John Clarke was one of ten licentiates in midwifery created by the College of Physicians in the late eighteenth century to regularise the growing involvement of medical men in obstetrics. He was an excellent clinician and a popular teacher. His publications included original observations about puerperal fever, nausea and other complications of pregnancy and the management of labour. He opposed the attitude of the College that prevented its Fellows from practising midwifery and he stridently

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... icised the College's neglect of the diseases of children. Part one of his book on the diseases of children contained the first exact description of tetany. Part two was never published because of his early death.