Archibald Pitcairne (December 25, 1652 - October 20, 1713), Scottish physician, was born at Edinburgh. December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining. ... Events April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ... Events April 11 - War of the Spanish Succession: Treaty of Utrecht June 23 - French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia Canada first Orrery built by George Graham Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713... Scotland (Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is a country or nation and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. ... A physician is a person who practices medicine. ... Edinburgh viewed from Arthurs Seat. ...

After obtaining some classical education at the school of Dalkeith, Pitcairne entered Edinburgh University in 1668, and took his degree of MA in 1671. Having been sent to France for the benefit of his health, he was induced at Paris to begin the study of medicine, and after courses at Edinburgh and Paris he obtained in 1680 the degree of MD at Rheims. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583 as a renowned centre for teaching in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Events January - The Triple Alliance of 1668 is formed. ... MA or ma may stand for: ma, a two-letter English word meaning Mother Ma, transliteration of Chinese family name 馬,马,麻 etc. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Reims (English traditionally Rheims) is a city of north-eastern France, 98 miles east-northeast of Paris. ...

He began practice at Edinburgh, and in a short time acquired so great a reputation that in 1692 he was appointed professor of medicine at Leiden. Among his pupils were Richard Mead and Hermann Boerhaave, and both of them attributed much of their skill to what they had learned from Pitcairne. Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... Richard Mead ( 11 August 1673 - 16 February 1754) was an English physician. ... Herman Boerhaave (December 31, 1668 - September 23, 1738) was a Dutch humanist and physician of European fame. ...

In 1693 Pitcairne returned to Scotland to marry a daughter of Sir Archibald Stevenson, an eminent physician in Edinburgh. The family objected to her going abroad, so he did not return to Leiden, but settled once more in Edinburgh. He rose to be the first physician in Scotland, and was frequently called into consultation both in England and Holland. Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... Leiden (in English also, but now rarely, Leyden) is a city and municipality in South Holland, The Netherlands. ...

Soon after his return to Edinburgh, feeling the great want of the means of anatomical study, he importuned the town council to permit himself and certain of his medical friends to treat without fee the sick paupers in Paul's Work, on condition of being allowed to dissect such of the bodies as were unclaimed by their relatives, and therefore had to be buried at the towns expense. Strangely enough this proposal was strongly opposed by the chief surgeons of the place, but ultimately the town council had the good sense to comply with Pitcairne's request, and in this way he may be said to have the credit of laying the foundation of the great Edinburgh school of medicine.

Pitcairne's medical opinions are chiefly contained in a volume of Dissertationes medicae which he published in 1701 (2nd ed. 1713). In these he discusses the application of geometry to physic, the circulation of the blood in the smaller vessels, the difference in the quantity of the blood contained in the lungs of animals in the womb and of the same animals after birth, the motions by which food becomes fit to supply the blood, the question as to inventors in medicine (in which he repels the idea of certain medical discoveries of modern times having been known to the ancients, especially vindicating for Harvey the discovery of the circulation of the blood, and refuting the view that it was known to Hippocrates), the cure of fevers by evacuating medicines, and the effects of acids and alkalis in medicine. Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ... The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The lung is an organ belonging to the respiratory system and interfacing to the circulatory system of air-breathing vertebrates. ... William Harvey William Harvey (April 1, 1578 - June 3, 1657) was a medical doctor who first correctly described in exact detail the circulatory system of blood being pumped around the body by the heart. ... Hippocrates: a conventionalized image in a Roman portrait bust (19th century engraving) Hippocrates of Cos (c. ...

Pitcairne was a good classical scholar, and wrote Latin verses, occasionally with something more than mere imitative cleverness and skill. He was supposed to be the author of a comedy, The Assembly, or Scotch Reformation, and of a satirical poem Babel, containing witty sketches of prominent Presbyterian divines of the time, whom, as a loudly avowed Jacobite, he strongly disliked. Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... Jacobite refers to: A follower of Jacobitism, the political movement dedicated to the return of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland A member of the Jacobite Orthodox Church of Syria. ...

He was prone to irreverent and ribald jests, and thus gained the reputation of being an unbeliever and an atheist, though he was a professed deist. The stories about his over-indulgence in drink are probably exaggerated. He was repeatedly involved in violent quarrels with his medical brethren and others, and once or twice got into scrapes with the government on account of his indiscreet political utterances.

Among his friends, however, he was evidently well liked, and he is known to have acted with great kindness and generosity to deserving men who needed his help. Thomas Ruddiman, the Scottish scholar, for example, was rescued from a life of obscurity by his encouragement and assistance, and by no one was his memory more gratefully cherished. Mead, too, appears never to have forgotten what he owed to his old teacher at Leiden. Thomas Ruddiman (October 1674 - 19 January 1757) was a Scottish classical scholar. ...

A son of Pitcairne's had gone out in the rebellion of 1715, and, having been condemned to death, was saved by the earnest interposition of Mead with Sir Robert Walpole. He pleaded, very artfully, that if Walpole's health had been bettered by his skill, or if members of the royal family were preserved by his care, it was owing to the instruction he had received from Dr Pitcairne. Pitcairne died in Edinburgh on the 20th of October 1713. He had been a great collector of books, and his library, which is said to have been of considerable value, was, through the influence of Ruddiman, disposed of to Peter the Great of Russia. This article is not about the Jacobite Orthodox Church, nor is it about Jacobinism or the earlier Jacobean period. ... Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford PC,KBE (26 August 1676–18 March 1745), normally known as Sir Robert Walpole, is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... Portrait of Peter by Paul Delaroche Peter I (Pyotr Alexeevich) (9 June 1672–8 February 1725 [30 May 1672–28 January 1725 O.S.1]) ruled Russia from 7 May (27 April O.S.) 1682 until his death. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...