Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/166

 important of these adversaria are printed in Joseph Browne's edition of his 'Opera Medica' published in 1701. The 'Praxis Medica' published by his godson, Sir Theodore des Vaux, in 1690 contains another series of his medical notes, with a long letter on haemoptysis to Dr. [q. v.], dated 10 Nov. 1641. He always wrote in Latin or French, and several spellings of English names in his writings suggest that he was never perfectly familiar with English. A Lady 'Cherosbury,' who thought herself poisoned, was 'Shrewsbury,' and there are numerous similar phonetic attempts. He stayed in London during the great rebellion, and saw many patients. He drew up, 28 Aug. 1644, ' Prophylactica pro Principibus in regia Sti Jacobi habitantibus,' a series of precautions against plague, in the same year he went with [q. v.] to Exeter, to see Queen Henrietta Maria. His London house was in St. Martin's Lane (addressed letter in Sloans MS. No. 2052). After Charles I's execution he was appointed physician to Charles II, and in the same year he retired to Chelsea, where he died 22 March 1655. He bequeathed his library to the College of Physicians, where it was burnt in the great fire. He was twice married, first to Marguerite de Boetslaër, by whom he had two children who died young, and secondly to Elizabeth Joachimi, who bore him two sons and three daughters of whom only one child, Elizabeth, survived him. She married in 1652 Pierre de Caumont, Marquis de Cugnac, and died in childbed at the Hague in 1661, when his descendants became extinct. He was buried, with his wife, mother, and five children, in the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, where he had a monument on the north wall of the chancel, with a long Latin inscription written by Sir Theodore des Vaux. He bequeathed 200l. to the hospital of Geneva.

Mayerne was a great physician, and the general tone of his writings is enlightened. All physicians who have read much in the works of their predecessors are considerate of old methods and opinions, and this is the explanation of the quantity of mediæval pharmacology to be found in Mayerne's writings. He continued to regard as useful many remedies which had not been proved useless. He was an innovator and a man of new ideas, and for that very reason was perhaps over-anxious to prove his respect for what had long been generally received. His industry in chemistry, shown in his innumerable notes and experiments, explains his prescription of cosmetics for the queen. Her vanity was pleased by them and his experimental curiosity satisfied. No trace of courtly servility is to be found in his writings or is related of him. He adhered throughout life to the principles in which he was brought up, and the universal respect in which he was held by contemporary physicians is further proof of his upright character. A good portrait of him hangs on the staircase of the College of Physicians, and is engraved in Browne's edition of his works. A fine drawing in colours by Rubens is in the British Museum.

 MAYERS, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1831–1878), Chinese scholar, son of the Rev. M. John Mayers, afterwards rector of St. Peter's, Winchester, was born on 7 Jan. 1831 in Tasmania. The father at his son's birth was colonial chaplain, but was subsequently appointed consular chaplain at Marseilles, where Mayers received the chief part of his education. After spending some years as a journalist in New York, Mayers in 1859 went to China as a student-interpreter, accompanying Lord Elgin to Pekin, and, after serving as interpreter to the allied commission charged with the government of Canton, was appointed interpreter to the consulate there. He filled various consular posts at Chinese ports until 1872, when he was made Chinese secretary of legation at Pekin. In the same year he visited England, and in August read a paper on the 'Pathays of Yünan' before the geographical section of the British Association at Brighton. He died on 24 March 1878 at Shanghai of typhus fever.

Mayers was an accomplished Chinese scholar, and his works are monuments 'of his industry and the completeness of his knowledge.' He wrote:
 * 1) 'The Anglo-Chinese Calendar Manual,' 1869, 8vo.
 * 2) 'The Chinese