Name John Cormack | Died 1882 | |
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Sir John Rose Cormack FRSE FRCP (1 March 1815 – 13 May 1882) was a Scottish physician and medical journalist. He established several notable British journals: the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science; the London Medical Journal; and the Associated Medical Journal (a predecessor of the British Medical Journal).
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Life
He was born in Stow in the Scottish Borders on 1 March 1815, the son of the local minister, the Rev John Cormack DD, and Helen Rose, sister of Sir John Rose of Holm. He attended the High School in Edinburgh and then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating MD in 1837, having won the Harveian Prize in 1836 and a gold medal in 1837 for his thesis on the presence of air (oxygen) in the organs of circulation.
On graduation he visited Paris and did a brief tour of both Italy and Spain before returning to Edinburgh to set up as a physician. He was appointed Physician to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1841 and in the same month founded the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science. During this time he also operated a Dispensary from 131 Princes Street.
In 1843 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Sir Robert Christison.
In 1847 he moved to Putney in London and founded both the London Medical Journal and the Associated Medical Journal.
In 1858 he moved to Paris in France, heading the Hertford British Hospital in that city. In the Siege of Paris (1870–71) he showed exemplary effort tending the English and French wounded, often from his own house on Rue D’Agnesseau, the French government awarding him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in consequence, and a French MD degree. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1872 for the same role.
He died of chronic disease of the prostate and bladder at his home on Rue St Honore in Paris on 13 May 1882.
Family
He married Eliza Anne Hine in 1842 and they had four sons and seven daughters, four daughters and one son surviving him. One son, Dr Baillie Cormack, assisted him during the Siege of Paris and died in 1876.