| Administrative History | James Craufurd Gregory (1801 - 1832) was the second child of James Gregory (1753 - 1821), and his wife, Isabella Macleod (c1772 - 1847). He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1824, and afterwards spent three years in Paris studying under the anatomist, Rene Laennec (1781 - 1826). He returned to Edinburgh to take up the post of physician and lecturer to the Royal Infirmary and later added to his duties the posts of ordinary physician to the Lunatic Asylum, medical secretary to the Board of Health, and superintendant of the Cholera Hospital. Despite early promise and a sound reputation, he was unsuccessful in his bid for the chair of medical jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh in 1832. He died suddenly of typhus caught during his work at the hospital later that year.
Gregory was, for a time, secretary to both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and to the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society. In 1829 he published an edition of Cullen's 'First Lines' ('First Lines of the Practice of Physic: with an appendix; commenced by the late William Cullen, M.D. continued and completed by James Crawford Gregory, M.D.' (Edinburgh, Bell & Bradfute, 1829) and he also contributed several papers to the 'Edinburgh Medical Journal.'
He had ten siblings, many of whom attained academic and professional distinction: John (1797 - 1869); Hugh (1799 - 1811); William (1803 - 1858) and twin Donald (1803 - 1836); Jane Macleod (1805 - 1813); Elizabeth Forbes (1808 - 1811); Margaret Craufurd (1809 - 1849), who married her first cousin, William Pulteney Alison; Georgina (1811 - 1877); Duncan Farquharson (1813 - 1844); and Isabella (1816 - 1818). |
| Description | Certificate of attendance at lectures in the medical faculty of the University of Edinburgh, 23 March 1824; letter of reference for James Crauford Gregory from Rene Laennec, 15 May 1826; diploma from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 4 June 1828; diploma from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1 March 1830; certificate of membership of the Chirurgical-Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh, c 1830; reference in support of James Crauford Gregory's application for the chair of medical jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh, May - June 1832; letter from James Crauford Gregory to William Pulteney Alison, 13 July 1832; letter from James Crauford Gregory to Georgina Gregory, undated; obituary notices, January 1833; addresses to the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1821 - 1827. |