Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Layard, Daniel Peter

1423064Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 32 — Layard, Daniel Peter1892Gordon Goodwin

LAYARD, DANIEL PETER (1721–1802), physician, born in 1721, was the son of Major Layard. On 9 March 1742 he graduated M.D. at Rheims. In April 1747 he was appointed physician-accoucheur to Middlesex Hospital, but resigned shortly afterwards on account of ill-health, and went abroad. In 1750 he settled at Huntingdon, and practised there for twelve years. On 3 July 1752 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians. About 1762 he returned to London and soon obtained an extensive practice as an accoucheur. He was physician to the Princess Dowager of Wales, fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Göttingen, and a vice-president of the British Lying-in Hospital, of which he had been one of the founders. On 20 June 1792 he had the honorary degree of D.C.L. conferred upon him at Oxford (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, iii. 827). He died at Greenwich in February 1802 (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxii. pt. i. p. 281). His son, Charles Peter Layard (1748-1808), successively prebendary of Bangor, prebendary of Worcester (1793), and dean of Bristol (1800), was grandfather of Sir Austen Henry Layard.

Layard contributed some papers to the 'Philosophical Transactions,' and published: 1. 'An Essay on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of the Contagious Distemper among the Horned Cattle in these Kingdoms,' 8vo, London, 1757. 2. 'An Essay on the Bite of a Mad Dog,' 8vo, London, 1762. 3. 'An Account of the Somersham Water in the County of Huntingdon,' 8vo, London, 1767. 4. 'Pharmacopœia in usum Gravidarum Puerperarum,' &c., 8vo, London, 1776.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 181-2.]

G. G.