{{short description|English-American physician}} {{other people|Robley Dunglison Evans}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person |image=Robley Dunglison 2.jpg |alt= |caption= |birth_date= 4 January 1798 |birth_place= Keswick, Cumbria, England |death_date= 1 April 1869 (aged 71) |death_place= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |burial_place= Laurel Hill Cemetery |occupation= Physician, medical educator, author |spouse= Harriette Leadam}}
'''Robley Dunglison''' (4 January 1798 – 1 April 1869) was an English-American physician, medical educator and author who served as the first full-time professor of medicine in the United States at the newly founded University of Virginia from 1825 to 1833. He authored multiple medical textbooks and is considered the "Father of American Physiology" after the publication of his landmark textbook ''Human Physiology'' in 1832. He was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. He consulted in the treatment of Andrew Jackson and was in attendance at Jefferson's death.
He served as chair of materia medica, therapeutics, hygiene and medical jurisprudence at the University of Maryland School of Medicine from 1833 to 1836 and chair of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at Jefferson Medical College from 1836 to 1868. He assisted William Beaumont in some of his experiments on gastric digestion and published the first description of Huntington's disease in his textbook ''The Practice of Medicine'' in 1842.
==Early life and education== Dunglison was born in Keswick, Cumbria, England to William and Elizabeth (Robley) Dunglison. His father was a textile manufacturer but died at the age of 35.{{sfn|Lonsdale|1875|pp=262-263}} His great-uncle was a Governor of British Tobago and it was planned for Robley to become a West Indies planter but the uncle died and the plans to move to the West Indies were abandoned.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=7}} He began the study of medicine locally in 1814 and moved to London to complete his studies. He attended lectures at the University of Edinburgh and the Ecole de Medecine in Paris.<ref name= Hickman/> In 1819, he received diplomas from the Royal College of Surgeons and the Society of Apothecaries and began the practice of medicine.<ref name="cyclopedia"/> He obtained his M. D. from the University of Erlangen, Germany, in 1823. He received his degree remotely by submitting a thesis (De Neuralgia) and a fee since the M.D. degree was not offered in London at the time.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=7}}
==Career== thumb|1848 Portrait of Dunglison Dunglison initially focused on obstetrics and accepted an appointment as physician-accoucheur at the Eastern Dispensary in London.<ref name="cyclopedia"/> He was a member of the London Medical Society and the Hunterian Society.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=10}}
In 1824, Thomas Jefferson and the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia commissioned Francis Walker Gilmer to find professors in England for the new University. Gilmer offered the anatomy and medicine professorship to Dunglison.<ref name="bruce-i">{{cite book |last=Bruce |first=Philip Alexander |title=History of the University of Virginia: The Lengthening Shadow of One Man |volume=I |pages=342, 371 |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ns0zAAAAIAAJ|year=1921}}</ref> The agreement with the University of Virginia was that beyond medical consultation with Jefferson and select others, he would not practice medicine. This made him the first full-time professor of medicine in the United States.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=4}} Dr. Dunglison and his wife arrived by ship at Norfolk, Virginia on February 10, 1825. He received an M.D. degree in 1825 from Yale College.<ref name="cyclopedia"/> He was chairman of the faculty of University of Virginia in 1826. John Tayloe Lomax succeeded him as chairman from 1827 until 1828, and Dunglison was appointed chairman again from 1828 until 1830.
Dunglinson was known to own slaves while at the University of Virginia and purchased some of the slaves previously owned by Thomas Jefferson.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schulman |first1=Gayle M. |title=Slaves at the University of Virginia |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Slaves_University_Virginia.pdf |website=www.latinamericanstudies.org |access-date=13 July 2021}}</ref>
Dunglison was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and was called into consultation for the treatment of Andrew Jackson.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=3}} He was a frequent visitor to Jefferson at Monticello and was in attendance during his illness and death in 1826.<ref name=Hickman/>
While at the University of Virginia, Dunglison published his landmark textbook ''Human Physiology'' (1832), which established his reputation as the “Father of American Physiology.”<ref name="cyclopedia">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tt4DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=10 |page=270 |year=1909 |publisher=James T. White and Co. |location=New York }}</ref>
He took an active role in the scientific experiments on gastric digestion conducted by William Beaumont. Dunglison performed some of the experiments on gastric juice, outlined additional chemical experiments to be conducted and designed further experiments for Beaumont to conduct. He would have also published the work but deferred to Beaumont to publish the work himself.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=4}}
[[File:Robley Dunglison.jpg|thumb|Engraving of Robley Dunglison by Alexander Hay Ritchie]] In 1832, Dunglison was elected to the American Philosophical Society<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1832&year-max=1832&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-08|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> and served in multiple leadership roles.<ref name=Hickman/> In 1833, he accepted a position as chair of materia medica, therapeutics, hygiene and medical jurisprudence at the University of Maryland and moved to Baltimore. In 1836, the Chair of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence<ref name=Hickman/> was created for him at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and Dunglison served in that role until 1868. He also served as dean of faculty from 1854 to 1868.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hayes |first1=Kevin J. |title=Jefferson in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs From Family, Friends, and Associates |date=2012 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |location=Iowa City |isbn=978-1-60938-120-2 |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAyc0pVBHKcC&pg=PA144 |access-date=4 July 2021}}</ref> He retired in 1868 due to poor health but continued to serve as professor emeritus.<ref name="cyclopedia"/>
In 1837, he established a monthly publication, the ''American Medical Library and Intelligencer''. He co-edited the journal along with Granville Sharp Pattison{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=103}} until 1842 when the journal was discontinued.<ref name="cyclopedia"/> In 1838, Dunglison became a naturalized U.S. citizen.<ref name=Hickman/>
In 1840, Dunglison was appointed by Jefferson Medical College as a representative to the National Medical Convention for the revision of the United States Pharmacopeia.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=130}} He was also personal physician to Peter Stephen Du Ponceau toward the end of his life.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|pp=131-133}}
Dunglison successfully campaigned for the creation of an asylum for Philadelphia's mentally ill residents. In 1844, he became an officer at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (later known as Overbrook School for the Blind). He co-developed a form of raised type to allow the blind to read.{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=4}} He served as president of The Musical Fund Society and was a member of the Franklin Institute. He worked as an attending physician at Philadelphia General Hospital.<ref name=Hickman/>
He received an honorary LL.D. degree from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1852.<ref name="cyclopedia"/>
===First description of Huntington's disease=== One of Dunglison's recently graduated students at Jefferson Medical College, Charles Oscar Waters, provided his professor with a description of the "magrums" (a folk name for what is now called Huntington's disease), which Waters observed was prevalent in Westchester County, New York.<ref name="OxfordMonographHistory">{{cite book | vauthors = Harper P |chapter=Huntington's disease: a historical background |veditors=Bates G, Harper P, Jones L | title=Huntington's Disease – Third Edition| publisher=Oxford University Press| location=Oxford| year=2002| isbn=978-0-19-851060-4|pages= 3–24}}</ref>
Although he had never seen a case, Dunglison included a description of the disease in his 1842 textbook ''The Practice of Medicine''. Waters's account of the disease was one of the first to note that the disease is hereditary, "within the third generation at farthest."
Another of Dunglison's students at Jefferson, Charles R. Gorman, wrote his thesis on the magrums as well.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Woman Who Walked Into the Sea. Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease |last=Wexler |first=Alice |author2=Nancy Wexler |year=2008 |location=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-10502-5 |page=288 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0DmU_ikxU4C }}</ref>
==Family== Dunglinson married Harriette Leadam on 4 October 1824.<ref name=Hickman>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Dunglison_Robley_1798-1869|title=Dunglison, Robley (1798–1869)|last=Hickman|first=Ellen C.|website=Encyclopedia Virginia|access-date=4 May 2016}}</ref> Together they had seven children<ref name="cyclopedia"/> including:
*Harriette Elizabeth (1825 – 1841) *John Robley (1829 – 1896), newspaper editor, politician *a son, born in November 1827, died of bronchitis at 11 months{{sfn|Radbill|1963|p=35}} *William Leadam (1832 – 1891), merchant *Richard James (1834 – 1901) -- Physician and editor of the first American edition of ''Gray's Anatomy'' in 1859<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091019104425/http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/AISR/Forum/03/09/articles/grays.html "Gray's Anatomy: The Jefferson Years"] in ''Jeffline Forum'', September 2003</ref> *Thomas Randolph (1837-1920), physician, died at Rosny-sous-Bois, France *Emma Mary (1840-1916), married John Browne, Capt. in British Army, died in Charlton, London
==Death and legacy== [[File:Robley Dunglison gravestone.jpg|thumb|Robley Dunglison gravestone in Laurel Hill Cemetery]] He died on 1 April 1869 and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.<ref name=Hickman/> A dormitory at the University of Virginia was named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web |title=University of Virginia Housing and Residence Life |url=https://housing.virginia.edu/area/1201 |website=www.housing.virginia.edu |access-date=7 July 2021}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *''[https://books.google.com/books?id=idIGAAAAQAAJ Commentaries on Diseases of the Stomach and Bowels of Children]'', G.B. Whittaker, London, 1824 *''[https://books.google.com/books?id=dDxx2F92BHkC Human Physiology]'', 1832 *''A New Dictionary of Medical Science and Literature''. The 1st (1833), The 2nd (1839), 3rd (1842), and 5th (1845) editions added "Medical Lexicon" to the title page.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunglison |first=Robley |url=http://archive.org/details/medicallexicondi13dung |title=Medical lexicon : a dictionary of medical science ... |date=1856 |publisher=Philadelphia : Blanchard and Lea |others=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref> *''The Medical Student; or, Aids to the Study of Medicine'', 1837 *''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QfYRAAAAYAAJ New Remedies: The Method of Preparing and Administering Them; Their Effects on the Healthy and Diseased Economy, &c.]'', Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1841 *''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jWw_AAAAcAAJ The Practice of Medicine; or, A Treatise on Special Pathology and Therapeutics]'', Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1842 *''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qVgQAAAAYAAJ Medical Lexicon: A Dictionary of Medical Science]'', Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia, 1857
==Citations== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *Dorsey, John M., ed. (1960) ''[https://archive.org/details/jeffersondunglis00jeff/page/n7/mode/2up The Jefferson-Dunglison Letters]''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. * {{cite book | last = Lonsdale | first = Henry | year = 1875 | title = The Worthies of Cumberland | publisher = Ballantyne & Company | isbn = | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=g_MBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA262 }}
* {{cite book | last = Radbill | first = Samuel X. | year = 1963 | title = The Autobiographical Ana of Robley Dunglison, M.D. | series = Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,new ser., v. 53, pt. 8 | publisher = The American Philosophical Society | isbn = | url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39076006462142&view=1up&seq=7 }}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5687 Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Robley Dunglison] *[https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-hs/archival_objects/robley_dunglison_1798-1869_a_brief_biography_by_jo Manuscripts and Archives - Robley Dunglinson, 1798-1869, A brief biography by Joby Topper] - Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Repository, University of Virginia *[https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-hs/archival_objects/robley_dunglison_includes_photos Manuscripts and Archives - Robley Dunglison, includes photos, circa 1980s] - Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Repository, University of Virginia *[http://www.antique-microscopes.com/photos/smith.htm The Microscope of Robley Dunglison, MD] *[https://www.si.edu/object/npg_PA__125 Thomas Sully Portrait of Dr. Robley Dunglison]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunglison, Robley}} Category:1798 births Category:1869 deaths Category:19th-century American medical doctors Category:19th-century English medical doctors Category:American physiologists Category:Slave owners from Virginia Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Category:English obstetricians Category:Huntington's disease Category:Jefferson Medical College faculty Category:Medical journal editors Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Cumbria Category:University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Category:University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty Category:University of Virginia School of Medicine faculty Category:Yale College alumni Category:Chairs of the University of Virginia