Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rollo, John
ROLLO, JOHN, M.D. (d. 1809), surgeon, was born in Scotland, and received his medical education at Edinburgh. He became a surgeon in the artillery in 1776, and served in the West Indies, being stationed in St. Lucia in 1778 and 1779 and in Barbados in 1781. He published ‘Observations on the Diseases in the Army on St. Lucia,’ in 1781. He soon after returned to Woolwich as surgeon-general, and in 1785 published ‘Remarks on the Disease lately described by Dr. Hendy.’ The disease was that form of elephantiasis known as ‘Barbados leg.’ In 1786 he published ‘Observations on the Acute Dysentery,’ and in 1794 became surgeon-general. He printed at Deptford in 1797 ‘Notes of a Diabetic Case,’ which described the improvement of an officer with diabetes who was placed upon a meat diet. In a second edition, published in 1798, other cases were added, so that the whole made a considerable volume of which a further edition appeared in 1806. He was frequently consulted about cases of diabetes, and in treatment had the degree of success which has always followed the use of a nitrogenous diet.
He published in 1801 a ‘Short Account of the Royal Artillery Hospital at Woolwich,’ and in 1804 a ‘Medical Report on Cases of Inoculation,’ in which he supports the views of Jenner. He died at Woolwich on 23 Dec. 1809.
[Works; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Gent. Mag. 1804 ii. 1114, 1809 ii. 1239.]