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was descended from a good family, and received a liberal education, being admitted as king's scholar at Westminster school, and thence elected to Christ-church college, Oxford, in 1649, where he took the degree of M. A. in 1655, and then studied medicine. The celebrated Dr. Willis, who employed him as coadjutor in his dissections, found him so able an assistant, that he afterwards became his steady friend and patron, and introduced him into practice. In 1665, Lower took the degree of M. D.; and in the same year published a defence of Dr. Willis's work on fevers, entitled "Diatriba Thomæ Willisii M. D. et Prof. Oxon. de Febribus Vindicatio adversus Edm. de Meara Ormondiensem Hibern. M. D." 8vo, a work of considerable learning and force of argument, but not without some fallacies, as he afterwards himself admitted. But his most important work was, his "Tractatus de Corde, item de motu et calore Sanguinis, et Chyli in eum transitu," which was first printed in London in 1669. In this work the structure of the heart, the origin and course of its fibres, and the nature of its action, were pointed out with much accuracy and ingenuity. He likewise demonstrated the dependance of its motions upon the nervous influence, referred the red colour of the arterial blood to the action of the air upon it in the lungs, and calculated the force of the circulation, and the quantity and velocity of the blood passing through it. The work excited particular notice, in consequence of the chapter on the transfusion of blood from the vessels of one living animal to those of another, which the author had first performed experimentally at Oxford, in February 1665, and subsequently practised upon an insane person before the royal society. Lower claims the merit of originality in this matter; but the experiment had certainly been suggested long before by Libavius (see LIBAVIUS), and experience having soon decided, that the operation was attended with pernicious consequences, it was justly exploded. Lower had removed to London soon after the commencement of these experiments, and in 1667 had been a fellow of the royal society, and of the college of physicians. The reputation acquired by his publications brought him into extensive practice; and after the death of Dr. Willis, he was considered as one of the ablest physicians in London. But his attachment to the Whig party, at the time of the Popish plot, brought him into discredit at court, so that his practice

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declined considerably before his death, Jan 17, 1690-91. He was buried at St. Tudy, near his native place, in Cornwall, where he had purchased an estate. In addition to the writings above-mentioned, he communicated some papers containing accounts of anatomical experiments to the royal society; a small tract on catarrh, which was added, as a new chapter, to the edition of the treatise de Corde of 1680; and a letter on the state of medicine in England. He is said to have been the first discoverer of Astrop Wells.1

LOWER (SIR WILLIAM, KNT.), was a noted cavalier in the reign of king Charles I. He was born at a place called Tremare in Cornwall. During the heat of the civil wars he took refuge in Holland, where, being strongly attached to the Muses, he had an opportunity of enjoying their society, and pursuing his study in peace and privacy. He died in 1662. He was a very great admirer of the French poets, particularly Corneille and Quinault, on whose works he has built the plans of four out of the six plays which he wrote. The titles of his dramatic works are, 1. "Phoenix in her Flames." 2. "Polyeuctes; or, The Martyr." 3. "Horatius." 4. "Inchanted Lovers.' 5. "Noble Ingratitude." 6. " Amorous Phantasm." All those, except

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the first, were written during the usurpation. He translated from the French the first and third volumes of "The Innocent Lady, or Illustrious Innocents." But the most considerable of his translations, was " A Relation in form of a Journal of the voyage and residence of Charles II. in Holland from May 25, to June 2, 1660," fol. finely printed, with good engravings of the ceremonies, and several copies of bad verses by the translator.2

LOWMAN (MOSES), a learned dissenting clergyman, was born in 1680. He was originally destined for the law, and in 1697 entered as a student in the Middle-Temple, but in about two years he changed his purpose and determined to study divinity. With this view he went over to Holland in 1699, where he studied partly at Utrecht and partly at Leyden. In 1710, after being admitted to the ministry among the dissenters, he settled with the congregation at Clapham, as assistant to Mr. Grace, whom he succeeded as their pastor, and was ordained in 1714. In

Biog. Brit.-Ath. Ox. vol. II.-Rees's Cyclopædia,

2. Ath. Ox. vol. II.-Biog. Dram.-Cole's MS Athenæ in Brit. Mus.

this situation he continued to his death, preaching twice each Sunday until within a few weeks of that event. He distinguished himself, from the period of his academical studies, in metaphysics and divinity: and, to the close of his life, he was an indefatigable reader, and acquired an extraordinary stock of useful knowledge, particularly in Jewish learning and antiquities, to which last he was much devoted. The result of this application appeared in the learned works he published, and which constituted his chief fame; for as a pulpit orator, it does not appear that he was much admired. Dr. Chandler, who preached his funeral sermon, gives him a very high personal character. He died May 3, 1752, in the seventy-third year of his age.

His pen was first employed, in 1716, in a kind of periodical work, called the "Occasional Papers," which now form three volumes, 8vo, and in which he wrote, No. I. (vol. II.) On Orthodoxy ;" and No. VI. "On the danger of the Church." His colleagues in this paper were Mr. Simon Brown, Dr. Grosvenor, Dr. Evans, and others. The subjects are in general on points in controversy with the church. In 1718, he wrote a treatise against Collins, the title of which, says his biographer, is forgotten, but it is mentioned by the accurate Leland, as "The Argument from prophecy, in proof that Jesus is the Messiah, vindicated, in some considerations on the prophecies of the Old Testament, as the grounds and reasons of the Christian religion." It was not printed, however, until 1733. In 1735, he was one of the preachers at Salter's-Hall, against popery the subject of his sermon, "The Principles of Popery schismatical." He had published before this, two occasional sermons. Another of his pamphlets, entitled "An Argument to prove the Unity and Perfections of God à priori," was more admired for its novelty and ingenuity than usefulness: but the works of Mr. Lowman on which his reputation is most securely founded, are, 1. "A Dissertation on the Civil Government of the Hebrews," in answer to Morgan's "Moral Philosopher." This, which appeared in 1740, was esteemed a very judicious performance, and was highly approved of by bishop Sherlock and other clergymen of the established church. The second edi tion, in 1745, has an appendix. 2. "A rationale of the Ritual of the Hebrew Worship: in which the design and usefulness of that ritual are explained and vindicated from objections," 1748. 3. "A Paraphrase and Notes upon the Revelation

of St. John," 4to, twice, and 8vo, lately. 4. "Three' (posthumous) Tracts," on the Schechina, the Logos, &c.1

LOWTH (WILLIAM), a distinguished divine, was the son of William Lowth, apothecary and citizen of London, and was born in the parish of St. Martin's Ludgate, Sept.11, 1661. His grandfather Mr. Simon Lowth, rector of Tyle-' hurst in Berks, took great care of his education, and initiated him early in letters. He was afterwards sent to Merchant-Taylors' school, where he made so great a progress that he was elected thence into St. John's-college in Oxford in 1675, before he was fourteen. Here he regularly took the degrees of master of arts, and bachelor in divinity. His eminent worth and learning recommended him to Dr. Mew, bishop of Winchester, who made him his chaplain, and in 1696 conferred upon him a prebend in the cathedral-church of Winchester, and in 1699 presented him to the rectory of Buriton, with the chapel of Petersfield, Hants. His studies were strictly confined within his own province, and solely applied to the duties of his function; yet, that he might acquit himself the better, he acquired an uncommon share of critical learning. There is scarcely any ancient author, Greek or Latin, profane or ecclesiastical, especially the latter, whose works he had not read with accuracy, constantly accompanying his reading with critical and philological remarks. Of his collections in this way, he was, upon all occasions, very communicative. His valuable notes on "Clemens Alexandrinus" are to be met with in Potter's edition of that father; and his remarks on "Josephus," communicated to Hudson for his edition, are acknowledged in his preface; as also those larger and more numerous annotations on the "Ecclesiastical Historians," inserted in Reading's edition of them at Cambridge. The author also of the "Bibliotheca Biblica" was indebted to him for the same kind of assistance. Chandler, late bishop of Durham, while engaged in his defence of Christianity from the prophecies. of the Old Testament, against Collins's discourse of the "Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion," and in his vindication of the "Defence," in answer to "The Scheme of Literal Prophecy considered," held a constant correspondence with him, and consulted him upon many difficulties that occurred in the course of that work. But the most

1 Chandler's Funeral Sermon.-Prot. Dissenter's Magazine, vols. I. and II. VOL. XX.

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valuable part of his character was that which least appeared in the eyes of the world, the private and retired part, that of the good Christian, and the useful parishpriest. His piety, his diligence, his hospitality, and beneficence, rendered his life highly exemplary, and greatly enforced his public exhortations. He married Margaret daughter of Robert Pitt, esq. of Blandford, by whom he had three daughters and two sons, one of whom was the learned subject of our next article. He died May 17, 1732, and was buried, by his own orders, in the church-yard at Buriton, near the South side of the chancel; and on the in'side wall is a plain monument with an inscription.

He published, 1. "A Vindication of the Divine Authority, and Inspiration of the Old and New Testament, 1692," 12mo. And a second edition with "amendments, and a new preface, wherein the antiquity of the Pentateuch is asserted, and vindicated from some late objections, 1699," 2. " Directions for the profitable reading of the Holy Scriptures; together with some observations for confirming their Divine Authority, and illustrating the difficulties thereof, 1708," 12mo. This useful tract has gone through several editions. 3. "Two Sermons preached in the cathedral church of Winchester, at the assizes in 1714, entitled "Religion the distinguishing Character of Human Nature, on Job xxviii. 28," and, "The Wisdom of acknowledging Divine Revelation, on Matt. xi, 10." 4. "A Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah, 1714." 5. "On Jeremiah, 1718." 6. "On Ezekiel, 1723." 7. "On Daniel and the Minor Prophets, 1726." These, originally published in 4to, were afterwards republished together, with additions, in one vol. folio, as a continuation of bishop Patrick's "Commentary on the other parts of the Old Testament, in which form it has had several editions. 8. "The Characters of an Apostolical Church fulfilled in the Church of England, and our obligations to continue in the Communion of it." 9. "A Sermon preached in the Church of Petersfield, in the county of Southampton, 1752." This drew him unwillingly into some controversy with John Norman, a dissenter, of Portsmouth; but he soon dropped it, thinking him an unfair adversary, for his more useful studies and duties.' LOWTH (ROBERT), a very learned and eminent prelate, and second son to the preceding, was born Nov. 27,

Biog. Brit, communicated by his Son, afterwards bishop of London.

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