James Lind (naturalist)

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For other people with the same name, see James Lind (disambiguation).
James Lind
Born(1736-05-17)17 May 1736
Gorgie, Edinburgh, Scotland
Died17 October 1812(1812-10-17) (aged 76)
Russell Square, London, England
EducationEdinburgh University (MD 1768)
RelativesJames Lind
Medical career
Professionnatural philosopher
physician
InstitutionsSurgeon, East India Company
Fellow of the College of Physicians

James Lind FRS FRSE FRCPE (1736–1812) was a Scottish natural philosopher and physician.

Life[]

James Lind was born in Gorgie, Edinburgh on 17 May 1736.[1]

He studied Medicine at Edinburgh University and graduated in 1765. In 1766, he then joined the East India Company as surgeon. In 1768 he received his doctorate (MD) from Edinburgh upon completing a dissertation on marsh fever (malaria) in Bengal.[2] On 6 November 1770 he was admitted a Fellow of the College of Physicians, Edinburgh.[3] Lind was also a corresponding member of the Lunar Society.[4][5][6]

Charles Burney described Lind as extremely thin, tall, with grey hair as seen around age 70 ('a mere lath'). Dr. Fanny Burney wrote that Lind was generally acknowledged to have a sweet disposition.[7] She also cast doubt whether he obtained much of a private medical practice: "his taste for trickes, conundrums and queer things makes people fearful of his trying experiments on their constitutions, and think of him a better conjuror than a physician; though I don't know why the same man should not be both".[3][7]

Percy Shelley said Lind to be, "...exactly what an old man ought to be. Free, calm-spirited, full of benevolence, and even of youthful ardor: his eye seemed to burn with supernatural spirit beneath his brow, shaded by his venerable white locks, he was tall, vigorous, and healthy in his body; tempered, as it had ever been, by his amiable mind. I owe to that man far, ah! far more than I owe to my father: he loved me, and I shall never forget our long talks, where he breathed the spirit of the kindest tolerance and the purest wisdom,"[5]

In A Sketch of My Life, Lind's son Alexander Frances Lind wrote: "Would that my feeble pen could render better justice to my father's memory; and would that I had been older to have profited by the instructions he was so peculiarly fitted to afford. I have been told, and I believe it, that few men existed of more universal knowledge; and that very few could be met, whose conversation was do instructive, and whose life and manners were more gently, and unassuming."[8]

Family[]

James Lind was the son of Alexander Lind of Gorgie and Helen Allardice (daughter of , Member of Parliament).[9][1] He had four siblings: George Lind, Elisabeth Lind, Ann Lind, and Charles Lind.

Lind's grandfather was George Lind of Gorgie.

Lind married Ann Elizabeth Mealy (d. 1803) on 07 Nov 1778.[10] In Burney's Diary, she mentioned his wife as "a fat handsome wife who is as tall as himself and about six times as big".[3][7] Ann Elizabeth Mealy and Lind had at least four children:[11][1]

  • Anne Amelia Lind (1780-1783)[1]
  • Lucy Maria Lind (1783-1858), married Markham Eeles Sherwill, and they had three sons (Markham Eeles, Walter Stanhope and James) and five daughters (Ariana Maria, Julia Sophia, Lucy Maria, Anne Elizabeth and Helen Matilda). As Lucy Maria Sherwill, she was known as a profilist.[12][13][9]
  • Dorothea Sophia Banks Lind (1786-1863), Lind married Isaac Gosset (1782–1855); and was mother of Helen Dorothea or Dorothy Gosset, who married William Driscoll Gosset.[14]
  • Anne Elizabeth Lind (1787-1866), married William Burnie in 1806.[15][16]
  • Alexander Francis Lind B.C.S. (1797-1832), recommend for nomination by Lord Ailesbury at the request of Queen Charlotte in 1811; Judge and Magistrate of Mirzapur at time of death.[17] Married Anna Maria Macan, fathered eight children.[18][8]

Lind was the first cousin of James Lind (1716–1794) the distinguished naval physician credited with curing scurvy, conducting the first controlled clinical trial, and namesake of the James Lind Alliance, whose father likewise named James Lind was the brother to Alexander and George Lind (of the Edinburgh Member of Parliament).[11][19][12] His cousin James Lind (1716–1794) had a son likewise named Sir James Lind who became a Captain in the Royal Navy, therefore the four James Lind often have mistaken identity.[20]

Lind was also first cousin to James Keir.[21]

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein[]

Lind taught at Eton College while in semi-retirement. Around 1809, he tutored Percy Bysshe Shelley,[22] husband of Mary Shelley. Percy alluded to Lind in two poems from 1817, the old man who rescues Laon in The Revolt of Islam, and Prince Athanase, where he appears as the wise old teacher magus Zonoras.[20]

Percy was fascinated with Lind's experiments and demonstrations of galvanism (e.g. using electricity to animate the muscles of dead frogs), hence Lind has been suggested to have been an inspirational origin of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.[23][20][24][5] Lind is also thought to be the source for the character of the blind old man, De Lacey,[25] as well as Doctor M. Waldman[4] in the novel Frankenstein.

Freemasonry[]

Lind was a Scottish Freemason. He was Initiated in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, on 2 August 1758. He was also active in the affairs of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and was Senior Grand Warden 1769-1771.[26]

Death[]

Lind died at the house of his son-in-law, William Burnie, in Russell Square, London, on 17 October 1812.[3] He is buried in Bloomsbury, London.[1]

Career[]

In addition to medicine, Lind was interested in a variety of sciences (botany, astronomy, meteorology, geology, chemistry, etc.), collected antiques and drawings, and was a silhouette artist and played the bassoon and flute.[7][8] Lind was closely acquainted with many prominent scientists of his era exemplified by James Watt.[5][27] Watt confided in Lind in discussing his steam engine, and in Watt's publication, Description of a New Perspective Machine, he opens by referring to Lind: "The perspective machine was invented about 1765, in consequence of my friend Dr. James Lind having brought from India a machine [...] invented by Mr. Hurst."[28]

Neat and organised handwritten page from William Godwin's journal.
James Lind's 2-foot refracting telescope made by Jesse Ramsden with a lens by Peter Dollond and mounting by John Miller. Used by Lind to view the 1769 transit of Venus.[24]

In astronomy, Lind utilized a telescope[24] to observe the transit of Venus from Hawkhill and reported his account to the Royal Society in 1769, and printed with remarks from Nevil Maskelyne.[7] Lind likewise observed an eclipse of the moon at the same location, the account of which was likewise read to the Royal Society.[7] Lind kept up a correspondence with Patrick Wilson about William Herschel's astronomical works.[29] Lind's wife, Ann Elizabeth Mealy, was suggested to have been the first to observed volcanic activity on the moon.[8]

As a naturalist, Lind collected plant specimens during voyages aboard Drake (1762-1763) and Hampshire (1765-1767) with significant collections made at the Cape and the Comoros en route to India and south-east Asia.[20] Lind visited China in 1766, Iceland in 1772 with Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, and South Africa in 1779.[20] The Icelandic expedition of 1772 took place after initial unsuccessful plans for both Banks and Lind to sail with James Cook on his second voyage[5] as mentioned in A Voyage Round the World; Lind was to be hired as astronomer and to receive £4000 for the voyage. Consistent with the misidentification of the James Lind cousins, some sources credit the cousin James Lind (1716-1794) as the astronomer candidate for Cook's second voyage,[30][31] however there is no doubt regarding the identity of James Lind (1736-1812) as noted in his son's memoirs A Sketch of My Life[8], and supported with the following excerpts from the Society minutes:

Dr James Lind is recommended to the Board of Longitude ‘as a person who will be extremely useful in the intended voyage for discoveries in remote parts; on account of his skill and experience in his profession, and from his great Knowledge in Mineralogy, Chemistry, Mechanics, and various branches of Natural Philosophy; and also from his having spent several years in different climates, in the Indies'.-R.S.,[32]
It was not really Cook but Joseph Banks who wanted Lind as part of his large entourage, and after Banks had failed to get his will with regards to the expedition ships of Cook's second voyage and decided not to go, they went to Iceland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands together instead in 1772.[33]

Lind is likewise credited with first discovering the latitude of Islay,[2] and developed a map of the island which was accepted by the geographical authority of era; Lind gave the map to Thomas Pennant.[11][7]

Lind invented the Lind Type Tube Anemometer (portable wind gauge) in 1775,[34] a prototype of which he had sent to Sir John Pringle.[7]

Neat and organised handwritten page from William Godwin's journal.
NE corner of the terrace at Windsor Castle, study for a print; with figures including Tiberius Cavallo, Dr James Lind, Dr Lockman, Caroline Herschel,[35] Thomas Sandby looking out towards the comet on 18 Aug 1783[36] (background not shown), one pointing. 1783 Watercolour, over graphite[37]

Lind was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London 18 December 1777. Around the same time he seems to have settled at Windsor, where he later became physician to the royal household for King George III.[38][3] When the coffin of Edward IV was opened and examined at Windsor in 1789, Lind made an analysis of the liquid found in it.[3] While at Windsor, Lind also had a private press where he published numerous works including Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland and The Genealogy of the Families of Lind and the Montgomeries of Smithson, as well as miscellaneous other books, pamphlets, and experimented with typography.[11][7] Among miscellaneous tasks the King had assigned to Lind, in Jan 1782 Lind planted at cabbage garden intended to protect hares over winter.[39]

Lind suggested the use of electroshock therapy to treat insanity (particularly in the context of treating George III’s mental illness) as he had extensively studied and experimented with galvanism,[20] and communicated with Tiberius Cavallo on the subject.[23] Lind also communicated with Cavallo in the art of silhouette making.[36]

Lind communicated extensively with Cavallo.[40][7] In a letter written in 1796 to Cavallo (originating from Windsor) and published in Cavallo's An Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Factitious Airs (1798), Lind recognized the therapeutic potential of carbon monoxide as hydrocarbonate for treating lung inflammation, the mechanism of which was recently elucidated in 2000 via the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.[41] Lind's discovery is a significant origin for the field of gasotransmitters in the context of carbon monoxide's neurotransmitter properties and pharmaceutical development of carbon monoxide therapeutics. In the same work, Lind designed a novel inhaler for delivery of hydrocarbonate therapeutic gas.[42]

Inspired by Cavallo, Lind was also interested in ballooning and aerial flight in the late 1790s.[43]

Honors[2][]

Publications[]

1762 - Lind's inaugural dissertation, De Febre Remittente Putrida Paludum quæ grassabatur in Bengalia

1768 - dissertation published at Edinburgh.

1772 - Lind produced a translation of dissertation, Treatise on the Fever of 1762 at Bengal.[11]

1769 - In three papers for the Royal Society, Lind discussed: the 1769 transit of Venus observed at Hawkhill, near Edinburgh; an eclipse of the moon, same place and year, with remarks by Nevil Maskelyne

1775 - portable wind gauge.

1776 - A description of rifled ordnance; Fitted with Sectors, Telescopes, &c. In which is contained, an Account of the Nature and Properties of rifles in general.[44]

1798 - A letter from Lind appears in Tiberius Cavallo's An Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Factitious Airs.[45]

1800 - A Sketch for medical education.[46]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "FamilySearch.org". ancestors.familysearch.org. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c daisy (8 March 2017). "James Lind". www.rcpe.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Lind, James (1736-1812)". Dictionary of National Biography. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Guston, David (2017). Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creaters of All Kinds (PDF). The MIT Press. pp. xxiv, xxvi. ISBN 9780262533287.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e King-Hele, D. G. (31 July 1992). "Shelley and science". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 46 (2): 253–265. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1992.0025. ISSN 0035-9149. PMID 11623027.
  6. ^ Ruston, Sharon (1 October 2008). "Shelley's Links to the Midlands Enlightenment: James Lind and Adam Walker". Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. 30 (2): 227–241. doi:10.1111/j.1754-0208.2007.tb00334.x.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j "Lind, James (McKechnie Section 1) | profilesofthepast.org.uk". www.profilesofthepast.org.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Harvey, June (6 March 2020). The Sherwill Journals, 1840-1843: Voyages and Encounters in the Eastern Cape of Southern Africa. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-5275-4827-5.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b John Burke; Bernard Burke (1848). The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales: With Their Descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects. E. Churton. p. 289.
  10. ^ The Lady's Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex: Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement. Baldwin, Cradock & Joy. 1778. p. 615.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Lind, James (1736-1812)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Sir Robert Douglas (1795). The Genealogy of the Family of Lind, and the Montgomeries of Smithton. Privately printed. p. 11.
  13. ^ Sue McKechnie (1978). British Silhouette Artists and Their Work, 1760–1860. P. Wilson for Sotheby Parke Bernet. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-85667-036-7.
  14. ^ Gordon Willoughby James Gyll (1862). History of the Parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke Priory, and Magna Charta Island: With the History of Horton, and the Town of Colnbrook, Bucks. H. G. Bohn. p. 230.
  15. ^ The Scots Magazine. Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran. 1806. p. 806.
  16. ^ Edward Younge and John Jervis (1830). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Exchequer Exchequer chamber. p. 533.
  17. ^ "Read the eBook List of inscriptions on Christian tombs and tablets of historical interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh by Edward Blunt online for free (page 26 of 43)". www.ebooksread.com. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  18. ^ "FamilySearch.org". ancestors.familysearch.org. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  19. ^ Sir Bernard Burke (1853). Index to Burke's dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Colburn and Company. p. 203.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Lind, James (1736-1812) on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  21. ^ Barbara M. D. Smith and J. L. Moilliet, James Keir of the Lunar Society, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 22, No. 1/2 (Sep. 1967), pp. 144–154, at p. 144. Published by: Royal Society. JSTOR 531194
  22. ^ Richard Holmes (2005). Shelley: The Pursuit. Harper Perennial. pp. 25–6. ISBN 978-0-00-720458-8.
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Goulding, Christopher (2002). "The real Doctor Frankenstein?". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 95 (5): 257–259. doi:10.1258/jrsm.95.5.257. ISSN 0141-0768. PMC 1279684. PMID 11983772.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b c Johnson, Kevin (2006). "A Glimpse at the Astronomy Heritage of the Science Museum, London". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (ISSN 1440-2807), Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 159 - 165 (2006). 9 (2): 161. Bibcode:2006JAHH....9..159J. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  25. ^ Mary Ellen Snodgrass (14 May 2014). Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature. Infobase Publishing. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-4381-0911-4.
  26. ^ History of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, compiled from the records 1677-1888. By Alan MacKenzie. 1888. P.242.
  27. ^ "James Watt". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  28. ^ Watt, James. "Description of a new perspective machine - Page 259 - Science Hall of Fame - National Library of Scotland". digital.nls.uk. p. 259. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  29. ^ Christopher Goulding, Shelley's Cosmological Sublime: William Herschel, James Lind and "The Multitudinous Orb", The Review of English Studies New Series, Vol. 57, No. 232 (Nov. 2006), pp. 783–792, at p. 788. Published by: Oxford University Press. JSTOR 501525
  30. ^ Kodicek, Egon; Young, Frank. "CAPTAIN COOK AND SCURVY" (PDF). p. 52.
  31. ^ Hamilton, James C. (30 May 2020). Captain James Cook and the Search for Antarctica. Pen and Sword History. pp. 176, 281. ISBN 978-1-5267-5360-1.
  32. ^ Beaglehole's edition of Cook's journals, vol II, p. 913; 8 February. Royal Society, Minutes of Council.
  33. ^ Council Minutes, vol. VI, p. 131. 10
  34. ^ "James Lind | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  35. ^ Roberta J. M. Olson; Jay M. Pasachoff (2012). "The Comets of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), Sleuth of the Skies at Slough; Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, INSAP7, Bath, 2010 (www.insap.org) publication: Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 16, nos. 1 and 2, 2012;". arXiv:1212.0809 [physics.hist-ph].
  36. ^ Jump up to: a b "Lind, James (1736-1812) - Silhouette of George III". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  37. ^ Royal Collection Trust. https://www.rct.uk/collection/914577/the-meteor-of-1783-seen-from-the-east-end-of-the-north-terrace; Oppé, A.P., 1947. The Drawings of Paul and Thomas Sandby in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London – O(S) 53
  38. ^ Milne, Iain (2012). "Who was James Lind, and what exactly did he achieve". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 105 (12): 503–508. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2012.12k090. ISSN 0141-0768. PMC 3536506. PMID 23288083.
  39. ^ "Lind, James (1736-1812) - Silhouette of George III". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  40. ^ Christopher Goulding, The Real Professor Frankenstein?, J. R. Med. Soc. 2002; 95, 257–259, at p. 258 (PDF)
  41. ^ Hopper, Christopher P.; Zambrana, Paige N.; Goebel, Ulrich; Wollborn, Jakob (June 2021). "A brief history of carbon monoxide and its therapeutic origins". Nitric Oxide. 111–112: 45–63. doi:10.1016/j.niox.2021.04.001. PMID 33838343.
  42. ^ Slatter, Enid M. (1 January 1960). "2. The First English Ether Inhalers". British Journal of Anaesthesia. 32 (1): 35–45. doi:10.1093/bja/32.1.35. ISSN 0007-0912. PMID 13831628.
  43. ^ "Industrial Revolution, Series III, Parts 1 to 3". www.ampltd.co.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  44. ^ "A description of rifled ordnance; Fitted with Sectors, Telescopes, &c. In which is contained, an Account of the Nature and Properties of rifles in general. By James Lind, M. D." Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  45. ^ Cavallo, Tiberius (1798). An Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Factitious Airs: With an Appendix, on the Nature of Blood.
  46. ^ "Sketch for a medical education | Great Writers Inspire". www.writersinspire.org. Retrieved 14 May 2021.

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