DEATH OF JOHN FREIND, PHYSICIAN

ST URBAIN, Ferdinand de: England, 1728, Bronze, 57 mm
Obv: Bust of Freind    IOANNES. FREIND. COLL. MED. LOND. ET. REG. S.S.  (John Freind, London College of Medicine and Royal S S).
Rev: Old practice of medicine (Theorizing) joined with modern practice (Experimenting)    MEDICINA. VETVS. ET. NOVA.  (The Art of Healing, Old and New).
Exergue:  VNAM FACIMVS VTRAMQVE.  (Let Us Practice One and the Other).
Signed:  SV.
Ref: M.I., ii 488/28; Storer 1122; Eimer 77/515; Freeman 191; Forrer V, p. 310 # 13, p. 311 (ill.);  Pollard II, 845/892;  Weiss BW202

John Freind, a Fellow of the Royal Society (1712) and member of Parliament for Launceston (1722), was an English physician and medical historian. He is thought to have had a hand in Atterbury's plot for the restoration of the Stuart family and was committed to the Tower. There he worked on his most elaborate work, The History of Physic from the time of Galen to the beginning of the sixteenth century.  Upon his release, he was appointed physician to Frederick, Prince of Wales and later to Queen Caroline. 

The reverse of this medal is an allusion to the union of the old practice founded upon reasoning and the modern practice founded on experiment. The joining of the two forms an alliance between ancient and modern medicine, making them both one.

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