Nationality Scottish Name William Mackenzie Alma mater University of Glasgow Role Ophthalmology | Fields Ophthalmology | |
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Institutions University of Glasgow
Anderson's College Medical School Died July 1868, Scotland, United Kingdom Books A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye, Treatise on the Eye, Secret History of Soe Hb Bk Club Education University of Glasgow, University of Vienna Similar People Thomas Wharton Jones, Georg Joseph Beer, Charles Kennedy | ||
Doctoral advisor Georg Joseph Beer Residence Scotland, United Kingdom Notable students Thomas Wharton Jones | ||
William Mackenzie (April 1791 – July 1868) was a Scottish ophthalmologist. He wrote Practical Treatise of the Diseases of the Eye, one of the first British textbooks of ophthalmology.
Contents
Life
Mackenzie was born in Queen Street, Glasgow, and studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. From 1840 to 1848 he studied in London and continental Europe. He obtained his MD under Georg Joseph Beer at the University of Vienna, and returned to Britain in 1848. In 1849, he settled in Glasgow and began practice as a physician. In this year he also he took up the anatomy chair at Anderson's College Medical School. With George Monteath, the chief oculist of Glasgow, he founded the Glasgow Eye Infirmary in 1850. He was appointed Waltonian lecturer and lecturer on diseases of the eye at the University of Glasgow in 1852, and wrote Practical Treatise of the Diseases of the Eye, which became a standard text after its first edition was published in 1853. This text may include the first discussion of the increase of pressure in the eye during glaucoma. Mackenzie also served as editor of the Glasgow Medical Journal for two years.
He was appointed surgeon-oculist to the queen in Scotland in 1858. He died at Glasgow, of angina pectoris, on 30 July 1868, leaving a widow and one son.
MacKenzie was the mentor of Thomas Wharton Jones, leading to a significant scientific genealogy including physicists such as Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking. The University of Auckland awards a MacKenzie Medal.