Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan was born in Ayr in 1812 and graduated MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1833. He undertook further study in Berlin, Paris and London before becoming Assistant Surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1845 he began teaching chemistry at Surgeons' Hall. Maclagan published important works on poisons and, in 1862, was appointed Professor of Forensic Medicine and Public Health at the University of Edinburgh. He was instrumental in establishing public health as a subject of postgraduate research and in founding a department for skin diseases at the Royal Infirmary. He was knighted in 1886 and died in Edinburgh in 1900.
