William Cockburn (physician)

His name occurs in the register of the University of Leyden as a student of medicine on 29 May 1691, and there heard the lectures of Archibald Pitcairne, a continuing influence on his writings.

One account given[3] is that in July 1696 he was dining on board one of the ships in the company of Lord Berkeley of Stratton, when it was remarked to him that "there was nothing farther wanting but a better method of curing fluxes".

The result was reported to the admiralty board by Sir Clowdisley Shovell, who was directed to purchase a quantity of the electuary for the use of the Mediterranean squadron.

It was a sort of scheme of general pathology, or first principles of physic, showed the influence of Pitcairne's mechanistic theories, and was dedicated to William Bridgeman of the Admiralty.

[4] In 1696 he brought out a small work on the Nature and Cure of Distempers of Seafaring People, with Observations on the Diet of Seamen in H.M.'s Navy, a record of his two years' experience as ship's doctor on the home station.

One of these, The Present Uncertainty in the Knowledge of Medicines, 1703, was a letter to the physicians in the commission for sick and wounded seamen, in which he reproves their narrowness of view.

A contemporary account of the courtship was that he found her in tears at the prospect of having to leave London for financial reasons, and said, "Madam, if fifty thousand pounds and the heart of an old man will console you, they are at your service".