John Vetch
John Vetch MD (1783–1835) was a Scottish army surgeon, now known for his early work on trachoma. The variant spelling Veitch of his surname was also used.
Life
He was the eldest son of Robert Vetch of Caponflat, born in East Lothian;[1] James Vetch and Hamilton Vetch were younger brothers.
In 1804 Vetch observed in a battalion of the 52nd Foot at Hythe, Kent, an apparent outbreak of ophthalmia, which over the course of a year spread through most of the soldiers. The unit had been joined by an intake of Irish militia volunteers. Vetch connected his observation of cases of eye disease with the proximity of the Irish militiamen with regiments that had served in Egypt and then returned to Ireland.[2]
Vetch became embroiled in a priority dispute with William Adams, from about 1813.[3] John Peter Grant asked in parliament in 1819 why Adams, who was not a military doctor, was being supported by public money to treat patients who were mainly soldiers. Adams was backed by Lord Palmerston.[4]
Works
- A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye (1820)[5]
Family
Vetch married in 1812 Henrietta Maria Grant, daughter of Sir Alexander Grant, 7th Baronet.[6]
Notes
- ^ "Deaths". Perthshire Courier. 7 May 1835. p. 3.
- ^ Taylor, H. F. Lechmere (1913). "Trachoma". The Public Health Journal. 4 (7): 407–408. ISSN 0319-2660.
- ^ Tiffany, J. M. "Adams [later Rawson], Sir William (1783–1827))". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23200. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Kelly, Catherine (6 October 2015). War and the Militarization of British Army Medicine, 1793–1830. Routledge. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-317-32245-0.
- ^ Vetch, John (1820). A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye. Whittaker.
- ^ The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany. Archibald Constable and Company. 1812. p. 316.