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Gilbert Blane

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Sir Gilbert Blane, Bt
Gilbert Blane by Martin Archer Shee, 1833
Born29 August 1749
Blanefield, by Kirkoswald, Ayrshire, Scotland
Died26 June 1834
London, England
NationalityScottish
Alma materEdinburgh University
Glasgow University (MD 1778)
Known forUse of lemon juice obligatory to prevent scurvy
Scientific career
Fieldsmedicine

Sir Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, 1st Baronet FRSE FRS MRCP (29 August 1749 – 26 June 1834) was a Scottish physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy.[1]

Life

Born in Blanefield, by Kirkoswald, in Ayrshire, he was the son of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield (d.1771) and Agnes McFadzen.[2]

He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and Glasgow University (MD 1778)[1] before moving to London, where he served as private physician to Lord Rodney.

Blane was appointed Physician to the Fleet (1779–1783) and accompanied Rodney to the West Indies in 1779. Blane did much to improve the health of sailors by heeding their diet and enforcing due sanitary precautions. He was one of those whose advocacy of citrus juice as a preventative and cure for scurvy encouraged the Admiralty to go against the theories of the medical establishment and introduce lemon juice as daily addition to the naval diet in 1795.[3] Following his appointment as a Commissioners of Sick and Hurt the following year, he played a role in converting this policy into reality. Later lemons were replaced by limes which could be obtained from Britain's Caribbean colonies, and for this reason, "limey" became a common slang word for a British person.

He was a founder member of the Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1783 and delivered their Croonian lecture in 1788.[4] In 1784 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in London.

On his return to Britain, he became Physician to St Thomas' Hospital (1783–1795), Physician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales (1785) and Physician in Ordinary to the King (George IV and William IV). By virtue of these court and hospital appointments, he built up a good practice for himself in London, and the government constantly consulted him on questions of public hygiene.[5] In 1812 he became a baronet, of Blanefield in the County of Ayr, in reward for services he rendered in connection with the return of the Walcheren expedition.

His printed works include Observations on the Diseases of Seamen (1785)[6] and Elements of Medical Logic (1819).[5]

Blane advocated that each man be issued a tourniquet in battle. Observations on the diseases incident to seamen (1785), pp. 498-499

He was an advocate for issuing each Royal Navy sailor with a tourniquet to stem catastrophic bleeding in battle.

Blane lived at Burghfield in Berkshire and at Kirkoswald in Ayrshire.

In 1830 Sir Gilbert Blane established, with the sanction of the Board of the Admiralty, a fund for the encouragement of Naval Medical science, which was vested in the corporation of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of London. The fund was employed for the purpose of conferring a gold medal annually, to be awarded jointly by the Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, on the Medical Officer of the Royal Navy who, to a degree which was considered worthy of recognition, brought about an advance in any branch of Medical Science, or contributed to an improvement in any matter affecting the health or living conditions of Naval personnel.[7] The Gilbert Blane Medal is awarded to this day.

He died at Sackville Street in the Piccadilly area of London on 26 June 1834.[2]

Family

Blane married Elizabeth Gardiner in 1786. She died in 1832.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Waterston, Charles D; Macmillan Shearer, A (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index (PDF). Vol. I. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
  2. ^ a b c http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf
  3. ^ Vale and Edwards (2011). Physician to the Fleet: The Life and Times of Thonas Trotter 1760-1832. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978 1 84383 604 9.
  4. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  5. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Blane, Sir Gilbert". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ Blane, GIlbert (1785). Observations on the diseases incident to seamen. London: Joseph Cooper; Edinburgh: William Creech.
  7. ^ Journal Royal Naval Medical Service 2003 89(3);121-122

Further reading

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