Prof Arthur Gamgee
FRS 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 ...
(11 October 1841 – 29 May 1909)
[
] was a British biochemist.
[
]
Life
Arthur Gamgee was the youngest of eight children of Joseph Gamgee, an Edinburgh-born
veterinarian
A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...
and pathologist and his wife Mary Ann West. He was born in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, Italy, where his father had a practice nearby in
Leghorn. His family moved back to England when he was fourteen years old. He was educated at
University College School
("Slowly but surely")
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in London and at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, graduating with an
MD in 1862. For his thesis, ''Contributions to the Chemistry and Physiology of Foetal Nutrition'', he was awarded a gold medal. He did postgraduate studies in both
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in Germany.
In 1867 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 proposer being Sir
Andrew Douglas Maclagan
Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan PRSE FRCPE FRCSE FCS FRSSA (17 April 1812, in Ayr – 5 April 1900, in Edinburgh) was a Scottish surgeon, toxicologist and scholar of medical jurisprudence. He served as president of 5 learned societies: the Royal ...
.
He taught in the
Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine
Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education which is conducted o ...
, giving lectures on
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
and histology at
Surgeon's Hall
Surgeons' Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). It houses the Surgeons' Hall Museum, and the library and archive of the RCSEd. The present Surgeons' Hall was designed by William ...
. Between 1863-1869 he was Physician to the
Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
In 1873 he was appointed Professor of Physiology at the
Royal Manchester School of Medicine. He was also Physician to the
Manchester Hospital for Consumption.
In 1872 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
and delivered its
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.
Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow a single l ...
in 1902. Manuscript notes of Gamgee's physiology lectures from both Edinburgh and Manchester survive as part of the Manchester Medical Manuscripts Collection held by special collections at the University of Manchester with the reference MMM/19/1.
From 1884 to 1886 he was
Fullerian Professor of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at the
Royal Institution of Great Britain
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
; he did not serve the full three years of the Fullerian appointment because he resigned his chair in 1886 to take up private practice. He was also the author of ''A Text-book of the Physiological Chemistry of the Animal Body: including an account of the chemical changes occurring in disease'', published in 1880.
[
]
Arthur Gamgee was fluent in French, German, and Italian.
On 29 March 1909, he died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
during a visit to Paris. He was buried in the family vault in
Arnos Vale Cemetery
Arnos Vale Cemetery () (also written Arno's Vale Cemetery), in Arnos Vale, Bristol, England, was established in 1837. Its first burial was in 1839. The cemetery followed a joint-stock model, funded by shareholders. It was laid out as an Arcadi ...
, Bristol.
Family
He married Mary Louisa Clark in 1875.
He was the brother of
John Gamgee
John Gamgee (1831–1894) was a British veterinarian and inventor. He specialised in the contagious diseases of larger animals: primarily cattle and horses.
Life
Gamgee was born in 1831 in Florence, Italy, the son of Joseph Gamgee (1801–1895), ...
and
Joseph Sampson Gamgee
Dr Joseph Sampson Gamgee, MRCS, FRSE (17 April 1828, Livorno, Italy – 18 September 1886) was a surgeon at the Queen's Hospital (later the General Hospital) in Birmingham, England. He pioneered aseptic surgery (having once shared lodgings ...
and uncle of
D'Arcy Thompson
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait an ...
.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamgee, Arthur
1841 births
1909 deaths
19th-century Scottish people
Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
British biochemists
Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fullerian Professors of Physiology