John Barker, M.D., was educated at Wadham college, Oxford, and proceeded A.B. 16th October, 1731; A.M. 24th May, 1737; M.B. 25th November, 1737. He then settled for a time at Salisbury, and whilst there published "An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Epidemic Fever of 1740, 1741, and 1742." On the 3rd November, 1743, he took his degree of doctor of medicine at Oxford; was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 8th April, 1745; and a Fellow, 24th March, 1746. About this time he removed to London; was chosen physician to the Westminster hospital, in 1746, but resigned his office in 1748, when he was appointed one of the physicians to the army. He did not long survive, and dying on the 31st January, 1748-9, was buried in the small church of St. Stephen’s, Ipswich, where there is a tablet with the following inscription:—

Here lieth the body of
John Barker, M.D.,
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
And Physician to his Majesty’s Forces in the Low Countries.
Born April 18, 1708.
Died January 31,1748-9.

In addition to the work on fever above mentioned, he was the author of—

An Essay on the Agreement betwixt Ancient and Modern Physicians; or, a Comparison between the Practice of Hippocrates, Galen, Sydenham, and Boerhaave. 8vo. Lond. 1748.

William Munk