Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/138

 Defoe speaks in ‘Duncan Campbell’ of ‘all the most eminent physicians of the age, even up to the great Dr. Radcliffe himself.’ Rough in his manners, and fond of flattery, he was generous to those in need, a good friend, and a magnificent patron of learning. Bernard Mandeville attacked him in the ‘Essay on Charity Schools’ subjoined to his ‘Fable of the Bees.’

A portrait of Radcliffe, painted by Kneller in 1710, is in the Radcliffe Library, and there are statues in the library and in one of the courts of University College. Another portrait was at Sir Andrew Fountaine's at Narford. An engraving from Kneller's painting, by Vertue, was published in 1719, and engravings by M. Burghers are prefixed to ‘Exequiæ clarissimo viro Johanni Radcliffe, M.D., ab Oxoniensi Academia solutæ,’ 1715, and ‘Bibliotheca Radcliffiana, or a Short Description of the Radcliffe Library,’ by James Gibbs, architect, 1747. A portrait engraved by M. Vandergucht is given in ‘Dr. Radcliffe's Practical Dispensatory,’ by Edward Strother, M.D., 1721. A gold-headed cane, said to have been Radcliffe's, was given by Mrs. Baillie to the College of Physicians.

, M.D. (1690–1729), seems to have been no relative of his namesake. He was son of John Radcliffe of London, gentleman, was born on 10 May 1690, and was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in 1703. He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, on 17 Oct. 1707, and became B.A. on 2 June 1711, M.A. on 23 April 1714, and M.D. on 30 June 1721. On 25 June 1724 he was chosen a fellow of the College of Physicians; and he was physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He died on 16 Aug. 1729 (, Coll. of Phys. ii. 86;, Alumni Oxon.)

[The chief source of information for Radcliffe's life is Pittis's Memoirs of Dr. Radcliffe (with Supplement), published by Curll in 1715. A full abstract of this book is given in the long article in the Biographia Britannica. William Singleton, Radcliffe's servant, said that the letters printed by Pittis were not genuine; but Pittis defended himself. Further particulars are given in Munk's Roll of the College of Physicians; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss; Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England; Noble's Cont. of Granger; Jenkin Lewis's Memoirs of the Duke of Gloucester, ed Loftie, 1881; Letters written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes; Pointer's Oxoniensis Academia; Macmichael's Gold-headed Cane; Pettigrew's Memoirs of J. C. Lettsom, M.D., i. 44, and Medical Portrait Gallery, vol. i.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. x. 210; Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Reports, and Cowper MSS. vols. ii. and iii.; Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble; Wyon's Queen Anne; Wentworth Papers; Aitken's Life and Works of Arbuthnot; Pope's Works, ed. Courthope; Swift's Works, ed. Scott; Lysons's Environs of London, i. 135, iv. 583.] 

RADCLIFFE, JOHN NETTEN (1826–1884), epidemiologist, son of Charles Radcliffe, and younger brother of Dr. Charles Bland Radcliffe [q. v.], was born in Yorkshire on 20 April 1826, and received his early medical training at the Leeds school of medicine. Shortly after obtaining his diploma he went to the Crimea as a surgeon attached to the headquarters of Omar Pasha, and remained there till the close of the war. He received for his services the order of the Medjidie as well as the Turkish and English medals, with a clasp for Sebastopol. On returning home he became medical superintendent of the Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in Queen Square, London.

In 1865 he was selected to prepare a special report on the appearance of cholera abroad, and in 1866 he was busily engaged in investigating the outbreak in East London, which he traced to the infected supply of the East London Water Company. This report appeared as a blue-book in 1867, and gained Radcliffe a wide reputation. He was elected a member of the Epidemiological Society in 1850, was its honorary secretary 1862–71, and president 1875–7. In November 1869 he was appointed to the second of the two public health inspectorships then created by the privy council, and, on the formation of the local government board in 1871, he was made assistant medical officer. Owing to ill-health he resigned this post in 1883, and died on 11 Sept. 1884.

Not only an expert in the question of the distribution of oriental diseases, Radcliffe was an authority on all questions pertaining to public health. Of remarkably simple and straightforward nature, he was a most cautious worker, but where rapidity was essential he showed himself equal to the situation. Prior to his official appointment he wrote: 1. ‘The Pestilence in England,’ 8vo, London, 1852. 2. ‘Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, &c.’, 8vo, London, 1854. 3. ‘The Hygiene of the Turkish Army,’ 8vo, London, 1858; reprinted with additions from the ‘Sanitary Review.’ In his official capacity he prepared a long series of reports dealing with the spread of epidemics and the question of quarantine (see list in index, Cat. Libr. of the Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army). Among these the more important, in addition to those already mentioned, are: 1. ‘On the Means for preventing Excre-