Unknown

George Fordyce was born in Aberdeen in 1736. He was educated in Fouran, and the University of Aberdeen, where he was created Master of Arts at the age of 14. He began training in medicine with his uncle, Dr John Fordyce who practiced at Uppingham. He then went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1755 and obtained his Doctor of Medicine in 1758. Fordyce then travelled to London and studied anatomy under Dr William Hunter, and also studied botany at the Chelsea gardens. Fordyce also studied anatomy under Albinus at Leiden in 1759. Upon returning to London, he started a course of lectures on chemistry in 1759, and then added to this courses on materia medica and the practice of physic in 1764. He continued to teach these lectures for nearly thirty years. He became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1765, and was Physician to St Thomas's Hospital from 1770-1802. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1776, and a 'speciali gratia' fellow of the College of Physicians in 1787. He played an important part in compiling the new Pharmacopeia Londinensis, issued in 1788. He was Censor for the Royal College of Physicians in 1787, 1792, and 1800; Gulstonian Lecturer in 1789; and Harveian Orator in 1791. He died in 1802.