Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Gairdner, William Tennant
GAIRDNER, Sir WILLIAM TENNANT (1824–1907), professor of medicine at Glasgow, born in Edinburgh on 8 Nov. 1824, was eldest son of John Gairdner [q. v.], president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, by his wife Susanna, daughter of William Tennant. Educated at the Edinburgh Institution, Gairdner entered as a medical student in 1840 Edinburgh University, where he had a brilliant career. Immediately after graduation as M.D. in 1845, he went with Lord and Lady Beverley as their medical attendant to the Continent, spending the ensuing winter in Rome. On his return to Edinburgh in 1846 he acted for the customary two years' term as house physician and house surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and then settled down to practice in Edinburgh in 1848. He was soon appointed pathologist to the Royal Infirmary, and immediately entered upon a career of great scientific energy, not only throwing himself into the teaching of his subject to large classes of undergraduates, but making numerous original observations. In 1853 he became physician to the Royal Infirmary. He at once lectured on the 'Principles and Practice of Medicine,' and continued his original observations, but restricted himself more and more to the clinical investigation of disease, at the same time paying close attention to the subject of public health, then in its infancy. In 1862 he brought out at Edinburgh both his classical work on 'Clinical Medicine' (12mo) and his notable volume, 'Public Health in relation to Air and Water.'
In the same year, 1862, Gairdner was appointed professor of medicine in the University of Glasgow. From 1863 to 1872 he was also inodical officer of health to the city, and during that period he remodelled the sanitary arrangements (cf. Public Health Administration in Glasgow, a memorial volume of the writings of Dr. J. B. Russell, Glasgow, 1905, with a preface by Gairdner; chaps, i. and ii. detail Gairdner's labours).
Gairdner was an exceptionally attractive lecturer, teaching the diagnosis of disease with singular thoroughness, and illuminating the subject in hand by means of a wide literary culture. Despite his activity as both teacher and consultant, he continued throughout his career his contributions to professional literature. In scarcely any department in medicine did he fail to add something new, in regard either to pathological changes or to clinical appearances. A series of early papers, 'Contributions to the Pathology of the Kidney' (Edinburgh, 1848), supplied an early description of waxy disease, and there was originality of view in 'The Pathological Anatomy of Bronchitis and the Diseases of the Lung connected with Bronchial Obstruction' (Edinburgh, 1850). Later he produced 'Insanity : Modern Views as to its Nature and Treatment' (Glasgow, 1885), and lectures upon 'Tabes Mesenterica' (Glasgow, 1888).
Among the matters on which he threw original light of great value were the intimate connection between arterial supply and myocardial changes; the reciprocal influence of the heart and lungs; hypertrophy and dilatation; the system of representing the sounds and murmurs of the heart by means of diagrams; the recognition of tricuspid obstruction, aneurism, and angina pectoris; and with Stokes, Balfour and Fagge he helped to make certain the diagnosis of mitral obstruction. His last contribution to circulatory disease was the article on aneurism in Clifford Allbutt's 'System of Medicine' (vol. vi. 1889).
Gairdner gave many public addresses on general topics. The chief of these were collected under the titles of 'The Physician as Naturalist' (Glasgow, 1889), and 'The Three Things that Abide' (1903). Gairdner retired from the chair of medicine in Glasgow in 1890, when he returned to his native city. Many distinctions were granted him. He was made hon. LL.D. of Edinburgh in 1883, and hon. M.D. of Dublin in 1887; was F.R.S. in 1892; hon. F.R.C.P. Ireland in 1887; physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1881; honorary physician to King Edward VII in 1901; member of the general council of medical education and registration, an representative of the University of Glasgow, 1894; president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1893-4; and president of the British Medical Association when it met in Glasgow in 1888. He was created K.C.B. in 1898.
During the last seven years of his life, while his intellectual interests and energies were unimpaired, Gairdner suffered from an obscure affection of the heart, the symptoms of which he carefully recorded. He died suddenly at Edinburgh on 28 June 1907. In accordance with his wish, a complete account of the clinical and pathological conditions of his disease was published by the present writer, in association with Dr. W. T. Ritchie. His portrait, painted by Sir George Reid, is in the University of Glasgow.
Gairdner married, in 1870, Helen Bridget, daughter of Mr. Wright of Norwich; she survived him with four sons and three daughters.
[Proc. Roy. See. 80 B, 1908; Life, by G. A. Gibson, in preparation; Lancet and Brit. Med. Journal, 6 July 1907; Edinburgh Med. Journal, Scottish Med. and Surg. Journal, and Glasgow Med. Journal, Aug. 1907.]