George Fordyce

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Portrait by Thomas Phillips from 1796

George Fordyce (born November 18, 1736 in Aberdeen , Scotland , † May 25, 1802 in London ) was a Scottish doctor and chemist .

Live and act

George Fordyce was born near Aberdeen in 1736. His father, George Fordyce senior, owned a small country estate called Broadford near the city of Aberdeen, and died shortly before he was born. His grandfather (in question 1663–1733), a provost from Aberdeen, belonged to an extended family with twenty children, several of whom also became public knowledge, such as David Fordyce (1711–1751) a Scottish philosopher and professor of philosophy. His grandmother, and his grandfather's second wife, was Elizabeth Fordyce (1688–1760), daughter of the Revd. David Brown (1663–1704) and the Katherine Blackwell († 1717).

In Foveran , ( Aberdeenshire ) he began his school education and continued it at the Marischal College in Aberdeen, which he left with the academic title of Master of Arts at the age of 14.

Fordyce was determined to study medicine, but was initially encouraged by his uncle, the doctor Dr. John Fordyce, of Uppingham , Rutlandshire prepared for the medical profession. This was followed by a visit to the University of Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh where he studied from the years 1754 to 1758 medicine. Fordyce completed his studies in October 1758 with an inaugural dissertation De Catarrho , ( Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de catarrho. (...) Ad diem 13 Octobris meridie, loco solito ).

Here he was a student of William Cullen (1710–1790), who also aroused his interest in chemistry, the materia medica , but also deeper insights into practical medicine. From Edinburgh he first went to London, where he expanded his anatomical knowledge with William Hunter (1718–1783) and his pharmacological and botanical knowledge in the Chelsea Physic Garden . In 1759 he visited Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697–1770) in Leyden for a short time in order to deepen his knowledge of anatomy here .

In the same year 1759 he returned to England and decided to settle again in London as a doctor and lecturer. He gave a series of lectures on chemistry. In 1764 he also began a series of lectures on materia medica and the practice of physics. Fordyce delivered these well-attended lectures for nearly 30 years.

On Tuesday June 25, 1765 Fordyce received his Licentiate of the College of Physicians, Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians .

Five years later, the post of doctor at St. Thomas Hospital became vacant with the death of Mark Akenside (1721-1770). Fordyce was among others a candidate who ultimately prevailed in the competition with Sir William Watson . He received this position on Wednesday July 11, 1770 and held it until his death.

In 1774 he was elected a member of the Literary Club , and in 1776 a member of the Fellow of the Royal Society here he wrote several essays in the Philosophical Transactions .

Also in that year, in January 1774, Fordyce and others were invited by Charles Blagden , Secretary of the Royal Society , to his heat resistance experiments.

In 1787 he was elected ex speciali gratia (Latin for special grace) as a member of the Royal College of Physicians . Membership in the College of Physicians was a great honor because at that time usually only graduates of English universities were entitled to the community. He held the Harveian Oration in 1791 . The Harveian Oration is an annual lecture given at the Royal College of Physicians of London since 1656 .

Although William Black can be regarded as one of the actual founders of evidence-based medicine , the connection between the terms evidence and medicine was first made by Fordyce in an article An Attempt to Improve the Evidence of Medicine published by him in 1793 .

Fordyce played an important role in the compilation of the new pharmacopoeia Pharmacopoeia Londinensis in 1788  . In 1793 he supported the formation of a society for the improvement of medical and surgical knowledge. Fordyce was also a thoroughly speculative thinker who dealt with the forces of affinity and how they worked between the smallest particles of matter. He developed an unfinished version of the atomic theory thirty years ago before John Dalton (1766-1844) formulated his own theory ( Dalton model 1803) on this. He speculated about the number of particles that combine with each other and how the weights of substances would fit together in the combinations of particles.

Fordyce carried out chemical, experimental investigations, for example to or against the phlogiston theory . He investigated the mass increase in the calcination of metals (which spoke against the phlogiston theory), found that acids and bases form neutral salts if they are in a certain mass ratio and in 1792 he was the first to use alkali hydroxide in acid-base titration (instead of as was usual up to then potassium carbonate).

Fordyce is said to have initially not been successful as a practicing doctor, which was partly attributed to his neglected appearance and clothing. In later life, however, he practiced successfully until his health forced him to give up his medical practice.

In 1762 he married the daughter of Charles Stuart, Esq. , Conservator of Scottish Privileges in the. United Netherlands, Esq., Conservator of Scots privileges in the United Netherlands . He was the father of two sons who died young, George as a child and William drowned in the Thames at the age of eleven. Only the two daughters survived him. One of his daughters, Mary Sophia Fordyce, married Samuel Bentham (1757-1832) (the brother of Jeremy Bentham ) while Margaret was never married. His portrait is on display at St. Thomas Hospital and was created by Thomas Phillips (1770–1845) in 1796.

He died of complications associated with gout ( hyperuricemia ) on May 25, 1802 at his home in Essex Street, Strand , London, and was buried in St. Anne's Church in Soho.

Works (selection)

  • Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de catarrho : Quam annuente summo numine, ex auctoritate reverendi admodum viri, D. Joannis Gowdie, academiæ Edinburgenæ præfecti; nec non amplissimi senatus academici consensu et nobilissimae facultatis medicæ decreto; pro gradu doctoratus, summisque in medicina honoribus et privilegiis rite et legitime consequendis; eruditorum examini subject G. Fordyce, AM Scoto-Britannus. Ad diem 13 Octobris meridie, loco solito.
  • Elements of Agriculture and Vegetation. Edinburgh (1765) 5th edition 1796 (digitized)
    • Franz Xaver Schwediauer (translator). The beginnings of agriculture and the growth of plants. R. Gräffer, Vienna 1778 (digitized version)
  • Elements of the practice of physic Part II. Containing the history and methods of treating fevers and internal inflammations. J. Johnson, London (1768), 3rd edition (1771), 5th edition 1784 (digitized version)
    • Principles of the practicing drug scholarship ... JG Rothe, Copenhagen 1769 (digitized version)
  • A treatise on the digestion of food. Printed for Joseph Johnson, London (1791) (digitized)
  • A Dissertation on Simple Fever, or on fever consisting of one paroxysm only. J. Johnson, London (1794) (digitized)
  • A second dissertation on fever; containing the history and method of treatment of a regular tertian intermittent. London (1795) (digitized)
  • A third dissertation on fever Containing the history and method of treatment of a regular continued fever, supposing it is left to pursue its ordinary course. London (1798) (digitized)
  • A Fourth Dissertation on Fever. Containing the history of, and remedies to be employed in irregular intermitting fevers. J. Johnson, London (1802) (digitized)
  • A fifth dissertation on fever, containing the history of, and remedies to be employed in, irregular continued fevers. Edited by WC Wells, J. Johnson, London (1803)
    • Christian Friedrich Michaelis (translator). George Fordyce's ... practical treatises on fever . Johann David Schöps, Leipzig Part I (1797) (digitized) , Part II (1799) (digitized)
  • An Attempt to Improve the Evidence of Medicine . (1793)
    • Franz Swediaur (translator). Essai d'un nouveau plan d'observations médicales, pour les rendre moins incertaines et plus utiles aux progrès de l'art, par George Fordyce… JH Stone, Paris 1811 (digital copy)
  • Five dissertations on fever. Bradford & Read, Boston (1815), 2nd edition 1823 (digitized)
    • Christian Friedrich Michaelis (translator). D. George Fordyces ... Foundations of Theoretical and Practical Medicine. Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, Breslau 1797 (digitized version)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chambers, Robert: A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen. Vol. 2, Blackie and son, London (1835), p.365
  2. ↑ Genealogy of George Fordyce senior ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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 / histfam.familysearch.org
  3. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Alan Ruston. Oxford University Press 2004–2011 Page no longer available , search in web archives: entry@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.oxforddnb.com
  4. ^ Scottish Nation: Fordyce
  5. ↑ Genealogy of George Fordyce senior ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2014 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 / histfam.familysearch.org
  6. ↑ Christa Jungnickel, Russell McCormmach: Cavendish. The Experimental Life . Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg 1999, ISBN 978-0-8387-5445-0 .
  7. ^ Charles Blagden: Experiments and Observations in an Heated Room By Charles Blagden, MDFRS In: Philosophical Transactions . tape 65 , 1775, pp. 111–123 , doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1775.0013 .
  8. ^ Ulrich Tröhler: To Improve the Evidence of Medicine: the 18th Century British Origins of a Critical Approach . In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine . tape 94 , no. 4 , 2001, ISSN  0141-0768 , p. 204-205 , PMC 1281402 (free full text).
  9. ↑ F. Szabadváry: History of analytical chemistry . Pergamon Press, London 1966, OCLC 476569923 .
  10. ↑ Winfried Pötsch u. a .: Lexicon of important chemists . Harri Deutsch 1989, article Georg Fordyce .
  11. ^ Noel G. Coley: George Fordyce MD, FRS (1736-1802): physician-chemist and eccentric . In: Notes and Records . tape 55 , no. 3 , 2001, ISSN  0035-9149 , p. 395-409 , doi : 10.1098 / rsnr.2001.0154 , PMID 11713784 .
personal data
SURNAME Fordyce, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1736
PLACE OF BIRTH Aberdeen
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1802
Place of death London