Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackail, Matthew
MACKAIL or MACKAILLE, MATTHEW (fl. 1657–1696), medical writer, was son of Hew or Hugh Mackail. The father, who was appointed minister of Percietown in 1633, of Irvine in 1642, and in 1649 of Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, where he died in March 1660, was member of the commissions of assemblies in 1645, 1647, and 1649. Matthew's mother was Sibilla Stevenson, who died in 1665 or 1666 (Hew Scott, Fasti Eccl. Scot. pt. i. p. 31, pt. iii. pp. 153, 165). Matthew became an apothecary and burgess of Edinburgh. In 1657 he was employed in London by James Sharp, afterwards archbishop of St. Andrews, to write papers on church matters in Scotland. When his cousin, Hugh Mackail [q. v.], was imprisoned as a covenanter in Edinburgh Tolbooth in 1666, he made persistent appeals to Archbishop Sharp in behalf of the prisoner, and afterwards repeated them to Archbishop Burnet of Glasgow. Mackail subsequently practised medicine at Aberdeen. He received the degree of M.D. from the university and King's College there on 14 July 1696. A note in the register states 'hic chirurgus Aberdonensis scriptis innotescit.'
Mackail was author of the following works : 1. 'Descriptio topographico-spagyrica Fontium mineralium Moffatensium in Annandia Scotiæ,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1659. 2. 'Moffet-Well . . . translated ... as also the Oyly-Well ... at St. Catharines Chappel ... To these is subjoined a Character of Mr. Culpepper and his Writings,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1664. 3. 'Noli me tangere tactum, seu tractatulus de Cancri curatione,' 8vo, Rotterdam, 1675. 4. 'Macis macerata; or a short Treatise concerning the use of Mace,' 12mo, Aberdeen, 1677. 5. 'The Diversitie of Salts and Spirits maintained ... by way of Animadversions upon Dr. D. Coxe his 3 Papers . . . insert in the 9 vol. of the "Philosophical Transactions," as also Scurvie Alchymie discovered,' 12mo, Aberdeen, 1683. 6. 'Terræ prodromus theoricus' [a criticism of Burnet's 'Theory of the Earth'], 4to, Aberdeen, 1691.
A son, also Matthew Mackail (d. 1734), was admitted a student at Leyden on 9 Dec. 1712 (Peacock, Leyden Students, Index Soc, p. 63). On 8 Oct. 1717 he was admitted second 'mediciner' or professor of medicine in the Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, in place of Dr. Patrick Chalmers, expelled for participation in the rebellion of '15. On 25 Nov. 1729 he was admitted 'regent' or professor of philosophy in the same college. Some objection seems to have been raised to his holding the two offices conjointly. His inaugural discourse, as professor of philosophy, delivered on 4 Dec. 1729, was ' on the connection and difference betwixt the Atomick or Copernican and the Newtonian Philosophy.'
[Robertson's Book of Bon Accord, p. 320; Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 552; Memoirs of W. Veitch, edited by McCrie, pp. 35-7; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; information from P. J. Anderson, Esq., of Aberdeen.]