Christison

Christison, SIR ROBERT, D.C.L., physician and toxicologist, son of the professor of Humanity in the university of Edinburgh (1806-20), was born at Edinburgh, July 18, 1797. After graduating in 1819, he proceeded to London and Paris, and in the French capital studied toxicology under the celebrated Orfila. He was in 1822 appointed professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the university of Edinburgh; and in 1832 was promoted to the chair of Materia Medica, which he occupied till 1877, when he retired. He became famous as a medical writer, and risked his life more than once in his experiments with poisons on his own system. He was appointed physician-in-ordinary to the Queen in 1848; president of the Edinburgh Royal Society (1868-73); and created a baronet in 1871; and was honoured with a banquet and the degree of LL.D. in 1872 on the completion of his fiftieth year as a professor. During a vigorous old age he could walk, run, or climb mountains better than any of his contemporaries. He died 23d January 1882. Besides contributing papers on various subjects to medical journals, Christison wrote a Treatise on Poisons (1829), recognised as a standard work on the subject; Biographical Sketch of Edward Turner, M.D. (1837); a treatise On Granular Degeneration of the Kidneys (1839); and The Dispensatory, a Commentary on the Pharmacopoeias of Great Britain (1842). See his Life, edited by his sons (1885-86).