John Bostock (1772–1846)

Physician and medicinal chemist. Attended Joseph Priestley’s chemical lectures at Hackney College, Middlesex, in 1792. Studied as an apothecary in Liverpool until 1794. MD, University of Edinburgh, 1798. Physician to the General Dispensary, Liverpool, 1798–1817. Wrote medical and scientific articles for the Monthly Review and the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. Moved to London in 1817 and gave up medicine. Chemical lecturer at Guy’s Hospital. Co-edited Annals of Physiology. Wrote the first recorded description of what became known as hay fever in 1819. FRS 1818, council member from 1829, vice-president from 1832.