes catalepsy. No autopsies are described, and no cases observed by the author. 15. 'Chorea Gigantum, or the most famous Antiquity of Great Britain, Stonehenge, standing on Salisbury Plain, restored to the Danes,' London, 1663, 2nd edition, 1725. 16. 'Inquisitiones duæ Anatomico-physicæ: prior de fulmine: altera de proprietatibus cerebri humani,' London, 1665. 17. 'Gulielmi Ducis Novocastrensis Vita,' London, 1668. A translation into Latin of Margaret Cavendish's life of her husband. 18. 'Onomasticon Zoicon,' London, 1668, 2nd edition, 1671, and 3rd, Oxford, 1677. A list, with English, Latin, and Greek names, of all known animals, including an account of the contents of Charles II's menagerie in St. James's Park, followed by an original description of the anatomy of Lophius piscatorius and of Galeus, both of which Charleton had dissected himself, and by a general description of fossils. 19. I. 'Concerning different Wits of Men.' II. 'Of the Mysterie of Vintners,' London, 1669. I. is a very trivial essay. II. A series of notes on preventing putrefaction in wines, originally read at the Royal Society in 1662. 20. 'De Scorbuto,' London, 1672. The British Museum copy has manuscript notes by author. 21. 'Natural History of the Passions,' London, 1674. A translation from the French of Senault. 22. 'Socrates Triumphant, or Plato's Apology for Socrates,' London, 1675. 23. 'Inquiries into Human Nature,' London, 1680. Six lectures on human anatomy and physiology. 24. 'Oratio anniversaria' (Harveiana), 5 Aug. 1680. 25. 'The Harmony of Natural and Positive Divine Laws,' London, 1682. 26. 'Three Anatomie Lectures,' London, 1683. (1) On the motion of the blood through the arteries and veins. (2) On the organic structure of the heart. (3) On the efficient causes of the heart's pulsation. 27. 'Inquisitio physica de causis catameniorum et uteri rheumatismo,' London, 1685. 28. 'Life of Marcellus in Dryden's Plutarch,' London, 1700. 29. 'Oratio anniversaria' (Harveiana), London, 16 Aug. 1705. In manuscript: 1. 'De Symptomatibus' (Sloane MS. 2082), a general summary of the symptoms of diseases. 2. 'Tables of Materia Medica' (ib.) Both these were written before or in 1642. 3. 'General Notes on Diseases,' with many tables (ib. 2084). 4. Charleton's 'Commonplace Book' (ib. 3413), containing many quotations from the classical medical authors, and from Tacitus, Lucian, Democritus, Palladius, Possidonius, Vulpius: an abstract of De Graaf