Cleghorn, George

GEORGE CLEGHORN (1716–1789)
Physician

George Cleghorn was born on the 18th of December 1716 at Granton, near Edinburgh, son of a farmer and the youngest of five children. He was educated at a parish school before being sent to Edinburgh in 1728 to further his education. At the age of fifteen, he commenced study of physics and surgery at the university.

In 1736 he was appointed surgeon to the 22nd Regiment of Foot, then stationed in Minorca, and remained there until the regiment was ordered to Dublin in 1749. In 1751, he published 'Observations on the Epidemical Diseases in Minorca from the year 1744 to 1749'. The pathology of enteric fever and acute pneumonia was unknown in Cleghorn's time, but his book gives a clear account of the course of enteric fever complicated with tertian ague, with dysentery, and with pneumonia.

Cleghorn settled in Dublin in 1751, and began to give lectures in anatomy, and a few years later was made first lecturer in anatomy in Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards professor.

The index or summary of his lectures shows that they were not confined to the mere details of human anatomy, but included both comparative and surgical anatomy and the general principles of physiology. His general learning was considerable, and he was one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy. He had no children of his own, but devoted his means and care to the nine children of a deceased brother. George Cleghorn died in December 1789.