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PAST PRESIDENTS career much more distinguished and he was baptised by the same honourable than that of Lesassier. minister who had baptised Robert The Maclagan Dynasty Records show that, in addition to the Burns, but that is very unlikely. horrific wounds, major infections must In the history of the College, there have challenged him and his staff. Douglas, like his father, went to have been several instances when ’s Royal High School and succeeding generations of one family Whether or not he was at Waterloo University, gaining his LRCSE in 1831, have been Fellows, even Presidents. in 1815 is not known. He returned followed by his FRCSEd and MD in Few have been Presidents of both to Edinburgh and set up in surgical 1833. After visiting Paris, Berlin and the Royal College of Physicians and practice in 1816, being elected London he returned to Edinburgh as Surgeons of Edinburgh before or FRCSEd in that same year, and an assistant to his father who by this since the MacLagan dynasty. becoming President in 1826. In 1828 time was a famous surgeon and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal academic. He must soon have David Maclagan (1785–1865) Society of Edinburgh and appointed realised that surgery was not his Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty forte and he gave it up to lecture on Educated at the Royal High School of in Scotland in 1838. Edinburgh was Materia Medica in Edinburgh’s Extra- Edinburgh and Edinburgh University,he unique at that time in having a Chair Mural School of Medicine. graduated MD in 1805, his thesis of Military Surgery (1806–55), and entitled De Sanitate tuenda before David joined the second incumbent, He was appointed by the Crown to spending some time at St George’s Professor Sir George Ballingall the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence in Hospital London. By this time the (1780–1855), as a lecturer. 1862, three years before his father

CME were at their height. died. He became an authority on the Wellington and combined forces of At the age of 63 years, by then analysis of poisons and, as a result, was Britain, Spain and Portugal were facing famous as a lecturer and a surgeon involved in many famous court cases. Napoleon’s generals in the Iberian with a thriving practice, he changed Peninsula (1808–1814). David enlisted his career and became a physician. Although he had not worked as a as Assistant Surgeon, alongside He was later elected President of surgeon for many years, he served as Alexander Lesassier, the nephew of the Royal College of Physicians of President of the Royal College of James Hamilton,President of the RCPE Edinburgh in 1856. He had seven Surgeons of Edinburgh 1859–1861 and and Professor of Midwifery, Edinburgh. sons, three of whom followed him as President of the Royal College of He went to Portugal in 1809, and in into medicine. One, Douglas, did so Physicians of Edinburgh 1884–87. The 1810 became staff surgeon to the with great distinction. Maclagan dynasty continued, with two 25,000-strong 9th Portuguese Brigade of his sons becoming doctors. Could under the command of Colonel Andrew Douglas Maclagan any doctor wish for a better epithet: Manley Power, seeing service at the (1812–1900) ‘...not a great physician but a splendid battles of Badajoz (1812) Salamanca man – a fine musician, raconteur, wit, (1812) and Nive (1813) and was The eldest of David’s seven sons, he polished, courteous and lovable’? subsequently awarded the Peninsular was born in Ayr in 1812 after his Medal with six clasps and promoted to father had returned from the Derek Doyle ‘Physician to the Forces’, with a military . It has been said that Obituaries Editor, The Journal RCPE

48 J R Coll Physicians Edinb 2007; 37:44–48 © 2007 RCPE