John G. S. Coghill

Dr John George Sinclair Coghill FRCPE FSA(Scot) (1834–1899) was a medical doctor specializing in obstetrics and respiratory complaints, especially tuberculosis, and was one of the earliest European medical doctors to travel to China and Japan. He also served in the Crimean War and later trained under Sir James Young Simpson.

Early life

John G. S. Coghill was born at Windsor in 1834, the son of John Coghill (1806–1882) and Alexandrina MacKay (d.1880). The family moved to Edinburgh in 1844 where his father ran a store at 10 Rose Street, with the family living over the shop. His father is also listed as a sergeant in the Royal Midlothian Yeomanry Cavalry.

John grew up in Edinburgh where he attended the Royal High School. Both of Coghill's parents were from Caithness but as John G. S. Coghill's father, John Coghill, served in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards the family moved around. J G. S. Coghill attended the Medical School at the University of Edinburgh and in 1857 he was awarded his MD which is now publicly available on the University's website. In the middle of his studies the Crimean War broke out and he volunteered as a surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy, he sailed out on , part of the Baltic fleet, mostly operating between Memel and Riga. On his return from the conflict he continued his studies and was academically successful, especially in anatomy, midwifery and medical jurisprudence, receiving various awards for his studies. in Glasgow John G. S. Coghill married Agnes Darling. The Coghills went on to have twelve children, seven of these children were born in China and sadly only four of their children survived infancy; one son and three daughters. Three of these surviving children also pursued a career in medicine:

Mary Stuart Sinclair Coghill-Hawkes (1862– : Born in Shanghai in 1862, she survived the diseases which had affected her family. Agnes Irene Sinclair Coghill (1872–1904): Mary's younger sister was born in Thurso, Caithness. She attended the Medical College for Women at Minto House, Edinburgh where she did well, gaining a distinction in gynecology. She graduated MB CM in 1897. The following year she married Mr Percy Coghill of Liverpool.

In 1869 the Coghills left China and returned to Edinburgh, potentially having been influenced by the death in infancy of five children and by Agnes Coghill's ill health.

Failing to be elected as chair of obstetrics at the University of Edinburgh in 1875, a position which was controversially given to James Young Simpson (the nephew of the above mentioned Professor), Coghill and family moved to Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight. He went to work in the Royal National Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest which opened in 1868 and was its first consulting physician. The hospital was founded by Arthur Hill Hassal had himself suffered from tuberculosis while he was senior physician to the Royal Free Hospital, London and had moved to the Isle of Wight in search of a cure. The hospital became a part of the National Health Service in 1948.

Coghill embraced the field of tuberculosis enthusiastically although not wholly abandoning his interests as a generalist and in gynaecology. In 1894 he became a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Sava, from the Kingdom of Serbia, for his scientific contributions. He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Gynaecological Society of Boston; as Vice President of the British Gynaecological Association he addressed the appropriate section of the BMA meeting in 1881 and in 1887 was Vice President of the Therapeutics section of the International Medical Congress held in Washington USA. In 1888 he had the honour of receiving Queen Victoria on her visit to the hospital (his young son Harold ‘in Highland dress’ presented her with a bouquet).

He died in Ventnor on 5 June 1899 but is buried with his parents in Dean Cemetery in the west of the city. The grave is marked by a pale granite Celtic cross and lies in the small central southern section.

Publications

Coghill, J. G. S. (1852). On the structural relations of the peripheral nervous system, thesis. University of Edinburgh. Coghill, J. G. S. (1868–70). Notice of a Recent Visit to the Great Wall of China. (pp 403–7). Coghill, J. G. S. (1872). Incision of the Cervix Uteri, with Description of a New Hysterotome. Transactions. Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, 2, 340–345. Coghill, J. G. S. (1876). The Mechanical Treatment of Flexions and Displacements of the Uterus. British Medical Journal, 1 (803), 624–627. Coghill, J. G. S. (1877). Therapeutic Notes on the Chloride of Calcium. The Indian Medical Gazette, 12 (12), 335–336. Coghill, J. G. S. (1877). Case of Œsophageal Fistula Opening through Thoracic Parietes Laterally. British Medical Journal, 1 (838), 68–69. Coghill, J. G. S. (1878). Jaborandi Proposed as a Remedy in Hydrophobia. British Medical Journal, 1 (888), 9–10. Coghill, J. G. S. (1879). Irritable Spine as an Idiopathic Affection. British Medical Journal, 2 (980), 571–573. Coghill, J. G. S. (1879). Nitrite of Amyl in Chloral-Poisoning. British Medical Journal, 1 (965), 969. Coghill, J. G. S. (1881). Address in Obstetric Medicine. British Medical Journal, 2 (1077), 314–320. Coghill, J. G. S. (1881). Remarks on the Mechanical Treatment of Uterine Displacements and Flexions. British Medical Journal, 2 (1079), 387–389. Coghill, J. G. S. (1881). Dr. Pallen and Lacerations of the Cervin Uteri. British Medical Journal, 2 (1088), 759. Coghill, J. G. S. (1881). Antiseptic Inhalation in Pulmonary Affections. British Medical Journal, 1 (1065), 841–843. Coghili, J. G. S., Whitehead, J. L., Williamson, J. M., Harvey, W. A., & Lowther, H. (1882). Typhoid at Ventnor? British Medical Journal, 2 (1141), 966. Coghill, J. G. S. (1885). A New Form of Vaginal Pessary. British Medical Journal, 1 (1253), 15. Coghill, J. G. S. (1891). Observations on the Effect of the Injection of Tuberculin on the Pulse. British Medical Journal, 2 (1611), 1037–1038. Coghill, J. G. S. (1895). The Prophylaxis of Influenza. British Medical Journal, 1 (1788), 751–752. Coghill, J. G. S. (1896). The Hypodermic Use of Guaiacol in Acute Pulmonary Tuberculosis . British Medical Journal, 1 (1836), 586–590. Coghill, J. G. S. (1898). Sanatoria for the Open-Air Treatment of Consumption. British Medical Journal, 2 (1959), 206–207.