John Hill (botanist) facts for kids

John Hill

Sir John Hill (born around 1714 – died 22 November 1775) was a very busy English person. He was a composer, an actor, a writer, and a botanist (someone who studies plants). He wrote for newspapers and magazines of his time. He also got into arguments with other writers and scientists. People remember him most for his amazing plant book called The Vegetable System. This book had many pictures and was one of the first to use the new way of naming plants created by Carl Linnaeus. Because of his great work, the King of Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, made him a knight in 1774. After that, he was known as Sir John Hill.

The Early Life of John Hill

John Hill was the son of a church minister named Theophilus Hill. People believe he was born in a city called Peterborough. He was baptized there on 17 November 1714. When he was young, he trained to be an apothecary. This was like a pharmacist who also prepared medicines. After his training, he opened a small shop in London. He also traveled around the country looking for rare plants. He wanted to make a collection of dried plants, but this plan did not work out.

Later, he earned a degree as a doctor from the University of St. Andrews. He became known for making and selling his own plant-based medicines. He made a lot of money from these, especially his "pectoral balsam of honey" and "tincture of bardana."

John Hill's Many Works

John Hill was a very hardworking writer. His first book was a translation of History of Stones in 1746. From then on, he wrote constantly. He was the editor of The British Magazine from 1746 to 1750. For two years (1751–1753), he wrote a daily newspaper column called "The Inspector." He also wrote novels, plays, and scientific books. He was a big helper for a large encyclopedia called Cyclopaedia.

The Vegetable System: A Big Plant Book

From 1759 to 1775, John Hill worked on a huge book about plants called The Vegetable System. It had 26 very large volumes! The book was filled with 1,600 pictures made from copper plates. It was a very expensive book. A plain copy cost 38 guineas, and a colored copy cost 160 guineas. (A guinea was a type of old British coin).

John Hill did this big plant project because his friend, Lord Bute, asked him to. For his efforts, the King of Sweden gave him the Order of Vasa award in 1774.

John Hill wrote many books, about 76 in total! The most important ones were about botany (the study of plants). He was also thought to have written the second part of The Oeconomy of Human Life (1751). Some people even thought he wrote Hannah Glasse's famous cookbook. A famous writer named Samuel Johnson once said that Hill was "an ingenious man, but had no veracity." This meant he was clever but didn't always tell the truth.

John Hill often wrote things that caused arguments. He had many disagreements with people in both science and literature.

Arguments with the Royal Society

In the 1740s, John Hill went to many meetings of the Royal Society. This was a famous group of scientists. He shared his studies on plants, medicine, and geology. His work on how moss grows and on a special type of clay appeared in the Royal Society's journal, the Philosophical Transactions.

Hill hoped to become a member of the Royal Society. He had support from several members and even important nobles. But even with his scientific skills and connections, he was not chosen to be a member.

John Hill was disappointed. He felt the Royal Society didn't have high enough scientific standards. So, he started to criticize them. In 1749, he began writing anonymous reviews that criticized articles in their journal. In 1750, he started a public campaign against the Royal Society and its president, Martin Folkes. He published a funny but critical book called Lucina sine concubitu. In this book, he pretended to prove that a woman could have a baby without a man. This was his way of making fun of the Royal Society.

The "Paper War" of 1752–1753

John Hill also got into many arguments with other writers. This was called the "paper war" because they fought with words in books and newspapers.

• Henry Fielding attacked him in his newspaper, The Covent Garden Journal.
• Christopher Smart wrote a long poem called The Hilliad against him.
• The famous actor David Garrick wrote two short, witty poems about Hill. One of them said: "For physics and farces, his equal there scarce is; His farces are physic, his physic a farce is." This meant Hill's plays were like medicine (a joke), and his medicine was like a joke (a farce).

He also had arguments with other theater people like John Rich, Samuel Foote, and Henry Woodward.

Some of John Hill's Books

• Hill, John (1750), Lucine sine concubitu: a letter addressed to the Royal Society.
• Hill, John (1750), A Dissertation on Royal Societies.
• Hill, John (1751), Review of the Works of the Royal Society of London.
• Hill, John [attributed] (1751), The Oeconomy of Human Life 2.
• Hill, John (1751), A History of the Materia Medica
• Hill, John (1751–1753), "The Inspector" [daily column], London Advertiser and Literary Gazette: Much of Hill's part in the Paper War of 1752–1753 was carried out in this column.
• Hill, John (1752), The Impertinent
• Hill, John (1752), Letters from the Inspector to a Lady with the genuine Answers.
• Hill, John in: Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Supplement. 1753 various articles
• Hill, John (1754), Urania: Or, a Complete View of the Heavens; Containing the Ancient and Modern Astronomy, in Form of a Dictionary: Illustrated with a Great Number of Figures ... A Work Intended for General Use, Intelligible to All Capacities, and Calculated for Entertainment as Well as Instruction.
• Hill, John (1755), The useful family herbal. Reprinted as Hill, John (1810), The Family Herbal.
• Hill, John (1755), Thoughts concerning God and Nature.
• Hill, John (1756–1757), The British Herbal.
• Hill, John (1757), Thomas Hale: Eden, or, A compleat body of gardening (editor)
• Hill, John (1758), Outlines of a System of vegetable generation.
• Hill, John (1759), The Virtues of Honey in Preventing Many of the Worst Disorders.
• Hill, John (1759–1775), The Vegetable System (26 volumes of text in folio).
  • Vol. I (1759) (Octavo edition)
  • Vol. II Part I (1761)
  • Vol. II, Part II (1761)
  • Vol. III (1761)
  • Vol. IV (1762)
  • Vol. V (1763)
• Hill, John (1770), The Construction of Timber from its Early Growth.
• Hill, John (1770–2), Virtues of British Herbs.
  • No. 1 (1770)
  • 4th ed., with additions (1771)
  • 1772 edition
• Hill, John (1773), A decade of curious insects.
• Hill, John (1776), Hypochondriasis A Practical Treatise

See also

In Spanish: John Hill (botánico) para niños