Andrew Douglas Maclagan

Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan was a Scottish surgeon, toxicologist and scholar of medical jurisprudence, born in Ayr on 17 April 1812 and dying in Edinburgh on 5 April 1900. The son of the physician David Maclagan, he was educated at the Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1833, and toured hospitals in London and on the Continent with James Young Simpson. He became assistant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, lectured on materia medica in the extramural school, and developed an interest in toxicology and forensic medicine through his friend Robert Christison. In 1862 he took the chair of medical jurisprudence and public health at the University of Edinburgh, which he held until 1897 and which included some of the first lectures on forensic science. He presided over five learned societies, including the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.