Charles Goodall (physician)

Harveian oration in 1694 and 1709. He was censor in 1697, 1703, 1705, and 1706, and president from 1708 till his death. In 1684 he published ‘The Royal College of Physicians of London founded and established by law,’ and ‘An Historical Account of the College's Proceedings against Empirics, &c., in every prince's reign from their first Incorporation to the Murther of the Royal Martyr, King Charles the First.’ These treatises are usually bound in one volume. The first gives an account of all the acts of parliament, royal charters, and judicial decisions establishing the privileges of the College of Physicians. The second, after an epistle dedicatory, which contains excellent brief biographies of the most distinguished fellows of the college of past times, gives details of all the prosecutions of empirics, or uneducated practisers of physic, extracted from the college records, and is of great historical interest. On 28 April 1691 Goodall succeeded Needham as physician to the Charterhouse, and for the rest of his life resided there with occasional visits to a house which he owned at Kensington. He enjoyed the friendship of Thomas Sydenham, of Sydenham's son, of Sir Hans Sloane, and of most of the physicians of his time. He was warmly attached to the College of Physicians, and the manuscript annals bear testimony to his constant attendance at its meetings. He presented the portraits of Henry VIII and of Thomas Wolsey which now hang in the censor's room. Sydenham dedicated his ‘Schedula Monitoria’ to Goodall, and speaks with respect of his medical skill and with warm admiration of his character. A letter from Goodall making an appointment to meet Sloane in consultation at the Three Tuns in Newgate Street, London, is in the British Museum (Sloane MS. 4046), and in the same volume are six other autograph letters of his, all written in a hand of beautiful clearness. One dated 1 September 1709 is from Leatherhead, the others from Charterhouse. On 26 October 1698 he asks to borrow some books, on 28 January 1697 he asks Sloane about two Arabian measures, ‘Zasang’ and ‘Rhoxates,’ and wishes to borrow ‘Agricola, de ponderibus.’ In another he proposes an edition of ‘Sydenham,’ and 9 January 1699 wishes to consult Sloane as to his own health. He married thrice, died at Kensington