in the museum at Leyden, of extreme size and thickness, an example either of Parrot's disease or of the osteitis deformans of Paget. On 14 March 1685 he made a report to the Royal Society on the collections of Swammerdam and Hermann, and in the same year went to Paris, where he stayed till his return to London in March 1686. In April 1687 he returned to Dublin, there graduated M.D., and on 3 Nov. 1687 was elected F.R.S. The troubles of the times led him to move to Chester and begin practice there, but in 1690, after the battle of the Boyne, he came back to Dublin, lived in his father's house, and practised as a physician. He kept up his correspondence with Locke, who sometimes consulted him, and with other learned acquaintances, and in the new charter to the Irish College of Physicians, 15 Dec. 1692, he is named as a fellow. His practice was so successful that in 1693 he bought an estate of 100l. a year. In the same year (Phil. Trans. No. 202) he published an essay on calculus, and in 1698 a further paper on the same subject. He married in 1693 Catharine Howard, daughter of Dr. Robert Howard, a lady accomplished as a painter. In 1694 he published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' a medical essay ' On the late Coughs and Colds,' and shortly after 'Notes on the Giant's Causeway,' the first publication in which the opinion that it is a natural production and not a work of man is maintained. He had a drawing made of it, and in a second paper (ib. No. 241) describes the details of drawing. He was interested in all parts of natural science, and having found in the stomach of a codfish a specimen of Aphrodite aculeata, an annulate animal with iridescent hairs, he dissected it and sent an account of its anatomy in a letter to Locke, who forwarded it to the Royal Society. It is the earliest account of the structure of the sea mouse, and is printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' No. 225. In April 1696 he published the first scientific account of the Irish elk (Cervus megaceros), 1 A Discourse concerning the large Horns frequently found underground in Ireland.' He also published a letter to Dr. Ashe, bishop of Clogher, ' On the Swarms of Insects of late years seen in the County Longford.' His brother "William, to whom he was deeply attached, died in 1698, and Locke wrote him a consolatory letter on the occasion. In 1699 he again visited London and was painted by Kneller. The picture is preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. He next published (Phil. Trans. No. 261) an essay on giants, and in 1701 'Notes on an Epidemic of Eye-disease which occurred at Castletown Delvin, co. Westmeath,' followed in 1702 by a ' Letter on the Lyre of the Greeks and Romans.' On 19 Oct. 1702 he was elected president of the College of Physicians of Ireland, and held the same office in 1709, 1713, and 1720. In 1711 he built himself a large town house in Peter Street, Dublin, and in 1715 he was appointed state physician in Ireland, and in January 1717 professor of medicine in the university of Dublin. He was also physician-general to the army. He did not conclude his scientific writings, but published in 1715 an account of an elephant's jaw found in Cavan, and in 1725 ' A Discourse on Danish Forts.' In 1727 he wrote, but did not print, 'Some Observations on the Taxes paid by Ireland to support the Government.' On 30 July 1730 he was created a baronet, and his successor in title is seated at Castle Dillon, co. Armagh. He had sixteen children. He died in 1733, and is buried in Armagh Cathedral, where there is a fine statue of him by Roubiliac (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xviii. 114). His published observations show him to have been an excellent physician. Several of his zoological papers are the first upon their subjects, and he took an active interest in every branch of learning, and delighted in the society of all learned men. He occupied a position in Ireland resembling that of Richard Mead [q. v.] in England, but in mental activity, as well as in the highest qualities included in the term 'good breeding,' he excelled Mead.
[Dublin University Magazine, vol. xviii., where many of his letters are printed in full; Locke's Works; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; A. Webb's Com- pendium of Irish Biography; Sir C. A. Cameron's Hist, of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Works.]
MOLYNEUX, WILLIAM (1656–1698), philosopher, was born at his father's house in New Row, Dublin, on 17 April 1656. He was the eldest surviving son of Samuel Molyneux (1616–1693) by Margaret, daughter and coheiress of William Dowdall, esq., of Dublin. The family was descended from Sir Thomas Molyneux [q. v.], chancellor of the Irish exchequer in 1590. The father, a gentleman of property in several counties, had acquired considerable fame as a master-gunner during the rebellion, particularly at the battle of Ross in 1643 (Carte, Life of Ormonde, i. 405), and afterwards as an experimentalist in the science of gunnery, on which subject he published a treatise when seventy years of age; he died on 23 Jan. 1693. A younger son, Sir Thomas Molyneux (1661–1733), is separately noticed. After receiving a good elementary education, William entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 10 April 1671, and was placed
