John Ashburner, M.D., was born in Bombay, where his father was in high position as a member of the supreme council of that presidency. At an early age, he was sent to England and placed under private tuition. He commenced the study of medicine in Dublin, and was a diligent student of anatomy under Dr. Macartney. From Dublin he moved to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and at the last-named university graduated doctor of medicine 1st August, 1816 (D.M.I. de Hydrophobia). He was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians 25th June, 1818, and on the death of Dr. Adams, in 1818, was appointed physician to the Small-pox hospital, which office he resigned in 1824, shortly after which he went to India in some civil capacity. Returning to England, he resumed practice in London, and applied himself especially to midwifery, became physician to queen Charlotte’s lying-in hospital, and physician accoucheur to the Middlesex hospital, and lecturer on midwifery at St. Thomas’s hospital. His later years have been devoted to the study and practice of mesmerism, to some of the extremest pretensions of which he has given an unhesitating belief.

He is the author of—
Dentition, and some coincident Disorders. 18mo. Lond. 1834.
Facts in Clairvoyance extracted from the Zoist, with Observations on Mesmerism and its Application to Medicine. 8vo. Lond. 1848.
On Spirit Rapping; a Letter to G. J. Holyoake. 8vo. Lond. 1853.
Reichenbach’s Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their relations to Vital Force; with a preface and notes by John Ashburner. 8vo. Lond. 1851.
Notes and Studies on the Philosophy of Animal Magnetism and Spiritualism, with Observations on Catarrh, Bronchitis, Rheumatism, Gout, Scrofula, and Cognate Diseases. 8vo. Lond. 1867.

William Munk