Editing David Abercromby

{{Short description|Scottish physician and writer}}
{{for|those of a similar name|David Abercrombie (disambiguation)}}
'''David Abercromby''' was a 17th-century [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[physician]] and writer, thought to have died in 1702.<ref name = Pyle>[[Andrew Pyle (philosopher)|Andrew Pyle]] (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article pp. 2-7.</ref>  Brought up at [[Douai]] as a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] by [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] priests, he was converted to [[Protestantism]] in 1682 and came to abjure [[popery]], and published ''Protestancy proved Safer than Popery'' (1686).

==Works==

His medical reputation was based on his ''Tuta ac efficax luis venereae saepe absque mercurio ac semper absque salivatione mercuriali curando methodus'' (1684) which was translated into [[French language|French]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[German language|German]].  Two other works by him were ''De Pulsus Variatione'' (1685), and ''Ars explorandi medicas facultates plantarum ex solo sapore'' (1688); his ''Opuscula'' were collected in 1687. These professional writings gave him a place and memorial in [[Albrecht von Haller]], ''Bibliotheca Medicinae Practicae'' (1779). According to Haller he was alive early in the 18th century.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Abercromby, David|volume=1|page=43}}</ref>

He also wrote some books in [[theology]] and [[philosophy]], controversial in their time but little remembered today.   But the most noticeable of his productions is ''A Discourse of Wit'' (1685), which contains some of the most characteristic metaphysical opinions of the Scottish philosophy of common sense.  It was followed by ''Academia Scientiarum'' (1687), and by ''A Moral Discourse of the Power of Interest'' (1690), dedicated to [[Robert Boyle]],<ref name=EB1911/> Abercromby's patron in the 1680s.  He later wrote ''Reasons Why A Protestant Should not Turn Papist'' (1687), which has often wrongly been attributed to Boyle.  ''A Short Account of Scots Divines'', by him, was printed at [[Edinburgh]] in 1833, edited by James Maidment.<ref name=EB1911/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*{{cite journal | doi = 10.2307/2709925 | last1 = Davis | first1 = Edward | year = 1994 | title = The Anonymous Works of Robert Boyle and the ''Reasons Why a Protestant Should not Turn Papist'' (1687) | jstor = 2709925| journal = Journal of the History of Ideas | volume = 55 | issue = 4| pages = 611–29 }}

==External links==
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo?c=eebo&cc=eebo&key=author&page=browse&value=Abercromby%2C+David&Submit=Submit Works of David Abercromby] at [[Early English Books Online]]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abercromby, David}}
[[Category:17th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:17th-century Scottish writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Scottish male writers]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:1702 deaths]]
[[Category:Converts to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism]]