| Administrative History | William Pulteney Alison was born near Edinburgh in 1790, the eldest son of the Reverend Archibald Alison (MS 2206/20) and Dorothea Gregory (c1754 - 1830).
He studied at Edinburgh University gaining an M.D. in 1811. He was appointed as physician to the New Dispensary in Edinburgh in 1815 where his patients were among the poorest in the city.
He also followed an academic career at the University of Edinburgh, aiding his uncle, James Gregory (1753 - 1821), in delivering lectures on the practice of medicine and in 1820 he gained the Regius Chair of Medical Jurisprudence followed by the Chair of the Institutes of Medicine in 1822 and Chair of the Practice of Medicine in 1842. The Chair of the Institutes of Medicine carried with it the right to practice as Clinical Professor at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and he worked there from 1822.
The main focus of his teaching in the institutes of medicine was physiology though his courses also covered pathology and therapeutics. During the later part of his career, he focused on the links between disease and poverty, emphasizing the strong links between poverty and the epidemics of fever that swept through Scotland's cities at that time. He tried to impress upon those in power the need for a system of poor relief similar to that already in existence in England. Poor relief legislation finally came into law in Scotland in 1845.
He married his cousin, Margaret Crawford Gregory, daughter of James Gregory (1753 - 1821) in 1832 but they had no children. He resigned his chair due to ill health in 1855/1856 and died in 1859. |