Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henderson, Alexander (1780-1863)
HENDERSON, ALEXANDER (1780–1863), physician, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1780, and was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated as a doctor of medicine on 12 Sept. 1803. His thesis ‘De modo, quo musculi, cerebrum atque nervi, respiratione afficiuntur,’ was printed in the same year in Edinburgh. He came to London and was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1808. He chiefly applied himself to literature, and contributed to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ and other publications. He resided at 6 Curzon Street, London, but he died at Caskieben, Aberdeenshire, on 16 Sept. 1863. He was the author of:
- ‘A Sketch of the Revolutions of Medical Science, and views relating to its Reform by P. J. G. Cabanis,’ translated from the French, 1806.
- ‘An Examination of the Imposture of Ann Moore, the fasting woman of Tutbury, illustrated by Remarks on the Cases of Real and Pretended Abstinence,’ London, 1813.
- ‘The History of Ancient and Modern Wines,’ London, 1824.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, iii. 69; Medical Times, 26 Sept. 1863, p. 341; Catalogue of Library in Surgeon-General's Office at Washington, 1885, vi. 59.]