Gavin Milroy (1805–1886) was a Scottish physician and medical writer, who funded the establishment of theMilroy Lectures.
Born in Edinburgh, where his father was in business, Milroy attendedEdinburgh High School, and made medical studies atEdinburgh University. He became M.R.C.S. Edin. in June 1824, and M.D. Edin. in July 1828. He was one of the founders and active members of the Hunterian Society of Edinburgh.[1]
Milroy then worked as a general practitioner in London. He made a voyage as medical officer in the government packet service to the West Indies and the Mediterranean, and on his return concentrated on writing for medical periodicals. An opponent ofquarantine, he was recognised as an authority onepidemiology, and was employed in several government commissions of inspection and inquiry. In 1849-50 he was a superintendent medical inspector of theGeneral Board of Health; in 1852 he was sent by theColonial Office toJamaica, and wrote an official sanitary report.[1]
During theCrimean War in 1855–6, Milroy was a member of the sanitary commission sent out to the army; and at the end of the war, he joinedJohn Sutherland in drawing up the commission's report. In 1858 he was honorary secretary of the committee appointed by theSocial Science Association to inquire into the practice and results of quarantine, and the results of the inquiries were printed in three parliamentary papers.[1]
Milroy belonged to the Medical and Chirurgical Society, and was involved in the establishment and management of theEpidemiological Society. He was admitted a licentiate of theRoyal College of Physicians on 22 December 1847, and was elected afellow in 1853. He had no permanent medical appointment from government, but acivil list pension was granted to him.[1]
In later life Milroy lived atRichmond, Surrey, where he died 11 January 1886, at the age of 81. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He survived his wife, Sophia Chapman, about three years, and had no children. Brought up as a member of theChurch of Scotland, in later years he attendedAnglican services.[1]
Milroy is the namesake of theMilroy lectureship at the Royal College of Physicians. He left a legacy of £2,000 to the college for the endowment of a lectureship on "state medicine and public health", and subjects connected with those.[1]
From 1844 Milroy was co-editor ofJames Johnson'sMedico-Chirurgical Review, till it was amalgamated withSir John Forbes'sBritish and Foreign Medical Review in 1847. In October 1846 (iv. 285) he wrote in it a long review on a French report onPlague and Quarantine, by René-Clovis Prus (2 vols., Paris, 1846), and published an abridged translation, with preface and notes, asQuarantine and the Plague, London, 1846. He recommended the mitigation or total abolition of quarantine, and at the same time the dependence on sanitary measures alone for preservation from foreign pestilences. He also wrote articles on "Sydenham" inThe Lancet, 1846–7; the article on "Plague" inJohn Russell Reynolds'sSystem of Medicine, vol. i., and anonymous articles in the medical journals.[1]
In 1862 Milroy was a member of a committee appointed by the College of Physicians at the request of the Colonial Office for the purpose of collecting information on the subject ofleprosy.[1] He dominated the committee, by 1865. Data were collected from the British Empire on the disease, which Milroy believed was "constitutional", and used selectively.[2] The report was printed in 1867, and the appendix includedNotes respecting the Leprosy of Scripture by Milroy.[1]
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Milroy, Gavin".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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