Robert Carswell

Sir Robert Carswell (3 February 1793 – 15 June 1857) was a Scottish professor of pathology, who described and illustrated many of the clinical details of multiple sclerosis but did not identify it as a separate disease.

Life Carswell was born in Paisley, Scotland, on 3 February 1793, and studied medicine at the University of Glasgow. While a student he employed by Dr. John Thompson of Edinburgh to make a collection of drawings illustrating morbid anatomy. He travelled to the continent, and spent two years (1822–3) working at the hospitals of Paris and Lyon, while working on this collection. He returned to Scotland, and took his degree of M.D. at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1826. After this he went again to Paris, and resumed his studies in morbid anatomy under Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis.

Around 1828 Carswell was chosen by University College London as professor of pathological anatomy; but before entering on his teaching duties was commissioned to prepare a collection of pathological drawings. He therefore remained in Paris after receiving this commission till 1831, when he had completed a series of two thousand water-colour drawings of diseased structures. He then took the duties of his professorship. At the same time, or soon afterwards, he became physician to the University College Hospital. The majority of these images have been digitised and are publicly available to view online.