Richard Poole (physician) explained

Richard Poole (1783–1871) was a Scottish physician,[1] psychiatrist, and phrenologist.[2]

Life

Poole was born in Edinburgh, on 27 November 1781, from an English background.[3] His father Matthew Poole (or Pool) owned a coffee house and hotel at 1 Princes Street and lived above.[4]

By 1800 his father is retired and living at Reid's Close on the Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town.[5]

Poole studied Medicine and graduated M.D. at the University of St Andrews in 1805.[1] He was editor of the New Edinburgh Review, and published articles promoting phrenology in the early 1820s;[6] it existed 1821 to 1823.[7] Poole was also first editor of the Phrenological Journal.[8] Poole joined the editorial staff of the Encyclopædia Edinensis under James Millar.[9]

In 1820 he was living at 23 Broughton Street, a flat in Edinburgh's east end.[10]

From 1820 Poole campaigned for a new infirmary in Edinburgh.[11] In 1825 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.[3] In 1829 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.[12] In 1831 Poole was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as one of its secretaries from 1834-1837.[13]

In the late 1830s he was a pioneer advocate of mental health reform,[14] and in 1838 he became superintendent of the Montrose Asylum, succeeding W. A. F. Browne. He remained at Montrose until 1845. He then kept a private asylum at Middlefield, Aberdeenshire.[3]

Poole died in Coupar Angus on 18 February 1870 aged 88 at the house of his daughter, Mrs Kirkwood.[3] He is buried with his wife in the churchyard of St. Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen.

Works

He is credited with dramas, including "Willie Armstrong" performed in Edinburgh in 1829.[20] [21]

Poole also wrote for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and Encyclopædia Britannica.[3] A list of publications appeared in Scottish Notes and Queries.[22]

Family

An epitaph gives Jane Caird as Poole's wife; it also records his dates as 1781 to 1870.[23] Their children included Samuel Wordsworth Poole, a physician and episcopal clergyman.[24]

Artistic Recognition

A bust of Poole is held at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. It was donated by his daughter, Mrs Sandeman of Glasgow.[25]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Roger Cooter. The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain. registration. 1984. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-22743-8. 314 note 66.
  2. Book: Roger Cooter. The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain. registration. 1984. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-22743-8. 42.
  3. Book: UM-MEDSEARCH Gateway. The Lancet. 1870. J. Onwhyn. 467–8.
  4. Williamson's Edinburgh Directory 1784
  5. Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1800
  6. Book: Hewett Cottrell Watson. Statistics of phrenology: being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands. 1836. 194. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman. Paternoster- Row.
  7. Book: James J. Sack. From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and Orthodoxy in Britain, C. 1760–1832. 1993. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-43266-5. 19.
  8. R. J. Cooter . Phrenology and British alienists, c. 1825–1845. Part I: Converts to a doctrine . Medical History . 20 . 1 . 1–21 (5–6). 1976 . 765647 . 1081688 . 10.1017/s0025727300021761.
  9. [James Millar (physician)|James Millar]
  10. Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1820
  11. Book: Charles W. J. Withers. Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland Since 1520. registration. 2001. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-64202-6. 170.
  12. Book: Minute Books of the Aesculapian Club. Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
  13. Book: Watson Wemyss, Herbert Lindesay. A Record of the Edinburgh Harveian Society. T&A Constable, Edinburgh. 1933. en.
  14. 19190749. 2629162. 2009. M. Barfoot. The 1815 Act to Regulate Madhouses in Scotland: A reinterpretation. Medical History. 53. 1. 57–76 . 10.1017/s0025727300003318.
  15. Book: Richard Poole. An essay on education, applicable to children in general;.. 1825. Waugh and Innes.
  16. Book: Journal of psychological medicine. 1855. 587.
  17. Book: Richard Poole. Andrew Duncan. A Letter to Andrew Duncan, Senior, M.D. ... Regarding the Establishment of a New Infirmary. 1825. Archibald Constable.
  18. Book: The Lancet. 1827. Elsevier. 416–8.
  19. Book: Richard Poole. Memoranda regarding the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary, of Montrose. 1841. J. & D. Nichol.
  20. Book: Ralston Inglis. Ralston Inglis. The Dramatic Writers of Scotland. 1868. G.D. Mackellar. 95–.
  21. Book: Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Edinburgh literary journal: or, Weekly register of criticism and belles lettres. 1829. Ballantyne. 42.
  22. John Bulloch, John Alexander Henderson (editors), Scottish Notes and Queries (1888), p. 40; archive.org.
  23. Alexander Macdonald Munro, Records of Old Aberdeen vol. 2 (1909), p. 248; archive.org.
  24. Book: David M. Bertie. Scottish Episcopal Clergy, 1689–2000. 2000. Continuum International Publishing Group. 978-0-567-08746-1. 403.
  25. Web site: Art Listing.

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