Sir William Tennant Gairdner (1824-1907) was Professor of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, 1862-1900 and Glasgow's first Medical Officer of Health.
Gairdner was the son of a famous Edinburgh surgeon and became a pathologist and physician at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1863, a year after becoming professor at the University of Glasgow, he became the city's first (part-time) Medical Officer of Health, in charge of five medical officers and a sanitary department. His most famous innovation was the introduction of ticketing - posting and enforcing a limit on the number of people who could inhabit a house or dwelling. He resigned from this post in 1871 and was succeeded by James Burn Russell.
As an academic, Gairdner was best known for his research in the field of heart and lung disease.
Reference: Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1871
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow University Archive Services
Keywords:
Medical Officers of Health, medicine, pathologists, physicians, professors, surgeons, ticketing, University of Glasgow
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