Dr William Lauder Lindsay

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 ...

FLS LRCS (19 December 1829-24 November 1880) was a Scottish physician and botanist. As a physician he largely worked in the field of mental health. As a botanist he specialised in lichens.

Life

The grave of William Lauder Lindsay, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh

He was born on 19 December 1829 at 20 Gardners Crescent in western

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

the son of Helen Baird Lauder (1804-1883) and her husband James Lindsay of Register House/HM Sasine Office (1804-1874). He was educated at the

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Edinburgh (being dux of 1844) then 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 ...

receiving his doctorate (MD) in 1852 with the thesis 'The lichens'. In 1853 he began working as an assistant physician at the Crichton Royal Asylum in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

. In 1854 he moved to be Physician at the Murray Royal Asylum in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

and held this role until 1879. In 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

(FLS) and in 1861 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 for the latter was

John Hutton Balfour John Hutton Balfour (15 September 1808 – 11 February 1884) was a Scottish botanist. Balfour became a Professor of Botany, first at the University of Glasgow in 1841, moving to the University of Edinburgh and also becoming the 7th Regius Keepe ...

. The Society gave him the Neill Prize of 1859 for his work on

lichens A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus, fungi species in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship.New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

later winning a silver medal in the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865 for services to Botany. He also made several trips to northern Europe. He died of exhaustion and malnutrition brought on by extreme

dyspepsia Indigestion, also known as dyspepsia or upset stomach, is a condition of impaired digestion. Symptoms may include upper abdominal fullness, heartburn, nausea, belching, or upper abdominal pain. People may also experience feeling full earlier t ...

on 24 November 1880 at his home at 3 Hartington Gardens in

. He was aged 50. He is buried with his parents in

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 ...

in western Edinburgh. The grave lies on a short curved path in the south-west of the cemetery. In 1989, botanists John Charles David and

David Leslie Hawksworth David Leslie Hawksworth (born 1946 in Sheffield, UK) is a British mycologist and lichenologist currently with a professorship in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Madrid, Spain and also a Scientific Associate of The Natural History Muse ...

published '' Lauderlindsaya'', which is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

in the family

Verrucariaceae The Verrucariaceae are a family of mostly lichenised fungi in the order Verrucariales. The lichen-forming species, which comprise the vast majority of the family, have a wide variety of thallus forms, and include crustose (crust-like), foliose ( ...

and named in Lindsay's honour.

Publications

Lindsay was a regular contributor to 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 ...

, other works include:
''A Popular History of British Lichens''
(1856)
''Memoir on the Spermogones and Pycnides of Filamentous, Fruticulose and Foliaceous Lichens''
(1861, vol. 22, ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh'') (See wiktionary:spermogonium and

pycnidium A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or invers ...

.)
''On the Geology of the Goldfields of Otago, New Zealand''
(1862, ''Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science''] *''On the Geology of the New Zealand Gold-fields'' (1865)
''Observations on New Lichens and Fungi Collected in Otago, New Zealand''
(1866)
''Observations on New-Zealand Lichens''
(1866, vol. 25, ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London'')

(1868)
''Observations on the Lichens collected by Dr. Robert Brown, M.A., F.R.G.S., in West Greenland in 1867''
(1871, vol. 27, ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London'') *''Memoir on the Spermogones and Pycnides of Crustaceous Lichens'' (1870)
1872 edition
*''Memoirs on the Spermogones and Pycnides of Lichens'' (1872)
1874 edition
*''The Superannuation of Officers in British Hospitals for the Insane'' (1875)
''Mind in the Lower Animals in Health and Disease''
(1879)

Family

In 1859 he married Elizabeth Reid, daughter of William Paterson Reid WS of Demarara. She died in 1863. They had one daughter, Marion Jane Lindsay, who married Dr Francis Haultain of Edinburgh. His elder brother Wallace Lindsay (1827-1857) was also a physician, serving in the army. His younger brother David Patrick Lindsay (1831-1871) worked at General Register House.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, William Lauder 1829 births 1880 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical doctors from Edinburgh British lichenologists Mental health professionals Heads of psychiatric hospitals Scientists from Edinburgh