Francis Home

Francis Home FRSE FRCPE (17 November 1719 in Eccles, Berwickshire – 15 February 1813) was a Scottish physician, and the first Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Edinburgh, known to make the first attempt to vaccinate against measles, in 1758. In 1783 he was one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Biography Francis Home was the third son of John Home, an advocate residing at Eccles, Berwickshire.

He received his education at Duns Grammar School. He was then apprenticed to Dr Rattray, a surgeon in Edinburgh.

From 1742 to 1748 he served as surgeon of dragoons in Flanders in the Seven Years' War, He was a founding member of both the Royal Medical Society and of the Select Society.

He was the father of James Home FRSE (1760-1844), Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Edinburgh.

Work Home was an important figure in Edinburgh during the Enlightenment. His 1756 essay "Experiments on Bleaching", which won a gold medal was awarded by the trustees for the improvement of manufactures in North Britain, was translated into French and German. It was also an early presentation of the chemical principles underlying plant nutrition.

As a professor he speculated somewhat rashly, but carefully treated the physical characters and mode of administration of drugs. His 'Principia Medicinæ' was a valuable work in its day, and was used as a text-book by several continental professors.

Home was also the first to call attention to croup as a distinct disease in his tractate on the subject, which Dr. Squire, in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' 1866, i. 236, terms a 'careful and most philosophical inquiry,' deciding the dependence of the symptoms on pathological changes in the larynx and trachea.

Selected publications Dissertatio de Febre Intermittente, Edinburgh, 1750, 4to; republished in Smellie's Thesaurus Medicus, 1778. An Essay on the contents and virtues of Dunse-Spaw, Edinburgh, 1751 Experiments on Bleaching Edinburgh, 1756, The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, Edinburgh, 1757; 3rd edition, 1759; French translation, Paris, 1761; German translation, Berlin, 1779. Principia Medicinæ, Edinburgh, 1758; 3rd edition, 1770. Medical Facts and Experiments, Edinburgh, 1759. An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Croup, Edinburgh, 1765; French translation, 1810, by F. Ruette. Methodus Materiæ Medicæ, Edinburgh, 1770. Clinical Experiments, Histories, and Dissections, Edinburgh, 1780; 3rd edition, London, 1783.