Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1112.5

ALEXANDER GORDON (1752-1799) A treatise on the epidemic puerperal fever of Aberdeen. Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson. 1795 First Edition x, 124 p. 23 cm.

Gordon obtained an MA at Marischal College, and after further study at the Aberdeen Infirmary and in Edinburgh, graduated in medicine at the University of Aberdeen. In 1780, at the age of 28, with testimonial letters from the Corporation of Surgeons of London, he entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate. Two years later he was advanced to the rank of surgeon. Put on half pay in 1783, he went to London where for the next two years he studied at the Lying-In Hospital in Shore Street. While there he also attended the lectures of Drs Thomas Denman and William Osborn at the Middlesex Lying-In Dispensary and practised surgery and dissection at the Westminster Hospital. In 1785 Gordon returned to Aberdeen, gained an MD from Marischal College and entered general practice. Shortly after he was appointed physician to the Aberdeen Dispensary that had opened in 1781. During the next nine years there were 12 925 admissions for treatment at this institution. Gordon’s main interest was midwifery and obstetrics and, in addition to a considerable private practice, he regularly gave lectures on this subject to the University students. This treatise shows Gordon’s insights into the contagious nature of puerperal fever, its epidemiology, pathology and the means of prevention. “Gordon was the first to advance as a definite hypothesis the contagious nature of puerperal fever, thus preceding Holmes and Semmelweis by half a century. He also advocated the disinfection of the clothes of the doctor and midwife.” (GM)

See Related Record(s): 1489

Cited references: Wellcome III p. 137; Waller 3640; Garrison & Morton 6272

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