Adam Neale

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Adam Neale (* approx. 1780 ; † December 22, 1832 in Dunkirk , Kent ) was a Scottish doctor and travel writer.

life and work

Born in Scotland at a time that cannot be precisely determined, he studied in Edinburgh and left the university there on September 13, 1802 as a Medicinae Doctor ( MD ). His doctoral thesis dealt with the medical use of acidum nitricum or nitric acid, which today is only used in the field of homeopathy ; he had his dissertation printed in Edinburgh at his own expense and, curiously, his surname is spelled both "Neill" and "Neale" on the front page, but this may be an oversight.

In 1804 Neale published the translation of a French treatise by the army surgeon Pierre (also: Paolo) Assalini (1759–1840), which deals with contagious diseases, including eye diseases; Assalini had participated as a doctor in Bonapartes' entourage on the French expedition to Egypt (1798) and gained some experience there with regard to the diseases described.

Part of Prague with Charles Bridge : Aquatint from the book Travels Through Some Parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey

The following year - possibly also due to the aforementioned publication - Neale was sent to the British Embassy in Constantinople as a medic in July 1805 , where he arrived in September. He stayed there until March 1806 and then returned to England. His most famous book was written in connection with his trip to Turkey, namely the detailed description of his journey there and back through Prussia, Saxony , Austria, what is now western Ukraine and the Principality of Moldova ; on his return he crossed eastern Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) and Wallachia (now Romania). Neale had written and published his work, which soon appeared in German translation, only long after his return from Constantinople. It appeared in a splendid edition in 1818, bound in red Moroccan leather and lavishly provided with a total of 15 hand-colored aquatintas .

In June 1806, shortly after his return from Constantinople, Neale was inducted into the Royal College of Physicians in London. It was during this time that he worked as a doctor for the Duke of Kent (Queen Victoria's father).

His next international stage brought Neale to the Iberian Peninsula , where he arrived in August 1808. He took part as a military doctor ("Physician to his Majesty's Forces") in the British land war in Spain against Napoleon's imperialism . He reported on his experiences there in 1809 in his Letters from Portugal and Spain , and many years later (1828) in a war memoir.

There is less reliable information about the later years of Neale's life. He practiced as a doctor in Exeter for a few years from 1814 , before moving to Cheltenham in 1820 , a well-known spa or thermal bath at the time (since it was discovered there in 1716 high mineral springs). There was soon a serious scandal when Neale published a pamphlet ( A Letter to a Professor of Medicine ) upon his arrival in which he questioned the healing power of the mineral springs mainly used in Cheltenham. Neale's publication immediately led to several counter-replies, namely William Henry Halpin's Fact versus Assertion, or, Critical and Explanatory Observations on Some Erroneous Statements, Contained in Dr. Adam Neale's Pamphlet, on the Nature and Properties of the Cheltenham Waters (Cheltenham 1820). Neale did not get off well from this argument and was forced to leave Cheltenham after a few months. He then lived in Exeter again until 1824. When an application to head physician at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital there failed due to the intrigue of a competitor with better connections, he moved to London .

In the last years of his life, Neale wrote two other medical writings, one of which ( Researches Respecting the Natural History ... of the Spur, or Ergot of Rye ) was devoted to the symptoms and treatment of the so-called Antonius fire.

Neale died in Dunkirk, Kent, on December 22, 1832. He was married to Margaret J. Young, who outlived him by nearly three decades and passed away on February 22, 1860 in Dawlish . The marriage had three children:

  • Erskine Neale (* 1804), later a cleric and writer
  • William Johnson Neale (* 1812), later a lawyer and author, at the same time participant on board a British warship in the Battle of Navarino
  • the only daughter Sydney Neale (*?), who married the English cleric, topographer and local historian Samuel Rowe (1793-1853) in 1829.

Neales journey to Constantinople and back (1805–1806)

Neale left England (in Harwich ) on a ship and reached Heligoland on July 19, 1805 . From there it went on to Husum , "a poor village of around fifteen hundred houses, the inhabitants of which live mainly from catching oyster and preparing the malt". The next destination was Berlin, and on the way Neale came through Rendsburg , Itzehoe and Hamburg , devoting several pages to the latter city in his travelogue. In Hamburg he met Thomas Thornton (1762-1814), a British traveling salesman who was just on his way back from Constantinople to England and who shortly thereafter made a name for himself as the author of The Present State of Turkey (London 1807). Lübeck , where Neale arrived a day later, seemed to him to be very "sunk", in Schwerin, on the other hand, he found himself in "a pleasant little town".

The journey continued from Berlin to Dresden . In the Saxon capital, Neale met the British officer (then Colonel) Hugh Robert Rollo Gillespie (1766-1814), who was on his way to India. Neale and Gillespie teamed up for their further journey and together they reached Constantinople; his trip to Constantinople is reported in the memoir of Major-General Sir RR Gillespie , published in 1816 , but Adam Neale does not appear as a fellow traveler. In Saxony, Neale went on a trip to Saxon Switzerland , including a tour of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Meißen and a visit to the Königstein Fortress .

In August Neale traveled from Dresden to Vienna, via Prague and Teplice (now Teplice ); He describes the mineral springs in Teplitz with great interest and even provides the reader with a chemical analysis of the spring water. Judging by Neale's report, the following stay in Vienna was one of the highlights of his trip:

Travelers from all nations seem to have vied to proclaim the many virtues of this capital, which surpasses all its German rivals in attractive qualities. The beauty of their wooded surroundings, the richness of their public collections, the enchanting of their operas, plays and public merrymaking, the abundance and cheapness of their markets, the splendor of their buildings, and the hospitality and sociability of their inhabitants, all these pieces contribute, to mark the capital of the Austrian states to a very high degree. The trader would like to prefer Hamburg; Berlin's military parade has charms for soldiers; the artist and the mineralogist would probably prefer to stay at Dresden; but whoever strives to acquire general knowledge and the convenience of society will give up all these cities for Vienna.

In Vienna the question arose which route to take to Turkey: either through Hungary to Bucharest and on the Danube near Ruse, or through Galicia (then "Austrian Poland") to Moldova and from there over the Black Sea to Constantinople . Finally, the second route was chosen because Vienna made the acquaintance of a Greek who had already been in the British service and had worked as an interpreter for Sir Sidney Smith in Syria a few years earlier . This Greek persuaded the tour company to take the route via Moldova.

In the following weeks Neale traveled to Iași , the capital of the then Principality of Moldova . It was through Brno , Olomouc , Bielsko (h. Bielsko-Biała ), Lviv (h. Lviv ), Obertyn , Snyatyn to Czernowitz , the capital of Bukovina , and from there to Iasi. In the Moldovan capital you were received by Prince Alexandru Mourousis (1750-1816), son of the ruling gospodar of the Danube Principality of Moldova. Neale reports that they were treated to "coffee, pipes, sherbet and sweet dessert in the usual oriental manner".

Via Galatz (modern Galați ) on the bank of the lower Danube, the journey by ship continued into the Danube Delta until one reached the Black Sea and headed south along the coast to Constantinople. At this point it was already mid-September, and it was a few days before the minarets of Constantinople finally came into view. On the way along the coast of the Black Sea Neale visited Constanta , Kawarna , Balchik and Akhtopol ("Agatopolis") as well as Therapia and Büyükdere (both today in the province of Sarıyer near Istanbul).

In March 1806, Neale began his return journey to England, about which he also writes in his travelogue, albeit in much less detail. It is not known why he was ordered back after only six months in Constantinople or whether his stay was planned for this duration from the outset.

First he went by ship on the Black Sea to Varna , visiting the old coastal towns of Sozopol , Pomorie and Nesebar on the way , places that he apparently had not seen on his journey, although they were on the route. In the Bulgarian (then Turkish) Varna, he rented a wagon to reach the Danube overland through northeastern Bulgaria. His path therefore led him from Varna via Novi Pasar , Razgrad and Tsar Kaloyan to Ruse . Like so many other travelers to Turkey before and after him, he crossed the Danube to Giurgiu in Ruse . He then took the land route through Wallachia to Bucharest and from there, via Focşani , to Chernivtsi. There the circle of his trip came full circle and it went on to Lviv, which he had already visited in August of the previous year. However, he did not turn to Vienna afterwards, but traveled directly to Berlin via Krakow and Wroclaw . He returned to England via Hamburg.

Neale's travelogue, which in addition to his personal descriptions of experiences also contains many historical notes, is one of the more interesting travel books of a traveler to Turkey from the time after the turn of the 19th century. The specific interests of the doctor Neale is due to the fact that he repeatedly reports in detail about mineral springs and diseases; He even devoted a separate chapter to the occurrence of epidemics in Constantinople.

Fonts

  • 1802 Disputatio chemico-medica inauguralis de acido nitrico, ejusque in medicina usibus . Edinburgh 1802 ( Google )
  • 1804 Assalini's Observations on the Disease Called the Plague, the Dysentery, the Ophthalmy of Egypt, and on the Means of Prevention; with Remarks on the Yellow Fever of Cadiz. Translated from the French by Adam Neale . London. American edition: New York: Swords 1804 ( archive )
  • 1809ː Letters from Portugal and Spain; Comprising an Account of the Operations of the Armies under their Excellencies Sir Arthur Wellesley and Sir John Moore, from the Landing of the Troops in Mondego Bay to the Battle at Corunna . Londonː Richard Phillips ( Google ) ( archive )
  • 1818ː Travels Through Some Parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey . Londonː Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown ( Google )
    • French editionː Voyage en Allemagne, en Pologne, en Moldavie et en Turquie; by Adam Neale, Docteur en Médecine. Traduit de l'anglois par Charles-Auguste Def. [Defauconpret]. 2 volumes. Paris: Gide 1818 (Google: Volume I / Volume II )
    • German edition Travels through some parts of Germany , Poland, Moldova and Turkey. Translated from English . 2 volumes. Leipzig: Hartleben 1820 ( SUB Göttingen : Part I )
  • 1820ː A Letter to a Professor of Medicine, in the University of Edinburgh, Respecting the Nature and Properties of the Mineral Waters of Cheltenham . Londonː J. Swan (undated) ( Google )
  • 1828 Researches Respecting the Natural History, Chemical Analysis, and Medicinal Virtues, of the Spur, or Ergot of Rye, when Administered as a Remedy in Certain States of the Uterus , London: Horatio Phillips ( Google ) ( archive )
  • 1828ː "The Spanish Campaign in 1808". In: Memorials of the Late War . Volume I. Edinburgh: Constable & Co. - London: Hurst, Chance & Co. 1828, pp. 142-215. New edition in 1831 ( Google )
  • 1831ː Researches to Establish the Truth of the Linnæan Doctrine of Animal Contagions; wherein the Origin, Causes, Mode of Diffusion, and Cure, of Epidemic Diseases, Spasmodic Cholera, Dysentery, Plague, Small Pox, Hooping Cough, Leprosy & c. & c. & c. are Illustrated by Facts from the Natural History of Mankind, of Animals, and of Vegetables, and from the Phenomena of the Atmosphere , London: Londonː Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green ( Google ) ( archive )

literature

  • Peter M. Dunn: "Adam Neale (c1780-1832) and ergot of rye". In: Archives of Disease in Childhood 68 (1993), p. 617 f. ( pdf ) [The information on Neales biography given in this short article is largely incorrect].
  • Gordon Goodwin: " Adam Neale ". In: Dictionary of National Biography ( DNBoo ), Volume 40 (1894), pp. 137 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The year of his death is given differently as 1840, 1843 and 1846.
  2. ↑ "Assalini (Pierre)" . In: Biographie nouvelle des contemporains ou Dictionnaire historique et raisonné de tous les hommes qui, depuis la Révolution française, ont acquis de la célébrité par leurs actions, leurs écrits, leurs ereurs ou leurs crimes, soitangers en France, soit dans les pays étrans . tape I . Paris 1820, p. 222 f .
  3. ↑ Assalini: Observations sur la maladie appelée peste, le flux dyssentérique, l'ophtalmie d'Égypte, et les moyens de s'en préserver, avec des notions sur la fièvre jaune de Cadix . Paris 1800.
  4. ↑ The preface is dated "Exeter, January 20th, 1818".
  5. ↑ See also MR Howard: Medical aspects of Sir John Moore's Corunna Campaign, 1808-1809 . In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine . tape 84 , 1991, pp. 299-302 .
  6. ↑ digitized version . In: Internet Archive. Retrieved November 5, 2019 .
  7. ↑ digitized version . In: Wellcome Collection. Retrieved November 5, 2019 .
  8. ^ Medical News: Deaths . In: British Medical Journal . 168 (new series). London March 17, 1860, p. 218 .
  9. ^ Rev. Samuel Rowe . In: Annual Report and Transactions of the Plymouth Institution and Debon & Cornwall Natural History Society . tape IX , no. 1: 1884/85 . W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth 1885, p. 111 f .
  10. ^ Neale, Reisen , Part 1 (1820), p. 19.
  11. ^ Neale, Reisen , Part 1 (1820), p. 40.
  12. ^ Neale, Reisen , Part 1 (1820), p. 52.
  13. ^ A Memoir of Major-General Sir RR Gillespie. Retrieved October 6, 2019 (digitized from Google).
  14. ^ Neale, Reisen , Part 1 (1820), p. 112.
  15. ^ "Coffee, pipes, sherbet, and sweet-meats, were introduced in the usual Oriental fashion": Neale, Travels Through Some Parts (1818), p. 158.
personal data
SURNAME Neale, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish doctor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotland
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1832
Place of death Dunkirk (Kent)