Robert Wilson (1829?–1881) was a British physician. From

Castle Eden Castle Eden is a village in County Durham, England, south of Peterlee, Wingate, Hutton Henry, the A19 and Castle Eden Dene. The former Castle Eden Brewery was home to Castle Eden Ale. Etymology Castle Eden takes its name from the Eden Bur ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, he graduated M.D. from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1848. He practiced in

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, inland from the North Sea ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, and died aged 52. He produced a paper entitled "The Coal Miners of Durham and Northumberland: their Habits and Diseases". This paper was read at the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

meeting of the British Association (Sub-section D), and printed in the Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists Club, 1863-4, vol. VI, p. 200. It was also read at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting held at Newcastle upon Tyne, August 1863, and reviewed at length in the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...

'' for 19 September 1863. It was an important paper, historically. It describes working and living conditions and practices and gives a brief insight into the structures of the mining industry at the time. It has been cited as evidence for the incidence of

barrel chest Barrel chest generally refers to a wikt:broad, broad, deep chest found on a patient (or other person). A barrel chested person will usually have a naturally large ribcage, very round (i.e., vertically cylindrical) torso, large lung capacity, and ...

. It has also been cited as evidence of a change in attitudes to the amelioration of the conditions in the mining community, after about 1850.Robert Colls, ''The Pitmen of the Northern Coalfield: work, culture, and protest, 1790-1850'' (1987), p. 3
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert 19th-century English medical doctors 1820s births 1881 deaths