Edgar March Crookshank (2 October 1858 – 1 July 1928) was an English

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...

Biography

Crookshank studied at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

and qualified for medicine in 1881. He served briefly as an assistant to

Joseph Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of s ...

, a physician noted for his work promoting

antiseptic An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...

s and

sterile Sterile or sterility may refer to: *Asepsis, a state of being free from biological contaminants * Sterile (archaeology), a sediment deposit which contains no evidence of human activity *Sterilization (microbiology), any process that eliminates or ...

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

. In 1882, Crookshank served as a doctor with the British armed forces sent to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

as a result of the Urabi Revolt; he was decorated for his service at the

Battle of Tel el-Kebir The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British ...

. On return from Egypt, Crookshank toured Europe in 1884 for further medical training. In Berlin, he visited the laboratory of

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...

and learned methods of isolating bacterial strains to investigate

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

s. When he returned to London, Crookshank wrote a textbook, ''An Introduction to Practical Bacteriology Based on the Methods of Koch'', which was published in 1886. Subsequent editions were published under differing titles in 1887, 1890 and 1896, and a French translation by H. Bergeaud was published in Paris as soon as 1886. In 1885, Crookshank founded one of the world's first bacteriological laboratories for human and

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

in London.Brought to light: photography and the invisible, Corey Keller, Jennifer Tucker, Tom Gunning;

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

; 2008 Crookshank was also interested in the use of photography to study bacteria and published ''Photography of Bacteria'' in 1887, the first text in English devoted solely to the photography of bacteria. In the introduction to this book he wrote that the photographs were "intended to convince scoffers of the essential truth of the new Science, that specific, often morphologically distinct, microorganisms were the cause of particular infectious diseases". During this time he became interested in the study of infectious diseases in animals and in 1886 was awarded the chair of Comparative Pathology and Bacteriology at

. In his new role he was asked to investigate an outbreak of

cowpox Cowpox is an infectious disease caused by the ''cowpox virus'' (CPXV). It presents with large blisters in the skin, a fever and swollen glands, historically typically following contact with an infected cow, though in the last several decades more ...

Lechlade Lechlade () is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England, south of Birmingham and west of London. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable, although there is a right of navigation that contin ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. His investigations led him to reconsider the use of

-derived

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity The adaptive immune system, also known as the acquired immune system, is a subsystem of the immune system that is composed of specialized, systemic cells and pro ...

to immunize against

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

, a treatment developed by

Edward Jenner Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...

nearly a hundred years earlier. His conclusion was that such

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...

s were ineffective in preventing smallpox because the two diseases (cowpox and smallpox) were "totally distinct". Instead of a cowpox-derived vaccine, he advocated the use of a more dangerous vaccination using attenuated smallpox. In 1889, he published a two-volume treatise on the subject, ''A History and Pathology of Vaccination''. Vaccination policies were a divisive topic at the time and in the ensuing controversy that resulted from his publication, Crookshank quit his chair at King's College London in 1891. He continued to speak out on health matters but never worked in a laboratory again. He subsequently, however, focused on the encouragement of agricultural and veterinary science, serving as a governor of the

Royal Veterinary College , mottoeng = Confront disease at onset , established = (became a constituent part of University of London in 1949) , endowment = £10.5 million (2021) , budget = £106.0 million (20 ...

until his death. In 1894, Crookshank was appointed

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and in 1906 stood unsuccessfully as

East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...

's parliamentary candidate as a Unionist and tariff reformer. In later life, he travelled extensively in the

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

s, becoming a skilled

big-game hunter Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ("spo ...

and deputy chairman of two Scottish-Australian corporations.

Publications

* ''History and Pathology of Vaccination, Volume 1'',

Nabu Press BiblioBazaar is, with Nabu Press, an imprint of the historical reprints publisher BiblioLife, which is based in Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston C ...

, 2010, * ''A Textbook of Bacteriology: Including the Etiology and Prevention of Infective Diseases and a Short Account of Yeasts and Moulds, Haematoza, and Psorosperms'',

, 2010, * ''Photography of Bacteria'',

General Books LLC Books LLC is an American publisher and a book sales club based in Memphis, Tennessee. Its primary work is collecting Wikipedia and Wikia articles and selling them as printed and downloadable books. Print-on-demand and electronic products Books L ...

, 2010, * ''Manual of Bacteriology'',

, 2010,

References

Sources

*Professor Crookshank, Obituary, ''The Times'', 3 Jul 1928. *The bacteria craze of the 1880s.(Department of History), ''The Lancet'' (13 February 1999): 581(1). * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crookshank, Edgar 1858 births 1928 deaths Alumni of King's College London Academics of King's College London 19th-century English medical doctors English microbiologists Royal Army Medical Corps officers British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War People from East Grinstead Vaccinologists 20th-century English medical doctors People associated with the Royal Veterinary College