An Innovative Physician and Scientist in Britain and British India

The Life and Times of Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, 1808-1889
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-83765-191-7
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 20, 182 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

Reihe: Worlds of the East India Company

Through an examination of the life and remarkable achievements of Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, this book reveals a great deal about both medical and scientific innovation in the nineteenth century.

It traces O'Shaughnessy's career. At the age of twenty-three in 1831 he identified the physiological cause of death from cholera and recommended intravenous saline as the cure in the face of the contemporary medical belief in bloodletting. In 1833 as an Assistant Surgeon of the East India Company, and later as Professor of Chemistry in the new Calcutta Medical School, he saw the possibilities of native plants and studied several. These included cannabis, about which he published a detailed analysis which led to the introduction of cannabis as a pharmaceutical product in the West, a use which continued until the mid-twentieth century.

Later he pioneered telegraphy, first with an experimental line in Calcutta and then, as superintendent of Indian Telegraphs, he supervised the successful construction of several thousand miles of telegraph across India, thereby enabling closer control of India by the colonial power. Throughout, besides giving details of O'Shaughnessy's personal life, the book sets his work and achievements in their wider context.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Macgillivray, Neil

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
List of Abbreviations

Introduction
1. From Limerick to Dublin, Edinburgh and London
2. O'Shaughnessy and Cholera, Intravenous Saline and Latta
3. Bengal Dispensatory and Cannabis Indica
4. Medical Furlough in London and the Royal Society
5. "That Man O'Shaughnessy" and Electric Telegraphy
Conclusion

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Macgillivray, Neil
NEIL MACGILLIVRAY, a retired surgeon, completed his doctorate in history at the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a Council member of the History Society of the Royal Society of Medicine, and was President of the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine 2019-2022.