Dear All I've put the account below together as a matter of public interest and record, and especially for "McBrucie", who asked for details. Thanks are due to Eunice Smith, Florence Denning, and Linda Watson, as previously mentioned. If anyone should know anything of the Scottish origins of William Corson McGowan (mentioned below), or come across him in their genealogical travels, I'd be grateful for the information. JAMES McLAUCHLAN, SURGEON, DUMFRIES The following details are taken from a transcription of a family gravestone in Kirkgunzeon churchyard (MIs, stone 29): Father: James McLachlan, d. Lochfoot 6.10.1832, aged 72. Mother: Mary Carruthers, d. 1.10.1838, aged 73. Son: James McLachlan,surgeon, Dumfries, 14.3.1799-10.12.1848. Daughter: Margaret, d.Dumfries 15.4.1891, husband William Corson McGowan. McDowell, Memorials of St Michael's Churchyard of Dumfries, p. 357: "As a medical practitioner, no one was more popular in Dumfries than he,whose amiable character, general professional attainments, and greatservices during a season of special calamity, are faithfully depicted on another graceful tablet, which reminds us also that he perished at the post of duty when the Burgh was attacked by cholera in 1848. The memorial record runs as follows: `Sacred to the memory of James Mclauchlan, surgeon, Dumfries. His youth was spent in the successful pursuit of professional knowledge; his manhood was devoted to the unwearied, faithful, and benevolent exercise of his high art. His life was signalised by the virtues of the Christian. His death followed his ministrations amid a plague-stricken people, and bore the evidence of that faith in which he lived. Born 14th March 1798; died 10th December 1848.'" Note the 1798/1799 discrepancy in birth year - McDowell clearly repeats the data from the memorial tablet (which is located in the porch of St Michael's church - I have a photo if anyone requires one). The "plague" was the second cholera epidemic. William Corson McGowan, married to the surgeon's sister, is my own ancestor. He was born in Scotland c. 1808 and was already a draper and tea-dealer of Penrith at the time of his marriage to Margaret in Dumfries on 3.1.1854. He died in Penrith 18.6.1879, after which Margaret seems to have returned, at least eventually, to Scotland. Surgeon McLauchlan's other claim to fame is that he was one of two doctors who performed the first surgical procedure under anaesthetic to take place in the British Isles, as the following makes clear: Spreading the News of Anesthesia: From W.T.G. Morton to the World Wide Web George S. Bause, M.D., Trustee Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology October 16, 1996, marks the sesquicentennial of William T.G. Morton's public demonstration of ether for surgical anesthesia. Though not the first to etherize, Morton was a successful communicator. Newspaper accounts and letters spread the news of anesthesia, shipped throughout the civilized world largely by steamship. A fruitful voyage of one steamship, the Acadia, shared Dr. Morton's achievement serially with Canadians, Scots and the English. Departing Boston on December 1, 1846, this wooden paddle steamer harbored in Halifax on December 3 before arriving in Liverpool on December 16. The Acadia's surgeon, Dr. Fraser, took a steamer and connecting coach to reach his mother in Dumfries, Scotland, by December 17. Two days later, his surgical friends Drs M'Lauchlan and Scott administered ether to a patient there in Dumfries. That same Royal Mail steamer, Acadia, brought Bostonian Jacob Bigelow's letter and his son's Boston Daily Advertiser story to Dr. Boott at Gower Street, London. Robinson etherized Dr. Boott's niece for a molar extraction on December 19, 1846. In contrast, the Canadian effort did not begin until January 18, 1847, when surgeon Dr. Peters excised Beatteay's arm tumor under Fiske and Adams' ether at St. John, New Brunswick. [American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Newsletter Vol. 60, no. 9, September 1996] Hope this is of interest. Peter ===== There is a striking resemblance between the casual advice of the learned and the crackling of thorns under a pot (Evelyn Underhill) ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com