Archibald Pitcairne

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

Life and work

His father was Alexander Pitcairne (* 1630), who worked in the trade, and justice of the peace held the honorary position of justice of the peace in the town. His mother was born a Janet Sydserf came from a good family from County Haddington. He received a classical education at the school of Dalkeith, Midlothian. In 1668 Pitcairne entered the University of Edinburgh, initially studied theology, jurisprudence, and then soon switched to medicine, which he successfully completed in 1671. Existing medical recommendation given him to France to travel. After he was sent to France for the benefit of his health, he studied from 1675 in Paris and Reims further medicine. In 1680 he completed his studies in Reims. Other documents according to political beliefs ( Jacobites ) should have led to the abandonment of Scotland.

He returned to Edinburgh, met David Gregory, a well-known mathematician, with their contents he know in the episode dealt. He married his first wife, Margaret († 1690), daughter of Colonel James Hay of Pitfour, Aberdeenshire, her two children, a son who died early and a daughter, Anne Pitcairne, as the mother who died early and in the Greyfriars Kirkyard their last resting place.

In November 1681 he was admitted to 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 acquired a good reputation. In 1692, he accepted an offer as professor of medicine at the University of Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. Among his pupils were Richard Mead (1673-1754) and George Cheyne. Also, the Dutch physician Herman Boerhaave was long regarded as a student of the Pitcairne, but this does not seem to be accounted for. Overall, his teaching in Leiden seems to be rather been problematic character. From Leiden he returned to Edinburgh in 1693, married on 8 August for the second time, Elizabeth Stevenson (1670? -1734? ), A subsidiary of the renowned physician 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 verses. They say he was also the author of a comedy.

On August 2, 1699 Pitcairne awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of Aberdeen, and on October 16, 1701, he was accepted at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh as a member. This and the inclusion of other doctors was revalued the surgery as an independent branch in medicine.

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

After his death on Friday, October 20, 1713, he was buried on 26 October in Edinburgh on the Greyfriars Kirk Yard.

Works (selection)

• Solutio problematic de historicis; seu de inventoribus dissertatio. (1688 )
• De sanguinis circulatione in animalibus genitis et non genitis. Leyden ( 1693)
• Dissertatio de curatione febrium, quae per evacuations institutor. Edin. ( 1695),
• Dissertatio de legibus historiae naturalis. Edin. ( 1696 )
• Epistola ad ArchiMedis lively Gelonem Albae Graecae, reperta anno aerae Christianae. (1688 )
• Apollo mathematician; or the Art of Curing Diseases by the Mathematicks, accor ding 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 Duo bus, quorum prior theoriam, posterior praxin exhibit. Hag. 1718, 4to. Leyden, 1737, 8vo. In English. Lond. 1718, 1727, 8vo.
• The Assembly; a comedy. Lond. In 1722. New edition. Edin.
• Opera omnia, dual-powered bus Tomis Comprehensa. Hag. Cam. 1722, 4to.
• Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcairnii et aliorum. Edin. 1727, 8vo. Published by Ruddiman.
• Opera Omnia Medica. Ven. 1733. Leyden, 1737, 4to.