John French (physician) facts for kids
John French (born 1616, died 1657) was an English doctor. He was very good at chemistry, especially a process called distillation. He also helped by translating important books from Latin and German into English.
His Life and Studies
John French was born in 1616 in a place called Broughton, near Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. He went to Oxford University. There, he earned his first degree in 1637. He then got a master's degree in 1640. Finally, he became a qualified doctor in 1648.
He passed away in 1657 near a town called Boulogne. At that time, he was working as a doctor for the English army. He had a wife named Mary and a son also named John.
John French lived when chemistry was becoming a new science. Before this, people often studied something called alchemy. Alchemy was an older practice that tried to turn metals into gold. John French was very excited about using chemistry to make better medicines. He was known for knowing a lot about chemistry. Other important scientists, like Robert Boyle, respected his work.
His Important Books
John French is best known for a book he published in 1651. It was called The Art of Distillation. This book was a detailed guide about how to do distillation. Distillation is a way to purify liquids by heating them until they turn into vapor, then cooling them back into liquid. It was one of the first clear books on this topic. However, some people think parts of his book were translated from an older German text. This older text was written by Hieronymus Brunschwig around 1500.
John French also translated another famous book in 1651. This book was called Three Books of Occult Philosophy. The original book was written in Latin by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. In the English translation, John French was only known as J.F.. Many other English versions of this book are just edited copies of his original translation.
