Alexander Monro primus

Alexander Monro (September 19, 1697 – July 10, 1767) as the first of three generations of physicians with the same name, is known as Alexander Monro primus. He is noted for his role in advancing the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh to international prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries. He showed that jaundice is caused by obstruction of the bile duct, and advanced many innovations in surgical instruments and dressings.

Monro Primus was born in London on September 19, 1697. He was the son of Mr John Monro, the youngest son of Sir Alexander Monro of Bearcrofts, a colonel in the army of Charles II at the battle of Worcester. John Monro was a surgeon in the army of King William, who, after retiring from the army, settled in Edinburgh and entered the College of Surgeons. However, he sent his son elsewhere to complete his education: to London, Paris, and Leyden. While he was away, his father assiduously advertised his son's emerging talent in anatomy, presenting several of his preparations to the college. The titular professor of anatomy resolved to relinquish his appointment in favour of the young Alexander Munro, who was duly appointed Professor of Anatomy in 1719, at just twenty-two years of age.

The following year, he began the first regular course of anatomical lectures and demonstrations, ever delivered in Edinburgh. These lectures were continued for nearly forty years, from the end of each October to the beginning of the following May.

Without his knowledge, his father had invited the president and fellows of the college of physicians, and the whole company of surgeons, to attend the first of these lectures. This prompted him to forget completely the lecture that he had memorised. However, he began to show some of his anatomical preparations, and to speak spontaneously about them. The success of that first lecture led him to resolve never to 'read' a lecture, but instead to talk freely and naturally - a mode that proved extremely popular with students. On his appointment as Professor of Anatomy he initially taught in Surgeons Hall, but after 1725 dissections were held in the greater security and privacy of the main College building (erected in 1617). In 1764, to accommodate the huge numbers of students attending his classes, a new free-standing 200-seat octagonal Anatomy Theatre was added in the College Garden behind the 1617 Building.

Meanwhile, his father persuaded Dr Alston, then King’s botanist for Scotland, to begin a course of lectures on the materia medica, and then persuaded the physicians and surgeons of Edinburgh also to establish regular lectures. To complete the plan for a new Medical School, subscriptions were raised for a new hospital - The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. There, Monro began a series of lectures on surgical cases, while Daniel Rutherford taught a similar course on medical cases.

Monro soon also became known by his publications. His first and principal publication was his Osteology, or Treatise on the Anatomy of the Bones, which appeared in 1726, when he was still under thirty years of age. This became widely known and was translated into many European languages. The French edition, published by M. Sue, demonstrator of sculpture to the Royal Academy of Paris, was adorned with engravings.

Dr Monro was a member of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons; of the Medical Society; of the Philosophical Society; of the Select Society for questions in morality and politics; and of the Society for promoting arts, sciences, and manufactures in Scotland. As secretary of the latter, he edited six volumes of ‘Medical Essays’, the first of which appeared in 1732, including papers written himself on anatomical, physiological, and practical subjects, including his Essay on the Nutrition of the Foetus.

In 1759 he resigned the anatomical chair to his youngest son, Alexander Monro secundus, but continued his clinical lectures at the Infirmary. His last publication was an Account of the Success of Inoculation in Scotland.

Dr Monro married Isabella Macdonald, daughter of Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat, by whom he had eight children, four of whom, three sons and a daughter, reached maturity. Two sons became distinguished physicians: Donald Monro, the author of several treatises, including an Essay on Dropsy (1765} and on the Diseases of Military Hospitals (1764), and Alexander Monro secundus.

He died on July 10, 1767, aged 70.

References

MONRO, Alexander (1697-1767). Traité d'Ostéologie. Paris: Guillaume Cavelier, 1759.