Christison

Christison, Sir Robert, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., born in 1798, graduated at the University of Edinburgh in 1819, and from the outset of his career devoted himself especially to chemistry, materia medica, and the forensic aspects of his profession. After a course of study under Orfila in Paris, he returned to occupy the chair of medical jurisprudence at Edinburgh, exchanging it in 1832 for that of materia medica, which he held until 1877. His Treatise on Poisons was for a longtime the received text-book in medical schools and courts of law. He gave important evidence on the trial of Palmer in 1856. He was twice President of the College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and was Physician in Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland. In 1871 her Majesty conferred on him a baronetcy, and he died in 1882.