Skip to main content

Currie, James, 1756-1805 (physician)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1756 - 1805

Biography

James Currie, the son of James Currie and his wife Jean Boyd, was born in Dumfriesshire on 31 May 1756. On the advice of his father, James Currie was apprenticed in 1771 to a Glasgow merchant's firm in Virginia. Currie spent five difficult years in America before returning to Edinburgh to study medicine. He contracted rheumatic fever in the first year of his medical studies; the disease troubled him for the rest of his life. He established a successful medical practice in Liverpool and was particularly interested in the use of cold water treatments, publishing a number of tracts on the treatment of fevers. He became a fellow of the London Medical Society and was a founding member of the Liverpool Literary Society. He also published pamphlets in support of the abolition of slavery and edited an anthology of the works of Robert Burns. He died in Devon on 31 August 1805 at the age of 49.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

 Item

Letter of James Currie to Erasmus Darwin, Nov. 1796

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.9750/43
Scope and Contents From the Fonds:

Comprises single items or small collections, chiefly correspondence, donated to or purchased by Cambridge University Library. Together with a number of items and fragments found in Cambridge University Library books and bindings.

Dates: Nov. 1796
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).