John Abercrombie | |
---|---|
Born |
Aberdeen |
10 October 1780
Died | 14 November 1844 19 York Place, Edinburgh |
(aged 64)
Nationality | Scottish |
Occupation | Physician, philosopher |
John Abercrombie, FRSE, FRCSE, FRCPE (10 October 1780 – 14 November 1844), was a Scottish physician and philosopher. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary says of him that after Dr James Gregory's death, he was "recognized as the first consulting physician in Scotland".
He was the official physician to Heriot's Hospital and Physician to the King for Scotland.
He was the son of the Reverend George Abercrombie, the minister of East Church, Aberdeen, he was educated at the Grammar School and Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and after graduating as M.D. in 1803 he settled down to practise in that city, where he soon attained a leading position.
From 1816 he published various papers in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which formed the basis of his more extensive works: Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord, regarded as the first textbook in neuropathology, and Researches on the Diseases of the Intestinal Canal, Liver and other Viscera of the Abdomen, both published in 1828. In 1821 he was elected to the Royal College of Surgeons. For his services as a physician and philanthropist he received many marks of distinction, including the Rectorship of Marischal College in 1835.
In 1831 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Thomas Charles Hope, and served as Vice-President of the Society from 1835 to 1844.