John Latham (1761–1843)

John Latham, FRS, M.D. (29 December 1761 – 20 April 1843) was an English physician.^[1] He became President of the Royal College of Physicians,^[2] and also updated their Pharmacopoeia.^[3]

Life

Latham was the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham, B.A. of Oriel College, Oxford, and was born at Gawsworth in the county of Chester, 29 December 1761, in the house of his great-uncle, the Rev. William Hall, then Rector of that parish. He received his early education at Manchester Grammar School, under Charles Lawson, A.M., Head Master, and entered Commoner of Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1778, where, having gone through the previous degrees in arts, he was created M.B. 3 May 1786, and M.D. 10 October 1788. In London, he completed his medical education under David Pitcairn at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Latham passed the first years of his professional life at Manchester and Oxford, where in both places he was elected physician to the respective infirmaries. In 1788 he returned to London, and the next year was admitted Fellow of the College of Physicians. In a few months he was elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital, afterwards to the Magdalen, and in the year 1792, succeeded David Pitcairn at St. Bartholomew's, about which time he settled in Bedford Row, and remained there until 1808, when he moved to Harley Street. In 1790, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards re-appointed to the same office in the household of George IV.

On 12 April 1784, Latham married Mary, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of the Rev. Peter Mayer, B.A. Vicar of Prestbury, in the county of Chester. They had four daughters and five sons,^[4] though only two daughters and three sons survived into adulthood. Among the surviving children were Sarah, John (who inherited the estate), Peter, and Henry.^[5] He was a regular attendant at the College of Physicians, where he was elected censor (examiner) in 1790, delivered the Gulstonian lectures in 1793, the Harveian oration in 1794, and the Croonian lecture in 1795. He was president of the college from 1813 to 1819.

In 1801, he bought the estate at Bradwall, in Sandbach and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year.^[6] In 1816 he founded the Medical Benevolent Society.^[7] He retired in 1829.

Diabetes

Latham supported John Rollo's low-carbohydrate meat diet to treat diabetes and in 1811 authored Facts and Opinions Concerning Diabetes. Latham consulted 41 cases of diabetes of which 19 died and only four recovered on a meat diet.^[8]^[9]

Death

He died on 20 April 1843 at Bradwall Hall, from complications arising from bladder stones,^[10] and is buried at St Mary's Church, Sandbach (gravestone). Two portraits of Dr. Latham have been engraved. One is in Dance's collection. The other was engraved by Robert William Sievier, from a painting by John Jackson representing Dr. Latham as President of the College of Physicians. A duplicate of this painting, executed by the same artist, is one of the portraits in the Hall of Brasenose College, Oxford.^[11]

Selected publications

On Rheumatism and Gout (1796)
Facts and Opinions Concerning Diabetes (1811)

References

^ Norman Moore, "Latham, John (1761–1843)", rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
^ Geoffrey Davenport, Ian McDonald, Caroline Moss-Gibbons, The Royal College of Physicians and its collections: an illustrated history, Publisher: Royal College of Physicians, 2001, ISBN 0-907383-83-1, ISBN 978-0-907383-83-3, 168 pages (page 148)
^ John Latham, Thomas Longman ((Londres)), The Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Thomas Healde, Printed by H.S. Woodfall, for T. Longman, 1791 (via Google Books)
^ Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (1892). Dictionary of National Biography. Longon: Smith, Elder, and Co. p. 165. Retrieved 4 August 2017. john latham physician.
^ Ormerod, Eleanor (1904). Eleanor Ormerod, LL.D., Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and Correspondence. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company. p. 12. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ "Fellows Details". Royal Society. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
^ For more information, see "Medical Benevolent Society" at the UCL Bloomsbury Project website.
^ Bell, Henri; Markwick, Alfred. (1842). An Essay on Diabetes. pp. 37-38
^ Furdell, Elizabeth Lane. (2009). Fatal Thirst: Diabetes in Britain Until Insulin. Brill. p. 114. ISBN 978-90-04-17250-0
^ William Munk, editor, Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, Volume 2, 1701 to 1800, Published Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861, page 342
^ The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 174, June 1843, Publisher F. Jefferies, 1843 (page 660)