Peirce Dod, M.D., was born in Middlesex, and educated at Oxford. He was entered at Brasenose college, and as a member of that house proceeded A.B. 14th October, 1701; soon after which, removing to All Souls, he proceeded A.M. 6th June, 1705; M.B. 22nd March, 1710; and M.D. 29th October, 1714. He was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society 19th March, 1729-30. Dr. Dod was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 30th September, 1719; a Fellow 30th September, 1720; and was Censor in 1724, 1732, 1736, 1739. He delivered the Gulstonian lectures in 1720, and the Harveian oration in 1729. Dr. Dod was elected physician to St. Bartholomew’s hospital 22nd July, 1725, and retained that office to his death, which occurred 18th August, 1754. His remains were interred in the burial-ground of St. George the Martyr, Queen’s-square, where an altar-tomb was erected to his memory, and to that of his three children.

Dr. Dod was one of the most determined opponents of inoculation to be found among the members of the medical profession. In 1746 he published a small work entitled "Several cases in Physic, Small-pox, and Fever," the main object of which was to throw discredit on the new practice. It was at once answered in a satirical pamphlet, under the title of "A Letter to the real and genuine Peirce Dod, M.D., actual physician to St. Bartholomew’s hospital, &c., with a full answer to the mistaken case of a natural small-pox, after taking it by infection. By Dod Peirce." The authors of this letter, which is said to have done considerable damage to Dr. Dod’s professional character and business, were Dr. Kirkpatrick, author of "The Analysis of Inoculation," Dr. Barrowby, and one of the Schombergs.

William Munk