Alexander Peddie

Alexander Peddie FRSE FRCPE LLD (1810-1907) was a Scottish physician and author. He served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1877 to 1879 and was co-founder of Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.

Life

The Peddie monument, Warriston Cemetery

Alexander Peddie was born on 3 June 1810. He was the son of Rev James Peddie, an Edinburgh minister on Bristo Street in the Old Town.^[1]

He received his early education at the Edinburgh High School. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, at the encouragement of Dr John Abercrombie. He undertook postgraduate studies in Paris. At the suggestion of Abercrombie, Peddie became an apprentice to James Syme, a rising surgeon. Syme had established a public surgical hospital in Minto House where he also carried out limited classes for clinical instruction and a large class for systematic surgery. Peddie was one of these early apprentices. There he was associated with Dr John Brown who became his lifelong friend.^[2]

In 1835, Peddie obtained the Licence of the Royal College of Surgeons and his MD from the University of Edinburgh. Peddie then travelled around Europe, spending time in Paris where he studied some special departments of medicine. On his return from postgraduate study in Paris he introduced the stethoscope to Edinburgh.

When Syme was given the Clinical Chair of Surgery in Edinburgh, Peddie became Superintendent of Minto House which was largely used for the medical care of the sick poor. At the same time he developed an extensive private practice in the city.

In 1845, Peddie was the first to recognise the contagious nature of puerperal fever and its intimate connection with erysipelas and phlebitic inflammation. He was one of the originators of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh and gave two papers on Diseases of Infancy and Childhood in which he stressed the need for such an institution. That he was a pioneer in preventive medicine is evidenced by a series of ten lectures which he gave in Edinburgh and surrounding towns on Violation of Laws of Health illustrated with diagrams by Sir Noel Paton.

In 1863 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Peddie became Fellow of the RCPE in 1845 and was elected president in 1877.^[3]

He died at home, 15 Rutland Street in Edinburgh's West End, on 19 January 1907.^[4] He is buried with his parents in Warriston Cemetery in northern Edinburgh. His monument is a small granite stone behind the large Peddie monument (on its north side). His nephew, the architect John Dick Peddie, lies adjacent.

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