Fordyce, George (1736-1802)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0154
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Fordyce, George (1736-1802)
Date(s)	: Late 18th century
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 5 volumes
Name of creator(s)	: Unknown

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

George Fordyce was born in Aberdeen in 1736. He was educated in Fouran, and the University of Aberdeen, where he was created Master of Arts at the age of 14. He began training in medicine with his uncle, Dr John Fordyce who practiced at Uppingham. He then went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1755 and obtained his Doctor of Medicine in 1758. Fordyce then travelled to London and studied anatomy under Dr William Hunter, and also studied botany at the Chelsea gardens. Fordyce also studied anatomy under Albinus at Leiden in 1759. Upon returning to London, he started a course of lectures on chemistry in 1759, and then added to this courses on materia medica and the practice of physic in 1764. He continued to teach these lectures for nearly thirty years. He became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1765, and was Physician to St Thomas's Hospital from 1770-1802. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1776, and a 'speciali gratia' fellow of the College of Physicians in 1787. He played an important part in compiling the new Pharmacopeia Londinensis, issued in 1788. He was Censor for the Royal College of Physicians in 1787, 1792, and 1800; Gulstonian Lecturer in 1789; and Harveian Orator in 1791. He died in 1802.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of George Fordyce, late 18th century, comprising 5 volumes of manuscript notes, by unknown hands, of lectures given by George Fordyce. 3 are titled Lectures by Dr G Fordyce, and are written in the same hand; another is titled Dr George Fordice, Lectures on Intermittent and Remittent Fevers, 1784; and the volume titled Lectures in the Practice of Physick is not labelled as containing notes of the lectures of George Fordyce, but has it's contents attributed to him.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.

Archival Information

Archival history:

3 volumes are titled Lectures by Dr G Fordyce and are written in the same hand. There were probably 4 volumes in this series, but the location of the second volume is not known. "D Cruikman" is written on the front of the first of this series, which could refer to the author of the volumes.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The provenance of this material is not known.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Manuscript notes of lectures by George Fordyce taken by William Jeremiah Allison - MS0205; manuscript notes relating to George Fordyce on Venereal Disease, from Elements of the Practice of Physick Edition 4, 1777. Including accounting notes, 1785. Hunterian Museum collection

Notes of lectures by George Fordyce are also held at: The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine; Northwestern University Medical School (USA); the Osler Library at McGill University (Canada); Special Collections at Glasgow University Library; and Somerset Archive and Records Office.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Volume II, 1701-1800. p373-376.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2008