MIDDLETON, Peter, physician, born in Scotland ; died in New York in 1781. He was graduated at the University of Edinburgh, and came to New York, where he was one of the most eminent medical men in the middle of the 18th century. In 1750 he assisted Dr. John Bard in making the first dissection on recoil in this country. In 1767 he aided in establishing a new medical school in New York, in which he was professor of pathology and physiology from 1767 to 1776, and of chemistry and materia medica from 1770 till 1776. This was incorporated with Kings (now Columbia) college, of which he was governor from 1770 till 1780. He received the degree of M.D. from this school in 1768. He published a letter on the "Croup" in the "Medical Repository" (vol. ix.), and "Historical Inquiries into the Ancient and Present System of Medicine" (1769).