Dr Alexander Morison McAldowie

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1852–1926) was a Scottish physician, folklorist and ornithologist. As an author his topics are diverse, and he wrote in all three fields, being known either as Alex McAldowie or A M McAldowie.

Life

He was born on 16 May 1852 in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

the son of John McAldowie. He studied medicine at Aberdeen University and graduated MB ChM with highest honours in 1875. He became Assistant Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He then moved south to England to be House Surgeon at the

Royal Surrey County Hospital The Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) is a 520-bed District General Hospital, located on the fringe of Guildford, run by the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital has its origins in a facility at Farnham Road which opened i ...

. Finally he was Consulting Physician at the North Staffordshire Infirmary. In 1887 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were James Gregg Smith, John Charles Ogilvie Will, Robert Gray and John Gray McKendrick. He lived most of his later life in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, where he was a leading member of the North Staffordshire Field Club, then one of the largest and most active such societies in the British Isles. In 1900, he was awarded the club's Garner Medal " for his contributions to Natural History generally, and especially for his monograph on the Birds of Staffordshire". He died on 4 September 1926.

Publications

*''On Spinal Epilepsy'' (1878) *''Two Cases of Meniere's Disease'' (1883) *''Terebene as a Generator of Ozone'' (1886) *''The Birds of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

'' (1893) *''Staffordshire Knots: The Book of the Bazaar'' (1895) *''Personal Experiences of Witchcraft'' (1896) *''Prehistoric Time Measurement in Britain'' (1911) *''On the Human Plantar Reflexes''. *''

Pwllheli Pwllheli () is a market town and community of the Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn) in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011 of whom a large proportion, 81%, are Welsh language, Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the pl ...

, a Winter Health Resort''. McAldowie also contributed to the journal ''Folklore'' in the 1890s, mainly on the topic of possible survivals of witchcraft superstitions.The Guide to Mysterious Aberdeen, Geoff Holder

References

1852 births 1926 deaths 19th-century Scottish medical doctors 20th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish ornithologists Scottish folklorists Scottish non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Aberdeen Alumni of the University of Aberdeen People from Stoke-on-Trent {{Scotland-med-bio-stub