| Description Of Item | Oil on canvas, 44 x 33 cm
Alexander Peddie (1810–1907), the son of an Edinburgh minister, was educated at Edinburgh High School. He was encouraged to become a doctor by Dr John Abercrombie, Scotland's leading physician in the early nineteenth century.
In 1830 Peddie was apprenticed to Mr Syme of Minto House, the first medical provident institution in Scotland. On his return from postgraduate study in Paris he introduced the stethoscope to Edinburgh. When Syme was given the Clinical Chair of Surgery in Edinburgh, Peddie became Superintendent of Minto House which was largely used for the medical care of the sick poor. At the same time he developed an extensive private practice in the city. In 1845 Peddie was the first to recognise the contagious nature of puerperal fever and its intimate connection with erysipelas and phlebitic inflammation. He was one of the originators of the Sick Children's Hospital.
Artist: Barbara S. Peddie |