William Smoult Playfair

Dr William Smoult Playfair FRCP (27 July 1836 – 13 August 1903) was a leading Scottish obstetric physician and academic. In 1896 a trial, Kitson v. Playfair, found against him for a breach of medical confidentiality.

Biography Playfair was born in St Andrews on 27 July 1836, the fourth of the five sons of Jessie (née Ross) of Edinburgh and George Playfair, inspector-general of hospitals in Bengal and son of James Playfair (1738–1819). Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair and Robert Lambert Playfair were among his brothers. He was educated in St Andrews before going on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1852. He graduated with an M.D. in 1856, presenting the thesis "Calculus of the bladder among the natives of India" He worked for some time in Paris.

In 1857 Playfair entered the Indian Medical Service, and was an assistant surgeon at Awadh during the Indian Rebellion. From 1859-60 he was professor of surgery at the Calcutta Medical College; but left for reasons of health. He practised medicine for six months in St. Petersburg before returning to London in 1863 with no definite plans.

Playfair, who was related to Kitson by marriage (she was married to but separated from his wife's younger brother), considered in his professional opinion that she had recently been pregnant. When Playfair decided to exclude female members of his family from her company, on moral grounds, Kitson sued. Leading doctors spoke in court in support of his actions but the judge found them unacceptable, in line with general public opinion on medical confidentiality.

Works Playfair was a prolific author, and wrote:

Handbook of Obstetric Operations, 1865. Science and Practice of Midwifery, 1876; 9th edit. 1898, translated into several languages. Notes on the Systematic Treatment of Nerve Prostration and Hysteria connected with Uterine Disease, 1881.

He was joint editor with Clifford Allbutt of a System of Gynæcology (1896; 2nd edition revised by Thomas Watts Eden, 1906). He contributed to Richard Quain's Dictionary of Medicine (1882) the article on "Diseases of the Womb", and to Daniel Hack Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine (1892) the article on "Functional Neuroses". His work in medical periodicals included 49 papers for the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society.

Family On 26 April 1864 Playfair married Emily, daughter of James Kitson of Leeds and sister of James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale. Together they had three daughters and two sons, one of them being Nigel Ross Playfair, the actor-manager.