James Lind FRS FRSE FRCPE (May 17, 1736 – October 17, 1812) was a Scottish natural philosopher and physician.
Contents
Life
James Lind was born in Gorgie, Edinburgh on 17 May 1736.
He studied medicine at Edinburgh University under William Cullen and Joseph Black, and graduated in 1768. 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. On 6 November 1770 he was admitted a Fellow of the College of Physicians, Edinburgh. In 1773 he was a founding member of the Aesculapian Club. Lind was also a corresponding member of the Lunar Society.
Personality
Lind is widely regarded as having an eccentric personality, and considered to be reckless with spending money as captured by the following dialogue: "Why, Dr. Lind, you spend a whole seas of gold", to which Lind replied, "Madam, 'tis true, my very name, behold, Begins with pounds and ends, alas, with pence"
Charles Burney described Lind as extremely thin, tall, with grey hair as seen around age 70 ('a mere lath'). Lind was generally acknowledged to have a sweet disposition, and Fanny Burney 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".
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,"
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."
Family
James Lind was the son of Alexander Lind of Gorgie, FRSE, (who was the son of George Lind of Gorgie, Sheriff Deputy of Edinburgh, and Jean Montgomery of Smithton) Lind's great-grandfather was John Lind IV (who was the son of Mary Boyd of Pittfinde). John Lind IV and Isabel had five children. Their other notable descendants included James Keir, and George Lind (who was Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Member of Parliament for Edinburgh), and Colonel John Lind, and Major-General John Lind (1733 - 1795), and Anne Lind (who was the wife of Richard Cooper), and the distinguished physician James Lind of Haslar (1716 – 1794) (who is the namesake of the James Lind Alliance), and Sir James Lind, and John Lind (barrister), and Sir James Grant.
The surname Lind, of which the motto was Semper Virescit Virtus, is derived from Lynne of Ayrshire in Scotland. Synonymous variations include Lynne, Linn and Lind used by free Barons from the earliest of recorded history. There were Linns of that Ilk in Ayrshire, and Linns of Pitmade in Perthshire. James Lind is descended from the Linds of Ayrshire. King John Balliol mentions William de Lynne of that Ilk in a donation, who is a direct forefather in the Lind lineage. Lind's mother, Helen Allardice (1697 - 1746) was daughter of Sir George Allardice, Member of Parliament and Master of the Mint of Scotland, through whom James Lind was 10th in descent from James II of Scotland.
Lind married Ann Elizabeth Mealy on 07 Nov 1778. She is mentioned 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". Charlotte Papendiek referred to her as "needlewoman and everything to the Duchess of Portland at Bulstrode". Mealy was daughter of John Mealy of Middlesex and Elizabeth Parry of Perveddgoed. whose pedigree included lineage from David Daron who was the Dean of Bangor in 1399. Ann died at the age of 48 from an apoplectic fit. Lind had at least four children by Ann Elizabeth Mealy: Their notable children included: Lucy Maria Lind (1783-1858), later Sherwill, who profiled Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom; Dorothea Sophia Banks Lind (1786 - 1863), who married Isaac Gosset (1782 – 1855), and whose daughter Helen Dorothea or Dorothy Gosset married William Driscoll Gosset; Alexander Francis Lind (1797 - 1832), who was a civil servant for Lord Ailesbury and for Queen Charlotte, and who was Judge of Mirzapur, and who married Anna Maria Macan (1802 - 1862) who was the daughter of Robert Macan High Sheriff of Armagh in 1814.
The Revolt of Islam and Frankenstein
James Lind taught at Eton College while in semi-retirement. Around 1809, he tutored Percy Bysshe Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley. Percy alluded to Lind in two poems from 1817, the old man or Hermit who rescues Laon in The Revolt of Islam, and Prince Athanase, where he appears as the wise old teacher magus Zonoras. A blind old man also appears in Shelley's posthumous prose work "The Coliseum".
Percy was fascinated with Lind's experiments and demonstrations of galvanism (e.g. using electricity to animate the muscles of dead frogs causing them to jump, or causing the jerking of reptile muscles), hence Lind has been suggested to have been an inspirational origin of Frankenstein. Specifically, it is thought Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley had a nightmare while staying with Percy Shelley at Byron's House in Lake Geneva due to Percy reminiscing about Lind's bizarre experiments. Lind is also thought to be the source for the character of the blind old man, De Lacey, as well as Doctor M. Waldman in the novel Frankenstein. It has been suggested that Lind had an interest in demonology.
Lind is also thought to be a trace influential origin of Dracula.
Freemasonry
Lind was involved in freemasonry in Scotland. He was initiated in the Canongate Kilwinning, Lodge No. 2, on 2 August 1758. He was also active in the Grand Lodge of Scotland, of which he was Senior Grand Warden between 1769 – 1771.
Death
Late in life, a portrait of Lind was painted by John Keenan in 1807.
Lind died at the house of his son-in-law, William Burnie, in Russell Square, London, on 17 October 1812. Alexander Francis Lind indicated the cause of death was, "of a suppression of urine, which for nearly five years before his death kept him in ceaseless agony". He is buried in at St George's Church on Bloomsbury Way, London in the crypt, coffin 6084.
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. He was an expert in Pliny and Lucretius.
As a member of the Society, Lind was closely acquainted with many prominent scientists of his era exemplified by James Watt. 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."
In A Sketch of My Life, Lind's son, Alexander Francis Lind, described Lind's laboratory as, "resembling a wizard’s or alchemist’s laboratory, crammed with telescopes, galvanic batteries, electrical machines, chemical apparatus, and even antique daggers"
Career highlights
In astronomy, Lind utilized a telescope 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. The telescope is currently part of the King George III Collection at the London Science Museum. Lord Alemore had built Lind an observatory at his house in Hawkhill for this purpose (as noted in a letter from Lord Loudoun) also known as "the observatory of Hawk-hill westward". Lind likewise observed an eclipse of the moon at the same location, the account of which was likewise read to the Royal Society. Lind kept up a correspondence with Patrick Wilson about William Herschel's astronomical works. Lind also traveled with Caroline Herschel to view a comet in Slough. Like William Herschel, Lind believed in cosmic pluralism and recently has been suggested to have observed a UFO at Windsor.
Lind's wife, Ann Elizabeth Mealy, was suggested to have been the first to observed volcanic activity on the moon despite Herschel receiving credit for the observation. The red flashes they observed were later determined to not be volcanic.
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. Lind visited:
China in 1766, bringing back a specimen of lemon grass that was sampled in tea; in 1789 Lind would visit Joseph Banks at Soho Square to draft a remarkable manuscript that cross-referenced, in tabular form, Chinese plants from Chinese and Latin texts in Banks' library (Lind spoke Chinese in addition to his knowledge of Latin, used for his dissertation), thus enabling botanists to place accurate orders of exotic flora. Lind also contributed to Fanny Burney's efforts to develop a chapter on Chinese music in the fifth volume of the History of Music. Lind's witty sarcasm is showcased as he told Pieter Camper "the Chinese do not wish to bring up their children, but drown them in the river". Lind was later requested to join the Macartney Embassy in China in 1792 but Lind declined.
Iceland in 1772 with Joseph Banks, Uno von Troil and Daniel Solander where they were among the first to reach the summit of Hekla volcano, and Lind measured the height of Geysir in Haukadalur with a quadrant.
Honors
Source:
1770 - elected fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
1777 - elected fellow of the Royal Society (18 Dec 1777)
1783 - elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (03 Nov 1783)
Appointed physician-in-ordinary to the Royal Household
Publications
1762 - Lind's inaugural dissertation, De Febre Remittente Putrida Paludum quæ grassabatur in Bengalia
1768 - dissertation published at Edinburgh.
1768 - An Essay on diseases incidental to Europeans in hot climates, with the method of preventing their fatal consequences.
1772 - Lind produced a translation of dissertation, Treatise on the Fever of 1762 at Bengal.
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.
1787 - An Account of the Efficacy of Mercury in the Cure of Inflammatory Diseases, and the Dysentery.
1789 - A catalogue of such Chinese and Japanese plants whose Chinese characters are known and are botanically described.
1798 - A letter from Lind appears in Tiberius Cavallo's An Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Factitious Airs.
1800 - A Sketch for medical education, emphasized importance of mathematics and scientific rigor in British medical training
1803 - Copy of a Letter to the late Thomas Pennant of Downing on Typhus Fevers