ARMSTRONG, John, M.D. an eminent physician, poet, and miscellaneous writer, was born in Castletown parish, Roxburghshire, where his father and brother were ministers; completed his education in the university of Edinburgh, where he took his degree in physic, February 4, 1732, with much reputation; and published his thesis, as· the forms of that university require; the subject of which was De Tabe Purulenta. In 1735 he published a little hu-. morous fugitive pamphlet in 8vo, entitled An Essay for abridging the Study of Physic ; to which is added, a Dia> logue betwixt Hygeia, Mercury, and Pluto, relating to thf practice of Physic as it is managed by a certain illustrious Society ; as also an Epistle from Usbeck the Persian to Joshua Ward, Esq. This piece contains much fun and. drollery; in the dialogue, he has caught the very spirit of Lucian. In 1737 he published A Synopsis of the History and Cure of the Venereal Disease, 8vo. This was soon followed by the Economy of Love, a poem which has much merit, but, it must be confessed, is too strongly tinctured with the licentiousness of Ovid. It is said, however, that his maturer judgment expunged many of the luxuriances of youthful fancy, in an edition “revised and corrected by the author” in 1768. It appears by one of the cases on literary property, that Mr Millar paid 50 guineas for the copy-right of this poem, which was intended as a burlesque on some didactic writers. It has been observed of Dr Armstrong, that his works have great inequalities, some of them being possessed of every requisite to be sought after in the most perfect composition, while others can hardly be considered as superior to the productions of mediocrity. The Art of preserving Health, which was published in 1744, is his best performance. In 1746 Dr Armstrong was appointed one of the physicians to the hospital for lame and sick soldiers behind Buckingham House. In 1751 he published his poem On Benevolence, in folio; and in 1753, Taste, an Epistle to a young Critic. In 1758 appeared Sketches or Essays on various subjects, by Launcelot Temple Esq. in two parts. Tn this production, which possesses much humour and knowledge of the world, and which had a remarkably rapid sale, he is supposed to have been assisted by Mr Wilkes. In 1760 he was appointed physician to the army in Germany, where, in 1761, he wrote a poem called Day, an Epistle to John Wilkes of Aylesbury, Esq. In this poem, which is not collected in his works, he wantonly hazarded a reflection on Churchill, which drew on him the vengeance of that severest of satirists. In 1770 Dr Armstrong published a collection of Miscellanies, in 2 vols., containing, I, The Art of preserving Health; 2, Of Benevolence, an Epistle to Eumenes; 3, Taste, an Epistle to a young Critic, 1753; 4, Imitations of Shakspeare and Spenser; 5, The Universal Almanack, by Noureddin Ali; 6, The Forced Marriage, a tragedy; 7, Sketches. In 1771 he published A short Ramble through some parts of France and Italy, by Launcelot Temple ; and in 1773, in his own name, a quarto pamphlet, under the title of Medical Essays ; towards the conclusion of which he accounts for his not having such extensive practice as some of his brethren, from his not being qualified to employ the usual means. He complains much of the behaviour of some of his brethren, of the herd of critics, and particularly of the reviewers. He died in September 1779.