Background
Born in Blanefield, by Kirkoswald, in Ayrshire, he was the son of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield (d1771) and Agnes McFadzen.
Born in Blanefield, by Kirkoswald, in Ayrshire, he was the son of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield (d1771) and Agnes McFadzen.
He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and Glasgow University (Doctor of Medicine 1778) before moving to London, where he served as private physician to Lord Rodney.
Blane was appointed Physician to the Fleet (1779–1783) and accompanied Rodney to the West Indies in 1779. Blane did much to improve the health of sailors by heeding their diet and enforcing due sanitary precautions. He was one of those whose advocacy of citrus juice as a preventative and cure for scurvy encouraged the Admiralty to go against the theories of the medical establishment and introduce lemon juice as daily addition to the naval diet in 1795.
Following his appointment as a Commissioners of Sick and Hurt the following year, he played a role in converting this policy into reality.
Later lemons were replaced by limes which could be obtained from Britain"s Caribbean colonies, and for this reason, "limey" became a common slang word for a British person. In 1784 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in London.
On his return to Britain, he became Physician to Street Thomas" Hospital (1783–1795), Physician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales (1785) and Physician in Ordinary to the King (George IV and William IV). By virtue of these court and hospital appointments, he built up a good practice for himself in London, and the government constantly consulted him on questions of public hygiene.
In 1812 he became a baronet, of Blanefield in the County of Ayr, in reward for services he rendered in connection with the return of the Walcheren expedition.
His printed works include Observations on the Diseases of Seamen (1785) and Elements of Medical Logic (1819). He was an advocate for issuing each Royal Navy sailor with a tourniquet to stem catastrophic bleeding in battle. Blane lived at Burghfield in Berkshire and at Kirkoswald in Ayrshire.
In 1830 Sir Gilbert Blane established, with the sanction of the Board of the Admiralty, a fund for the encouragement of Naval Medical science, which was vested in the corporation of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of London.
The fund was employed for the purpose of conferring a gold medal annually, to be awarded jointly by the Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, on the Medical Officer of the Royal Navy who, to a degree which was considered worthy of recognition, brought about an advance in any branch of Medical Science, or contributed to an improvement in any matter affecting the health or living conditions of Naval personnel. The Gilbert Blane Medal is awarded to this day.
He died at Sackville Street in the Piccadilly area of London on 26 June 1834. Blane married Elizabeth Gardiner in 1786.
She died in 1832.
Royal Society; Russian Academy of Sciences.