Letter 0831

Cockburn thanks Sloane for his kindness toward Dr Cheyne, even though Cheyne used Cockburn’s acquaintance to get to Sloane without asking his permission first. Cockburn had initially been angry at Cheyne for acting so presumptuously. William Cockburn was a physician who wrote works on the diseases of seamen and published in the Philosophical Transactions. He had a large medical practice and claimed to have a secret remedy for dysentery (Charles Creighton, Cockburn, William (16691739), rev. Anita Guerrini, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5777, accessed 5 July 2013]).