xi DR. CLEGHORN OF DUBLIN 121 







DR. GEORGE CLEGHORN 



George Cleghorn was born at Granton near Edinburgh 

 in 1716, being the youngest son of a small farmer who 

 died early. The boy was placed at the age of fourteen 

 years as pupil to Alexander Monro primus. This early 

 association with the great anatomist and founder of the 

 Edinburgh Medical School, and the years he spent under 

 his roof, gave to the young student his bent in life ; whilst 

 the example of Monro 's unremitting work and the sweet- 

 ness of his disposition had their effect in forming the 

 character of the fatherless lad. 1 After Fothergill came 

 to Edinburgh, Cleghorn and he became intimate friends, 

 working together, both in the university and in the 

 medical society, of which the former was one of the first 

 members. 



He must have been a precocious student, for he was 

 but nineteen years old when he left Edinburgh in 1736, 

 having been appointed surgeon in the 22nd regiment of 

 Foot stationed in Minorca, at that time belonging to 

 Britain. His early success did not lead him to cast off 

 his studious habits. On the contrary, during the thirteen 

 years of his stay in Minorca he continued to read, and 

 spent much time in the investigation of fevers and other 

 epidemic diseases, and in gratifying his passion for 

 anatomy. He often made dissections, both human and 

 of apes, which latter he procured from Barbary, and 

 compared their structure with the accounts of the best 

 authors. He had many books with him, including his 

 classics, and his friend Fothergill kept him supplied with 

 others, searching the London shops for such as he needed 

 in his studies. 



Cleghorn communicated to Fothergill in letters, written 



poem addressed to Sydenham, 1668. See also Fothergill's Essay on the 

 Character, etc., 1769 ; Med. Obs. & Inq. i. 13, 296, ii. 88, iii. 146, i8q, 397 ; 

 Mem. Lettsom, i. 22, 96 ; Phil. Trans, xlix. 445, li. 529, Iii. 554, Iviii. 140 ; 

 Munk, Roll Roy. Coll. Phys. ; Hunter-Baillie MSS. i. 133, Roy. Coll. Surgeons. 

 1 He writes of his old teacher to Fothergill in 1742 : " Quern mitem 

 praeceptorem, egregium monitorem, optimum' amicum, expertus sum . . . 

 quern vivida virtus etiam in vitae carceribus ad summos evexit honores." 

 See Letter below. 



