Jonathan Pereira, an English pharmacologist, born in London, May 22, 1804, died there, Jan. 20, 1853. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary, and in March, 1823, received a license to practise from the society of apothecaries. On his appointment not long after as apothecary of the Aldersgate street dispensary, he became a private tutor, and published several works, chiefly for the use of students about to be examined.

He translated the Latin pharmacopoeia of the London college of physicians, and published Latin prescriptions under the title of Selecta e Prmcriptis. He also compiled "A General Table of Atomic Numbers," and in 1826 was appointed lecturer in chemistry in the Alders-gate street school of medicine. His lectures were published under the title of "Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics," and to this work he owed his reputation. In 1851 he became physician to the London hospital. He also published a work on "Food and Diet" (1842), and wrote a series of "Lectures on Polarized Light".