Henry Pemberton

Henry Pemberton (* 1694 in London, † March 9, 1771, ibid ) was an English physician, mathematician and physicist. In 1728 he was the successor of John Woodward Professor of Medicine at Gresham College in London.

Pemberton studied medicine in 1714 at Leiden University, among others, Herman Boerhaave, and in Paris, where he studied anatomy. In addition, he also studied mathematics, which he already started on the school through the study of Apollonius in the edition of Halley and what he acquired books from the library of the late Abbé Jean Gallois in Paris. After returning to London in 1715 he was for further training at St. Thomas Hospital and received his doctorate after 1719 at the University of Leiden in Boerhaave. His dissertation dealt with the adaptation of the eye to different distances, which he attributed correctly to a change in shape of the lens by muscle power. After Richard Westfall was his most important independent scientific contribution.

However, after returning to London, he practiced as a physician rarely because his health did not permit this. Instead, he made ​​contact with leading natural scientists, and especially to Isaac Newton, published on various topics ( from mathematics and astronomy to poetry ), for example ( after he became a Fellow of the Royal Society ) in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He earned a reputation with medical publications, so that he became in 1728 professor of medicine at Gresham College, where he also lectured on chemistry, which were published posthumously in 1771 by his friend James Wilson, as well as his lectures on physiology, 1779. He brought also a new improved version of the drug manual of the Royal College of Physicians out (London Pharmacopeia), by which he was employed in 1739 to 1746.

Pemberton supported Newton from 1723 in the preparation of the third edition (1726) of the Principia Mathematica ( Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ) and published a popular book about his physical theory ( in German translation of Salomon Maimon in Berlin in 1793 came out ). The third edition of the Principia was the final edition, but they did not yield any major changes from the second edition, edited by Roger Cotes, an eminent mathematician, on whose skills Pemberton not approach enough. As Pemberton but was in his last years, Newton much in contact with, and was a close friend of Newton, his writings on Newton have a special authenticity. Pemberton friendship with Newton began when he criticized a proof of Giovanni Poleni on the formula of Leibniz for the kinetic energy ( Newton was known to be involved with Leibniz in a fierce priority dispute ). Pemberton brought it simultaneously effusive admiration for Newton to express what Newton's benevolence was when his personal physician, Richard Mead earned him the top note. For Mead Pemberton edited the new edition of the Myotomia Reformata by William Cowper ( 1724) also.

Pemberton was also planning an English translation of the Principia and a comment here but Andrew Motte came to him (whose translation appeared in 1729 ) before, and he gave up his plans.

He promoted the engineer Benjamin Robins, whose mathematical talent struck him.

Works

• View of Sir Isaac Newton 's philosophy. Printed by S. Palmer, London 1728. Online