Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Science fascinated him. But his devout Christian father rejected a scientific education until persuaded that medicine would help David to do God's work. In 1836 he enrolled at Strathclyde University in Glasgow to study anatomy, chemistry, surgery, pharmacology and practical anatomy. Then he studied at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1838–40, completing clinical learning in surgery, medicine, midwifery and pharmacology. He gained good practical experience with scientific instruments and equipment, vital in Africa!
Once they graduated, the young doctors worked in schools attached to the great hospitals and dispensaries. But having committed to medicine for religious reasons, Livingstone also did courses in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and theology. He attended theology lectures by the anti-slavery campaigner Richard Wardlaw at Congregational Church College and was accepted on probation by London Missionary Society in 1838.
In Jan 1840 he attended more medical classes and learned clinical skills at the British & Foreign Medical School, Charing Cross Hospital, Aldersgate St Dispensary and Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital. In Dec 1840 he graduated Medicine, was licensed by the Faculty of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow, and ordained as a missionary.
David Livingstone (1813–73) was born into a religious Glaswegian working class family. From 10, Livingstone worked in a cotton mill on the Clyde banks, followed by some schooling in the room he shared with his parents and siblings. At 21 he planned to become a missionary, believing medical training and natural history would help his plan.
Science fascinated him. But his devout Christian father rejected a scientific education until persuaded that medicine would help David to do God's work. In 1836 he enrolled at Strathclyde University in Glasgow to study anatomy, chemistry, surgery, pharmacology and practical anatomy. Then he studied at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1838–40, completing clinical learning in surgery, medicine, midwifery and pharmacology. He gained good practical experience with scientific instruments and equipment, vital in Africa!
Once they graduated, the young doctors worked in schools attached to the great hospitals and dispensaries. But having committed to medicine for religious reasons, Livingstone also did courses in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and theology. He attended theology lectures by the anti-slavery campaigner Richard Wardlaw at Congregational Church College and was accepted on probation by London Missionary Society in 1838.
In Jan 1840 he attended more medical classes and learned clinical skills at the British & Foreign Medical School, Charing Cross Hospital, Aldersgate St Dispensary and Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital. In Dec 1840 he graduated Medicine, was licensed by the Faculty of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow, and ordained as a missionary.
Livingstone' medicine chest covered in cow hide
Wellcome Collection
Livingstone set sail for Cape Town in South Africa in 1841, to spread Christianity and to end slavery. He would abolish slavery by exploring the continent and exposing the evil to the rest of the world. His great geographical discoveries including Lakes Ngami and Nyasa (Malawi) and the Victoria Falls are well known, since Livingstone was the first to expose them to the European public.
In Zambia & Malawi, Livingston was blessed for his geographical discoveries and his role in changing British public opinion about slavery. Yet this was only possible because his medical training allowed him to offer treatment to the Africans he sought to convert. And since respecting local healers was vital to Livingstone, he never challenged their practice in front of patients. Mostly he was tolerant of native medical practices, seeking to understand their materials and methods.
It was quinine, from Peruvian cinchona tree bark, that allowed him to survive in Africa. Quinine mixed with jalap and rhubarb became his remedy of choice to remove malaria-related deposits in blood, later marketed by Burroughs Wellcome.
Livingstone's writings also recorded cases of hookworm, elephantiasis, leprosy and yellow fever. He noted that relapsing fever was transmitted by the African sand tick. He showed that the presence of mosquitoes correlated with malaria, although he got their transmission process wrong.
Back in U.K late in 1856, Livingstone received a hero’s welcome with the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society. Livingstone believed the land around the Upper Zambezi was perfect for Europeans and offered huge potential for exploiting natural resources. He set off for a second trip in 1858 to learn more. Alas many other missionary families whom Livingstone had inspired to travel to Africa lacked his medical knowledge and arrived in the Zambezi region woefully ill-prepared. Malaria killed them, including David’s wife Mary (1821–62). The failed Zambezi expedition shocked everyone.
In Zambia & Malawi, Livingston was blessed for his geographical discoveries and his role in changing British public opinion about slavery. Yet this was only possible because his medical training allowed him to offer treatment to the Africans he sought to convert. And since respecting local healers was vital to Livingstone, he never challenged their practice in front of patients. Mostly he was tolerant of native medical practices, seeking to understand their materials and methods.
It was quinine, from Peruvian cinchona tree bark, that allowed him to survive in Africa. Quinine mixed with jalap and rhubarb became his remedy of choice to remove malaria-related deposits in blood, later marketed by Burroughs Wellcome.
Livingstone's writings also recorded cases of hookworm, elephantiasis, leprosy and yellow fever. He noted that relapsing fever was transmitted by the African sand tick. He showed that the presence of mosquitoes correlated with malaria, although he got their transmission process wrong.
Back in U.K late in 1856, Livingstone received a hero’s welcome with the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society. Livingstone believed the land around the Upper Zambezi was perfect for Europeans and offered huge potential for exploiting natural resources. He set off for a second trip in 1858 to learn more. Alas many other missionary families whom Livingstone had inspired to travel to Africa lacked his medical knowledge and arrived in the Zambezi region woefully ill-prepared. Malaria killed them, including David’s wife Mary (1821–62). The failed Zambezi expedition shocked everyone.
To restore his reputation, in 1866 Livingstone left for a third trip for Africa, to discover the source of the Nile. But the British lost him, so in 1871 journalist Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was sent by the New York Herald to find him. This he did, in Nov 1871, greeting him with the famous words: Dr Livingstone, I presume? Stanley failed to persuade him to return home. Ageing, lonely and sick, the explorer returned to the barren swamp lands which he’d believed to be the Nile's source. By May 1873 he was immobilised, so was carried by his African employees to the village to die. The men buried his heart under a tree, embalmed his body, and carried it to a ship going home.
Henry Morton Stanley met David Livingstone,
Nov 1871, Wiki
Dr Livingstone was the missionary who was able to change the medical world, so the Victorian establishment made him the patron saint of the British Empire. It was not until the post-colonial 1970s that historians revisited his story. Tim Jeal’s biography Livingstone (1973) used available notebooks and journals, correcting 100 years of pro-Livingstone propaganda. The book concentrated on Livingstone's concern for Empire rather than local African issues, his relationships with slave-owners, and neglect of his wife and 6 children.
Dr Livingstone was the missionary who was able to change the medical world, so the Victorian establishment made him the patron saint of the British Empire. It was not until the post-colonial 1970s that historians revisited his story. Tim Jeal’s biography Livingstone (1973) used available notebooks and journals, correcting 100 years of pro-Livingstone propaganda. The book concentrated on Livingstone's concern for Empire rather than local African issues, his relationships with slave-owners, and neglect of his wife and 6 children.
Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
But Dr Livingstone’s contributions to medicine were vital. Read Central African Journal of Medicine, July 1965. In 1856 he was asked to report on the causes of illness on the Lower Zambezi. He attributed it to the low-lying nature of the land, polluted expanses of water and decomposing vegetable matter. He reported on a disease characterised by a spreading gangrene of the rectum; he described the earth-eating habits of Northern Rhodesian natives; he wrote a vivid account of slaves’ tropical ulcers; and he noted that Africans living on a high carbohydrate diet suffered from disturbed vision. Livingstone recorded that the tick was the vector for relapsing fever; and he concluded that quinine was effective against malaria, IF given early enough.
The next generation of Scottish physician scientists went on to further identify the causes and transmission of tropical diseases, based on Dr Livingstone's records.
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Dr Livingstone's 3 trips across Africa
The next generation of Scottish physician scientists went on to further identify the causes and transmission of tropical diseases, based on Dr Livingstone's records.
Britannica
By Dr Joe