Background
He was born in Fife, Scotland, as James Carmichael, the only son of Thomas Carmichael of Balmedie and Margaret Smyth of Athenry.
He was born in Fife, Scotland, as James Carmichael, the only son of Thomas Carmichael of Balmedie and Margaret Smyth of Athenry.
University of Edinburgh.
This article concerns the Scottish physician. James Carmichael Smyth, Federal Reserve System (1741 – 18 June 1821) was a Scottish physician and medical writer He later added his mother"s surname to his own and graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from Edinburgh University in 1764.
Appointed physician to the Middlesex Hospital in 1768, he discovered a method for the prevention of contagion in cases of fever using nitrous acid gas, and wrote several treatises on this subject and on other medical matters.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1779, and was voted the sum of £5000 by Parliament in 1802 for his work. He was also one of the physicians to King George III, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
A younger son, Henry, was stepfather to William Makepeace Thackeray.
Royal Society.