Robley Dunglison

Robley Dunglison (4 January 1798 – 1 April 1869) was an English-American medical doctor, medical educator and writer 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Dunglison was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and was called into consultation for the treatment of Andrew Jackson. He was a frequent visitor to Jefferson at Monticello and was in attendance during his illness and death in 1826.

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.

In 1832, Dunglison was elected to the American Philosophical Society and served in multiple leadership roles. He retired in 1868 due to poor health but continued to serve as professor emeritus.

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.

Family Dunglinson married Harriette Leadam on 4 October 1824. Together they had seven children 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

He died on 1 April 1869 and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.