Braintree Church. Collins's only book 'The Present State of Russia, in a Letter to a Friend at London, written by an eminent person residing at the Great Tzar's Court at Mosco for the space of nine years. Illustrated with many copper plates' was first published in London after the author's death in 1671. It is a very entertaining account of life in the Russian court, and was issued in a French translation in 1679. Dorman Newman, the original publisher, according to his own statement, received the manuscript from ' a gentleman that attended upon the learned Dr. C. all the time of his being with the emperor of Russia.' It was distributed into chapters and sections by 'some that were learned and skilful,' but the doctor's death before 'it came to press' compelled Newman to employ 'another worthy person' to transcribe the manuscript and see it through the press. Although the title-page bears no author's name, Collins is stated to be the writer in the publisher's advertisement at the end of the book. Collins has often been erroneously identified with another physician of the same name [see Collins, Samuel, M.D., 1617–1685].
[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. x. 42 (by Messrs. C. H. and Thompson Cooper); Munk's Coll. of Phys. (2nd edit.), i. 265; Wright's Essex, ii. 22; Collins's Present State of Russia; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 221, where both Wood and Bliss fail to distinguish accurately between three seventeenth-century physicians all named Samuel Collins; information kindly supplied by Rev. J. W. Kenworthy, vicar of Braintree.]
COLLINS, SAMUEL, M.D. (1617–1685), physician, was the son of Daniel Collins, vice-provost of Eton, and rector of Cowley, Middlesex. He was born in 1617 at Tring, Hertfordshire, and educated at Eton, whence he was elected to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, in 1634. He was elected a fellow of that house in 1637, proceeded B. A. in 1638, and on 1 June 1639 was entered on the physic line at Leyden. He commenced M.A. at Cambridge in 1642, and was created M.D. by that university 4 Oct. 1648. On 27 July 1649 he was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians of London, and a fellow on 25 June 1651. Collins was incorporated at Oxford in his doctor's degree in May 1650, and about that time was, by an ordinance of parliament, elected a fellow of New College in that university. He settled in London; was appointed censor of the College of Physicians in 1659, 1669, and 1679; was Harveian orator in 1665, and again in 1682; Gulstonian lecturer in 1675; and registrar from 1682 to his death. He was buried at Cowley, Middlesex, on 11 June 1685.
To him Wood erroneously ascribes the authorship of 'The History of the present State of Russia,' printed at London 1671. The real author of that work was Samuel Collins, M.D. (d. 1670) [q. v.]
[Birch's Hist. of the Royal Society, i. 163, ii. 156; Cole's Hist. of King's Coll. Camb. iii. 153; Harwood's Alumni Eton., 136; Hutchinson's Biog. Medica, i. 213; Lysons's Environs, v. 15; Munk's Coll. of Phys. (1878), i. 264; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., x. 42; Peacock's English-speaking Students at Leyden, 22; Retrospective Review, xiv. 32; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 162, 163.]
COLLINS, SAMUEL, M.D. (1618–1710), anatomist, was the only son of John Collins, rector of Rotherfield, Sussex, who was descended from an ancient family settled in the counties of Somerset and Devon. He received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a scholarship, and afterwards to a fellowship. He graduated B.A. in 1638–9, M.A. in 1642. Then he travelled on the continent, and visited many universities in France, Italy, and the Low Countries, but found none to compare with our own. He was created M.D. at Padua 25 Aug. 1654, and was incorporated in that degree at Oxford in 1652, and at Cambridge in 1673. He was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians of London in 1656, and a fellow in 1668. About the latter date he was appointed physician in ordinary to Charles II. Between 1671 and 1707 he was frequently elected to the office of censor in the College of Physicians; he was anatomy reader in 1684; and on 10 Sept. 1694 was appointed Lumleian lecturer, an office which he retained to his death. He was constituted an elect in 1689; was several times appointed consiliarius; and in 1695 was elected president of the college. He died 11 April 1710. To his 'memory' is inscribed the view of the interior of the nave of St. Paul's in Dugdale's 'History' of that church. The plate being dated 1658 is calculated to mislead as to the date of Collins's death. He married, first, Anne, eldest daughter of John Bodenham, esq.; and secondly, Dame Catharine, countess-dowager of Carnwath in Scotland, daughter of John Abington, esq., of Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire.
Dr. Munk says that Collins, who is mentioned in Garth's 'Dispensary,' was an accomplished anatomist, and stood foremost among his contemporaries, whether at home or abroad, in his knowledge of comparative anatomy. His great work, which embodies a full report of his original investigations, is entitled 'A Systeme of Anatomy, treating of the Body of Man, Beasts, Birds, Fish, Insects,
