Scottish physician and writer, born at Musselburgh on the 5th of January 1798. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, taking his degree in 1816. Entering into partnership with a Musselburgh doctor he practised there until his death on the 6th of July 1851. He was a contributor of both prose and verse to the magazines, and particularly, with the signature of “Delta,” to Blackwood’s. A collection of his poetry was edited in 1852 by Thomas Aird. Among his publications were the famous Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor (1828), which shows his gifts as a humorist, Outlines of the Ancient History of Medicine (1831), and Sketch of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851). See also Literary Criticism.
