Background
Born on 1 May 1749 in Fife, he was eldest son of Major John Pitcairn, who was killed at the battle of Bunker"s Hill. Robert Pitcairn (1747?–1770?) was his brother.
Born on 1 May 1749 in Fife, he was eldest son of Major John Pitcairn, who was killed at the battle of Bunker"s Hill. Robert Pitcairn (1747?–1770?) was his brother.
He went on in 1773 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Medicine in 1779 and Doctor of Medicine
1749–1809) was a Scottish physician. He was sent to Edinburgh High School, the university of Glasgow, and then to the University of Edinburgh. in 1784. In 1779 Pitcairn began practice in London, and was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 15 August
1785.
He was five times censor, and in 1786 was also Gulstonian lecturer and Harveian orator. John Latham mentioned, in his treatise on gout and rheumatism, that David Pitcairn was the first to discover that valvular disease of the heart was a frequent result of rheumatic fever, and that he made his discovery known in his teaching at Saint Bartholomew"s Hospital. On 11 April 1782 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Pitcairn had frequent attacks of quinsy, and failing health, accompanied by hæmoptysis, in 1798, forced him to give up work and spend eighteen months in Portugal.
He returned to England and continued to practise, but on 13 April 1809 had an attack of sore throat, followed by acute inflammation of the larynx, with consequent œdema of the glottis, of which he died on 17 April 1809, at Craig"s Court, Charing Cross. Pitcairn"s body was examined by Benjamin Collins Brodie the elder, in the presence of Baillie, Everard Home, and William Charles Wells.
Pitcairn was buried in the family vault in the church of Street Bartholomew the Less, without the walls of Saint Bartholomew"s Hospital, London. A tablet to his memory was erected in the church of Hadham Magna, Hertfordshire.
Pitcairn married Elizabeth, daughter of William Almack.
Royal Society.