Robert Whytt
Robert Whytt (1714 in Edinburgh – 1766) was a Scottish physician. His work, on unconscious reflexes, tubercular meningitis, urinary bladder stones, and hysteria, is remembered now most for his book on diseases of the nervous system. He served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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[edit] Life
The second son of Robert Whytt of Bennochie, advocate, and Jean, daughter of Antony Murray of Woodend, Perthshire, was born in Edinburgh on 6 September 1714, six months after his father's death. Having graduated M.A. at the University of St Andrews in 1730, he went to Edinburgh to study medicine. Two years before this he had succeeded, on the death of his elder brother George, to the family estate.[1]
Whytt devoted himself to the study of anatomy, under the first Monro. Going to London in 1734, Whytt became a pupil of William Cheselden, while he visited the wards of the London hospitals. After this he attended the lectures of Jacob B. Winslow in Paris, of Herman Boerhaave and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus at Leyden. He took the degree of M.D. at Reims on 2 April 1736. On 3 June 1737 a similar degree was conferred on him by the university of St Andrews, and on 21 June he became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. On 27 November 1738 he was elected to the fellowship, and began practice as a physician.[1]
On 26 August 1747 Whytt was appointed professor of the theory of medicine in Edinburgh University. On 16 April 1752 Whytt was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and contributed to the Philosophical Transactions. In 1756 he gave lectures on chemistry in the university in place of John Rutherford (1695–1779). In 1761 Whytt was made first physician to King George III in Scotland—a post specially created for him—and on 1 December 1763 he was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; he held the presidency till his death at Edinburgh on 15 April 1766. His remains were given a public funeral, and were interred in Old Greyfriars churchyard.[1]
[edit] Works
In 1743 Whytt published a paper in the Edinburgh Medical Essays entitled ‘On the Virtues of Lime-Water in the Cure of Stone.’ This paper attracted attention, and was published, with additions, separately in 1752, and ran through several editions. It also appeared in French and German. Whytt's treatment of the stone by limewater and soap became obsolete.[1]
In 1751 he published a work ‘On the Vital and other Involuntary Motions of Animals.’ The book attracted the attention of the physiologists of Europe. Whytt dropped the doctrine of Stahl that the rational soul is the cause of involuntary motions in animals, and ascribed such movements to the effect of a stimulus acting on an unconscious sentient principle. He had a vigorous controversy with Albrecht von Haller on the subject of this work.[1]
In 1764 he published his major work, ‘On Nervous, Hypochondriac, or Hysteric Diseases, to which are prefixed some Remarks on the Sympathy of the Nerves.’ It was translated into French by Achille Guillaume Le Bègue de Presle in 1767.[1]
Whytt was also author of:
- Physiological Essays (1755)
- Review of the Controversy Concerning the Sensibility and Moving Power of the Parts of Men and Other Animals (1761)
- Nervous, Hypochondriac or Hysteric Diseases, (1764)
- Observations on Dropsy of the Brain (1768)
An edition of his Works was issued by his son in 1768,[2] and was translated into German by Christian Ehrhardt Kapp in 1771 (Leipzig). A complete list of his papers is in Robert Watt's ‘Bibliotheca Britannica.’[1]
[edit] Family
He was twice married. His first wife, Helen, sister of James Robertson, governor of New York, died in 1741, leaving no children. In 1743 he married Louisa, daughter of James Balfour of Pilrig in Midlothian, who died in 1764. By his second wife Whytt had six surviving children.[1]
Whytt's son John, who changed his name to Whyte, became heir to the entailed estates of General Melville of Strathkinness, and took the name of Melville in addition to his own. He was grandfather of Captain George John Whyte-Melville.[1]
[edit] Biography
- R. K. French, Robert Whytt, the Soul, and Medicine, London: The Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, 1969
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i
"Whytt, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. - ^ The Works of Robert Whytt
[edit] External links
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Whytt, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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