Henry Harvey Littlejohn,

FRCSEd The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located o ...

, (7 October 1862 – 15 August 1927) (widely known as Harvey Littlejohn ) was a Scottish academic, forensic scientist and medical officer of health, who followed in the footsteps of his father,

Henry Duncan Littlejohn Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn MD LLD FRCSE (8 May 1826 – 30 September 1914) was a Scottish surgeon, forensic scientist and public health official. He served for 46 years as Edinburgh's first Medical Officer of Health, during which time he brought ...

, as Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at. the University of Edinburgh. This position also entailed acting as Police Surgeon to the City of Edinburgh and Advisor to the Crown. In this capacity he was called upon as an expert witness at high profile criminal cases.

Early life and education

He was born at 40 York Place, Edinburgh on 7 October 1862, the son of Sir Henry Littlejohn and his wife Isabella Jane Littlejohn (née Harvey). He went to school at the Edinburgh Academy where he played rugby for the school. From an early age he was encouraged by his father to pursue a career in Public Health. and after taking a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA) degree, he studied medicine 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 ...

qualifying MB CM in 1886. He then went on to a further qualification with a BSc in Public Health. During this time he served as senior president of the

Royal Medical Society The Royal Medical Society (RMS) is a society run by students at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, Scotland. It claims to be the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom although this claim is also made by the earlier London-based ...

. He qualified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1890.

Career

He began his career in public health by assisting his father both in the Department of the

Medical Officer of Health A medical officer of health, also known as a medical health officer, chief health officer, chief public health officer or district medical officer, is the title commonly used for the senior government official of a health department, usually at a m ...

and by lecturing in his father’s Extramural class of Medical Jurisprudence at Surgeons’ Hall. In 1891 he was appointed Medical Officer of Health for the City of

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, returning to Edinburgh six years later as a Lecturer in Medical Jurisprudence in Surgeons’ Hall. During this time, he established himself as a popular teacher. He was appointed to the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence of the University of Edinburgh in 1906 succeeding his father. This carried with it the role of Police Surgeon to the City and Advisor to the Crown in criminal proceedings. During the First World War he served as a major in the

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, commanding the medical unit of the University of Edinburgh Officers' Training Corps. As Police Surgeon he was able to enlarge the Forensic Medicine Museum which his father had started. In 1925 he was able to publish ''Forensic Medicine. Illustrated by Photographs and descriptive Cases. M''any of the photographs were taken from the collection he had established in the museum. As Advisor to the Crown in criminal cases, he was frequently involved as an expert witness appearing as a witness for the Crown in some of the most important Scottish murder trials of that time. Littlejohn adopted innovate methods to study public health. To track down the source of an outbreak of

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

across

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in 1891 he created a detailed map showing the location of each case in conjunction with the noted Edinburgh map-maker, J. G. Bartholomew. The results, published in the ''Edinburgh Medical Journal'' in March 1891, showed several clusters of the infection. From the cluster in the

Marchmont Marchmont is a mainly residential area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies roughly one mile to the south of the Old Town, separated from it by The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links. To the west it is bounded by Bruntsfield; to the south-southwest by ...

area, Littlejohn tracked the original source to a batch of milk from one individual farm, and had all milk destroyed, compensating the shop-owners. This technique is now common practice in public health. In 1902 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

Sir William Turner Sir William Turner (7 January 1832, in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster – 15 February 1916, in Edinburgh) was an English anatomist and was the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1903 to 1916. Life Turner was born in Lancaster ...

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him. Early life and education Crum Brown was born at 4 Bellev ...

, and Sir Thomas Richard Fraser. In 1920 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club. He was appointed Dean of the Medical Faculty, in which capacity he served on the University Court and on the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...

Later life and death

In later life Harvey Littlejohn lived at 1 Atholl Crescent in the west end of Edinburgh . He died at a nursing home in

on 15 August 1927. and is buried in his father's plot at

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

Selected publications

''Text-Book of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.'' Edinburgh : E. & S. Livingstone, 1915. (with Buchanan, Robert James McLean, Henry Aubrey Husband,) ''Forensic Medicine. Illustrated by Photographs and descriptive Cases'' London: Churchill, 1925.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Littlejohn, Harvey 1862 births 1927 deaths 19th-century Scottish people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British forensic scientists British public health doctors Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Medical jurisprudence Burials at the Dean Cemetery