Letter 3686

Woolhouse received Sloane’s letter by Mr Borronglis. He heard that Sloane offered Borronglis his protection. Woolhouse thanks Sloane for doing this. He sends a packet of books and a dissertation by Dr Platner. Père Castel, the mathematician, does not know how to proceed with his work as he has received no encouragement from Sloane. Duddel’s new book on ‘A new method of scarifying’ cataracts has been released and Woolhouse’s son Beaumont bought a copy in Provence. Duddel is a surgeon and Woolhouse claims to have taught him the technique described in the book. John Thomas Woolhouse was an English oculist and physician. He practiced physic in London, served James II for a time, and in 1711 secured a position at Paris’s Hospice des Quinze-Vingts. He served as the King of France’s oculist, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1721, and a member of both the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Sciences of Bologna. Woolhouse was criticized for charlatanry by some contemporaries (Anita McConnell, Woolhouse, John Thomas (16661734), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29954, accessed 17 July 2013]).