biology

Richard Pulteney

Richard Pulteney is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Pulteney rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Pulteney FRS FRSE FLS (17 February 1730 – 13 October 1801) was an English physician and botanist. He was a promoter of Linnaean taxonomy, and authored the first English language biography of Carl Linnaeus, entitled A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus.

Key takeaways

Richard Pulteney belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Pulteney to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Pulteney from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Pulteney FRS FRSE FLS (17 February 1730 – 13 October 1801) was an English physician and botanist. He was a promoter of Linnaean taxonomy, and authored the first English language biography of Carl Linnaeus, entitled A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus.

Life He was born in Loughborough on 17 February 1730, the sole surviving child of thirteen children to Samuel Pulteney (1674–1754), a tailor, and his wife, Mary Tomlinson (1692–1759) from neighbouring Hathern. The family were Calvinists. His maternal uncle, George Tomlinson of Hathern, instilled in him an early love of Natural History. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, and a school house was later named after him. After being apprenticed as an apothecary in Loughborough he was then sent to Scotland to study medicine at Edinburgh University where he gained a doctorate (MD) in 1764. He served as an apothecary and physician in Leicestershire for some years before obtaining a position as personal physician to the elderly William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, a very distant cousin, at his London address. In 1762 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. When the Earl died in 1764 he moved to Blandford in Dorset and remained there for the rest of his life. He formalised his role as doctor of the village in 1767. In this small rural community he had ample free time to devote himself to the study of nature. In 1779 aged 49, he married Elizabeth Galton (d.1820), daughter of John Galton of Shapwick. They had no children but cared for one of Elizabeth's nieces as a daughter. In 1793 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Daniel Rutherford, Dr Alexander Monro, and William Wright. He died at Blandford in Dorset on 13 October 1801. He is buried in Langton Herring churchyard in Dorset. A memorial table to his memory was erected in Blandford church. He bequeathed his Hortus Siccus and collection of botanical books to the Linnaean Society.

Publications Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Progress of Botany (1790) A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus (1781)

Artistic recognition His portrait by Thomas Beach is held by the Leicestershire County Council Museum. His etched portrait by James Basire is held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Botanical Reference

References

I. D. Hughes (2004). "Pulteney, Richard (1730–1801)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (January 2008 online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22888. Retrieved 3 May 2011. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Pulteney

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Pulteney claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Pulteney before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Pulteney ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Pulteney

In research: Richard Pulteney appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Pulteney in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Pulteney is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1730 births, 1801 deaths, 18th-century English botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Pulteney outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Pulteney in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Pulteney means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Pulteney out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Pulteney in simple terms?

Why does Richard Pulteney matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Pulteney?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Pulteney.