Sir Stanley Davidson | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | [1] [2] | 3 March 1894
Died | 27 September 1981 87) [1] [2] Colinton, Edinburgh | (aged
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Edinburgh [2] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Medicine, Medical Rheumatology [3] [4] |
Institutions | University of Aberdeen, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh [2] [5] |
Sir Leybourne Stanley Patrick Davidson (3 March 1894 – 27 September 1981) was a British [1] physician, medical investigator and author [3] who wrote the medical textbook Principles and Practice of Medicine, which was first published in 1952. [2]
Davidson was born on 3 March 1894 in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), to Sir Leybourne Francis Watson Davidson and Jane Rosalind Dudgeon Davidson. [1] [2] He had his education at Cheltenham College, England and later at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he began his undergraduate medical education, graduating BA.
At the onset of World War I in 1914, he enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders, and his medical education was interrupted. He was seriously wounded in the war in 1915 while he was fighting in France, and spent the next two years recovering. He then resumed his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh and in 1919 graduated MB ChB with first class honours. [2] [3] [5] He then worked as a house physician at Leith Hospital.
He became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1921 (proceeding to the Fellowship in 1926), graduated and awarded a Gold Medal for his M.D. thesis on Immunisation and antibody reactions in 1925. [6]
In 1928, he was appointed as assistant physician to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He then was appointed as Professor of Medicine at the University of Aberdeen in 1930, which was one of the first full-time Chairs of Medicine anywhere and the first in Scotland. [2] While working there, he spent his time in hospital work, teaching and research, not preferring private practice. [3] In 1930 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh. [7] [8]
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1932. His proposers were Arthur Logan Turner, James Ritchie, Thomas Jones Mackie and William Thomas Ritchie. [9]
In 1938, he was given the Chair of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in which he remained until he retired in 1959. He was elected to the Aesculapian Club in 1951. [10] He was also the President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1953 to 1957, [2] [3] [5] and the President of The Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland in 1957. [11] He played an important role in upgrading, modernising and broadening the hospital teaching facilities within Edinburgh area. [3]
Davidson taught that "everything had to be questioned and explained". [2] While at the University of Edinburgh, he himself gave most of the systematic lectures in Medicine and also made his lectures notes available to students as typewritten notes. It was these notes which formed the basis of the textbook, "Principles and Practices of Medicine", that he published in 1952. [2] Doctors he has been a teacher to include John George Macleod, [12] Professor Ronald Haxton Girdwood who discovered the link between folate deficiency and Megaloblastic anemia, [13] Sir John McMichael, [14] a pioneer in the field of Cardiology whose works formed the basis of the treatment of cardiac diseases in Britain, [15] and Harold Thomas Swan, who discovered and published two case-notes recording the successful clinical use of penicillin in 1930. [16]
Davidson was a member of the Empire Rheumatism Council, now known as Arthritis Research UK, and has made significant contributions to developments in the field of Rheumatology. [4] He has published a book on nutrition, "Human nutrition and dietetics", based on his research in the field. [17] [18] He was also interested in the field of hematology. [3]
Davidson married Isabel Margaret Anderson (d.1979) on 27 July 1927 in Edinburgh. [1] They had no children. [9]
They lived in Woodhall House in Juniper Green, south-west of Edinburgh from 1953 to 1957. [5] He died on 27 September 1981. [1]
He is buried in the ancient stone vault of his ancestor, George Davidson of Newmills, in Currie churchyard, near his family home.
Davidson's medical textbook Principles and Practice of Medicine was first published in 1952. His lecture notes that he had previously distributed to students while working in the University of Edinburgh formed the basis of this publication. The book was of "modest size and price" and was well received by medical students. [2] The book is now in its 24th edition, is considered a standard text for undergraduate medical students, and has sold over two million copies altogether. [19] [20]
In 1959 Davidson wrote, with collaborators A.P Meiklejohn and R. Passmore, the book Human nutrition and Dietetics that dealt with nutrition and health. [18] The book has remained a standard reference on nutrition since then. [21]
He co-wrote The Textbook of Medical Treatment with Sir Derrick Dunlop. [22]
Sir William Melville Arnott was a Scottish academic.
Sir William Tennant Gairdner was a Scottish Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow.
Robert Kilpatrick, Baron Kilpatrick of Kincraig was a Scottish physician, educator, academic and former President of the General Medical Council.
Sir John Batty Tuke PRCPE FRSE LLD was one of the most influential psychiatrists in Scotland in the late nineteenth century, and a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1910. Tuke's career in Edinburgh from 1863 to 1910 spanned a period of significant social and political changes in asylum governance and care in Scotland. Tuke's professional success in public and private practice and his powerful role in several prominent medical societies allowed him to influence his colleagues toward a more physiological understanding of mental illness and its treatment.
Angus Macdonald FRSE FRCPE, was a Scottish physician, obstetrician and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He served as President of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society from 1879 to 1881.
John George Macleod was a Scottish doctor of medicine and a writer of medical textbooks.
Sir Robert Hutchison, 1st Baronet, FRCP was a Scottish physician and paediatrician, and the original editor of the medical books, Clinical Methods and Food and the Principles of Dietetics.
Sir Frederick Taylor, 1st Baronet was a British physician and president of the Royal College of Physicians 1915–1918 and president of the Royal Society of Medicine 1914–1916. He was created first Taylor baronet of Kennington in the 1917 Birthday Honours.
George William Balfour FRSE was a Scottish physician, known as a heart specialist.
Sir Byrom BramwellFRSEFRCPE was a British physician and medical author. He was a general physician, but became known for his work in neurology, diseases of the heart and blood, and disorders of the endocrine organs. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Sir Derrick Melville Dunlop was a Scottish physician and pharmacologist in British medical administration and policy-making in the late 20th century. He established the Dunlop Committee which investigates the side-effects of new drugs in the UK.
James Haig Ferguson was a Scottish obstetrician and gynaecologist. He served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1929 to 1931 and was president of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society. He chaired the Central Midwives Board of Scotland and was manager of Donaldson's School for the Deaf. In 1929 he was a founding member of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Andrew Rae Gilchrist was a Scottish cardiologist who served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1957 to 1960. He was its longest serving Fellow: 1929 to 1995. He did extensive work on anti-coagulants. In 1959 he was a co-founder of the British Heart Foundation, a charity raising funds for heart research.
W. G. Aitchison Robertson was a Scottish doctor and barrister and an expert on medical jurisprudence.
George Alexander Sutherland was a British physician, specializing in paediatrics and cardiology.
Brigadier Davis Evan Bedford (1898–1978) was a British physician and cardiologist.
Kenneth William Donald was a British physician, surgeon, pulmonologist, cardiologist, professor of medicine, and leading expert on underwater physiology and exercise physiology.
Arnold Peter Meiklejohn was an English physician and academic, specializing in nutrition.
Douglas Chalmers Watson M.D., F.R.C.P.Ed. was a Scottish physician and writer.
Stuart H Ralston is an academic physician based at the University of Edinburgh, where he is affiliated with the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine. He has written extensively on the molecular and genetic basis of osteoporosis, Paget's disease of bone and other bone and joint diseases.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help){{cite book}}
: |website=
ignored (help){{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2025 (link)