George Cheyne

George Cheyne, who lived from 1672 to 1743, was a Scottish physician, early proto-psychiatrist, philosopher and mathematician. Born in Methlick near Aberdeen, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen, went to London in 1701 to start a practice and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1702. A Newtonian physician deeply immersed in mysticism, he was acquainted with Isaac Newton and provoked him to publish his Quadratures. His books ranged from medicine and natural philosophy to religion, metaphysics, astronomy and mathematics, were mostly very successful and were translated into several languages, and he also wrote on fevers, nervous disorders and hygiene. In 1718 he gave up his London practice to settle permanently in Bath, where he died in 1743. He is best known today for his contribution to vegetarianism, through his Essay on Regimen of 1740.