Editing John Arbuthnot (section)

==Life under the Hanoverians==

In 1717, Arbuthnot contributed somewhat to Pope and Gay's play, ''[[Three Hours after Marriage]],'' which ran for seven nights. He was a friend to [[George Frederic Handel]] and appointed director to the [[Royal Academy of Music (1719)]] from the start in 1719 till 1729.

In 1719 he took part in a pamphlet war over the treatment of [[smallpox]]. In particular, he attacked Dr Woodward, who had again presented a dogmatic and, Arbuthnot thought, irrational opinion. In 1723, Arbuthnot was made one of the censors of the [[Royal College of Physicians]], and as such he was one of the campaigners to inspect and improve the drugs sold by [[apothecaries]] in London. In 1723, the apothecaries sued the RCP, and Arbuthnot wrote ''Reasons humbly offered by the ... upholders ([[undertaker]]s) against part of the bill for the better viewing, searching, and examining of drugs.'' The pamphlet suggested that the funeral directors of London might wish to sue the Royal College of Physicians as well to ensure that drug safety remained poor. In 1727, he was made an elect of the Royal College of Physicians.

In 1726 and 1727, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope reunited at Arbuthnot's house during visits, and Swift showed Arbuthnot the manuscript of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' ahead of time. The detailed parody of on-going Royal Society projects in book III of ''Gulliver's Travels'' likely came from "hints" from Arbuthnot. The visit also bore fruit in Pope's ''[[The Dunciad]]'' of 1729 (the second edition), where Arbuthnot probably wrote the "Virgilius restauratus" satirizing [[Richard Bentley]].

Arbuthnot was [[Legal guardian|guardian]] to [[Peter the Wild Boy]] on his first arrival in London.
[[File:Acta Eruditorum - III musa arabum pala plinii, 1734 – BEIC 13446956.jpg|thumb|Illustration from ''Tentamen circa indolem alimentoru'' published in [[Acta Eruditorum]], 1734]]
In 1730, Arbuthnot's wife died. The next year, he produced a work of popular medicine, ''An essay concerning the nature of aliments, and the choice of them, according to the different constitutions of human bodies.'' The book was quite popular, and a second edition, with advice on diet, came out the next year. It had four more full editions and translations into French and German. In 1733 he wrote another very popular work of medicine called ''[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004888786.0001.000?view=toc An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies].'' As with the former work, it went through multiple editions and translations. He argued that the air itself had to have enormous effects on the personality and persons of humanity, and he believed that the air of locations resulted in the characteristics of the people, as well as particular maladies. He advised his readers to ventilate sickrooms and to seek fresh air in cities. Although the idea that airs carried sickness was incorrect, the practical upshot of Arbuthnot's advice was efficacious, as crowded, poorly sanitized Augustan era cities had bad air and infectious air.

His son Charles, studying to be a divine at [[Christ Church, Oxford]], died in 1731, the same year that the Swift and Pope ''Miscellanies, Volume the Third'' (which was the first volume) appeared. He contributed "An Essay of the Learned Martinus Scriblerus Concerning the Origine of the Sciences" to the volume.

In 1734, his health began to decline. He had [[kidney stones]] and [[asthma]], and he was also [[Obesity|overweight]]. On 17 July 1734, Arbuthnot wrote to Pope to tell him that he had a terminal illness. In a response dated 2 August, Pope indicates that he planned to write more satire, and on 25 August told Arbuthnot that he was going to address one of his epistles to him, later characterizing it as a memorial to their friendship. Arbuthnot died at his house in [[Cork Street]], in [[London]] on 27 February 1735, eight weeks after the poem "[[Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot]]" was published.<ref>Rogers, ''The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia'', p. 110; Baines, ''The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope'' (Routledge, 2000), p. 37.</ref> He is buried at [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]].