Robert Nasmyth#Family and later life

Robert Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 7 November 1791, son of Charles Nasmyth, a tailor and his wife Anne Nasmyth (née Forsyth).Scotland's People. Old Parish Registers . 7 November 1791 p685/01 380. Edinburgh p 272Lindsay L. Medical Polemics from Hunter to Owen, 1772–1844. Proc R Soc Med. 1943;36(3):113–118.[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003591574303600303] He was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh. At the age of 15, he began to study medicine at the Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine, most notably in the anatomy school of John Barclay at 10 Surgeons' Square, where Robert Liston and James Syme were student contemporaries. He then served under Barclay for three sessions as assistant in physiology and anatomy.{{Cite journal|date=June 1870|title=Robert Nasmyth Esq, FRCSEd|journal=Edinburgh Medical Journal|volume=15|issue=12|pages=1149–50|pmc=5332637}} Barclay made a lasting impression on Nasmyth who would later dedicate his probationary essay to Barclay and name one of his sons John Barclay Nasmyth.{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/auth/familysearch/login?icid=hr-signin&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Fsearch%2Frecord%2Fresults%3Fcount%3D50%26query%3D%2Bgivenname%3Ajohn~%2520%2Bsurname%3ANasmyth~%2520%2Bbirth_place%3AEdinburgh~%2520%2Bbirth_year%3A1832-1832~%2520%2Bdeath_place%3Aengland~%2520%2Bdeath_year%3A1846-1850~&searchRequireLogin=true|title=FamilySearch|last=Nasmyth|first=John Barclay|website=familysearch.org|access-date=29 March 2019}} In 1811, he passed the examination for the Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He then went to London where he became assistant to John Fuller, a dentist in Hatton Garden. Fuller had been one of the first to lecture on dentistry in London and had written a popular textbook on the speciality, A popular essay on the structure, formation, & management of the teeth.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COy1WSfIyK4C&pg=PR3|title=A Popular Essay on the Structure, Formation, & Management of the Teeth|last=Fuller (surgeon-dentist.)|first=John|date=1815|publisher=E. Cox and Son|language=en}}

Returning to Edinburgh Nasmyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1823, submitting as his original work A probationary essay on tic douloureux, a form of facial pain.{{Cite web|url=http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b22391198|title=A probationary essay on tic douloureux |last=Nasmyth|first=Robert|website=Wellcome Library|access-date=29 March 2019}} He set up practice as a dentist at 21, St Andrew Square in Edinburgh's New Town.{{Cite web|url=https://digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/archive/83138300|title=Edinburgh Post Office annual directory. 1823–1824 page 313. Scottish Directories – National Library of Scotland|website=digital.nls.uk|access-date=30 March 2019}} His innovations included a cap splint, described by Liston in his textbook Practical Surgery. This was used for maxillary reconstruction after tumour excision and was "devised by my friend Mr. Nasmyth of Edinburgh... to have metal caps fitted to the teeth of the upper and lower jaws soldered or riveted together at their bases which shall have the effect when applied of preventing the remaining fragment of bone and chin being dragged to the opposite side".{{cite book|author=Robert Liston|title=Practical surgery|url=https://archive.org/details/practicalsurger00listgoog|year=1837|publisher=Churchill}} In 1856 it was copied in vulcanite by the American dentist T. B. Gunning (1813–1889) and it has since been known by his name.{{Cite journal|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095912559|title=Gunning splint – Oxford Reference|website=oxfordreference.com|access-date=29 March 2019}}

Nasmyth also gained a reputation for his technique of gold fillings for dental cavities. Dr. Henry A Dewar, a Boston dentist wrote to Nasmyth asking that he provide details of the technique which he used to fill cavities. Nasmyth gave a detailed reply on 5 August 1838 and this was published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal later that year.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1|title=Boston Medical and Surgical Journal|last=Nasmyth|first=Robert|date=1838|volume=19|issue=17|location=Boston|pages=261–265|language=en}} In the introduction to Nasmyth's article, the editor writes that it describes "the important branch of filling teeth in which many decided improvements have been made, which are as yet but little known in this country or in Europe...".

It was customary for dentists to train apprentices and the most distinguished of Nasmyth's apprentices was John Goodsir (1814–1867).{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101074830777;view=1up;seq=797|title=The Lancet. 1870 (vol.1). May 18 p 781|website=HathiTrust|access-date=30 March 2019}} As he was a friend of Goodsir's father John Goodsir (1782–1848), Nasmyth agreed to waive his fee.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/anatomicalmemoir02gooduoft|title=The Anatomical Memoirs of John Goodsir|last=Lonsdale|first=Henry|publisher=A. and C. Black|year=1868|location=Edinburgh|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anatomicalmemoir02gooduoft/page/22 22]}} Goodsir opted out of the apprenticeship after two years to pursue a career in anatomy. He maintained his friendship with Nasmyth over many years and in 1835 Goodsir took over Nasmyth's large Edinburgh practice during the latter's absence. Nasmyth was one of relatively few dentists experienced in this technique in Britain at that time.

Nasmyth's reputation with the technique of gold filling and his closeness to the Goodsir family has contributed to speculation about the origin of a gold dental filling in skeletal remains found in King William Island in Arctic Canada and believed to be those of a member of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. After examination of these remains in 2009 researchers suggested that these might be the skeletal remains of Harry Goodsir, John Goodsir's younger brother who was lost on the expedition.{{Cite journal|last1=Mays|first1=S.|last2=Ogden|first2=A.|last3=Montgomery|first3=J.|last4=Vincent|first4=S.|last5=Battersby|first5=W.|last6=Taylor|first6=G. M.|date=1 July 2011|title=New light on the personal identification of a skeleton of a member of Sir John Franklin's last expedition to the Arctic, 1845.|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=38|issue=7|pages=1571–1582|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.022|issn=0305-4403}}

In 1860 Nasmyth, with his friends and fellow dentists John Smith, Francis Brodie Imlach, and Peter Orphoot together founded the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary which aimed to provide clinical instruction for dental students and at the same time give dental care to the poorer citizens of Edinburgh.{{Cite web|url=https://royalodonto.co.uk/index.cfm/about-us/history/|title=History of the Royal Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland|last=Geissler|first=Paul|year=2017|website=royalodonto.co.uk|access-date=30 March 2019}} The Dispensary eventually became the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/exhibits/hosp_hist/dental.htm|title=Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School history|publisher=University of Edinburgh|access-date=30 March 2019}}

Nasmyth was also a founder member of the Royal Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland. In 1865 John Smith arranged a meeting with David Hepburn, Robert Naysmith, Peter Orphoot, Andrew Swanson, Matthew Watt and John Wright. Smith proposed that the new society should be called "Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland". The rules he had drafted were finally accepted two years later when the society was formed.

In 1835 Nasmyth was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.{{Cite book|title=Minute Books of the Aesculapian Club|url=http://archives.rcpe.ac.uk/calmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DEP%2fAEC%2f1&pos=2|location= Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh}} In 1839, Nasmyth was appointed Surgeon-Dentist to the Queen in Scotland.{{Cite journal|last=Cooke|first=A.M.|year=1982|title=Queen Victoria's Medical Household|journal=Medical History|volume=26|issue=3|pages=307–20|doi=10.1017/S0025727300041521|pmid=6750291|pmc=1139189|s2cid=30855504}} In 1842, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being George Augustus Borthwick.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/fells_indexp2.pdf|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|year=2006|website=Royal Society of Edinburgh}} He was one of the earliest office-bearers of the Odontological Society of London, having been made Vice-President in 1857. He was the first president of the Royal Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland.

Nasmyth's elder brother Alexander Nasmyth (1789–1848) also became an eminent dental surgeon. He had been brought up by an uncle, whose bookbinding business he entered, but when that failed became, at the age of 33, a dental apprentice to his younger brother Robert. Moving to London, he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), set up practice and was appointed Surgeon-Dentist to the Queen. In 1839, he gave a paper on the dental enamel cuticle since known as Nasmyth's membrane. He was elected a foundation Fellow of the RCS in 1844.{{Cite web|url=https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002f374973/one?qu=nasmyth&qf=ARCHIVES_PERSON_NAME%09Personal+Name%09Nasmyth,+Alexander%09Nasmyth,+Alexander&te=ASSET|title=Nasmyth, Alexander (1789–1848)|website=livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk|access-date=30 March 2019}}

Robert Nasmyth married Mary Lockhart Jobson (born 1797) on 27 October 1819."Scotland Marriages, 1561–1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XY9M-KB4 : 10 February 2018), Robert Nasmyth and Mary Lockhart Jobson, 27 October 1819; citing Edinburgh Parish,Edinburgh,Midlothian,Scotland Their ten children included John Barclay Nasmyth (born 1832), named for Nasmyth's teacher John Barclay, and Charles Nasmyth (1825–1861),"Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564–1950," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQCQ-C6D : 10 February 2018), Robert Nasmyth in entry for Charles Nasmyth, 22 September 1825; citing EDINBURGH PARISH, EDINBURGH, MIDLOTHIAN, SCOTLAND who as an army major was described as 'the hero of Silisia' during the Crimean War.{{cite DNB|wstitle= Nasmyth, Charles |volume= 40 |last= Chichester |first= Henry Manners |author-link=Henry Manners Chichester |page= 115 |year= |short=1}}

In later life Robert Nasmyth lived at No. 5, Charlotte Square, regarded as one of the most prestigious addresses in Edinburgh,{{Cite web|url=https://ewh.org.uk/iconic-buildings-and-monuments/5-charlotte-square/|title=5 Charlotte Square|website=Edinburgh World Heritage|date=4 March 2018|access-date=3 April 2019}} close to his colleague and friend from student days Professor James Syme who lived at No. 9.{{Cite web|url=https://digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/archive/83452085|title=Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory. 1869–1870 – Scottish Directories – National Library of Scotland|website=digital.nls.uk|access-date=30 March 2019}}

Nasmyth died at home following a period of ill-health on 12 May 1870. He is buried on the north wall of Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh, backing onto the first north extension.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

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Category:1791 births

Category:1870 deaths

Category:Scottish dentists

Category:Scottish surgeons

Category:Health professionals from Edinburgh

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Burials at the Dean Cemetery

Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Category:19th-century dentists