Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/133

 conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1840. He took an active part in the foundation of the Evangelical Alliance in 1845, and attended many of the annual conferences held in various parts of Europe. He helped to bring about the union of the secession and relief churches in 1847 to form the united presbyterian church. In 1848 his health gave way, and he employed his enforced leisure in visiting Jamaica and making a tour through the United States, returning to Scotland in the following year. Until 1853 he continued actively engaged in the multifarious schemes connected with his denomination. Illness compelled him to resign his position at Greyfriars Church 12 Feb. 1855. He retired to Kilcreggan in the Firth of Clyde, and in 1860 removed to London. Having settled at Bayswater, he founded a presbyterian congregation there, and laboured in this quarter, amid many discouragements, till 1869. He still preserved his connection with the united presbyterian church in Scotland, and was chosen moderator of the synod of that body in 1863, taking a prominent share in the movement (1863–73) for the union of the free church of Scotland, the reformed presbyterian church, the united presbyterian church, and the presbyterian church in England. Though this union was only partially realised, King's attitude helped to promote conciliatory feeling. In March 1869 he accepted a call to the small congregation of Morningside, near Edinburgh, but in February 1873 he was forced to resign all ministerial work. He died, after much travel in search of health, in London on 20 Dec. 1883.

King's popularity as a preacher overshadowed his reputation as a writer, though the few books which he wrote were very successful. His principal works were: 1. ‘The Ruling Eldership,’ 1845, which went through three editions. 2. ‘The Lord's Supper,’ 1846. 3. ‘Geology and Religion,’ 1849, an attempt at a reconciliation of the scriptural and scientific accounts of the creation, of which five editions were published. 4. ‘The State and Prospects of Jamaica,’ 1850. A volume of his sermons was published posthumously in 1885, with a memoir of him written by his widow, the daughter of Professor James Thomson and sister of Sir William Thomson of Glasgow University. 

KING, EDMUND (1629–1709), physician, born in 1629, practised, after apprenticeship, as a surgeon in London. He lived at first in Little Britain, and had a museum in his house which he took pleasure in showing to students. He used to keep dried specimens, such as the ileo-cæcal valve, pressed in a large paper book, and he dissected animals as well as the human subject (Sloane MS. 1906). About 1665 he took a house in Hatton Garden, and was married at St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, on 20 June 1666, to Rebecca Polsted of the adjoining parish of St. Sepulchre. In the same year he published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ a paper on the parenchymatous parts of the body, and maintained, from microscopic observation, that they contained enormous numbers of minute blood-vessels. In 1667 the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ contained a long account by him of the transfusion of the blood of a calf into a sheep, with a view to proving that one animal may live with the blood of another. The experiment was carefully conducted by means of an apparatus of pipes and quills. In 1669 he published further microscopic researches to show that glands consisted of tubes and vessels only. He was fond of insects, and in 1667 published a paper on ants, and in 1670 one on leaf cutter bees (both in ‘Philosophical Transactions’). He had examined the eggs of ants microscopically, and studied the ways of life in ant-hills. He is probably one of the investigators described as antmen and bearmen by the Duchess of Newcastle (Description of a New World, 1668, p. 15). He was acquainted with Lord Arundel, Sir William Petty, Dr. Needham, and Robert Boyle, and some of his experiments were carried on at Arundel House in the Strand. Sheldon, the archbishop of Canterbury, created him M.D.; he was incorporated at Cambridge in 1671, and in 1677, on bringing a commendatory letter from the king, was admitted an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians of London. He was admitted a regular fellow 12 April 1687, being one of the nominees of James II's charter, and was thus completely converted from a surgeon into a physician. He was knighted and sworn physician to the king in 1676.

On the morning of 2 Feb. 1684–5 King was sent for by Charles II. Charles talked incoherently, but the physician did not ascertain the morbid change at work (, History of my own Time, edit. 1724, i. 606). By Lord Peterborough's advice he paid a second visit to the bedchamber, and at the moment that he entered Charles fell down in a fit. King bled him immediately. Charles gradually regained consciousness. The other physicians who arrived approved the bleeding, and the privy council advised that King should receive a reward of 1,000l.; but as that body has no command of funds, and as the subsequent fatal termination prevented