Archibald Pitcairne

In 17th century Europe Leiden and Reims had become the two major centres for university medical education. Leiden was to play an important role in the development of medicine and surgery in Edinburgh. It was Archibald Pitcairne who was to provide the most important link between the two centres.

Pitcairne was one of the most brilliant doctors of his day. A true polymath, he had studied divinity and law before medicine. He was also well versed in mathematics and astronomy and was an acquaintance of Sir Isaac Newton. His reputation was such that he was invited by the University of Leyden, arguably the leading medical school of its day, to serve as Professor of Medicine. After his return to Edinburgh an internal dispute resulted in his leaving the College of Physicians of Edinburgh to join the Incorporation of Surgeons, where he studied and taught anatomy.

Archibald Pitcairne was born in Edinburgh, the son of a merchant. He studied initially at Edinburgh University, graduating MA. His studies had included Divinity but his father intended that he should become a lawyer and he was sent to Paris to study Law. There he developed an interest in medicine and after studying at Padua, he graduated MD from Reims before returning to Edinburgh and medical practice. Within a year he had become the youngest of the original Fellows of the newly founded Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Whilst he excelled as a physician, he also had a particular aptitude for mathematics. He was friendly with David Gregory who was to become Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University and, thereafter, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. This mathematical background led to him championing what became known as the iatro-mechanical theory of physiology. This hypothesis was based on the assumption that bodily function such as the circulation were determined by mechanical factors rather than the ebb and flow of humors. Pitcairn’s enthusiasm for this highly controversial subject led to his publishing “Solutio Problematis de Inventoribus”. This was largely responsible for him being appointed (jointly with Robert Sibbald and James Halket) Professor of Medicine in the Town’s College (later to become the University). In this position he became one of the more eminent protagonists of the iatro-mechanical theory and in 1692 he was invited to the Chair of Medicine in the University of Leyden. On the journey there, he visited Sir Isaac Newton at Oxford.

His pupils at Leyden included several who were later to achieve fame in their own right, including Hermann Boerhaave and Richard Mead.

His stay at Leyden was short because his future wife did not wish to settle there. Returning to Edinburgh he was again plunged into controversy. He had shared the view of Sydenham about how fevers should be treated, a view not shared by the Edinburgh physicians of the day. He remained a devoted Episcopalian and Jacobite, and was scathing in his criticism of all things Presbyterian. These and other views resulted in the “riot in the College” as a consequence of which he was excluded from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1701 he was admitted to the Incorporation of Surgeons where he promoted the study and teaching of anatomy. He provided the summing up at the first two successful public demonstrations of anatomical dissection performed in the “new” Surgeons Hall. Pitcairne was by contemporary account the most distinguished member of the Incorporation and his efforts led to the appointment of Robert Elliot as Public Dissector to the Incorporation.

Pitcairne was a fervent Jacobite to the end. At his death in 1713 he left a geroboam of claret which was to be drunk on the restoration of the Stuart dynasty to the throne. This never came about, but in 1800 with the restoration of Pitcairn’s tombstone in Greyfriars church yard, a large gathering of Edinburgh doctors liberally interpreted the terms of his will and drank the geroboam to his memory.

The large library which Pitcairn had amassed during his life was purchased for the Czar of Russia by Robert Erskine, a Scottish physician in the service of the Czar who had known Pitcairn in Edinburgh.

His son, Andrew, like his father, a committed Jacobite, was arrested after the Jacobite defeat of 1715. Imprisoned in the Tower of London he obtained his release after the intervention of Richard Mead, whom his father had taught in Leyden and who had gone on to become Physician to King George III.

Archibald Pitcairne may rightly be viewed as the originator of the Edinburgh Medical School.