Archibald Pitcairne

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archibald Pitcairne (born December 25, 1652 in Edinburgh , † October 20, 1713 there ) was a Scottish doctor and poet.

Live and act

Opuscula medica , 1716

His father was Alexander Pitcairne (* 1630), who was active in the trade, and the honorary position of magistrate , justice of the peace held in the city. His mother, née Janet Sydserf, came from a good family in Haddington County . He received a classical education at the Dalkeith School in Midlothian . In 1668 Pitcairne entered the University of Edinburgh , first studying theology, then law, and soon switched to medicine, which he successfully completed in 1671. Bad health was recommended to Franceto travel. After he was sent to France for the benefit of his health, he continued to study medicine in Paris and Reims from 1675 . In 1680 he completed his studies in Reims. According to other evidence, political convictions ( Jacobites ) are also said to have led to leaving Scotland.

He returned to Edinburgh and met David Gregory , a well-known mathematician, whose subject matter he subsequently dealt with. He married his first wife Margaret († 1690), daughter of Colonel James Hay of Pitfour , Aberdeenshire , her two children, a son who died at an early stage and a daughter, Anne Pitcairne, as the mother who died early in the Greyfriars Kirk Yard her found final resting place.

In November 1681 he was inducted into the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and his name was one of its first members.

Pitcairne opened a practice in Edinburgh, and in a short time he was building a good reputation. In 1692 he accepted an offer as professor of medicine at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden . Richard Mead (1673–1754) and George Cheyne were among his students . The Dutch doctor Herman Boerhaave was also long considered a student of the Pitcairne, but this does not seem to be verifiable. Overall, his teaching activity in Leiden seems to have been problematic in character. From Leiden he returned to Edinburgh in 1693, married for the second time on August 8th, Elizabeth Stevenson (1670? -1734?), A daughter of the respected doctor Sir Archibald Stevenson (1630-1710). Both had six children Elizabeth (* 1694), Archibald (* 1695), Andrew (* 1697), Margaret (* 1701), Agnes (* 1705) and Janet Pitcairne.

Pitcairne was a classically educated contemporary and wrote Latin verse. He is also said to have been the author of a comedy.

Former Old Surgeons' Hall , Edinburgh built in 1697 by the architect James Smith

On August 2, 1699, Pitcairne received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Aberdeen , and on October 16, 1701 he was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh . As a result of this and the addition of more doctors, surgery was upgraded as an independent branch of medicine. Since 1699 he was a member of the Académie royale des sciences in Paris.

He was an outspoken bibliophile who is said to have had one of the best private libraries of his time. His Latin poems were compiled posthumously in 1727 by Thomas Ruddiman (1674-1757), a Scottish classical philologist, and published under the title Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcairnii et Aliorum .

After his death on Friday, October 20th, 1713, he was buried on October 26th in Edinburgh at Greyfriars Kirkyard .

Works (selection)

  • Solutio problematic de historicis; seu de inventoribus dissertation. (1688)
  • De sanguinis circulatione in animalibus genitis et non genitis. Leyden, (1693)
  • Dissertatio de curatione febrium, quae per evacuation institute. Edin. (1695),
  • Dissertatio de legibus historiae naturalis. Edin. (1696)
  • Epistola Archimedis ad regem Gelonem Albae Graecae, reperta anno aerae Christianae. (1688)
  • Apollo Mathematicus ; or the Art of Curing Diseases by the Mathematicks, according to Dr. Pitcairne's principles, 1695, 8vo.
  • Dissertationes Medicae. Roterdam, 1701, 4to. The same, Edin. 1713, 4to.
  • Opuscula Medica. Roterdam, 1714, 4to.
  • Elementa Medica Libris duobus, quorum prior theoriam, posterior praxin exhibit. Hag. 1718, 4 tons Leyden, 1737, 8vo. In English. Lond. 1718, 1727, 8vo.
  • The assembly; a comedy. Lond. 1722. New edition. Edin.
  • Opera omnia, duobus tomis comprehensa. Hag. Cam. 1722, 4 tons
  • Selecta Poëmata Archibaldi Pitcairnii et aliorum. Edin. 1727, 8vo. Published by Ruddiman.
  • Opera omnia Medica. Ven. 1733. Leyden, 1737, 4to.

literature

  • G. Hull: The influence of Herman Boerhaave. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 90, Number 9, September 1997, pp. 512-514, PMID 9370992 , PMC 1296534 (free full text).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family genealogy
  2. ^ A. Guerrini: Archibald Pitcairne and Newtonian medicine. In: Medical history. Volume 31, Number 1, January 1987, pp. 70-83, PMID 3543564 , PMC 1139685 (free full text).
  3. ↑ Biography and bibliography in English  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: dead link / archiveshub.ac.uk  
  4. ↑ http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/pitcairn.htm
  5. ^ MacQueen: The Latin poems. Royal van Gorcum (2009), p. 7th
  6. ↑ http://www.electricscotland.com/history/medical/medicine12.pdf
  7. ^ Dissertation Casteel, Eric Grier, Ph.D .: Entrepot and backwater: A cultural history of the transfer of medical knowledge from Leiden to Edinburgh, 1690--1740. University of California, Los Angeles, 2007, 336 pages; AAT 3302590
  8. ↑ http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=546&1155
  9. ^ WB Howie: Sir Archibald Stevenson, his ancestry, and the riot in the College of Physicians at Edinburgh. In: Medical history. Volume 11, Number 3, July 1967, pp. 269-284, PMID 4864421 , PMC 1033729 (free full text).
  10. ↑ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Dictionary_of_National_Biography_volume_45.djvu/343
  11. ^ MacQueen: The Latin poems. Royal van Gorcum (2009), p. 10
  12. ↑ The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rcsed.ac.uk
  13. ↑ List of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 4, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Pitcairne, Archibald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish doctor and poet
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1652
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1713
Place of death Edinburgh