JOHN GREGORY (1724-1773), professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, grandson of James Gregory, the inventor of the Gregorian telescope, and youngest son of Dr James Gregory, professor of medicine in King's College, Aberdeen, was born at Aberdeen, June 3,1724. After studying at the grammar school of Aberdeen, and completing his literary course at King's College in that city, he attended the medical classes at Edinburgh university. In 1745 he went to Leyden to complete his medical studies, and during his stay there he received without solicitation the degree of doctor of medicine from King's College, Aberdeen. On his return from Holland he was elected professor of philosophy at King's College, but in 1749 he resigned his professorship on account of its duties interfering too much with his practice as a physician. In 1754 he proceeded to London, where he made the acquaintance of many persons of distinction, and the same year was chosen fellow of the Royal Society. On the death in November 1755 of his brother Dr James Gregory, who had succeeded his father as professor of medicine in King's College, Aberdeen, he was appointed to that office. In 1764 he removed to Edinburgh in the hope of obtaining a more extended field of practice as a physician, and in °1766 he was appointed professor of the practice of physic in the university of Edinburgh, to whose eminence as a medical school be largely contributed. From his eighteenth year Dr Gregory had been subject at irregular intervals to attacks of gout, and on the morning of February 10th, 1773, he was found dead in bed apparently from the results of this disease.

He is the author of A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World, 1765 ; Observations on the Duties, Offices, and Qualifications of a Physician, 1772; Elements of the Practice of Physic, 1772 ; and A Father's Legacy to his Daughters, 1774. His Whole Works, with a life by Mr Tytler (afterwards Lord Woodhouselee), were published at Edinburgh in 1788.