David Skae
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David Skae MD,
FRCSEd The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The RCSEd has five faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical and healthcare specialities. Its main campus is locate ...
(5 July 1814 – 18 April 1873) was a Scottish physician specialising in psychological medicine. He has been described as the founder of the Edinburgh School of Psychiatry and several of his assistants and pupils went on to become leading psychiatrists throughout the British Isles.


Life

David Skae was born at 5 Elder Street in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
the son of David Skae, an architect and builder, and his wife, Helen Lothian. Both parents died whilst David was a child. He was educated by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Lothian, at
St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
. At the age of fourteen Skae began his university career, studying liberal arts at the
University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
. At sixteen years of age he left St Andrews to take up a post as a clerk in a lawyer's office in Edinburgh. Shortly thereafter he enrolled as a medical student and in 1835 he qualified as a Licentiate of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The RCSEd has five faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical and healthcare specialities. Its main campus is locate ...
(LRCSEd). In the following year he was awarded Fellowship of the College (FRCSEd). In 1836 he began to teach in the
Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and distance learning, extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education wh ...
and his lectures on medical jurisprudence soon became popular. After delivering fourteen courses of lectures, he began to teach anatomy at the Extramural School where his colleagues included
James Young Simpson Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician and a significant figure in the history of medicine. He was the first physician to demonstrate the anaesthetic properties of chloroform in humans and ...
, Professor
James Spence James Spence may refer to: * James Spence (sailor) (1875–1946), Olympic sailor from the Great Britain * James Spence (surgeon) (1812–1882), Scottish surgeon * James Calvert Spence (1892–1954), British paediatrician * James Houston Spence (18 ...
, and
William Fergusson Sir William Fergusson, 1st Baronet FRCS FRS FRSE (20 March 180810 February 1877) was a Scottish surgeon. Biography William Fergusson son of James Fergusson of Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, was born at Prestonpans, East Lothian on 20 March 1808, ...
. In 1842,
St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...
awarded him a Doctorate of Medicine. Meanwhile in 1836 Skae filled the office of surgeon at the
Lock Hospital A lock hospital was an establishment that specialised in treating venereal disease, sexually transmitted diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th. History The military had a close ...
, and wrote several original papers on
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...
. He made
insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors caused by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other ...
his special study, approaching it from the point of view of a student of nervous and mental physiology. In 1846 he obtained the appointment of physician superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum at Morningside, and held the post till his death, twenty-seven years later. During his tenure of office the institution doubled in size, and he attracted a succession of gifted assistant physicians. From 1853 and up until a few years before his death, he lectured on insanity for medical students in the wards of the asylum. A number of his lectures (some of the very earliest of their kind ever given in Britain) have been collected and are today held within the archives of the
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that set the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by royal charter i ...
. From 1870 he was assisted by Dr (later Sir)
John Sibbald Sir John Sibbald FRSE FBSE (24 June 1833 – 20 April 1905) was a 19th-century Scottish physician and amateur botanist. In 1855/56, aged 22, he served as president of the Royal Medical Society. Life He was born at 106 Lauriston Place, Edi ...
. In 1873 he was nominated Morisonian lecturer on insanity at the RCPE; but he did not live to complete his term of office. He died at his official residence at Tipperlinn House in
Morningside, Edinburgh Morningside is a district and former village in the south of Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies alongside the main arterial Morningside Road, part of an ancient route from Edinburgh to the south west of Scotland. The original village served several ...
, of oesophageal cancer, on 18 April of that year. He is buried in
Grange Cemetery The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hi ...
in south Edinburgh. The grave stands on the east side of the main eastern path.


Family

He had married Sarah Macpherson, daughter of Major Macpherson of
Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...
, and they had children. His children included Dr Frederick William Adolphus Skae (b.1842) also an expert in mental health.


Works

Skae published papers on 'The Treatment of Dipsomaniacs' in 1858, and on 'The Legal Relations of Insanity' (1861 and 1867). His major work was the 'Classification of the Various Forms of Insanity on a Rational and Practical Basis.' He made this topic the subject of an address which he delivered at the
Royal College of Physicians, London The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of p ...
, on the occasion of his occupying the presidential chair of the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums (9 July 1863); and he further developed it in the Morisonian lectures on insanity, 1873. These lectures were completed and published posthumously by his pupil and successor,
Thomas Smith Clouston Sir Thomas Smith Clouston (22 April 1840 – 19 April 1915) was a Scottish psychiatrist. Life Clouston was the youngest of four sons of Robert Clouston (1786–1857) 3rd of Nisthouse, in the Birsay parish of Orkney, and his wife Janet (née ...
. Skae's classification is founded upon what he called the 'Natural History of Insanity.' Instead of separating the insane into groups of maniacs, melancholiacs, and so on, Skae proposed that classification should be based on the underlying bodily condition of the patient—puerperal mania, traumatic mania, and so on. Skae's classification was not generally adopted. His definition of insanity was "a disease of the brain affecting the mind".


References

;Attribution: {{DEFAULTSORT:Skae, David 1814 births 1873 deaths Alumni of the University of St Andrews Scottish medical writers Heads of psychiatric hospitals History of mental health in the United Kingdom 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish psychiatrists 19th-century Scottish writers