The College of Physicians in London owes its foundation to _Dr. Thomas Linacre_ of All Soul’s, Oxford, one of the physicians to king _Henry_ the 8th, a man of profound learning and most devotedly attached to his profession; having studied at Rome, Bologna, and Florence, (then under the government of _Lorenzo de Medici_, by whom he was encouraged), he naturally imbibed an admiration of the medical schools with which Italy then abounded, and appears to have distinguished himself so much both by his general learning and particular science that he was called to Court as physician to the king, and entrusted by _Henry_ the 7th both with the health and education of his son prince _Arthur_. The practice of Medicine was about that time, as we have before observed, chiefly engrossed by empirics and monks, who, and especially the latter, easily obtained licences from the bishops in their several dioceses, to whom was committed the authority of examining practitioners in an art of which they could not be competent judges. _Linacre_, through his interest with Cardinal Wolsey, a man most highly and honorably distinguished for his munificent encouragement of learning, obtained in 1518 Letters Patent (_see Appendix_, p. 5,) from _Henry_ the 8th,[67], constituting a Corporate Body of regular Physicians in London, with peculiar privileges hereafter to be specified. _Linacre_[68] (though his name is second in the Letters Patent) was elected the first President of the College, which held its meetings at his house in Knight Rider Street; he was continued in the office during his life, and bequeathed his house to the College at his death; he was distinguished both by his learning and his friendship with learned men, among whom he enjoyed the commendations of _Erasmus_ and _Melancthon_. He died in 1524, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in St. Paul’s, where a monument was erected to his memory by _Dr. Caius_, one of the most learned and munificent of his successors. _See Preface to Goodall’s Proceedings of the College: Biog. Britan.: Aikin’s Biog. Mem. of Medicine_: & 6 _Aikin’s General Biography_. As it cannot be uninteresting to trace the progress of a society through the medium of its principal ornaments, and as the authors owe to _Dr. Caius_ the foundation of that institution in which they commenced those joint chemical studies which have indirectly induced their present undertaking, they do not apologize to the reader for adding a short notice of his life, and of that of _Dr. Harvey_, another considerable benefactor to the College of Physicians.