Abstract
This article reviews the life and work of Sir William O’Shaughnessy Brooke (formerly Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy), an Edinburgh doctor of medicine and Fellow of the Royal Society who as a young doctor in London analysed the blood and excreta of cholera victims, an action which led to the first successful use of intravenous replacement therapy. His career in India was distinguished in several spheres: chemistry, pharmacology in which he introduced cannabis indica to Europe, and in the field of electric telegraphy where he became the superintendent of telegraphs for India.
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References
1.William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, Report on the Chemical Pathology of the Malignant Cholera: containing analyses of the blood, dejections, &c. of patients labouring under that disease in Newcastle and London, &c , London: Highley, 1832; William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, Bengal Pharmacopoeia and General Conspectus of Medicinal Plants. Arranged according to the Natural and Therapeutical Systems : Published by Order of Government, Calcutta, Bishop’s College, 1844; William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, The Electric Telegraph in British India: a Manual of Instruction for the Subordinate Officers, Artificers, and Signallers employed in this Department , London for the Court of the Directors of the East India Company, 1853. In this article I have used his original surname O’Shaughnessy rather than Brooke which he adopted in 1861 although the DNB uses Brooke: Katherine Prior, ‘Brooke, Sir William O'Shaughnessy (1808–1889)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20895 (2004, accessed 15 February 2015) .
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5.Trinity College Dublin MS 758, folio 34r. I am grateful to the Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin who provided me with these details of O’Shaughnessy who was recorded as a Roman Catholic, born in County Clare .
6.University of Edinburgh Matriculation Records .
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18.Jean Guillaume Lugol, Essays on the Effect of Iodine in Scrofulous Diseases, translated by WB O’Shaughnessy , London: S Highley, 1831. Jean Guillaume Auguste Lugol (1786–1851) was a French physician
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20.Morning Post , 27 April 1831 p.1 published a notice from O’Shaughnessy postponing for a week a public meeting of the medical profession to discuss the proposed London College of Medicine
21.Standard , 10 November 1831 pp.3 &4 recorded the cholera outbreak in Sunderland, an emergency meeting of the Board of Health and the arrival of Drs Russell and Barry from Russia on 9 November
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29.McGrew RE. The first Russian cholera epidemic: themes and opportunities. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1962; 36: 229. Jaehnichen advocated that the disease should be treated by injection of water into the veins and on one occasion he did inject intravenously a mixture of acetic acid and water but despite a return of the pulse the patient died within two hours .
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35.Letter from Dr T Latta: Lancet 1832; 2: 274–281 .
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39.Lancet 1831–1832; 2: 227 in which O’Shaughnessy discussed increased serum albumen levels, presumably from loss of fluid; Lancet 1832; 2: 603
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43.I am grateful to Dr Henry Noltie, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh for this reference and for a copy of Graham’s letter, the original of which is in the archives of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. Graham was appointed to his post as Keeper in January 1820 and was responsible for establishing the Garden in its present Inverleith situation; Anita McConnell, ‘Graham, Robert (1786–1845)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 2007 [www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11222, accessed 30 January 2015]; Boulger GS, ‘Wallich, Nathaniel (1785–1854)’, rev. Andrew Grout, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 2005 [www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28564, accessed 30 January 2015] .
44.There are several articles the reader might find useful in studying the first use of intravenous saline: Moon JB. New England Journal of Medicine 1967; 276: 283–284; Cosnett JE. Lancet 1989; 333: 768–771; Foex BA. Emergency Medicine Journal 2003; 20:316–318; MacGillivray N. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 2006; 36: 80–85. An interesting recent paper is by Gill G. William O’Shaughnessy and the forgotten cure for cholera in the 1832 British Epidemic. Medical Historian 2015; 25:19–30 .
45.McCosh J. Medical advice to the Indian stranger . London: Allen & Co., 1841, pp.2, 19, 22–23 .
46.Gorman M. Sir William B.O’Shaughnessy, Pioneer Chemical Educator in India. Ambix 1983; 30: 108 .
47.Gorman. Sir William B.O’Shaughnessy, Pioneer Chemical Educator in India,’ Ambix : 109 .
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51.William O’Shaughnessy. On the preparation of the Indian Hemp or Gunjah (Cannabis Indica), their effects on the animal system in health, and their utility in the treatment of tetanus and other convulsive diseases. British and Foreign Medical Review 1840; x: 225–228 .
52.Anon. New remedy for tetanus and other convulsive disorders. Lancet 1840; 2: 539–541 .
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55.idem .
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58.Mills, Cannabis Britannica, p.41 .
59.Copy Certificate of a Candidate for Election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London. I am grateful to the Archivist of the Royal Society for providing me with this. Among his sponsors were Royle, Forbes and Pereira .
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64.Adams M, Memoir of Surgeon-Major Sir William O’Shaughnessy Brook [sic] in connection with the early history of the telegraph in India , Simla: Government Central Printing Office, 1889, Reprinted Kessinger Legacy Reprints, USA, no date .