Donald Mainland

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...

FRSC (1902-1985) was a Scots-born medical statistician who became a Professor at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. He is remembered for his series of Mainland's Notes. __TOC__

Life

He was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1902, the son of William Mainland, a confectioner running a shop at 140 St Stephen Street in the Stockbridge area. He studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

graduating with an MB ChB and gaining a doctorate (DSc) in 1930. He was a lecturer in anatomy at the University of Edinburgh and was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1938. His proposers were

Ernest Cruickshank Ernest William Henderson Cruickshank FRSE LLD (22 March 1888 – 29 December 1964) was a Scottish physician and physiologist. He was the author of several textbooks on nutrition. His book ''Food and Nutrition'' was an influential best-seller. ...

James Couper Brash James Couper Brash, MC, FRCSE, FRSE (24 October 1886 in Cathcart – 19 January 1958 in Edinburgh) was a leading anatomist and embryologist in Britain. Early life and family James Couper Brash was born in Cathcart in Scotland, the son of ...

Alfred Joseph Clark Professor Alfred Joseph Clark MC FRS FRSE (19 August 1885 – 30 July 1941) was a British pharmacologist and Professor of Pharmacology at the University College, London. He was a de-bunker of fraudulent remedies and did many early studies on ...

and

Ivan De Burgh Daly Ivan de Burgh Daly (14 April 1893 – 8 February 1974) was a British experimental physiologist and animal physiologist who had a specialist knowledge of ECG use and was awarded a Beit Fellowship in this field in 1920. Together with Shells ...

. In 1954 he was named a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

. He resigned from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1965. In 1949 he emigrated to

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

to take on the role of Professor of Anatomy at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus in Saint John, New Brunswick. Dalhousie offer ...

. His personality clashed with his junior colleague, Dr Richard Holbourne Saunders (who then replaced him) and one year later he was appointed Professor of Biostatics in the Department of Preventative Medicine at the

Bellevue Hospital Medical College NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School o ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in the United States. In 1953 he moved to the Department of Medical Statistics as its Chairman.Lives of Dalhousie University 1925-1980. P. Waite

Publications

*''Mainland's Notes from a Laboratory of Medical Statistics'' *''Mainland's Statistical Ward Rounds'' *''Mainland's Notes on Biometry in Medical Research'' *''Mainland's Elementary Medical Statistics (1952) *''Statistical Tables for Use in Binomial Samples''

References

1902 births 1985 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Scottish anatomists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the American Statistical Association British emigrants to the United States {{Scotland-med-bio-stub