SIR JOHN PRINGLE: HOSPITAL REFORMER, MORAL PHILOSOPHER AND PIONEER OF ANTISEPTICS

Abstract

SCOTLAND has produced at least three medical men who can take their place beside the great Renaissance figures in versatility and breadth of learning.The late seven- teenth century was adorned by Sir Robert Sibbald, the eminent physician, historian, geographer and naturalist.In the nineteenth century, Sir James Simpson excelled in a bewildering variety of activities ranging from archaeology to obstetrics.The subject of this paper lived in the intervening century, and was even more remarkable than either Sibbald or Simpson, if this is conceivable.It is certainly noteworthy that although all three men were appointed professors in the University of Edinburgh only Dr. Pringle occupied a chair in the Faculty of Arts.Biographical material on Pringle is surprisingly scanty.There are two eighteenth- century accounts of his life.The first, by his close friend Andrew Kippis was published in 1783, and introduces a collected edition of Pringle's Discourses.' Though brief, this is the only authoritative biography available.The other near-contemporary memoir is by Benjamin Hutchinson,2 but it is merely a verbatim transcript from Kippis, with omissions.Subsequent biographers and medical historians, with two exceptions, deal perfunctorily with Pringle and add nothing to Kippis's account.Dorothea Singer, however, presents additional material in her valuable paper entitled Sir John Pringle and his Circle.3Several contemporary sources including some of Pringle's correspondence are examined in detail, but the commentary on Pringle himself is somewhat overshadowed by the abundant information on his 'circle'.Moreover, though Pringle's liberality and his influence on contemporaries are freely admitted in the paper, his important achievements have been overlooked in a number of instances.On the other hand, King, in his book on eighteenth-century medicine,4 fully recognises the importance of Pringle's work in relation to fevers and antiseptics, but does not attempt a general account.More recently, Pringle's important position in the history of military medicine has been emphasized by Hamilton.5Born in 1707 at Stichill (or 'Stichel') House in Roxburghshire, Pringle, who was the youngest son of a baronet, received his first formal education at the University of St. Andrews.Here he was guided chiefly by a cousin who was the Professor of Greek; and after studying the classics and philosophy for a few years, Pringle, at the age of 20, moved on to Edinburgh to study medicine.He stayed in Edinburgh for only one year, and in 1728 he hastened to Leyden, apparently to benefit by the teaching of the ageing Boerhaave.However, according to James Boswell-whom Kippis cites-Pringle left Edinburgh with the intention of following a mercantile career, but in Holland he happened to hear a lecture by Boerhaave, and immediately decided to study medicine under that master.Haller and Van Swieten were amongst his fellow students, but Pringle was not, at that time, greatly impressed by Van Swieten's ability as a physician.During

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