Christopher Robert Pemberton, M.D., was a grandson of the lord chief justice Pemberton, and was born in Cambridgeshire. He was educated at Bury St. Edmund’s, and at Caius college, Cambridge, of which society he was a fellow. He proceeded M.B. 1789; M.D. 1794; was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 25th June, 1795; and a Fellow 25th June, 1796. He was Censor in 1796, 1804, 1811; Gulstonian lecturer in 1797; and Harveian orator in 1806. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and physician extraordinary to the king. Dr. Pemberton was elected physician to St. George’s hospital 25th April, 1800, but resigned that office in 1808. He had long suffered from tic douloureux in its most aggravated form, and had submitted with great patience to a division of several branches of the fifth pair of nerves under the judicious operation of Sir Astley Cooper. But neither the operations nor any assistance which the experience of any of his colleagues could afford him gave him relief, or controlled the violence of the attacks.(1) He withdrew from practice and from London, and, after sustaining his tortures for some years with a constancy which attracted the pity and esteem of all who knew him, died of apoplexy at Fredville, Kent, the seat of his brother-in-law, John Plumptre, esq., 31st July, 1822, aged fifty-seven. Dr. Pemberton (2) was the author of an excellent practical work entitled—
A Practical Treatise on Various Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera. 8vo. Lond. 1806.

William Munk

[(1) Essays and Orations by Sir Henry Halford, Bart. 3rd edit, p. 39.
(2) "Inter Collegii recentiores sodales, nobiscum suavissimâ amicitiâ conjunctos, memorare licet nostrum Christophorum Pembertonum, qui cursum cum honore magno prosecutus est donec ille morbo immani, pressus, abstinere ab officio suo coactus est. Dolores gravissimos sese potuisse ferre constanti et forti animo planè probavit. Tum demum omnino fractus neuralgia, magnamque sui desiderium apud ornnes cum suos, tum alios, relinquens ob comitatem erga omnes, jucunditate ornatam decessit."—Oratio Harveiana habita, Junii XXV, MDCCCXXVI, a Roberto Bree M.D., p. 20]