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David Waterston (anatomist)

{{Short description|Scottish surgeon and anatomist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

David Waterston OBE FRSE (25 August 1871–4 September 1942) was a 20th-century Scottish surgeon and anatomist. He was the Bute Professor of Anatomy at the University of St Andrews. He was one of the first to debunk the Piltdown Man hoax, correctly pointing out that the jaw and skull did not match correctly.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/index.php?option=com_timed_auction&auction_no=2057&bidded_lots=0&excl_keyword=&high_estimate=&ipp=10&keyword=&lang=en&lot_id=46210&low_estimate=&name=&page_no=1&sort_by=lot_no&view=lot_detail&Itemid=|title=LOT:139 {{!}} Professor of Anatomy.- Waterston (David, Professor of Anatomy, University of St Andrews) Collection of papers, including 3 letters from Negretti and Zamba, scientific instrument makers, v.s., 1912 (c. 17 pieces).|website=www.forumauctions.co.uk|access-date=2019-05-19}}

Life

File:1 to 4 Coates Place, Edinburgh.jpg

Waterston was born in Govan, Glasgow on 25 August 1871 the son of Isabella Anderson and her husband Rev Richard Waterston (1830-1892) of Union Church on Morrison Street. The family lived at 2 Park Grove on the Paisley Road.Glasgow Post Office Directory 1871 His father moved to St Paul's Church in Dundee in 1878.Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church; Richard Waterston The family later lived at 2 Park Place in Dundee.Dundee Post Office Directory 1880

He studied for a general degree at the University of Edinburgh, the home town of his parents, graduating with an MA around 1890. He then studied medicine under Sir William Turner graduating with an MB ChB in 1895. He then began lecturing in anatomy at the university alongside David Hepburn. He gained his doctorate (MD) in 1898, and won the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's Gold Medal in 1900.{{Cite journal|last=Dow|first=D. R.|date=October 1942|title=Prof. David Waterston|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=150|issue=3809|pages=516|doi=10.1038/150516a0|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}} In 1900 he was living at 16 Merchiston Terrace in west Edinburgh.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1900

In 1901 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir William Turner, Ramsay Heatley Traquair, Robert Munro, and David Hepburn.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=27 March 2019|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

File:Waterston 1905 Heart and Pericardium Number 9 b21271252 001 0028 (cropped).jpgIn 1905 he published the Edinburgh Stereoscopic Atlas of Anatomy. As its name suggests, this work used stereographic photographs to provide a three-dimensional view of anatomical preparations. It was widely used by Scottish medical schools.{{cite book |last1=Hallam |first1=E. |title=Anatomy Museum: Death and the Body Displayed |date=2016 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78-023604-9}}

In 1909 he was still working in Edinburgh and lived at 1 Coates Place in the West End of the city, a large terraced townhouse in the West End of the City.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1909

He was Professor of Anatomy at King's College, London from around 1910. During this period he came to national fame in 1913 as the first person to discredit the Piltdown Man hoax which had been made public in December 1912.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-early-skeptic-of-the-piltdown-hoax/|title=An Early Skeptic of the Piltdown Hoax - Scientific American}}

In 1914 he became the Bute Professor of Anatomy at the University of St Andrews, succeeding Professor James Musgrove.{{Cite web|url=https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002f376886/one?qu=%22rcs:+E004703%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier|title=Musgrove, James (1862 - 1935)|website=livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk|access-date=2019-05-19}}

He died on 4 September 1942. When he died there was an inter-regnum in the Bute chair due to the World War II. He was eventually succeeded in 1946 by Professor Robert Walmsley.

Family

He was married to Isabel Amy Simsom. Their children included Brigadier Surgeon Richard E. Waterston FRCS and David James Waterston FRCSE.{{Cite web|url=https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002f379893/one?qu=%22rcs:+E007710%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier|title=Waterston, David James (1910 - 1985)|website=livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk|access-date=2019-05-19}}

References

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Selected bibliography

{{Commons category|David Waterston}}

  • {{cite book |last1=Waterston |first1=David |title=Edinburgh Stereoscopic Atlas of Anatomy |date=1905 |publisher=The Caxton Publishing Company |location=London}} [https://archive.org/details/b21271252_001 Section 1]; [https://archive.org/details/b21271252_002 Section 2]; [https://archive.org/details/b21271252_003 Section 3]; [https://archive.org/details/b21271252_004 Section 4]; [https://archive.org/details/b21271252_005 Section 5].
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=Complete bilateral interruption of the fissure of Rolando |journal=Journal of Anatomy and Physiology |date=1907 |volume=41 |pages=143–146 |pmid=17232720|pmc=1289106 }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=The Piltdown Mandible |journal=Nature |date=1913 |volume=92 |issue=2298 |page=319 |doi=10.1038/092319a0 |url=https://archive.org/details/waterston-1913-nature-9219131914lock|doi-access=free }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=A Stone Cist and its Contents found at Piekie Farm, near Boarhills, Fife |journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |date=1927 |volume=61 |pages=30–44 |url=https://archive.org/details/cist-piekie-farm}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=Gastro-intestinal Diseases: Lectures Delivered at the James MacKenzie Institute for Clinical Research, St. Andrews, Winter Session, 1927 |date=1928 |publisher=H. Milford|oclc=9850799}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=Anatomy in the living model : a handbook for the study of the surface, movements, and mechanics of the human body |date=1931 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|oclc=930476905}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=On pain |journal=The Lancet |date=1933 |volume=221 |pages=943–946 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(00)85035-7}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |title=Observations on sensation: The sensory functions of the skin for touch and pain |journal=The Journal of Physiology |date=1933 |volume=77 |issue=3 |pages=251–257 |doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1933.sp002967 |pmid=16994388|doi-access=free |pmc=1394770 }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Waterston |first1=David |author-mask=2 |last2=Orr |first2=James |last3=Cappell |first3=D.F. |title=Sir James Mackenzie's heart |journal=British Heart Journal |date=1939 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=237–248 |doi=10.1136/hrt.1.3.237 |pmid=18609821|doi-access=free |pmc=503856 }}

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Category:1871 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:People from Govan

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Scottish anatomists