Bryan Robinson (1680-1754), theories of respiration, and the atmospheric acids of Sir Isaac Newton

The Irish physician and mathematician Bryan Robinson (1680-1754) was astudent of Richard Helsham, and served as anatomical lecturer and Regius Professorof Physic at Trinity College, Dublin. Robinson's son Robert also became a lecturer atthe college in Anatomy. Bryan Robinson was three times president of the King andQueen's College of Physicians in Ireland, and was a trustee of Steevens' Hospital. Hewrote several treatises of Newtonian medicine: the Treatise of the Animal Oeconomy,a work of physiological mechanism (1734); Observations on the Virtues and Operations of Medicines (1752); A Dissertation on the Food and Discharges ofHuman Bodies (1747), an argument against Sanctorius and his theory of insensibleperspiration using Newtonian principles. Past scholarly analysis has portrayed Robinson's work in the context of two intellectual influences - first, Leiden physician Hermann Boerhaave's (1668-1730)emphasis on the hydraulics of bodily fluids through the veins and arteries; and second, a 'Newtonian physiology' based on Newton's queries about ether. Despite these analyses, there has been little study of Robinson's 'chymical'theories of medicine in his works, particularly his use of Newtonian chymistry drawnfrom Newton's Opticks (1730) and De natura acidorum (1710). Nor has there been detailed consideration to what extent Robinson's ideas helped spread Newtonian philosophy in Dublin in the eighteenth century, or the nature of his intellectual and social networks in the city. Using archival material in Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Society of Physicians in Dublin, as well as Robinson's works in the WorthLibrary, this paper rectifies these omissions in the scholarly literature.