George Fordyce

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

Life and work

George Fordyce was born in 1736 in Aberdeen. His father George Fordyce senior was the owner of a small estate called Broadford, which was located near the city of Aberdeen, he died shortly before his birth. His grandfather ( doubtful 1663-1733 ), a provost of Aberdeen, was one of a large family with twenty children, several of which were also publicly known about 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 Katherine Blackwell ( † 1717).

In Foveran, ( Aberdeenshire ), he started his education and put them in the sequence at Marischal College in Aberdeen continued, which he left with the academic title of Master of Arts at the age of 14 years.

Fordyce was decided to study medicine, but was initially prepared by his uncle, Dr. John Fordyce, of Uppingham, in Rutlandshire to the medical profession. Later visit to the University followed in Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh where he studied from the year 1754 to 1758 Medicine. Fordyce graduated in October 1758 with an inaugural dissertation De Catarrho, ( Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de catarrho. ( ... ) Ad diem Meridie 13 Octobris, loco solito ) from.

Here he was also a student of William Cullen (1710-1790), who also sparked his interest in chemistry, materia medica, but also a deeper insight into the practical medicine. From Edinburgh he first went to London, where he expanded his knowledge of anatomy with William Hunter (1718-1783) and at the Chelsea Physic Garden and its pharmacological botanical. In 1759 he briefly attended Bernhard Siegfried Albinus ( 1697-1770 ) in Leyden to here for the purpose of deepening his knowledge of anatomy.

In the same year 1759, he returned to England and decided to re- settle in London as a physician and lecturer. He gave a series of lectures on chemistry. In 1764, he began a series of lectures on the materia medica and the practice of physics. Fordyce held this much-visited lectures over a period of almost 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 place of a doctor at St. Thomas Hospital by the death of Mark Akenside (1721-1770) became vacant. Fordyce was a candidate among others which ultimately prevailed in competition with Sir William Watson. On Wednesday of July 11, 1770, he received this position 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, where he wrote several papers in the Philosophical Transactions.

Was Fordyce and others from Charles Blagden, Secretary of the Royal Society Also in this year, in January 1774, invited to its heat resistance experiments.

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

Although William Black can be considered as one of the real founder of evidence-based medicine, the connection of the terms evidence and medicine was first made ​​by Fordyce in a 1793 article he published An Attempt to Improve the Evidence of Medicine.

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

Fordyce led chemically, by experimental studies, such as for or against the phlogiston theory.

Fordyce is first as a practicing physician was not successful, what is attributed in part to its 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. United Netherlands, Esq., Conservator of Scots privileges in the United Netherlands. He was the father of two sons who died young, and William George as a child drowned in the Thames at the age of eleven years. Only two daughters survived him. One of his daughters, Mary Sophia Fordyce married Samuel Bentham (1757-1832) ( 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 ) were associated on May 25, 1802 in his home in Essex Street, beach in 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, Academiae Edinburgenæ Prefects; nec non amplissimi senatus academici consensu et nobilissimae facultatis Medicae Decree; per gradu doctoratus, summisque in medicina honoribus et privilegiis rite et legitimate consequendis; eruditorum examini subjicit G. Fordyce, A. M. Scoto - Britannus. Ad diem Meridie 13 Octobris, loco solito.
• Five dissertations on fever. Bradford & Read, Boston ( 1815)
• A treatise on the digestion of food. Printed for Joseph Johnson, London ( 1791)
• Elements of the practice of physic Part the Second Containing the history and methods of Treating fevers and internal inflammations. J. Johnson, London ( 1768)
• Elements of Agriculture and Vegetation. Edinburgh ( 1765 )
• Elements of the Practice of Physic third edition. J. Johnson, London ( 1771);
• A Dissertation on Simple Fever, or on fever Consisting of one paroxysm only. J. Johnson, London ( 1794)
• 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 (1798-1799);
• A fifth dissertation on fever, Containing the history of, and remedies to be employed in, irregular fevers continued. Edited by W C. Wells, J. Johnson, London ( 1803)
• An Attempt to Improve the Evidence of Medicine. (1793)