Sir Robert Christison (1797-1882): the man, his times, and his contributions to nephrology

Abstract

Sir Robert Christison was a professor of Medicine in Edinburgh for 50 years, and twice President of the Royal College of Physicians there. Despite this, few modern descriptions and assessments of either him or his work have been published. In particular, his major work in the field of renal disease, which allows him to be considered one of the fathers of nephrology, has been almost completely forgotten, even in Scotland. In this paper, Christison and his work in renal disease are described, trying to place his sometimes apparently paradoxial views and actions as a physician in the context of a man who lived across major changes in medicine.