Dawbeney Turbervile, MD (1612-1696)

Abstract

The year 2012 marks the quatercentenary of the birth of Dawbeney Turbervile,MD(1612-1696), one-time Royalist soldier and later ophthalmologist to England’s Princess Anne, the diarist Samuel Pepys, the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, and the astronomer Walter Pope. Turbervile is remarkable for many reasons: He specialized at a time when generalization was prized; though he was a qualified physician, he also practiced the trade of surgery. Furthermore, he provided in his communications with the Royal Society early descriptions of achromatopsia, ocular foreign body removal with a magnet, and tic doloreaux. He is a forebear worth remembering