Sir Thomas Richard Fraser (5 February 1841 – 4 January 1920) was a British physician and pharmacologist. Together with

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish Organic chemistry, organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildi ...

he discovered the relationship between physiological activity and chemical constitution of the body.

Life

He was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on 5 February 1841, the second son of Mary Palmer and John Richard Fraser, Indian civil servant. Fraser attended the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...

and graduated with an MD and gold medal in 1862. His award-winning thesis was based on the positive medical applications of

physostigmine Physostigmine (also known as eserine from ''éséré'', the West African name for the Calabar bean) is a highly toxic parasympathomimetic alkaloid, specifically, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor. It occurs naturally in the Calabar bean and ...

. This had been discovered by Sir Robert Christison in 1846 but its suggested uses were largely as a humane killing mechanism rather than as a medical tool.https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/notable_fellow.pdf In 1869, Fraser was a medical assistant professor at the

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Comi ...

. In 1877, he was a member of an Arctic expedition and later in 1877 was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, serving until 1918. In 1880 he was nominated Dean of the Medical Faculty. In his later life he was both a consultant of insurance companies and of the Prisons Commission. In 1867, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) 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 establis ...

. His proposer was Sir

Robert Christison Sir Robert Christison, 1st Baronet, (18 July 1797 – 27 January 1882) was a Scottish toxicologist and physician who served as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1838–40 and 1846–8) and as president of the British ...

. He served as the Society's Vice President from 1911 to 1916. He won the Society's

Keith Prize The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathem ...

for 1891-3 and its Makdougall-Brisbane Prize 1866-8. In 1877, he also was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. In 1879 he was elected a member of the

Aesculapian Club The Aesculapian Club of Edinburgh is one of the oldest medical dining clubs in the world. It was founded in April 1773 by Dr. Andrew Duncan. Membership of the club is limited to 11 Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and ...

In 1889 and 1890 he reported about an arrow poison used in coastal areas of

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and analysed the highly poisonous

Calabar bean ''Physostigma venenosum'', the Calabar bean or ordeal bean, is a leguminous plant, Endemism, Endemic to tropical Africa, with a seed poisonous to humans. It derives the first part of its scientific name from a curious beak-like appendage at the e ...

and ''

Strophanthus ''Strophanthus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1802. It is native primarily to tropical Africa, extending to South Africa, with a few species in Asia from southern India to New Guinea and ...

hispidus''. In 1897, he was awarded the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh The Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh is awarded by the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to a person who has made any highly important and v ...

. From 1898 to 1899 he was president of the Government Commission for the research on the plague in India. He served as President 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 1900 to 1902. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

1902 Coronation Honours The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list shou ...

for his work on the Indian Plague Commission, receiving the accolade from King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

on 24 October 1902. In 1908 he was elected President of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1914 he was elected President of the

Harveian Society of Edinburgh The Harveian Society of Edinburgh was founded in April 1782 by Andrew Duncan (physician, born 1744), Andrew Duncan. The Society holds an annual Festival in honour of the life and works of William Harvey, the physician who first correctly des ...

. He received honorary doctorates from the universities of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

(LLD),

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

(LLD),

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 ...

(LLD),

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

(DSc) and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

(MD). In later years he lived at 13 Drumsheugh Gardens in Edinburgh's West End. He died in Edinburgh on 4 January 1920. He is buried in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...

in western Edinburgh, not far from his home. The grave lies in the south-west of the first northern extension, on the wall backing onto the original cemetery.

Family

With his wife Susanna Margaret Duncan Fraser (1850–1929) they had three daughters and eight sons: * Thomas, was given the middle name Christison in honour of the discoverer of Physostygmine * Mary Susanna Fraser (1877–1956) * George Moir Fraser (1878–1932) * Gertrude Agnes Fraser (b. 1882) * John Duncan Fraser, died in infancy in 1882 * Lieutenant Commander William St John Fraser (1883–1915), was commander of the submarine ''E 10'' when it was destroyed by enemy action in the North Sea near Heligoland with the loss of all hands * Sir Francis Richard Fraser (1885–1964), also became a Professor of Materia Medica in Edinburgh * Henry Chapman Fraser (1887–1916) * Caroline Annie Fraser (1889–1966) * Frederick Palmer Fraser (1891–1907) died young * Eric Malcolm Fraser (1896–1960) who in 1943 was appointed Director-General of Aircraft Production in the Ministry of Aircraft Production

Artistic recognition

His sketch portrait of 1884, by

William Brassey Hole William Brassey Hole (7 November 1846 – 22 October 1917) was a Scottish Victorian painter, illustrator, etcher, and engraver. He was known for his industrial, historical and biblical scenes. Life Early life and training Hole was born ...

, is held by the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collec ...

Publications

* ''The antagonism between the actions of active substances''; British Medical journal, 1872 * ''On The Physiological Action Of The Calabar Bean, Physostigma Venenosum Balf.''; Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, XXIV, 1867 * ''On the connexion between chemical constitution and physiological action''; ibidem XXV * ''On Stropanthus hispidus''; ibidem XXXV * ''An investigation into some previously undescribed tetanic symptoms produced by atropia in cold-blooded animals'' * ''Strophanthus hispidus: its Natural History, Chemistry and Pharmacology. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XXXV, 955–1028

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Thomas Richard 1841 births 1920 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Medical doctors from Edinburgh Office bearers of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh