Background

James Douglas was born on March 21, 1675, in Baads, Scotland. He was the second son of William Douglas of Baads, near Edinburgh, and his wife, the former Joan Mason. They were an obscure but industrious family of small landowners, a minor branch of the widespread Douglas clan.

Of their twelve children, four became fellows of the Royal Society - Walter, James, John, and George - although only James and John, both physicians, produced work of lasting importance.

Education

Nothing is known of the early schooling of Douglas; it is likely that he had obtained the Master of Arts degree at Edinburgh in 1694; on July 23, 1699 he was granted with the degree of Doctor of Medicine by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Reims.

Career

In 1705 Douglas read his first paper to the Royal Society. He became fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1721.

By 1707, when he published his handbook of comparative myology, Douglas had realized the importance of anatomical teaching to the advancement of medicine; and he was among the first to advertise classes, which were well attended. His major publication in this field was that on the peritoneum (1730), an excellent monograph that drew attention to the duplicature of the peritoneal membrane, at that time a controversial subject. In this book there is a short description of the structure later known as the pouch of Douglas and still recognized by that name. There are also the ligament, the line, and the semilunar fold of Douglas.

In obstetrical science Douglas carefully studied the anatomy of the female pelvis and of the fetus; in 1735 he attended Anne, princess of Orange, daughter of George II, in Holland.

In 1719 Douglas assisted his younger brother John, a brilliant but irascible physician, in the promulgation of John’s ideas in introducing suprapubic lithotomy, one of the earliest attempts at routine abdominal surgery in England.

He was also concerned, in 1726, in the exposure of Mary Toft, the “rabbit woman” of Godaiming. 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.

Douglas’ publications on natural history include a well-produced monograph on the “Guernsay-lilly” (Nerine sarniensis) and a paper to the Royal Society on the flamingo (1714). Both demonstrate the care and method of his presentation.

His greatest contribution to the future, however, lay in his encouragement of William Hunter, who came to him as a resident pupil in 1741. The brilliant young student and his shrewd master established an intimate relationship, and on Douglas’ death in 1742 Hunter wrote a touching letter to his mother. (The letter is now in the Royal College of Surgeons of England.) During the single year of their contact, Hunter became interested in the anatomical subjects on which Douglas had worked.

Thus the anatomy of aneurysms, of the bones, of the “cellular membrane,” and above all of the gravid uterus were topics upon which William Hunter elaborated at various later dates. It is not too much to say that the encouragement and training received by Hunter during this formative period was an important factor in those developments in British medical education for which he and his brother John were so largely responsible.

Achievements

• James Douglas is remembered as one of the most respected anatomists in the country. He was was also a well-known midhusband.
  
  In the Hunterian Library of the University of Glasgow, donated by will of its founder, William Hunter, are no fewer than sixty-four unpublished manuscripts by Douglas, on many aspects of anatomy, natural history, grammar, and orthoepy, and the Blackburn Collection in that library contains an enormous number of documents, drawings, and notes, nearly all in Douglas’ hand.
  
  Douglas was also a collector of editions of the works of Horace; and he published a magnificent catalog of his library of Horatiana, containing 557 volumes. In the Hunterian Library may also be seen an interesting series of case notes, written at the bedside of his patients, dating from 1704 and illustrating the problems of diagnosis and treatment at that time.
  
  As a result of Douglas' investigations of female pelvic anatomy, several anatomical terms bear his name - Douglas pouch, Douglasitis, Douglas abscess, Douglas fold, Douglas line, and Douglas septum.

Works

More photos

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  • Myographiæ comparatæ specimen 1707
  • Bibliographiæ Anatomicæ Specimen 1715
  • Index materiæ medicæ 1724
  • Lilium Sarniense 1725
  • The history of the lateral operation 1726
  • An advertisement occasion'd by some passages in Sir R. Manningham's diary lately publish'd 1727
  • Arbor Yemensis fructum cofè ferens 1727

Membership

Douglas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1706.

• 

  Royal Society , United Kingdom

  1706

Personality

To his contemporaries, Douglas was sufficiently outstanding to receive mention in Pope’s Dunciad, and he was a friend of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum; the physician Richard Mead; and William Cheselden, whose lateral operation for removal of bladder stones he described.

He was throughout life a laborious student of everything relating to his profession but was most distinguished as an anatomist. He was continually engaged in dissection and was occasionally permitted to make a post-mortem examination at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, though never a member of the staff.

Connections

Douglas married Martha Wilkes, the aunt of John Wilkes, the political reformer and rake. They had two children, but neither married and both died young. Following her husband’s death, Martha Douglas gave lodging to William Hunter and to his brother John during their early days in London.

Father:

William Douglas

Mother:

Joan Mason

Spouse:

Martha Wilkes

Brother:

Walter Mason

Brother:

John Mason

Brother:

George Mason

patient :

Mary Toft

Mary Toft was 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.

Student:

William Hunter

Friend:

Hans Sloane

Friend:

Richard Mead

Friend:

William Cheselden

References

• James Douglas on English Pronunciation c. 1740
  1956