Matthew Charteris


Matthew Charteris FRSE LRCSE. He was Regius Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Glasgow. He known as the author of the standard medical textbook the Practice of Medicine. He was an advocate of the influence of good climate upon health.

Life

Charteris was born in Wamphray in Dumfriesshire in 1840. He was educated at Wamphray Parish School before winning a place at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine.
He graduated with an MD in 1863. After some further study in “foreign schools” he set up practice in Airdrie before moving to Glasgow. From 1874 he worked at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and from 1876 was Professor of Medicine at Anderson's College in Glasgow. From 1880 to 1897 he was Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the University of Glasgow. He lived nearby at 3 Kirklee Gardens in Kelvinside.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1896, his proposers being Patrick Heron Watson and John Batty Tuke.
After a prolonged illness he died of influenza in July 1897 in Glasgow.

Artistic recognition

His photograph is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Publications

Charteris was the younger brother of Archibald Charteris, theologian and founder of the Woman's Guild.
He was married to Elizabeth Greer, and together they had three sons: Archibald Hamilton Charteris Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney; Francis Charteris Professor of Materia Medica at the University of St Andrews; and John Charteris a senior intelligence officer in World War I.