Robert Wilson (1829?–1881) was a British physician. From

Castle Eden Castle Eden is a village in County Durham, in England. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 642. It is situated a short distance to the south of Peterlee, Wingate, Hutton Henry, the A19 and Castle Eden Dene. The village is famou ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, he graduated M.D. from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1848. He practiced in

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, and died aged 52. He produced a paper entitled "The Coal Miners of Durham and Northumberland: their Habits and Diseases". This paper was read at the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

meeting of the British Association (Sub-section D), and printed in the Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists Club, 1863-4, vol. VI, p. 200. It was also read at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting held at Newcastle upon Tyne, August 1863, and reviewed at length in the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

'' for 19 September 1863. It was an important paper, historically. It describes working and living conditions and practices and gives a brief insight into the structures of the mining industry at the time. It has been cited as evidence for the incidence of

barrel chest Barrel chest generally refers to a broad, deep chest found on a patient. A barrel chested person will usually have a naturally large ribcage, very round (i.e., vertically cylindrical) torso, large lung capacity, and can potentially have great u ...

. It has also been cited as evidence of a change in attitudes to the amelioration of the conditions in the mining community, after about 1850.Robert Colls, ''The Pitmen of the Northern Coalfield: work, culture, and protest, 1790-1850'' (1987), p. 3
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert 19th-century English medical doctors 1820s births 1881 deaths