Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/227

  the powder patented by James and sold by him and by F. Newbery (, Philosophical Transactions, 1791). The chief constituents of James's powder were phosphate of lime and oxide of antimony, and it resembled closely the present pulvis antimonialis of the British Pharmacopœia (, Materia Medica, 1874, p. 60). It had a strong diaphoretic action, and was frequently prescribed in cases of raised temperature of all kinds, and of inflammatory pain. Goldsmith took a dose of the powder, which his servant bought at Newbery's, early in the attack of fever from which he died (letter of his laundress, Mary Ginger, in the Morning Post, 7 April 1774), and Hawes, the apothecary who attended him, attributed bad results to this dose (, An Account of the late Dr. Goldsmith's Illness as far as relates to the exhibition of Dr. James's Powders, 1774). Newbery wrote to the papers in defence of his nostrum (Morning Post, 27 April 1774), and the controversy which arose does not seem to have injured its reputation, for it was prescribed for George III early in his attack of mania in November 1788 (Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, i. 231). Since the depressant treatment of fever has fallen into disrepute, James's powder has almost ceased to be used by physicians. The way in which the powder was patented and sold diminished the reputation of James as a physician, but Johnson never gave up his early friendship for him, and once observed of him, ‘No man brings more mind to his profession’ (, Johnson, i. 85). In the life of Edmund Smith (Lives of the Poets, ed. 1781, ii. 259), Johnson says that at Gilbert Walmsley's table in Lichfield ‘I enjoyed many chearful and instructive hours, with companions such as are not often found with one who has lengthened and one who has gladdened life; with Dr. James, whose skill in physick will long be remembered, and with David Garrick.’ The remainder of James's works are only original in so far as they praise his powder. He translated ‘Ramazzini de Morbis Artificum;’ Simon Pauli's ‘Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate;’ Prosper Alpinus's ‘The Presages of Life and Death in Diseases,’ 2 vols., all in 1746. In 1752 he published ‘Pharmacopeia Universalis, or a New Universal English Dispensatory.’ His ‘Practice of Physic,’ 2 vols., published in 1760, is a mere abstract of Boerhaave, and his ‘Treatise on Canine Madness’ (1760) recommends mercury for hydrophobia on very slight grounds of observation. He died on 23 March 1776, and after his death was printed his ‘Vindication of the Fever Powder,’ and a short treatise by him on the disorders of children, London, 1778. His son, Pinkstan, was father of [q. v.]



JAMES, THOMAS (1573?–1629), Bodley's librarian, uncle of [q. v.], was born about 1573 at Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchester College, matriculated at Oxford from New College on 28 Jan. 1591-2, and was fellow of his college from 1593 to 1602 (, Winchester Scholars, p. 152). He graduated B.A. on 3 May 1595, M.A. on 5 Feb. 1598-9, B.D. and D.D. on 18 May 1614 ( Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, vol. i.) His learning was extensive, and he was 'esteemed by some a living library.' He assisted in framing a complete body of the ancient statutes and customs of the university, in which he was well versed. He was also skilled in deciphering manuscripts and in detecting forged readings. His first attempts at authorship were translations from the Italian of Antonio Bruciolo's 'Commentary upon the Canticle of Canticles,' which was licensed for the press in November 1597 (, Stationers' Registers, iii. 37), and from the French of 'The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks,' 16mo, London, 1598 (ib. iii. 273). He next edited Bishop Aungervile's 'Philobiblon,' 4to, Oxford,1599, which he dedicated to Sir Thomas Bodley. About this time he obtained leave to examine the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford, and was allowed by the easy-going heads of houses (especially those of Balliol and Merton) to take away several, chiefly patristic, which he gave in 1601 to the Bodleian Library, together with sixty printed volumes. As the result of his researches he published 'Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, tributa in libros duos,' 4to, London, 1600, a work much commended by Joseph Scaliger. It gives a list of the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, and in the university library at Cambride, besides critical notes on the text of Cyprian's 'De Unitate Ecclesiae' and of Augustine's 'De Fide.' 