William Read (oculist)

William Read (1648 - May 24, 1715) was a well-known unqualified quack medical practitioner who made fraudulent medical claims, styled himself as an oculist and was knighted by Queen Anne for his medical services.

William Read
Born1648
Aberdeen
Died1715
Rochester
OccupationOculist

Career

Read was born in Aberdeen. He was the son of a cobbler and originally worked as a tailor. He was illiterate.[1][2] He practiced ophthalmology in the North and West of England for many years, and by 1694, settled at York Buildings in Strand, London.[3] He was known for his charlatan advertisements; for example, he claimed in the Tatler that "he had been thirty-five years in the practice of couching cataracts, taking off all sorts of wens, curing wry necks and hair-lips without blemish."[4]

In 1705, Read was appointed oculist to Anne, Queen of Great Britain. On July 27, Read was knighted by Queen Anne for his services.[2][5] Queen Anne, who suffered from weak eyes has been described as a "natural prey of quacks".[6] Read advertised himself as "Her Majesty's Oculist".[2] A 1705 poem in honour of Read, "The Oculist" that appears in pamphlet form, is stored at the British Museum and the library of the Royal Society of Medicine.[2]

In 1706, Read authored a major work A Short But Exact Account of All the Diseases Incident to the Eyes. Many years later in 1932, ophthalmologist Arnold Sorsby revealed that part of the book was plagiarized from Richard Banister's A Treatise of One Hundred and Thirteene Diseases of the Eyes, and Eye-liddes.[7]

He was appointed oculist to George I of Great Britain in 1714.[7] Read died in Rochester on May 24, 1715 and is buried at St Nicholas' Church.[2]

Publications
  • A Short but Exact Account of All the Diseases Incident to the Eyes (1706)

See also

References
  1. Anonymous. (1907). Some Quacks Of Bygone Days. British Medical Journal 1 (2404): 222.
  2. James, R. Rutson. (2013 edition). Studies in the History of Ophthalmology in England Prior to 1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 122-126. ISBN 978-1107625495
  3. Coleman, Vernon. (1998). The Story of Medicine. European Medical Journal. p. 108. ISBN 978-1898947646 "One of the most successful of the many relatively sophisticated quacks to make their fortunes in the eighteenth century was Sir William Read, a tailor, who set up in the Strand in London as an eye specialist in 1694 and who even managed to number Queen Anne among his patients. Read was knighted by Queen Anne and later became oculist to George I."
  4. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Read, William (d.1715)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 47. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 354.
  5. Sydney, William Connor. (1891). England and the English in the Eighteenth Century: Chapters in the Social History of the Times, Volume 1. Ward & Downey. p. 307. "Read, an impudent quack who practised by the light of nature in the city of Oxford, was one of those who were thus honoured, and as the queen experienced, or rather imagined she had experienced,' relief from his operations, she not only knighted him, but appointed him court oculist, an appointment which he enjoyed under her successor till his death, which occurred at Rochester on May 24, 1715."
  6. Anonymous. (1911). Some Notable Quacks. British Medical Journal 1 (2630): 1264-1274
  7. Albert, Daniel M; Henkind, Paul. (1994). Men of Vision: Lives of Notable Figures in Ophthalmology. Saunders. pp. 33-37. ISBN 978-0721645124

Further reading
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