Alexander Monro primus

Alexander Monro (September 19, 1697 – July 10, 1767), as the first of three generations of physicians with the same name, is known as Alexander Monro primus. He is noted for his role in advancing the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh to international prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries. He showed that jaundice is caused by obstruction of the bile duct, and introduced many innovations in surgical instruments and dressings.

Monro Primus was born in London on September 19, 1697. He was the son of John Monro, the youngest son of Sir Alexander Monro of Bearcrofts, a colonel in the army of Charles II at the battle of Worcester. John Monro was a surgeon in the army of King William, and, after retiring from the army, he settled in Edinburgh and entered the College of Surgeons. However, he sent his son elsewhere to complete his education: to London, Paris, and Leyden. While he was away, his father assiduously advertised his son's emerging talent in anatomy, presenting several of his preparations to the college. The then Professor of Anatomy relinquished his appointment in favour of the young Alexander Munro, who duly became Professor of Anatomy in 1719 at just twenty-two years of age.

The following year, he began the first regular course of anatomical lectures and demonstrations ever delivered in Edinburgh. These continued for nearly forty years, from the end of each October to the beginning of the following May.

Without his knowledge, his father had invited the president and fellows of the College of Physicians and the whole Company of Surgeons to attend the first of these lectures. This prompted the young Alexander to forget the lecture that he had memorised and was just about to deliver. However, he began to show some of his anatomical preparations, and to speak spontaneously about them. The success of that lecture led him to resolve never to 'read' a lecture, but instead to talk freely and naturally - a mode that proved extremely popular with students. On his appointment as Professor of Anatomy he initially taught in Surgeons Hall, but after 1725 dissections were held in the main College building, which had been erected in 1617. In 1764, to accommodate the huge numbers of students attending his classes, a new 200-seat octagonal Anatomy Theatre was added in the College Garden behind the 1617 Building.

Meanwhile, his father persuaded Dr Alston, then King’s botanist for Scotland, to begin a course of lectures on the materia medica, and then persuaded the physicians and surgeons of Edinburgh also to establish regular lectures. With these sets of lectures established, to complete the plan for a new Medical School, subscriptions were raised for a new hospital - The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. There, Monro began a series of lectures on surgical cases, while Daniel Rutherford taught a similar course on medical cases.

Monro soon also became known by his publications. In 1726, when he was still under thirty years of age, he published his most famous work The Anatomy of the Human Bones with an Anatomical Treatise of the Nerves, and Account of the Reciprocal Motions of the Heart and a Description of the Human Lacteal Sac and Duct. This remained a standard work of reference for a century, seeing its last reprint in 1828, and was translated into many European languages. The French edition, published by M. Sue, demonstrator of sculpture to the Royal Academy of Paris, was adorned with engravings.

Monro was a member of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons; the Medical Society; the Philosophical Society; of the Select Society for questions in morality and politics; and the Society for Promoting Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures in Scotland. As secretary of the latter, he edited six volumes of ‘Medical Essays’, the first of which appeared in 1732, including papers written himself on anatomical, physiological, and practical subjects, including his Essay on the Nutrition of the Foetus.

In 1759 he resigned the anatomical chair to his youngest son, Alexander Monro secundus, but continued his clinical lectures at the Infirmary. His last publication was an Account of the Success of Inoculation in Scotland.

Monro primus married Isabella Macdonald, daughter of Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat, by whom he had eight children, four of whom, three sons and a daughter, reached maturity. Two sons became distinguished physicians: Donald Monro, the author of several treatises, including an Essay on Dropsy (1765} and on the Diseases of Military Hospitals (1764), and Alexander Monro secundus.

Monro Primus was a man "unhampered by modesty or reticence". His autobiography, The Life of Monro by Himself includes statements like "So little Doubt was made of this Gentleman's Veracity and Integrity that his Affirmation of any Fact from his own proper Knowledge never was suspected."

He died on July 10, 1767, aged 70.

References

MONRO, Alexander (1697-1767). Traité d'Ostéologie. Paris: Guillaume Cavelier, 1759.