FLOYER

floyer, sir john (1649-1734), english physician and author, was born at hinters in staffordshire, and was educated at oxford. he practised in lichfield, and it was by his advice that dr johnson, when a child, was taken by his mother to be touched by queen anne for the king's evil on the 30th of march 1714. he died on the 1st of february 1734. floyer was an advocate of cold bathing, introduced the practice of counting the rate of the pulse-beats, and gave an early account of the pathological changes in the lungs associated with emphysema. his writings include:--[greek: pharmako-basanos]: _or the touchstone of medicines, discovering the virtues of vegetables, minerals and animals, by their tastes and smells_ (2 vols., 1687); _the praeternatural state of animal humours described by their sensible qualities_ (1696); _an enquiry into the right use and abuses of the hot, cold and temperate baths in england_ (1697); _a treatise of the asthma_ (1st ed., 1698); _the ancient_ [greek: psychrolousia] _revived, or an essay to prove cold bathing both safe and useful_ (london, 1702; several editions 8vo; abridged, manchester, 1844, 12mo); _the physician's pulse-watch_ (1707-1710); _the sibylline oracles, translated from the best greek copies, and compared with the sacred prophecies_ (1st ed., 1713); _two essays: the first essay concerning the creation, aetherial bodies, and offices of good and bad angels; the second essay concerning the mosaic system of the world_ (nottingham, 1717); _an exposition of the revelations_ (1719); _an essay to restore the dipping of infants in their baptism_ (1722); _medicina gerocomica, or the galenic art of preserving old men's healths_ (1st ed., 1724); _a comment on forty-two histories described by hippocrates_ (1726).