Thomas Dover

Thomas Dover, M.D. (1660–1742), sometimes referred to as "Doctor Quicksilver", was an English physician. He is remembered for his common cold and fever medicine Dover's powder, his work with the poor in Bristol, and his privateering voyage alongside William Dampier and Woodes Rogers that rescued castaway Alexander Selkirk, the real-life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.

Dover was born in Barton-on-the-Heath, England in 1660, the son of a gentleman farmer, one of eight children. He moved to Oxford to continue his education and achieved his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree before transferring to Cambridge and continuing in what was considered at the time to be a better university for medical training. In 1687, he completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

He studied medicine under Thomas Sydenham in Pall Mall, London. During this time, he contracted smallpox and was treated with the "cooling method" by Sydenham, described by Dover in his 1732 book Ancient Physician's Legacy to his Country:

"I had no fire allowed in my room, my windows were constantly open, my bedclothes were ordered to be laid no higher than my waist. He made me take twelve bottles of small beer, acidulated with spirit of vitriol, every twenty-four hours."

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