Thomas Richard Fraser

Thomas Fraser

A photograph of Fraser by Andrew Swan Watson
Born (1841-02-05)5 February 1841
Calcutta, India
Died 4 January 1920(1920-01-04) (aged 78)
Edinburgh, Scotland
13 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh
The grave of Thomas Richard Fraser, Dean Cemetery

Sir Thomas Richard Fraser FRS FRSE LLD (5 February 1841 – 4 January 1920) was a British physician and pharmacologist.[1][2][3] Together with Alexander Crum Brown he discovered the relationship between physiological activity and chemical constitution of the body.

Life

He was born in Calcutta in India on 5 February 1841.

Fraser made his studies at the University of Edinburgh Medical School and graduated M.D. with gold medal in 1862. His award-winning thesis was based upon the positive medical applications of Physostigmine. This had been discovered by Sir Robert Christison in 1846 but its suggested uses were largely as a humane killing mechanism than as a medical tool.[4]

In 1869 Fraser was a medical assistant professor at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1877 he was a member of an arctic expedition and later in 1877 was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh until 1918. In 1880 he was nominated Dean of the Medical Faculty.

In his later life he was both a consultant of insurance companies and of the Scottish Prisons Commission.

In 1867 he was elected a Fellow of thae Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposer was Sir Robert Christison. He served as the Society's Vice President from 1911 to 1916. He won the Society's Keith Prize for 1891-3 and their Makdougall_Brisbane Prize 1866-8. In 1877 he also was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[5]

In 1889 and 1890 he reported about an arrow poison used in coastal areas of Kenya and Nigeria and analyzed the highly poisonous Calabar bean and Strophanthus hispidus.[6][7] From 1898 to 1899 he was president of the Government Commission for the research on the plague in India. He served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1900 to 1902. In 1902 he was knighted by Queen Victoria for his work on the Indian Plague Commission.[8] In 1908 he was elected President of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland.[9]

He received honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University (LLD), Glasgow University (LLD), Edinburgh University (LLD), Cambridge University (DSc) and Dublin University (MD).[10]

In later years he lived at 13 Drumsheugh Gardens in Edinburgh's West End.[11]

He died in Edinburgh on 4 January 1920. He is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh, not far from his home. The grave lies in the south-west of the first northern extension, on the wall backing onto the original cemetery.

Family

With his wife Susanna Margaret Duncan Fraser he had four sons, but one (John Duncan Fraser) died in infancy. His second son, Sir Francis Richard Fraser (1885–1964), also became a Professor of Materia Medica in Edinburgh. His third son was Henry Chapman Fraser (1887-1916). His fourth son, Frederick Palmer Fraser (1891-1907) died young.

Publications

Academic offices
Preceded by
James Andrew		 President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
1900–1902 		Succeeded by
Thomas Clouston

References

  1. ↑ "SIR THOMAS RICHARD FRASER, M.D., F.R.S., LL.D.Aberd., Glasg., Edin., Sc.D.Camb., etc". BMJ. 1 (3081): 100. 1920. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3081.100. PMC 2336911Freely accessible.
  2. ↑ Biographisches Lexikon hervorragender Ärzte bei. Zeno.org. Retrieved on 5 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Thomas Richard Fraser, toxicologist, 1884. scienceandsociety.co.uk (23 April 2008). Retrieved on 5 June 2014.
  4. ↑ https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/notable_fellow.pdf
  5. ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  6. ↑ T. R. Fraser. Nndb.com. Retrieved on 5 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Neuwinger, H.D. Afrikanische Ethnobotanik: Gifte und Arzneien. neuwinger-online.de
  8. ↑ https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/notable_fellow.pdf
  9. ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  10. ↑ https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/notable_fellow.pdf
  11. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1911-12
  12. ↑ "On the Physiological Action of the Calabar Bean". J Anat Physiol. 1 (2): 323–32. 1867. PMC 1318559Freely accessible. PMID 17230725.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Richard Fraser.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.