John Brown (physician)

John Brown
Born	(1810-09-22)22 September 1810 Biggar, South Lanarkshire
Died
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	physician, essayist

The grave of Dr John Brown, New Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh

John Brown FRSE FRCPE (22 September 1810 – 11 May 1882) was a Scottish physician and essayist best known for his three-volume collection Horae Subsecivae (Leisure Hours, 1858), which included essays and papers on art, medical history and biography. Of the first, his dog story "Rab and his Friends" (1859), and his essays "Pet Marjorie" (1863), on Marjorie Fleming, the ten-year-old prodigy and "pet" of Walter Scott, "Our Dogs", "Minchmoor", and "The Enterkine" are best known. Brown was half-brother to the organic chemist Alexander Crum Brown.

Life

Memorial for Dr. John Brown in St. Giles' Cathedral

Brown was the son of the clergyman John Brown (1784–1858), and was born in Biggar, Scotland. His mother, Jane Nimmo, died when he was six years old.

Brown, who was descended from eminent Presbyterian clergy, was educated at the Edinburgh High School. He graduated with an M. D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1833, and practised as a physician in the city. After qualifying, he was apprenticed to James Syme. Brown subsequently acquired a large medical practice in Edinburgh at a time when infectious diseases took a heavy toll of life.

John Brown

Brown was a sociable man, and his house at 23 Rutland Street was the scene of many social gatherings. In 1840 he married Catherine Scott McKay. They had three children, a baby who died shortly after birth (a girl), a daughter, Helen, who was to marry Captain Alexander Laws, and a son 'Jock' Brown. Helen Laws moved to Ireland and outlived her father. However, Jock was to survive into the 20th century and worked hard to pay tribute to his father, collecting all his letters, and working to erect a plaque on his house which remains to this day. In 1847 Brown became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and for a while was Honorary Librarian. He held strong views on the inappropriateness of examinations to evaluate student progress and was unimpressed by the view that scientific advances were in patients' best interests.

Brown was the friend of many contemporaries, including Thackeray and Mark Twain; his reputation is based on the two volumes of essays, Horae Subsecivae (Leisure Hours) (1858, 1861), John Leech and Other Papers (1882), Rab and His Friends (1859), and Marjorie Fleming: a Sketch (1863) (generally called Pet Marjorie). His first writing was in response to a request for contributions to the notices of paintings exhibited by the Royal Scottish Academy. The editor of the Scotsman newspaper then asked him to write regularly for the paper. He was 48 years old when he published Rab and His Friends. His writings were philosophical, classical, artistic, medical, of rural life, the Jacobite Rebellion, notable characters, humble folk and canine friends. These were published as a collection in 1858 as Horæ Subsecivæ, which ran to many editions. The first volume deals mainly with the equipment and duties of a physician, the second with subjects outside his profession.

Brown was revered and beloved to uncommon degree, and he was the cherished friend of many of his most distinguished contemporaries, including Thackeray. Among those whose writing he encouraged was Henrietta Keddie, then a schoolgirl in Leith, who would become a prolific novelist and writer for children. In the mingling of tenderness and delicate humour Brown has much in common with Lamb; in his insight into dog-nature he is unique. He wrote comparatively little; but all he did write is good, some of it perfect, of its kind.

Brown suffered during the latter years of his life from attacks of melancholy. He died at home at 23 Rutland Street in Edinburgh on 11 May 1882, and was buried in his father’s plot in New Calton Cemetery. The grave lies on the western side on the edge of one of the terraces. The inscription to John lies and the base and is largely obscured but is confirmed by his mother's name above.

Family

Brown was married to Catherine Scott McKay 1819–1864).

Publications

• The Life of Dr Henry Marshall

Memorials

In 1923 a plaque was erected to Brown in the south-west corner of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. It was sculpted by Pilkington Jackson.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Further reading

• Eastwood, Martin (2010) "John Brown (1810–1882)" Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 40: pp. 281–282, doi:10.4997/JRCPE.2010.320
• McLaren, E.T. (1890) Dr John Brown and his Sister Isabella (4th edition)
• Letters of Dr John Brown, edited by his son and U.W. Forrest, with biography by ET McLaren (1907)
• Peddie, Alexander (1893) Recollections of Dr. John Brown Percival and Company, London, OCLC 3743073
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 
• The Reader's Encyclopedia

External links

• Works by John Brown at Project Gutenberg
• Works by John Brown at Hathi Trust
• Works by John Brown at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)