Tweedie , Alexander , 1794-1884 , physician

Alexander Tweedie was born in Edinburgh on 29 August 1794. He was educated at the Royal High School in the city. In 1809 he began his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, and became a pupil of a surgeon to the Royal Infirmary named Wishart, who had distinguished himself for his knowledge and skill in ophthalmic disease. Tweedie graduated MD in 1815. Choosing to specialise in surgical pathology he became a fellow of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in 1817.

Tweedie was elected to one of the two house-surgeon positions at the Royal Infirmary, Robert Liston taking the other. In 1818 Tweedie commenced practice in Edinburgh, with a view to devoting himself to ophthalmic surgery. However in 1820 he moved to London, and took a house in Ely Place. In June 1822 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. In the same year he was appointed assistant physician at the London Fever Hospital. He became physician to the hospital two years later, on the retirement of John Armstrong.

Tweedie was a prolific writer; he devised the Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine (1831-35), in four volumes, which included chapters on the 'Nature and Treatment of Diseases', 'Materia Medica and Therapeutics', and 'Medical Jurisprudence'. Tweedie wrote many articles and was one of the editors. During this time he also jointly authored A Practical Treatise on Cholera (1832), with Charles Gaselee.

In 1836 he was elected physician to the Foundling Hospital. Tweedie became a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society in 1838. He planned and edited the eight-volume Library of Medicine, which appeared in 1840-42. The first five volumes of this work dealt with practical medicine, the sixth with midwifery, and the seventh and eighth were a translation with illustrations of the French physician Jean Cruveilhier's celebrated work on anatomy.

At the Royal College of Physicians he was Consiliarius (adviser to the President), 1853-55, and Lumleian Lecturer in 1858 and 1859. In 1861 he resigned his position as physician from the London Fever Hospital, and became consulting physician and a vice-president of the hospital. The following year he published his Lectures on the Distinctive Characters, Pathology, and Treatment of Continued Fevers (1862). In 1866 he was elected an honorary fellow of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland. During his career he was also examiner in medicine at the University of London.

Tweedie continued to practice until the age of 89, when on 30 May 1884 he died at his home, Bute Lodge, in Twickenham.

Publications:
Clinical Illustrations of Fever, Comprising a Report of the Cases Treated at the London Fever Hospital, 1828-29 (1828)
Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine (1831-35), Sir John Forbes, John Connolly, & Alexander Tweedie (eds.)
A Practical Treatise on Cholera, as it has Appeared in Various Parts of the Metropolis (1832), Alexander Tweedie & Charles Gaselee
Library of Medicine (1840-42)
Lectures on the Distinctive Characters, Pathology, and Treatment of Continued Fevers (1862)