Alexander Fiddes
| Alexander Fiddes MD | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Fiddes, Alexander.jpg | |||||||||
| Died | 1870 | ||||||||
| Residence | Kingston, Jamaica | ||||||||
| Occupation | medical | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
proposed 1866.02.06 as local secretary
1867.04.16 Mr S. Edwin Collingwood moved and Mr Blake seconded that the name of Dr Fiddes of Jamaica be removed from the list of Local Secretaries. Discussion ensuing the motion was withdrawn, whereupon it was resolved that Dr Fiddes be communicated with respecting the duties that attach to that office.
Notes From Elsewhere
ALEXANDER FIDDES, F.R.C.S.
Christmas-day must have been a sad one in Kingston, Jamaica, Probably no resident in that city, or in the island, was so universally esteemed for services at once signal in their utility, and impartial and ungrudging in their bestowal; probably none could have been less easily spared than Alexander Fiddes, Esq., F.R.C.S. Edin., for many years the head of the profession in our chief West Indian dependency. On Friday, the 24th December, 1869. he felt ill, but forbore to consult his professional brethren. Early on the following day he sent for Dr. Dunn, who, in conjunction with Dr. Campbell, saw and prescribed for him; but in vain. He died a few hours after in a convulsive seizure, about noon. The news of his death came with a heavy shock on his fellow-citizens, numbers of whom, particularly among the poor, had literally besieged his house with anxious inquiries since the first tidings of his illness. From the humblest to the highest members of the community his loss is deplored with a poignancy that is rarely felt but in domestic bereavments, and in every household throughout the island regret has been followed by despair as to finding a successor who shall combine, with all that is valuable in the physician, so much that is lovable in the friend and estimable in the man.
Mr. Fiddes pursued his medical studies at Edinburgh where he took his diploma as Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1841. In the following year w« find him in Jamaica, and responding to the consentient voice of the inhabitants of its chief town to take charge of the Dispensary just established to repel the ravages of scarlet fever. In this position he worked with an energy and skill which more than justified the confidence thus early reposed in him, and in a few years he rose to be the most widely and respectably employed practitioner in the island, he earned the highest reputation for ingenuity, judgment, and untiring devotion in his practice, which was pursued, without distinction of person, among the rich, who esteemed him for his intelligence and geniality, and among the poor, who almost worshipped him for his gratuitous attendance, and his charitable — even pecuniary — relief. He performed with success the operation of excision of the tongue, and his treatment of the febrile disorders endemic in the island (though injudiciously blazoned forth by his friends) was more frequently rewarded by favourable results than that of any former practitioner. In 1857 he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; and late in his career he paid a visit to his native country. He had almost to effect his escape from the island, to run a blockade of importunities, entreaties, and addresses, against his going, or (if he went) delaying his return. Return he did, leaving the most pleasurable impressions behind him in London and Edinburgh, and again rebuckled to his duties, now greater than ever, in Kingston and the surrounding districts. He was a public spirited and active citizen, as well as a most accomplished physician and surgeon; and, it will be remembered, he gave important evidence touching the outbreak of Black Fenianism in Morant Bay. It is in contemplation, we believe, to erect a monument to him on the Parade at Kingston, to signalise to posterity the numerous gifts and virtues of which the present generation so richly reaped the benefit. Lancet.
Publications
External Publications
The Letters of Mr. Alexander Fiddes ... Considered and Refuted ... Together with Documentary Letters and Papers, Tending to Expose a Professional Conspiracy, and to Afford the Public in the Colonies, and in Great Britain, Correct Judgment as to the Controversy Now Existing on Hospital Matters
Lewis Quier Bowerbank, Alexander FIDDES
Observations on Tubercular and Anaesthetic Leprosy in Jamaica
Alexander Fiddes