Dr James Douglas (born March 21, 1675, died April 2,
1742), was a Scottish physician and anatomist, member of the Royal
Society, and physician to the Queen (Caroline). Brother of well-known
lithotomist John Douglas (died 1759), James Douglas was born in Baads,
West Calder, West Lothian, Scotland in 1675, one of the seven sons of
William Douglas (d. 1705) and his wife, Joan, daughter of James Mason of
Park, Blantyre.
In 1694 he graduated MA from the University of
Edinburgh and then took his medical doctorate at Reims before returning
to London in 1700. He worked as an obstetrician, and gaining a great
reputation as a physician, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in
1706, FCP in 1721. He was also appointed Physician Extraordinary to
Queen Caroline, George II's wife. Douglas practiced midwifery and
performed public dissections at home.
Douglas mentored and
befriended anatomist and surgeon William Hunter (1718–1783), who he met
in 1740 when Hunter came to London. Hunter would live in the Douglas
household and remained there after Douglas died in London on April 2,
1742, leaving a widow and two children.
Douglas, one of the most
respected anatomists in the country, was also a well-known man-midwife.
He was asked to investigate the case of Mary Toft, an English woman from
Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable
controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she had given
birth to rabbits. Despite his early scepticism (Douglas thought that a
woman giving birth to rabbits was as likely as a rabbit giving birth to
a human child), Douglas went to see Toft, and subsequently exposed her
as a fraud.
As a result of Douglas's investigations of female
pelvic anatomy, several anatonomical terms bear his name.
•
Douglas pouch - Peritoneal space formed by deflection of the peritoneum.
• Douglasitis - Inflammation of Douglas pouch.
• Douglas abscess -
Suppuration in Douglas pouch, most often seen in appendicitis or
adnexitis.
• Douglas fold - A fold of peritoneum forming the lateral
boundary of Douglas' pouch.
• Douglas line - The arcuate line of the
sheath of the rectus abdominalis muscle.
• Douglas septum - The
septum formed by the union of Rathke's folds, forming the rectum of the
fetus.
In 1725 James Douglas FRS published an account in his A
Description of the Guernsey Lilly, as it was known then. Douglas gave it
the Latin name Lilio-Narcissus Sarniensis Autumno florens. Linnaeus
called this Amaryllis sarniensis in 1753, after Douglas' usage. |
