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CLEGHORN, GEORGE, a learned
physician, was the son of a farmer at Granton, in the parish of Cramond,
near Edinburgh; and was born there, on the 13th of December,
1716. In 1719, the father of Dr Cleghorn died, leaving a widow and five
children. George, who was the youngest, received the rudiments of his
education at the parish school, and in 1728, was sent to Edinburgh, to be
further instructed in Latin, French, and Greek; where, to a singular
proficiency in those languages, he added a considerable stock of
mathematical knowledge. At the age of fifteen, he commenced the study of
physic and surgery, and had the good fortune to be placed under the
tuition of the illustrious Monro, and under his roof. For five years, he
continued to profit by the instruction and example of his great master; at
the same time, he attended the lectures on botany, chemistry, material
medica, and the theory and practice of medicine; and by extraordinary
diligence, he attracted the notice of all his preceptors. He was at this
time the intimate friend and fellow-student of the celebrated Fothergill,
in conjunction with whom, and a few other young men, he established the
Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, an institution of a very valuable
kind, which still exists. So great was the distinction of Cleghorn, even
as a student, that, when little more than nineteen years of age, he was
appointed by the recommendation of Dr St Clair, surgeon to the 22d
regiment of foot, then stationed at Minorca, under the command of general
St Clair. During the thirteen years which he spent in that island, he
applied himself most diligently to his improvement in medical and
anatomical studies, in which he was much assisted by his friend Fothergill,
who sent him out such books as he required from London. On leaving Minorca
in 1749, he went with the regiment to Ireland; and next year he repaired
to London, in order to give to the world the fruit of some of his
observations, in a work entitled, "The diseases of Minorca."
This work not only exhibits an accurate statement of the air, but a minute
detail of the vegetable productions of the island; and concludes with
medical observations, important in every point of view, and in some
instances either new, or applied in a manner which preceding practitioners
had not admitted. The medical world was indebted to Dr Cleghorn for
proving the advantage of acescent vegetables in low, putrid, and remittent
fevers, and the copious use of bark, which had been interdicted from
mistaken facts, deduced from false theories. While superintending the
publication of this work, Dr Cleghorn attended the anatomical lectures of
Dr Hunter: and on his return to Dublin, where he settled in practice in
1751, he began to give a similar course himself, and was the first person
that established what could, with propriety, be considered an anatomical
school in Ireland. Some years afterwards, he was admitted into the
university as lecturer on anatomy. From this period till his death in
December 1789, Dr Cleghorn lived in the enjoyment of a high and lucrative
practice, the duties of which he varied and relieved by a taste for
farming and horticulture, and by attentions to the family of a deceased
brother, which he undertook to support. In private life, Dr Cleghorn is
said to have been as amiable and worthy, as in his professional life he
was great. He was enabled before his death to acquire considerable estates
in the county of Meath, of which his nephew, George Cleghorn of Kilcarty,
was High Sheriff in the year 1794.
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