Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langrish, Browne
LANGRISH, BROWNE, M.D. (d. 1759), physician, born in Hampshire, was educated as a surgeon. In 1733 he was in practice at Petersfield, Hampshire, and published 'A New Essay on Muscular Motion,' in which the structure of muscles and the phenomena of muscular contraction are discussed with much ingenuity, but with no more satisfactory conclusion than that muscular motion arises from the influence of the animal spirits over the muscular fibres. On 25 July 1734 he became an extra licentiate of the College of Physicians, and began practice as a physician. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 16 May 1734, and in 1735 published 'The Modern Theory and Practice of Physic,' in which he displays considerable originality in clinical research, and describes experiments in the analysis of excreta and the examination of the blood. A second edition appeared in 1764. He practised in Winchester, and in 1746 published 'Physical Experiments on Brutes, in order to discover a safe and easy Method of dissolving Stone in the Bladder.' Experiments on cherry laurel water are added, and he concludes that this poisonous liquid may be used in medicine with advantage. He delivered the Croonian lectures on muscular motion before the Royal Society in 1747, and they were published in 1748. In the same year he graduated M.D., and published also 'Plain Directions in regard to the Small-pox,' a sensible and interesting quarto of thirty-five pages, showing extensive reading as well as acute clinical observation. He died at Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 29 Nov. 1769.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 130; Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Soc. 1812; Works]