Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, James (1785?-1851)
KENNEDY, JAMES, M.D. (1785?–1851), bibliographer, a Scotsman, was born about 1785, and graduated M.D. at Glasgow in 1813. He settled at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, by invitation of the agent of the Marquis of Hastings, who was anxious to promote the success of the medicinal baths at that place. Kennedy wrote an essay on the waters by way of advertisement. In 1842 he removed to Woodhouse, near Loughborough, Leicestershire, where he lived in retirement. He acted gratuitously as the visiting physician of the Loughborough Dispensary, and was always ready to give advice to his poor neighbours. He was chiefly occupied upon a bibliography of all the medical treatises published in Great Britain before 1800, accompanied by concise biographies of their authors. This work, which would have occupied four octavo volumes, was to have been printed at the expense of the Sydenham Society. Kennedy was on a visit to London in order to complete his manuscript of the first volume at the British Museum, and had just placed the first sheet in the printer's hands, when he was attacked by fatal illness. He died on 9 May 1851, in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, aged 66 (Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxvi. 205–6). He was twice married, but had no issue. Besides professional papers in various medical journals and articles in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ Kennedy was author of: 1. ‘A Dissertation on the Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of the Human Tongue,’ 1813. 2. ‘A Lecture on Asiatic Cholera,’ 1822. 3. ‘A Treatise on the Management of Children in Health and Disease,’ 1825. 4. ‘An Examination of Waite's Anti-Phrenology,’ 1831.
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