James Douglas

Who was James Douglas?

James Douglas FRS was a Scottish physician and anatomist, and Physician Extraordinary to Queen Caroline.

One of the seven sons of William Douglas and his wife, Joan, daughter of James Mason of Park, Blantyre, he was born in West Calder, West Lothian, in 1675. His brother was the well-known lithotomist John Douglas.

In 1694 he graduated MA from the University of Edinburgh and then took his medical doctorate at Reims before going to London in 1700.

He worked as an obstetrician, and gaining a great reputation as a physician, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1706, FCP in 1721.

One of the most respected anatomists in the country, Douglas was also a well-known man-midwife. He was asked to investigate the case of Mary Toft, an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits. Despite his early scepticism, Douglas went to see Toft, and subsequently exposed her as a fraud.

Douglas practiced midwifery and performed public dissections at home.