18 January 1782 marks the death of Sir John Pringle, President of the Royal Society, 1772-1778, and physician to King George III.
A sanitary pioneer, he is sometimes called the "father of modern military medicine". In his 1752 paper, Observations on Diseases of the Army, he emphasised the need to adopt a clean medical environment for the treatment of wounded soldiers. The work is now regarded as a medical classic. His 1753 paper to the Society on septic and antiseptic substances also proved to be a pioneering work. Pringle also coined the term, "influenza".
