Notice of the late Dr. Abercrombie / [Sir John Rose Cormack].

Cormack, John Rose, Sir, 1815-1882.

Date:: [1844]

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of the late Dr. Abercrombie / [Sir John Rose Cormack]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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NOTICE OF THE LATE HE ABEKCEOMBIE. (From Dr Cormack’s Journal for December 1844J It is our mournful duty to announce the sudden and premature decease of this great and good man. The sad event, which has deprived the profession of one of its brightest ornaments, and Edinburgh of one of her best citizens, took place at his residence, in York Place, on Thursday the 14th of November, be¬ tween the hours of nine and ten o’clock in the morning. About nine he finish¬ ed a hearty breakfast; his carriage was waiting for him at the door, and some patients were likewise in attendance,~when, from his being unusually lono- in leaving his private room, his servant entered it, and found him lying prostrate and dead on the floor, with his arms extended. From the position of the body, and from other circumstances, which we ascertained, but which it is not neces¬ sary to particularize, it would appear, that he had hurriedly advanced a few steps towards the door after feeling ill, and had then, when he found himself falling, extended his arms to save himself, but without, doing so in any degree, as we infer from the nature and severity of a bruise upon the nose:—it was evi¬ dent, in fact, that he had come to the ground a helpless and a lifeless weight. Dr John Abercrombie was born on the 10th Octobei:, 1781. His father was a respected clergyman of the Established Church of Scotland, in the city of Aberdeen. He graduated at the University of Edinburgh on the 4th of June 1803, writing for his thesis, “De Fatuitate Alpina.” We have often been told by one of his early friends,—one who was called as suddenly, as he was, from the shifting scenes of time,—that as a Student of Medicine, Dr Abercrombie dis¬ played that same deep, practical, unobtrusive piety, which in after life was the main-spring and regulating principle of his every action,—the charm by which his talents were enabled to command the confidence of his patients, and of the profession, to an extent, if equalled, certainly never surpassed by a physician. After a short period of study in London, Dr Abercrombie was admitted a Fel¬ low of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, upon the 12 th of November 1804, upon which occasion he submitted to the President and Council of that body his “ Probationary Essay” on “ Paralysis of the Lower Extremities from Diseased Spine.” This paper is characterized by the same clear end terse style which is to be seen in all his subsequent writings. He now took a house in Nicolson Street, and commenced practice as a general or family practitioner. At this period, he devoted a great portion of his time to attendance on the poor, as one of the medical officers of the Royal Public Dispensary. In 1811, and subsequent years,—when he had around him an effective body of ardent pu¬ pils, to whom he had succeeded in imparting much of his own enthusiastic pas¬ sion for the careful clinical study of disease, he divided the city into districts, to each of which he attached several pupils. By his own zeal, and the hearty co-operation of his pupils, he thus became the instrument of much good to the poor; whilst at the same time, he furnished himself with that rich field of obser¬ vation, which afterwards formed the basis of his future fame, eminence, and skill as a pathologist and practical physician. About this time he was appointed vaccinator along with Drs Bryce and Gillespie; and with these eminent col¬ leagues he took an active and efficient part in the introduction of the important discovery of Jenner.