Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halliday, Andrew (1781-1839)

by Norman Moore

HALLIDAY, Sir ANDREW, M.D. (1781–1839), physician, was born at Dumfries, Scotland, in 1781. He was at first educated for the presbyterian ministry, but preferred medicine and graduated M.D. at Edinburgh on 24 June 1806. He travelled for a time in Russia, and on his return settled in practice at Halesowen, Worcestershire, but soon joined the army as a surgeon. He served in the Peninsula with the Portuguese army, and in 1811 was contemplating a history of the war (Gurwood, Wellington Despatches, iv. 524, 532). He afterwards entered the British service, and was present at the assault of Bergen-op-Zoom and at Waterloo. He became domestic physician to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV), and travelled on the continent with him. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1819, and was knighted by George IV in 1821, He was given the post of inspector of hospitals in the West Indies in 1883, but his health broke down, and he retired to his native town in 1837, where he died at Huntingdon Lodge on 7 Sept. 1839.

His thesis for the degree of M.D., printed at Edinburgh in 1800, was 'De Paeumstosi,' a term invented by Cullen to express what is now called surgical emphysema, an extravacation of air into tissues, generally due to injury of the lung, and he published a. translation of this Latin essay into English in London in 1807, with some additions, as 'Observations on Emphysema.' It is an almost valueless contribution, but contains a single valuable original observation describing a case in which air was found under the skin all over the body after the rupture into the chest of a phthisical cavity in one lung. His other medical writings contain very little information of value. They are:

1. 'Remarks on the Present State of the Lunatic Asylums in Ireland,"' London, 1808.
2. 'Observations on the Fifth Report of the Commissioners of Military Enquiry,' 1809.
3. 'Observations on the Present State of the Portuguese Army,' 1811; 2nd edit., with additions, 1812.
4. Translation of Franck's 'Exposition of the Causes of Disease,' 1815.
5. 'Letter to Lord Binning … on the State of Lunatic Asylums and on the Insane Poor in Scotland,' 1816.
6. 'A General View of the Present State of Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums in Great Britain and Ireland and in some other Kingdoms,' 1828.
7. ' A Letter to Lord R. Seymour with reference to the Number of Lunatics and Idiots in England and Wales,' 1829.
8. 'A Letter to the Right Hon. the Secretary at War on Sickness and Mortality in the West Indies,' 1839.

He also wrote 'A Memoir of the Campaign of 1815,' 1810; and 'The West Indies; the Nature and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies,' 1837; and edited 'A General History of the House of Guelph,' 1821; and 'Annalsof the House of Hanover,' 2 vols., 1826.

[Gent. Mag. 1840. pt. i. 63; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 212; Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

N. M.