Sir William Newbigging was a surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary from 1802. While a dextrous operator, he was regarded principally as an excellent general practitioner. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1814–16 and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1838. He had five sons, four of whom followed him into the medical profession. Four of his sons died young — only Patrick outlived him. When Patrick returned from a Continental tour in 1842 he joined his father's general practice and when Sir William died in 1852 he took it over. From 1861 to 1863 he was also President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His last few years were plagued by ill health and he died in 1864, shortly after his fiftieth birthday.
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References
1.
MassonAHBPortraits, Paintings & Busts in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: published privately for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 1995: pp. 144–5.
2.
An engraving of this portrait is held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and a photograph is in the Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling.
3.
Obituary. Death of Sir William Newbigging. Monthly Journal of Medical Science1852;15:591. He died at his home at 29 Heriot Row, Edinburgh, on 23 October 1852.
4.
George Bell (1777–1832) was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on 1 May 1798. His father was Benjamin Bell (1749–1806). Six members of his family over four generations were Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. See: MassonAHB (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 14–15.
5.
Minutes Book of the Managers of the Royal Infirmary, vol. 7 (series 1), 1 January 1801-December 1813: p. 92.
6.
Minutes Book of the Managers of the Royal Infirmary, vol. 8 (series 1), 27 December 1813-December 1818: p. 321.
7.
In 1822 Christison was appointed Regius Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Police at the University of Edinburgh and in 1827 appointed a physician to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1832, he succeeded Andrew Duncan junior in the Chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, a post that he held until 1877; he also held the Chair of Clinical Medicine until 1855. He was awarded numerous British and foreign distinctions and was elected President of the Edinburgh College of Physicians in 1839 and 1848; in the latter year he was also appointed Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland. From 1868 to 1873 he was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1875 President of the British Medical Association, although he declined the Presidency of the British Association in 1876. See: ChristisonRobert, M.D.Sir In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–4: vol. IV, pp. 290–1.
8.
Op. cit. ref. 3.
9.
According to his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, in 1797 Abernethy performed the first operation for femoral aneurism. See: AbernethyJohn (1764–1831). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–4: vol. I, pp. 49–52.
10.
AbernethyJ. Surgical Operations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases: and on Aneurisms. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809. For the section on the treatment of aneurisms, see pp. 227–92.
11.
AbernethyJ. XI. Case of femoral aneurism, reaching as high as Poupart's ligament, cured by tying the external iliac artery. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal1807;3:46–51. Poupart's ligament was the term then used for the inguinal ligament. It was named after François Poupart, a French anatomist, who first described it. His dates were 1616–1708 according to AreyLB, eds. Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (23rd edn). Philadelphia: W B Saunders, 1957. His dates were 1661–1708 according to Churchill's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1989. The latter dates agree with McMinnRMH, ed. Last's Anatomy: Regional and Applied (8th edn). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1990, in which source he is described as surgeon to the Hôtel Dieu, Paris.
12.
Newbigging W. Case of inguinal and popliteal aneurism, cured by tying the external iliac artery. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal1817;12 (2nd edn): 71–6. (The Preface to this journal was styled Volume Twelfth, Second Edition 1816, date of publication 1817.).
13.
Christison (sons of Sir Robert, but no initials given). The Life of Sir Robert Christison, Bart. Volume I — Autobiography. Edinburgh: W Blackwood and Sons, 1885. Volume II -Memoirs. Edinburgh: W Blackwood and Sons, 1886. See vol. I, pp. 170–1.
14.
NewbiggingWilliamSir (1772–1852). In: Devlin-ThorpS, ed. The Royal Society of Edinburgh: 100 Medical Fellows Elected 1783–1844.Edinburgh: Scotland's Cultural Heritage, 1982: vol. III (unpaginated).
15.
SymeJames (1799–1870). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–4: vol. XIX, pp. 266–7.
16.
Margery Campbell was also variously known as Madgy or Margery, or Mary McGonegal or Duffie, or Docherty. See: EdwardsOD. Burke & Hare (2nd edn). Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1993: p. 65. See also: Kaufman MH. Another look at Burke and Hare: the last day of Mary Paterson — a medical cover up? Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1997;27:78-88.
17.
This was possibly because they did not understand her cries for help, as she was said only to speak Gaelic. EdwardsOD (op. cit. ref. 16): p. ix.
18.
Obituaries. Thomas Wharton Jones, F.R.S., F.R.C.S. British Medical Journal1891;1175–7. Thomas Wharton Jones, F.R.S. Lancet 1891;1256–8. See also JonesThomas Wharton (1808–91). In: Plan's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Bristol: John Wright and Sons Ltd, 1930: vol. I, pp. 628–31; Jones, Thomas Wharton (1808–91). In: Dictionary of National Biography Missing Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993: p. 364.
19.
It is believed that Alexander Black obtained his Edinburgh MD degree in 1829 with a thesis entitled De Aquae in febribus usu, as he is the only Edinburgh MD graduate listed with this name. See: List of the Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, from MDCCV to MDCCCLXVI. Edinburgh: Neill & Co., 1867. Alternatively he might have been Mr Alexander Longmore Black, who gained the LRCS Edinburgh diploma in 1829, as he is the only licentiate listed with the name of Alexander Black. See: Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Act of Parliament (13th Victoria, Chap. XXIII.) for enabling Her Majesty to Grant a New Charter to the College; Also, Royal Warrant for a New Charter, Dated 11 March 1851; Together with Chronological Lists of Members and Fellows, of Presidents and of Honorary Fellows, from the earliest record (August 1581) to the date of the Charter. Edinburgh: printed for the Royal College of Surgeons, by Robert Hardie and Co., 1851: supplement, List of Licentiates, from 1 January 1815 to 1 January 1859.
20.
RougheadW. Burke and Hare. Edinburgh: William Hodge and Co., 1921: p. 53.
21.
Christison (op. cit. ref. 13): vol. I, pp. 306–8. The relevant section of the text from this source also appears in Roughead W (op. cit. ref. 20): pp. 44–5.
22.
Christison (op. cit. ref. 13): vol. II, p. 431.
23.
BallingallGeorge (1786–1855) had been elected to the Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh in 1822 and succeeded John Thomson (1765–1846) following his resignation from this post. See: KaufmanMH. The Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh — 1806–55.Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003.
24.
Christison (op. cit. ref. 13): vol. I, pp. 174–5.
25.
JenkinsonJ. Scottish Medical Societies 1731–1939: Their History and Records. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993: pp. 201–2.
26.
The Minutes of the Wernerian Natural History Society are available for consultation in the Special Collections Section of Edinburgh University Library.
27.
Sir William Newbigging died on 23 October 1852, and was buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh, on 27 October. According to the records of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts he died of old age.
28.
Obituary. Death of Dr Newbigging. Edinburgh Medical Journal1864;9:772–4. He was born on 2 November 1813, and died on 10 January 1864. See also: Patrick Small Keir Newbigging. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1862–6;5:301–2.
29.
Patrick Small Keir Newbigging (1813–1864). In: BoyleAHaywardTHunterL, eds. The Royal Society of Edinburgh: Medical Fellows Elected 1841–1882.Edinburgh: Scotland's Cultural Heritage, 1983: vol. IV (unpaginated).
30.
According to the records in the Signet Library, he was apprenticed to Walter Dickson and the only individual with this surname who was a writer to the signet. He was born on 20 January 1809 and died on 25 October 1849. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James Flemyng of Killiechassie, Perthshire, on 30 June 1840. She died on 16 December 1879. See: Register of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet. Edinburgh: printed for the Society by Clark Constable, 1982: p. 240.
31.
NewbiggingPSKInaugural Essay on the Impulse and Sounds Attending the Action of the Heart and its Normal State; Submitted to the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh …. Edinburgh: Neill and Co., 1834. This 53-page work was dedicated to J H Davidson and to William Pulteney Alison.
32.
NewbiggingPSKProbationary Essay on Spina Bifida … In Conformity to Their Regulations Respecting the Admission of Ordinary Fellows. Edinburgh: William Burness, 1834. This 43-page work was dedicated to William Newbigging and to J W Turner.
33.
NewbiggingGSInaugural Dissertation on the Effusion and Organization of Coagulable Lymph. Submitted to the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh. …Edinburgh: Balfour and Jack, 1837. This 53-page work was dedicated to William Pulteney Alison.
34.
NewbiggingGSA Probationary Essay on Some Circumstances to be Considered in Resorting to the Operation of Bronchotomy…. In Conformity to Their Regulations Respecting the Admission of Ordinary Fellows. Edinburgh: Balfour and Jack, 1837. This 59-page work was dedicated to William Newbigging and William Wood.
35.
GrayJ. History of the Royal Medical Society 1737–1937.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1952: p. 320.
36.
See: General List of the Members of the Medical Society of Edinburgh. Instituted MDCCXXXVII. Incorporated by Royal Charter, December 14 MDCCLXXVIII. Edinburgh: printed for the Society by T Constable, 1850.
37.
Reference number QP 1028/28.
38.
Reference number QP 1027/86. Newbigging, Robertus. Disputatio Juridica, ad lit. XLIX. Tit. II. Digest. A Quibus Appelari Non Licet. …Edinburgh: Alex Smellie, 1828. This was dedicated to Patrick Small Keir, de Kinmonth ….
39.
BarthMRogerMHTraité Pratique d'Auscultation ou exposé méthodique des diverses applications de ce mode d'examen à l'état physiologique et morbide de l'économie; suive d'un Précis de Percussion. Paris: Labé, 1840. This volume was translated into English: Barth M, Roger H. A Practical Treatise on Auscultation. Translated with Notes by Patrick Newbigging, M.D., Ed., F.R.S.C. Edinburgh: Maclachlan, Stewart, and Co.; London: Whittaker and Co., 1842. The following text appears at the end of the Preface to the English translation: “I cannot conclude without mentioning, in justice to the memory of a lamented brother, that, by a singular coincidence, Dr. George Newbigging had commenced the translation of this treatise, at the very time when I had promised to the authors that I would undertake the task. He had not proceeded far, when he was suddenly cut off while engaged in the zealous and eager prosecution of professional study in Paris, and I have peculiar pleasure, now that the Work is finished, in acknowledging the assistance, which I have derived, in the early part of this performance, from the manuscript, which he has left behind.”.
40.
NewbiggingPKOn certain circumstances affecting the colour of blood during coagulation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh1839;1:263–4.
41.
Turner indicates that the first Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children occupied Number 13 Lauriston Place, but this seems unlikely to have been the case. See: TurnerAL. Story of a Great Hospital: The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh 1729–1929. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1937: pp. 282–3. For a more definitive account of the history of this hospital, see: Guthrie D, ed. The Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children 1860–1960. Edinburgh: E & S Livingstone, 1960.
42.
GuthrieD (op. cit. ref. 41): pp. 5–8. For maps of Lauriston Lane showing the location of the first Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, see TurnerAL (op. cit. ref. 41): maps opposite pp.232 and 280. For additional information, see TurnerAL (ibid.): pp. 282–3.
43.
John Watson had left money in his will to found this school, and it opened in 1828 to educate fatherless boys and girls. This school was forced to close in 1975. See: WallisIC. John Watson's School: A History. Edinburgh: John Watson Club, 1982. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art now occupies the site formerly occupied by the school.
44.
This small school was established in about 1833 and located at 260 Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh. It existed there until it reverted to domestic use during the twentieth century.
45.
The possibility exists that all of Sir William's sons had rheumatic heart disease. There is, however, no firm evidence to confirm or refute this hypothesis.
46.
Op. cit. ref. 28. Patrick Newbigging, who died in 1864, is buried in Dean Cemetery in section R (the old part next to the Dean Gallery), plot 55.
