Dr William Fergusson

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 ...

(1773–1846) was a Scottish inspector-general of

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

s, and medical writer.

Life

He was born in

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...

19 June 1773 into a prominent local family. From

Ayr Academy Ayr Academy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Acadamaidh Inbhir Àir'') is a non-denominational secondary school situated within the Craigie Estate area at University Avenue in Ayr, South Ayrshire. It is a comprehensive school for children of ages 11–18 fro ...

he went to attend the medical classes at

Edinburgh University 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 1582 ...

, where he graduated MB, afterwards attending the London hospitals. In 1794 he became assistant-surgeon in the army, and served in Holland, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, the Baltic, the Iberian Peninsula, and in the expedition against

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

in 1815. Fergusson is widely quoted (though often misspelt) as a source of accounts of the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, where he was present (as Staff-Surgeon of the troops embarked) with Admiral Lord Nelson on the flagship

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

, before being entrusted with the conveyance of the British wounded to Yarmouth. He received his doctorate (MD) from

St Andrews University (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

in 1812. Having retired from military service in 1817, he settled in practice at Edinburgh, being 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 ...

in 1818. His proposers were

Thomas Charles Hope Thomas Charles Hope (21 July 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a British physician, chemist and lecturer. He proved the existence of the element strontium, and gave his name to Hope's Experiment, which shows that water reaches its maximum density at ...

, Sir

David Brewster Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...

and James Russell. In 1821 he moved to

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

on the invitation of the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

, on whose staff he had been for twenty years. He acquired a lucrative practice both in the town and country around, which he carried on till 1843, when he was disabled by paralysis. He died on 19 January 1846 and is buried with his son, James Fergusson (1808–1886), on the west side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

. His personal papers are preserved in the library of the

University of Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Grave of William and James Fergusson in Highgate Cemetery

Works

He wrote many papers on military medicine, contributed original work to the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, and his papers were read at the

. His ''Notes and Recollections of a Professional Life'', a collection of his papers on various subjects, was brought out after his death by his son. The papers are not all medical, one section of the book being on military tactics. There is an essay on

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

in Portugal, as affecting the British troops and the natives respectively. cites: ''Med.-Chir. Transactions'', 1813 The essay for which Fergusson is most remembered is that on the "marsh poison" theory of malarial infection, reprinted from the ''

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Transaction or transactional may refer to: Commerce *Financial transaction, an agreement, communication, or movement carried out between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment *Debits and credits in a Double-entry bookkeeping syst ...

'' January 1820. He emphasised the fact that

malarial fever Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...

s often occur on dry and barren soils, either sandy plains or rocky uplands, where rotting vegetation as a cause is out of the question, relying on his own experience with troops in Holland, Portugal, and the West Indies. This was a significant step towards rationalising the doctrine of malaria. But although in his other writings he was possibly the first to correctly suggest insects as vectors of plague, he tantalizingly failed to make the final connection between malaria and mosquitos.

References

;Attribution * Endnotes: **Biographical preface by his son James Fergusson to ''Notes and Recollections''

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fergusson, William, M.D. 1773 births 1846 deaths 18th-century Scottish medical doctors 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Burials at Highgate Cemetery