JOHN CHRISTIE
McVAIL
THE County Medical Officer for Stirlingshire and
Dunbartonshire was born at Kilmarnock, 22nd October, 1849, and received his
professional education at Anderson's College and Glasgow University. He
practised medicine in Kilmarnock from 1873 to 1891, and held the appointments of
Infirmary Physician, Medical Officer of Health, and Crown Examiner in
medico-legal cases for North Ayrshire. He received his present appointment in
1891. He has held the position of Examiner in Medical Jurisprudence and Public
Health to the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Dr. McVail is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and
has been President of the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health and
of the Sanitary Association of Scotland. He was lately a member of Council of
the British Medical Association, and of the Epidemiological Society, London. He
is author of "Vaccination Vindicated," and of numerous writings on public health
subjects, especially on smallpox and vaccination, contributed to Stevenson &
Murphy's Hygiene and the Transactions of the learned societies of which he is a
member ; also of the "Ethics of Preventive Medicine," published in Public Health
in 1901, as well as of numerous county health reports. He was Lane Lecturer to
Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, in 1906, his subject being "The
Prevention of Infectious Diseases," and the lectures have been published by
MacMillan. And recently he was appointed by Government to investigate the Poor
Law system of England, with reference to methods of medical relief. In April,
1008, Glasgow University conferred upon Dr. McVail the honorary degree of LL.D.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)