Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/147

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Foxe
141
Foxe

widow of Captain Burgoyne, lost in his ship the Captain [see Burgoyne, Hugh Talbot].

In personal appearance Fox was tall, spare, and erect, with a refined expression. Although he was somewhat reserved in manner, his sincerity and earnestness gave him a strong hold on those with whom he came in contact. He was a man of great benevolence, and was in the habit of placing his house at Rydal at the disposal of the Bishop of Bedford during the summer months for the use of invalided East-end clergymen and their families.

Equally as a teacher and as an investigator and writer Fox ranked high. His cases were thoroughly studied, with special attention to the mental and emotional state of his patients, in whom he inspired great confidence. He was the first physician to save life in cases of rheumatic fever where the temperature was excessively high, by placing the patient in baths of iced water. His lectures were highly valued by the students, and the characteristic of his teaching was the ability with which the facts of pathology were made the basis of practical diagnosis and treatment. All his writings manifested great research and labour, and are encyclopædic on their subjects. Besides the works enumerated below, he had been for many years preparing a treatise on diseases of the lungs and an atlas of their pathological anatomy, works that were nearly complete at his death. Fox's principal writings were:

  1. ‘On the Origin, Structure, and Mode of Development of Cystic Tumours of the Ovary,’ ‘Med.-Chir. Trans.,’ 1864, xlvii. 227–86.
  2. ‘On the Artificial Production of Tubercle in the Lower Animals,’ a lecture before the Royal College of Physicians, 1864.
  3. ‘On the Development of Striated Muscular Fibre,’ ‘Phil. Trans.’ clvi. 1866.
  4. ‘On the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Varieties of Dyspepsia,’ 1867; 3rd edition, enlarged, 1872, under the title ‘The Diseases of the Stomach,’ substantially a reproduction of his articles in Reynolds's ‘System of Medicine,’ vol. ii. 1868.
  5. Articles on ‘Pneumonia,’ &c., in Reynolds's ‘System,’ iii. 1871.
  6. ‘On the Treatment of Hyperpyrexia by means of the External Application of Cold,’ 1871.

[Lancet, 7 and 14 May 1887; British Medical Journal, 7 May 1887.]

G. T. B.

FOXE, JOHN (1516–1587), martyrologist, was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1516. The date is supplied by a grant of arms made to his family on 21 Dec. 1598 (Maitland, Notes, pt. i. 8–10). He is there said to be lineally connected with Richard Foxe [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, but this relationship is improbable. The father, of whom nothing is known, died while his sons were very young. Foxe had at least one brother. The mother married a second husband, Richard Melton, to whom Foxe dedicated an early work, ‘An Instruccyon of Christen Fayth,’ with every mark of affection. He was a studious youth, and attracted the notice of one Randall, a citizen of Coventry, and of John Harding or Hawarden, fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. His stepfather's means were small, and these friends sent him to Oxford about 1532, when he was sixteen years old. According to the untrustworthy biography of 1641, attributed to Foxe's son Samuel, Foxe entered at Brasenose College, where his patron Hawarden was tutor. He is not mentioned in the college books. It must, however, be admitted that Foxe, when dedicating his ‘Syllogisticon’ (1563) to Hawarden, writes of him as if he had been his tutor; and that Alexander Nowell, afterwards dean of St. Paul's (stated in the biography of 1641 to have been Foxe's chamber-fellow at Oxford), was a member of Brasenose, and was one of Foxe's lifelong friends. Foxe also refers to Brasenose thrice in his ‘Actes and Monuments,’ but the absence of any comment indicating personal association with the place does not give this circumstance any weight. If he resided at Brasenose at all, it was probably for a brief period as Hawarden's private pupil. He must undoubtedly have attended Magdalen College School at the same time. A close connection with both Magdalen School and College is beyond question. The matriculation register for the years during which Foxe would have been ‘in statu pupillari’ is unfortunately lost. But he became probationer fellow of Magdalen in July 1538, and full fellow 25 July 1539, being joint lecturer in logic with Baldwin Norton in 1539–1540, and proceeding B.A. 17 July 1537 and M.A. in July 1543 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 188). Foxe repeatedly identifies himself with Magdalen in his works and private letters. ‘For which foundation,’ he writes in the ‘Actes,’ iii. 716, ‘as there have been and be yet many students bound to yield grateful thanks unto God, so I must needs confess to be one, except I will be unkind.’ About 1564, when one West (formerly of Magdalen) was charged in the court of high commission with making rebellious speeches, Foxe used his influence to procure the offender's pardon, on the sole ground that he had belonged to the same school and college at Oxford as himself. As fellow of Magdalen Foxe had his difficulties. His intimate friends and correspondents at Oxford included, besides Nowell, Richard Bertie [q. v.], John Cheke of Cambridge [q. v.], Hugh Latimer, and