WALL, JOHN (1588–1666), divine, was born in 1588 'of genteel parents' in the city of London and educated at Westminster school, whence he went to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1604, graduating B.A. in 1608, M.A. in 1611, and B.D. in 1618 (Welch, Queen's Scholars, p. 72). In 1617 he was appointed vicar of St. Aldate's, Oxford, where he gained some fame as a preacher. In 1623 he received the degree of D.D.; in 1632 he was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford; in 1637 he was appointed to the living of Chalgrove; and in 1644 to a canonry at Salisbury. He was also chaplain to Philip Stanhope, first earl of Chesterfield [q. v.] Wood (Athenæ Oxon.) describes him as a 'quaint preacher in the age in which he lived.' He was deprived of his canonry at Christ Church by the parliamentary visitors in March 1648, but was restored on his submission in the following September, and retained that and his canonry at Salisbury during the Commonwealth and Protectorate; he was also subdean and moderator of Christ Church. He died unmarried at Christ Church on 20 Oct. 1666, and was buried in the cathedral. Archbishop Williams described Wall as 'the best read in the fathers that ever he knew.' He subscribed to the rebuilding of Christ Church in 1660, and gave some books to Pembroke College Library. He was also a benefactor to the city of Oxford, and his portrait, 'drawn to the life in his doctoral habit and square cap,' was hung in the city's council chamber. Wood, however, condemns his neglect of Christ Church, to which he owed 'all his plentiful estate ' (Wood, Life and Times, ed. Clark, ii. 90).
Many of Wall's sermons have been published in collections and separately, the most important being:
- 'Watering of Apollo,' Oxford, 1625.
- 'Jacob's Ladder,' Oxford, 1626.
- 'Alæ Seraphicæ,' London, 1627.
- 'Evangelical Spices,' London, 1627.
- 'Christian Reconcilement,' Oxford, 1658.
- 'Solomon in Solio,' Oxford, 1660.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iii. 734, Fasti, i. 325, 342, 382,412, and Hist, et Antiq. iii. 447, 512; Walker's Sufferings, ii. 70, 105; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
WALL, JOHN (1708–1776), physician, born at Powick, Worcestershire, in 1708, was the son of John Wall, a tradesman of Worcester city. He was educated at Worcester grammar school, matriculated from Worcester College, Oxford, on 23 June 1726, graduated B.A. in 1730, and migrated to Merton College, where he was elected fellow in 1735, and whence he took the degrees of M.A. and M.B. in 1736, and of M.D. in 1759. After taking his M.B. degree he began practice as a physician in Worcester, and there continued till his death. In 1744 he wrote an essay (Philosophical Transactions, No. 474, p. 213) on the use of musk in the treatment of the hiccough, of fevers, and in some other cases of spasm. In 1747 he sent a paper to the Royal Society on 'the Use of Bark in Smallpox' (ib. No. 484, p. 583). When cinchona bark was first used its obvious and immediate effect in malarial fever led to the opinion that it had great and unknown powers, and must be used with extreme caution, and this essay is one of a long series extending from the time of Thomas Sydenham [q. v.] to the first half of the present century, when it was finally determined that the evils anticipated were imaginary, and that bark in moderate doses might be given whenever a general tonic was needed, and to children as well as to adults. He published in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for December 1751 an essay on the cure of putrid sore throat, in which, like John Fothergill [q. v.], he records and does not distinguish cases of scarlet fever and of diphtheria. He was the first medical writer to point out the resemblance of the condition in man to epidemic foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, a suggestion of great importance. In 1756 he published in Worcester a pamphlet of fourteen pages, 'Experiments and Observations on the Malvern Waters.' This reached a third edition in 1763, and was then enlarged to 158 pages. Like all works of the kind, it describes numerous cures obvi--
