Plaque to Professor Alexander Dyce Davidson in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
After graduating with honours in medicine in Aberdeen Alexander Dyce Davidson spent some years in Paris training in ophthalmology. After his return to Aberdeen about 1860 he became ophthalmic surgeon in the Blind Asylum and then ophthalmic surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. After much opposition from surgeons to the need for a specialty of anaesthetics, the death of a patient resulted in his being appointed the first chloroformist in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1871. He gave up this post in 1875 to concentrate on his ophthalmic surgical practice. He was recognised as the finest ophthalmic surgeon of his time. He was lecturer in ophthalmic surgery and ophthalmoscopy at Aberdeen University and became assistant to Alexander Harvey who was Professor of Materia Medica. Together they made major improvements in medical education. On Harvey’s retirement in 1878 he succeeded him as Professor of Materia Medica. In 1886 he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage while giving an introductory lecture on pharmacology to medical students and died an hour later “surrounded by the last fresh traces of his life’s work”. The Dyce Davidson Medal in therapeutics is still awarded.
