author

Francis Penrose

1718–1798

An English surgeon and medical writer, he spent much of his career practicing in Bicester, Oxfordshire and writing practical works on disease, chemistry, and electricity. His books show the curiosity of an 18th-century doctor trying to connect new scientific ideas with everyday medical care.

1 Audiobook

A Treatise on Electricity

A Treatise on Electricity

by Francis Penrose

About the author

Francis Penrose (1718–1798) was an English surgeon and medical writer. He practiced for many years at Bicester in Oxfordshire, and also owned property in nearby Chesterton, where he developed the house and grounds later known as Chesterton Lodge.

He is remembered chiefly for his medical and scientific writing. His published works included A Dissertation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat (1766), a treatise on electricity that explored both natural phenomena and possible medical uses, and Essays, Physiological and Practical (1794), which drew on modern chemistry in the hope of improving medical practice.

Penrose died on January 17, 1798. Although not a major public figure today, his work offers a vivid glimpse of a period when medicine was still closely tied to experiment, observation, and bold new theories about the natural world.