Patrick Blair

Patrick Blair FRS (ca.1670–1728) was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist and botanist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Life It is uncertain when he was born. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography suggests he was born in Lethendy, near Perth in 1675. Others suggest that he was born in Dundee in 1666. In a letter dated 1719, Blair mentioned that he had been in practice for 28 years; this would suggest a birth-date of at least 48 years earlier, therefore prior to 1672. He trained as a surgeon and spent some time in the Netherlands learning his trade, possibly with the British Army. He returned to Dundee shortly before 1702 and set up as a surgeon-apothecary. In 1702, he married Elizabeth Whyte, from which marriage four children were born – John, Henry, Elizabeth and Isabell. In 1706 Blair dissected an elephant which had died on the road between Broughty Ferry and Dundee. The elephant (which was a female Indian one, around 26 years old ) was being toured around Scotland and England by a Dutch showman named Abraham Sever; it died on Saturday 27th April 1706 (nb this was the date in the Gregorian calendar, which was at that time 11 days behind the Julian calendar.) Over a period of weeks, Blair dissected the elephant, taking careful note of all the bones, muscles and organs, and then had the resultant skeleton mounted for public display. He then wrote a full description, under the title of Osteographia Elephantina, which he sent to Hans Sloane of the Royal Society of London in April 1709; this was published in the Society’s Journal (Philosophical Transactions) in two parts in 1710.