John Floyer (physician)

John Floyer (physician)

Sir John Floyer (3 March 1649 – 1 February 1734), English physician and author, was the third child and second son of Elizabeth Babington and Richard Floyer, of Hints Hall, a since demolished country house. Hints is a quiet village lying a short distance from Lichfield in Staffordshire. He was educated at Oxford.

He practised in Lichfield, and it was by his advice that Dr Johnson, when a child, was taken by his mother to be touched by Queen Anne for the king's evil on 30 March 1714. As a physician, Floyer was best known for introducing the practice of pulse rate measurement, and creating a special watch for this purpose. He was an advocate of cold bathing, and gave an early account of the pathological changes in the lungs associated with emphysema.

Floyer was married to Mary Fleetwood of Lichfield, a widow, in April 1680.