ABSTRACT
George Cheyne was a Scottish physician who had studied medicine with Archibald Pitcairne in Edinburgh. With Pitcairne’s sponsorship, Cheyne obtained his medical degree from King’s College of the University of Aberdeen. Like many other Scots, he moved south to London where, along with fellow physician and mathematician John Arbuthnot, he became part of a circle of friends and former students of Archibald Pitcairne and David Gregory.1 Adept at mathematics and initially unable to find employment as a physician in London, Cheyne became, like De Moivre, a teacher of mathematics to the upper classes. Unlike De Moivre, who tutored many students, Cheyne taught only one student, the younger brother of the Earl (later Duke) of Roxburghe.
