| Description Of Item | Oil on canvas, 73.6 x 53.3 cm
Douglas Argyll Robertson was born in Edinburgh, the son of John Argyll Robertson, MD, FRCSE, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. He graduated with an MD from St Andrews in 1857 and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1862.
Early in his career he worked under Professor Hughes Bennett and conducted the first class of practical physiology ever held at Edinburgh University. While in Germany, he attended Von Graefe's ophthalmology. He realised that Edinburgh had need of the development of this branch of surgery. In 1867 he was appointed assistant ophthalmic surgeon to Dr William Walker at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and three years later he became associate ophthalmic surgeon and, later, full surgeon – a post he held until 1897. Argyll Robertson recorded a series of cases showing that spinal cord disease may be associated with loss of the light reflex of the pupil, the papillary movement on accommodation remaining normal. This clinical observation became known universally as the Argyll Robertson pupil.
Artist: George Reid |