Samuel Farr (physician)

Farr was born at Taunton, Somerset, in 1741. His parents were Protestant Dissenters.^[1] His father, whose name is tentatively identified as Thomas Farr, was a merchant and alderman at Bristol;^[2] his family was involved in the Atlantic slave trade.^[3]

Farr was educated at Bristol Grammar School.^[2] A close friend of Thomas Percival, he attended Warrington Academy with him (class of 1758).^[3] He then studied at the University of Edinburgh, and finally at Leyden University with Percival, where he took the degree of MD (1765). He was a physician to the Bristol Infirmary from 1767 to 1780, and practised for some years in Bristol.^[1][3] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1779 (although his election may have been subsequently voided for non-appearance).^[4]

Returning to Taunton, Farr acquired an extensive practice there. He died at Upcott, near Taunton, in the house of John Fisher, on 11 March 1795.^[1]

Farr's published works are:^[1]

• An Essay on the Medical Virtues of Acids, 1769.
• A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature, Origin, and Extent of Animal Motion, deduced from the principles of reason and analogy, 1771.
• Aphorismi de Marasmo ex summis Medicis collecti, 1772.
• Inquiry into the Propriety of Blood-letting in Consumption, 1775; against the practice.
• The History of Epidemics, by Hippocrates, in seven books; translated into English from the Greek, with Notes and Observations.
• A Preliminary Discourse on the Nature and Cure of Infection, London, 1781.
• Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 1788; 2nd edit. 1811; a translation from the work of Johann Friedrich Faselius [de], with additions by the translator.
• On the Use of Cantharides in Dropsical Complaints (Memoirs Med. ii. 132, 1789).

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Farr, Samuel". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co.