John Brown Buist, M.D.(Edin.), B.Sc.(Edin.), F.R.C.P.Ed., F.R.S.Ed. (1846-1915) : an acknowledgment of his early contributions to the bacteriology of variola and vaccinia / by T.J. Mackie and C.E. van Rooyen.

  • Mackie, T. J. (Thomas Jones), 1888-1955.
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John Brown Buist, M.D.(Edin.), B.Sc.(Edin.), F.R.C.P.Ed., F.R.S.Ed. (1846-1915) : an acknowledgment of his early contributions to the bacteriology of variola and vaccinia / by T.J. Mackie and C.E. van Rooyen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    M.D. (Edin.), B.Sc. (Edin.), F.R.C.P.Ed., F.R.S.Ed. (1846-1915). An Acknowledgment of his Early Contributions to the Bacteriology of Variola and Vaccinia. By T. J. MACKIE, Professor of Bacteriology, University of Edinburgh, and C. E. VAN ROOYEN, Halley-Stewart Research Fellow and Lecturer in Bacteriology, University of Edinburgh. In his article on “ Virus Bodies,” published in this number of the Edinburgh Medical Journal, Dr Mervyn Gordon records the sequence of discoveries which have defined the causal agent of variola and vaccinia as a specific micro-organism demonstrable by microscopic methods and identifiable by serological reactions. In the field of research into the aetiology of these infections Gordon occupies a distinguished position, and his recognition of the discovery of the virus bodies of variola and vaccinia by John Buist of Edinburgh may rightly be accepted as authoritative. It is of particular interest that this discovery, apparently overlooked for fifty years, only came to light through Gordon’s securing from a London bookseller a copy of Buist’s book, Vaccinia and Variola, published in 1887. In this work, as pointed out by Gordon, virus bodies of both variola and vaccinia are accurately described and beautifully illustrated by coloured plates. Buist’s mono¬ graph leaves us also in no doubt that he observed the structures now generally accepted as the “ elementary bodies ” of these infections and that he identified them as the causative virus. This book was preceded by a paper on the subject in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1886. Buist’s discovery can, therefore, be dated back to this year though it may in fact have been even earlier. It is only appropriate that some reference should now be made to the life and work of Buist along with the article which puts forward his claim to an important discovery.