JEFFRIES, John, physician, born in Boston, Massachusetts. 5 February, 1745; died there, 16 September, 1819. He was graduated at Harvard in 1763, and studied medicine in London and Aberdeen, receiving his medical degree at the latter place in 1769. He then returned to Boston, continued to practise with success, and was from 1771 till 1774 surgeon of a British ship of the line at that port. At the evacuation of Boston by the British He accompanied the troops to Halifax, where he was made by Lord Howe. surgeon-general of the forces in Nova Scotia. In March, 1779, he went to England and was made surgeon-major to the forces in America, entering upon his duties, 11 March, 1780, at Charleston, South Carolina In December of that year he resigned and returned to London, where he practised successfully and occupied himself with scientific investigations. He undertook two aerial voyages, the second of which, 7 January, 1785, was from Dover across the British channel into the forest of Guienne, in the province of Artois, France. In the summer of 1789 he returned to Boston, where he delivered the first public lecture on anatomy that was ever given in New England; but, public feeling being against dissections, he was forced by mob violence to discontinue his discourses. He published a "Narrative of Two Aerial Voyages" (London, 1786).