23 Facts About Gilbert Blane

Sir Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, 1st Baronet FRSE FRS MRCP was a Scottish physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy.

Gilbert Blane saw action against both the French and Spanish fleets, and later served as a Commissioner on the Sick and Wounded Board of the Admiralty.

Gilbert Blane was President of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1813.

Gilbert Blane studied medicine at Edinburgh University and Glasgow University before moving to London.

Gilbert Blane was appointed Physician to the Fleet and accompanied Rodney, initially to pursue the Spanish squadron besieging Gibraltar and engaging them at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, and then to the West Indies.

Gilbert Blane did much to improve the health of sailors by improving their diet and enforcing proper sanitary precautions.

Gilbert Blane demanded monthly reports from other ships' surgeons which enabled him to build up a detailed picture of the high levels of sickness that affected the squadron.

Gilbert Blane published a pamphlet for the benefit of ships' surgeons in 1780 entitled On the most effective means for preserving the health of seamen, particularly in the Royal Navy.

Gilbert Blane advocated the use of citrus juice as a preventative and cure for scurvy in the squadron and eventually, as Commissioner of the Sick and Wounded Board, persuaded the Admiralty to go against the theories of the medical establishment and introduce lemon juice as daily addition to the naval diet in 1795.

Gilbert Blane became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1784 and delivered their Croonian lecture in 1788 On the Nature of the Muscles, and on the Theory of Muscular Motion.

In 1795 Gilbert Blane was appointed as Commissioner on the Sick and Wounded Board of the Admiralty; the provision of soap, lemons, adequate ventilation and standardised medical stores have all been attributed to his reforms.

Gilbert Blane was an instrumental advisor to the government in the drafting of the 1799 Quarantine Act.

In 1809 Gilbert Blane provided expert medical advice with regards to the Walcheren expedition.

Gilbert Blane's printed works include Observations on the Diseases of Seamen and Elements of Medical Logic.

Gilbert Blane was an advocate for issuing each Royal Navy sailor with a tourniquet to stem catastrophic bleeding in battle.

Gilbert Blane lived at Burghfield in Berkshire and at Kirkoswald in Ayrshire.

Gilbert Blane was elected a member of the Institute of France in 1826.

Gilbert Blane attended the anatomy course of Prof Alexander Monro Secundus when he studied medicine at Edinburgh University.

Monro later accused Gilbert Blane of plagiarising some of the information in publications, going so far as to write a pamphlet about the incident.

Gilbert Blane died at Sackville Street in the Piccadilly area of London on 26 June 1834.

In 1830 Sir Gilbert Blane established, with the sanction of the Board of the Admiralty, a fund for the encouragement of Naval Medical science, which was vested in the corporation of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of London.

Gilbert Blane himself judged the first award of a pair of medals in 1832; to Dr John Liddell of HMS Asia for his preparations for the 1827 Battle of Navarino and to Dr William Donnelly of HMS Hussar for his examinations of the nature of syphilis and rheumatic fever.

The Gilbert Blane Medal is awarded annually to this day, alternately by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Physicians, upon the recommendation of the Medical Director General.