John Brown (physician)
| John Brown | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
22 September 1810 Biggar, South Lanarkshire |
| Died | 11 May 1882 (aged 71) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation | physician, essayist |
John Brown FRSE FRCPE (22 September 1810 – 11 May 1882) was a Scottish physician and essayist best known for his three-volume collection Horae Subsecivae (Leisure Hours, 1858), which included essays and papers on art, medical history and biography. Of the first, his dog story "Rab and his Friends" (1859), and his essays "Pet Marjorie" (1863), on Marjorie Fleming, the ten-year-old prodigy and "pet" of Walter Scott, "Our Dogs", "Minchmoor", and "The Enterkine" are best known. Brown was half-brother to the organic chemist Alexander Crum Brown.
Brown was the son of the clergyman John Brown (1784–1858), and was born in Biggar, Scotland. His mother, Jane Nimmo, died when he was only six.
Brown was educated at the Edinburgh High School and graduated as M.D. at the University of Edinburgh in 1833, and practised as a physician in that city. He was descended from eminent Presbyterian clergymen. After graduating MD in 1833 he was apprenticed, to James Syme. Brown subsequently acquired a very large medical practice in Edinburgh at a time when infectious diseases took a heavy toll of life. He was a very sociable man, and his house at 23 Rutland Street was the scene of many social gatherings. In 1840 he married Catherine Scott McKay. They had three children, a baby who died shortly after birth (a girl), a daughter, Helen, who was to marry Captain Alexander Laws, and a son 'Jock' Brown. Helen Laws moved to Ireland but outlived her father. However, Jock was to survive into the 20th century and worked hard to pay tribute to his father, collecting all his letters, and working to erect a plaque on his house which remains to this day. In 1847 Dr Brown became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and for a while was Honorary Librarian. He held strong views on the inappropriateness of examinations to evaluate student progress and was unimpressed by the view that scientific advances were in patients' best interests.
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