Robert Jackson, M.D., late inspector-general of army hospitals / [Le Roy Crummer].

  • Crummer, Le Roy, 1872-1934.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Robert Jackson, M.D., late inspector-general of army hospitals / [Le Roy Crummer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    immediately he returned to Paris, where he studied for several months, working particularly at the Charite. He continued his medical studies at Brussels and finally took his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Leyden in 1785. For eight years he was established in private practice at Stockton-on-Tees. In 1793 he rejoined the army on the promise of being again sent to the West Indies, but his regiment, while stationed in Jersey, was ordered to Flanders. Dr. Jackson accompanied the regiment there, taking part in the full campaign until he was ordered to take charge of the sick who were to be returned from Bremen to England. In 1796 he was again ordered to the West Indies, where he served until 1798, when, with his friend and biographer, Dr. Borland, he returned to England, traveling via America, the avowed object of the trip being to visit Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia. He entered the service again in 1800, being assigned to home duty, but in 1802 was forced to retire as a result of a controversy with Mr. Keate and Sir Lucas Pepys. In 1811 he again joined the army and was sent to the West Indies, where he re¬ mained until 1815, when he returned to England and private practice. In 1819, intrigued by the report of yellow fever at Cadiz, Jackson offered, through the Director General of the Army Medical Department, to make an investigation of this epidemic, to determine if it was the same disease he had so carefully observed in the West Indies. He was, however, unable to proceed from Gibraltar on account of an insurrection in Spain, so he determined to visit the Levant, proceeding from Gibraltar to Malta, thence to Constantinople, to Smyrna and Athens, visiting many of the surrounding islands before returning. Anticipating a fresh outbreak of the epidemic in the late summer at Cadiz, he so timed his return trip that he arrived there on the very day that yellow fever was officially reported. He remained two months at Cadiz, going from there to Xeres to complete his studies before returning to England. It might be interesting to note that, under almost the same circum¬ stances in 1842, Larrey solicited the Minister of War for an appoint¬ ment to inspect the hospitals at Algiers. Larrey at sixty-seven was still interested in his hospitals as Jackson at sixty-nine was interested in fevers. Both sought the object of their quest along the shores of the Mediterranean, but Jackson was more fortunate, since he was able to return and finish his report, while Larrey died at Lyons before he could reach Paris. Dr. Jackson possessed an inherent gift for languages. On the Greenland whaler he spent all his spare time in his small and grimy cabin studying the Fathers of Medicine in the original Greek and Latin. He was intensely interested in the Gaelic language, and while with his