Medical document entitled 'Opinion and advice in the case of Miss Tamasina Campbell' and annotated 'J. J. Gregory MD 1816' in which Gregory provides a comprehensive treatment for headaches caused by what appears to be blood pressure.
The piece is written in a neat hand with a portion missing from the end of the document. It is an interesting source for researchers interested in health and medicine in the early years of the nineteenth century
It is likely that the author of this document is James Gregory (1753-1821), physician. He was born in Aberdeen, the son of John Gregory (1724-1773) and Elizabeth (d. 1761), daughter of Sir William Forbes. James Gregory's sister, Dorothea, was a companion of the social reformer Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800) and was married to the Scottish episcopalian priest and essayist Archibald Alison (1775-1839). James was educated at Aberdeen grammar school and Edinburgh University. During 1766-1767 he attended Christ Church, Oxford where his cousin David Gregory (c 1695-1767) was dean. In 1767 he returned to Edinburgh to study medicine under William Cullen, Alexander Monro, Joseph Black and John Hope, as well as his own father who died during James' course. James became a temporary professor when, while still a student, he completed his father's lecture series. He graduated MD at Edinburgh in June 1774 and spent two years studying medicine in Leiden, Paris and in Italy.
In June 1776 Gregory was elected professor of the institutes of medicine in Edinburgh and took a leading part in the teaching and examination work at the school. At the same time he established himself in practice in the city. By November 1818, owing to the increase in his practice, he employed his nephew William Pulteney Alison (1790-1859) to assist with lectures. Gregory was a prolific writer of medical texts, many books being quite substantial. He had wide interests and in 1792 published a work on metaphysics entitled Philosophical and Literary Essays, parts of which were read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1784 and 1785. In 1799 he was appointed first physician to the king in Scotland, this commission being renewed on 18 May 1820 by George IV. His many friends included Robert Burns, who sent him poems to criticise and considered him the last of the Scottish Latinists.
Gregory married Mary Ross in 1781 and she died in April 1784. In October 1796 he married Isabella (c 1772-1847), daughter of Donald Macleod of Geanies, Ross-shire, sheriff of Ross-shire. They had eleven children: John (1797-1869); Hugh (1799-1811); James Crauford (1801-1832); William Gregory (1803-1858) and twin Donald Gregory (1803-1836); Jane Macleod (1805-1813); Elizabeth Forbes (1808-1811); Margaret Craufurd (1809-1849), who married her first cousin, William Pulteney Alison; Georgina (1811-1877); Duncan Farquharson Gregory (1813-1844); and Isabella (1816-1818).
In 1818 Gregory had a serious carriage accident, and during 1820 had attacks of difficulty in breathing, being unable to lecture after Christmas of that year. He died in Edinburgh of hydro-thorax on 2 April 1821. Given a public funeral by the corporation of Edinburgh, he was buried in the Canongate churchyard.
Sources: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website available at www.oxforddnb.com viewed 12 September 2012
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Purchased 31 July 2003
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Part of the document has been torn and the end portion is missing
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