MARTIN LISTER, ZOOLOGIST AND PHYSICIAN By S. W OOD LONDON BRANCH of the important books, both printed and in manu- family of Lister settled in script), and of general merit in the literary world by several learned books which he had published. At the Royal Buckinghamshire, and to this College of Physicians he became a Abranch belonged the subject candidate in 1684, a Fellow in 1687, of the present memoir. He was born and a Censor in 1694. He was elected at Radclive, near Buckingham, in a Fellow of the Royal Society on the / 1638, his parents being Sir Martin recommendation of Edward Lhuyd in Lister and Susannah, the daughter of 1671, and settled at York where he Sir Alexander Temple; this lady be- practiced medicine with considerable came maid of honor to Anne of repute until 1683. Denmark, queen of James 1, and was Lister was a great naturalist as well esteemed the greatest beauty of the as an eminent physician; he collected Court. As a boy Lister received his over one thousand specimens of shells, education from Sir Mathew Lister, which he presented to the Ashmolean physician to Charles 1, and on the Museum at Oxford, and was the first 12th of June, 1655, entered as a to construct maps of geological strata. pensioner at St. John’s College, Cam- His works were very numerous; up- bridge, where he graduated b .a . in wards of sixty papers from his pen 1658, and m.a . in 1662; at the Restora- on meteorology, minerals, molluscs, tion he was by royal mandate made a medicine and antiquities appear in Fellow of his College. Having gradu- the Philosophical Transactions of the ated he travelled and on returning Royal Society. His published mono- was created, in 1683, M-D- at Oxford, graphs include: “A History of English the Chancellor himself recommending Animals” (1678), an Appendix to the him as a person of exemplary loyalty, same (1681); “Letters and Mixt Dis- of high esteem among the most emi- courses on Natural Philosophy” nent of his profession, of singular (1683); “The Baths and Medical merit to that university in particular Fountains of England” (1684); (having enriched their museum and another work on the same subject library1 with presents of valuable (1686); several works on shells, and a 1 Forming part of a collection of Lister record of the journey to Paris in 1698. MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford are An extended list of his publications three volumes of letters, covering the period appears in the “Dictionary of Na- 1665-1710, addressed to Lister from various writers, the most interesting being Pepys, tional Biography.2 His name lives in Flamsteed, Grew, Halley, Hooke, Lhuyd, the specific term given to a fossil well Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, who was a known to all Jurassic geologists, relative of Lister; Henry Mordaunt Earl of namely Cardenia Listeri, which is the Peterborough, Plot, and Sloane. Here also admitted type of a genus of MoIIusca; is the Order for Lister to attend the post- it is also connected with a shell of the mortem examination of Charles n’s body, February 7, 1685. Additional mss . may be seen 2 Vol. 33, Lond., 1893. at the British Museum,a list of them being in Scott’s Catalogue of the Sloane mss ., p. 312. genus Mactra, viz., Mactra Listen. In Court but received no staff appoint- the British flora the genus Listera, ment until the retirement of Sir formerly included in the Opbrys, was Edward Hannes in 1709, when he and named in his honor. Dr. Arbuthnot were appointed physi- cians in ordinary to Queen Anne, Dr. Arbuthnot having precedence; subsequently, however, he became Primarius Mcdicus. About 1670 he married Anne, daughter and heiress of Thomas Park- inson, of Carleton, in Craven, county York, by whom he had three sons and five daughters.3 Two of these ladies, Susannah and Mary, being skilful in the use of the pencil, illustrated their father’s great work “Historia Con- chyliorum”4 published in 1685. His second wife was Jane Cullen, of St. Mildred, Poultry, whom he mar- ried at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, Oct. On returning in 1670 from his first 24, 1698. journey to the Continent he went to Lister died at Epsom, aged seventy- practice among his friends in York- four, but he probably had a suburban shire, and while there studied the house at Clapham where, in St. Paul’s history and natural history of the Church, of which he was a Benefactor, county. On account of his skill, how- he was buried on February 2, 1712. ever, he was advised to remove to In his will occurs the clause: “My London; this he did about the year body shall without pomp and in a 1683 and took up his residence in private manner be carried in a hearse, Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Two years later he was elected Vice- 3 One of the children was buried in West- President of the Royal Society. For minster Abbey where a marble tablet to her memory may be seen. The inscription is well the benefit of his health he accom- known and reads: “Jane Lister, dear childe, panied the Earl of Portland on an died Oct. 7, 1688.” Dean Stanley made allu- Embassy to the French Court in sion to the sorrow expressed in this brief 1698; he remained in Paris six months epitaph “which goes to the heart of every- and on returning published an account one. In the eventful year of the Revolution, of the journey which ran through three when Church and State were reeling to their foundations, this ‘dear child’ found her quiet editions within the year. This book resting-place in the Eastern Cloister.” was travestied by Dr. William King in 4 “This work is the basis and ancient foun- the “Journey to London” but its dation of all good conchology. It is impossible minuteness gives it historical value. to contemplate this stupendous effort of It was included in Pinkerton’s “Voy- genius and industry without admiration at ages”; reprinted with annotations by the grandeur of the design and the correctness of its execution.” (Turton, “ Conchological G. Henning, m.d . in 1823, and trans- Authors.”) The book originally appeared lated into French, being published at in five parts during the years 1685-9; Ed. Paris in 1873. He continued in favor at 2, 1699, New Ed. 1770, again 1823. attended only by one mourning coach the names and physiognomy of a Hundred to Clapham and there be buried in Plants, than of 5 or 6 Princes. the grave of my late deceased wife Another Reason, that I give you little Hannah.” A memorial stone5 was or no trouble in telling you Court Matters, erected bearing ’ the following inscription: Near this place is buried the body of MARTIN LISTER Doctor of Physick a Member of the Royal Society and one of Queen Ann’s Physitians who departed this life the second day of February, 1711-12. Not e : I wish to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. E. T. Leeds, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Dr. Chaplin, Harveian Librarian of the Royal College of Physicians; Mr. W. J. Bishop, Assistant Librarian of the College; and the Rev. Sir Henry Lyster Denny, Bt., Rector of West W ickham, Kent, the author of a monumental work on the Lister family. Ext ra cts of Med ica l Int er est fro m Mar ti n Liste r ’s “Jou rn ey to Par is in 1698” Reader, I promise not to trouble you with Ceremonies either of State or Church, or Politicks; for I entred willingly into neither of them. I incline rather to Nature than Dominion; and took more pleasure to see Monsieur Breman in his white Wastcoat digging in the Royal Physick Garden, and sowing his Couches, than Monsieur Saintot making room for an Ambassador; and I found my self better disposed, and more apt to learn is, that I was no more concerned in the 5 I was fortunate in meeting a fellow- Embassy, than in the sailing of the Ship student of Lister in the Rev. T. C. Dale, which carried me over: ’Tis enough for Curate of St. Paul’s, to whom I am grateful me, with the rest of the People of for information and for showing me the tablets England, to feel the good Effects of it, on the north wall of the church. That of and to pass away this Life in Peace and Lister is now so weather-worn as to be illegi- Quietness. ’Tis a happy turn for us, when ble; the inscription on the second stone reads: “Hannah Lister, Deare Wife, died Aug. 1695, Kings are made Friends again. Phis was left six children in tears for a most indulgent the end of this Embassy, and I hope it mother.” St. Paul’s occupies ground which will last our days. My Lord Ambassador has been the site of a church for 800 years; was infinitely caressed by the King, his it is situated in Rectory Grove and a path- Ministers, and all the Princes . ; way with the curious name “Matrimony but to the Business. Place” goes through the churchyard. I happily arrived at Paris after a tedious Journey in very bad Weather; for we set and such like Trash, and to lie in course out of London the ioth of December, and and nasty Woollen Frocks upon Boards; I did not reach Paris till the first of Janu- To go Barefoot in a cold Country, to ary; for I fell sick upon the Road, and forego the Comforts of this Life, and the stay’d 5 days at Bologne, till my Fever Conversation of Men; This is to hazard abated; yet notwithstanding so rude a the Health and in a manner to destroy Journey, I recovered, and was perfectly ourselves.