FOTHERGILL, JOHN

born March 8, 1712, Wensleydale, Yorkshire, Eng. died Dec. 26, 1780, London physician who was the first to record coronary arteriosclerosis (hardening of the walls of the arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle) in association with a case of angina pectoris. Fothergill studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and later became a highly successful London practitioner. His Account of the Sore Throat Attended with Ulcers (1748) was the first authoritative description of diphtheria. He popularized the use of coffee in England and promoted its cultivation in the West Indies. A friend of Benjamin Franklin, he collaborated with him on a plan for British reconciliation with the American colonies (1774).