Robinson, Bryan (c.1680–1754), medical doctor and scholar, was the only son of Christopher Robinson, doctor, of Dublin, and his wife Mary. A sister, Mary, died in infancy. Robinson graduated Bachelor of Medicine (1709) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and served briefly as lecturer in anatomy there (8 September 1716–17 January 1717). He was admitted a candidate of the (Royal) King and Queen's College of Physicians Ireland (forerunner of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland) on 24 August 1711 and was elected a fellow the following year, as well as serving as its president on three occasions (1718, 1727, 1739) and treasurer in 1742. He was appointed professor of physic (1745) in TCD.
Robinson can be seen in the same light as Richard Helsham (qv) and Thomas Molyneux (qv), polymaths prominent in Dublin affairs who also made a significant contribution to contemporary science. His first work was a translation from Philip de la Hire, New elements of conick sections (London, 1704). A pamphlet, The case of Miss Rolt communicated by an eyewitness, an account of the inoculation of five children against smallpox in Dublin, was published in 1725. Robinson had been a pupil of Helsham, and posthumously edited his Course of lectures (Dublin, 1739), Robinson's most significant literary achievement. Where Helsham's work had avoided detailed analysis, Robinson constructed elaborate mathematical theories detailing complex physical and biological processes. His Treatise on animal œconomy (Dublin, 1732) applied Newtonian principles to a range of medical and anatomical situations and from this developed rational treatments for disease, as well as hinting at the existence of oxygen. He sought to explain muscular motion, utilising the laws of pure and applied mathematics; this work was demonstrative of his more contentious style of natural philosophy, in comparison to Helsham. The Treatise embroiled Robinson in scientific controversy, leading to an expanded edition of the work (1734).
Robinson's most important work, A dissertation on the aether of Sir Isaac Newton (Dublin, 1743) revived Newton's theory of the aether, expanding and developing the latter's cautious explanations into a coherent and fully developed mathematical theory. Robinson's interest here was sparked by Newton's speculation that vibration of the aether along nerves caused sensation, grounding his complex mathematical theory of the aether on Helsham's analysis of pneumatics. Two years later he published Sir Isaac Newton's account of the aether, primarily a reprint of Newton's 1678/9 letter to Robert Boyle (qv), recently discovered and published for the first time in Thomas Birch's History of the Royal Society (London, 1744). Robinson's work sought to offer a fully developed mathematical ‘theory of everything’ and was sufficiently convincing that it was ‘adopted into the common thinking of mid-century British experimental natural philosophers’ (Schofield, 111). Robinson also published A dissertation on the food … of human bodies (Dublin, 1747), Observations on the virtues and operations of medicine (London, 1752), and an Essay upon money and coins (Dublin, 1737).
In 1738 Robinson lived in Mary Street, Dublin, and ran a thriving medical practice in the city. He probably acted as physician to the friend of Jonathan Swift (qv), ‘Stella’ (Esther Van Homrigh (qv), d. 1723), who bequeathed him in her will £15 ‘to buy a ring’. The founding act of Dr Steevens’ Hospital (1729) named him as a governor, and he served as one of the attending physicians when it opened (1733), and again on two later occasions (1737, 1741). In good health until 1748, then becoming largely incapacitated, he retained his post as TCD professor until his death on 26 January 1754. Robinson had three children with his wife, Mary (maiden name and date of marriage unknown): Christopher (qv), justice of the king's bench; Robert (qv), state physician 1742–70; and Bryan.
Benjamin Wilson, an engraver and printer from London who knew Robinson personally, sold (1750) prints from his own engraving of a portrait of Robinson (Pollard, 623). A portrait of him hangs in the provost's house, TCD, another is held by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and a third in the Edward Worth Library, Dublin.