title: Alexander Wood (1725-1807): deacon of the incorporation of surgeons, surgeon-in-ordinary, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and 'doctor of mirth'.
abstract: This account of the Edinburgh surgeon, Alexander Wood (1725-1807), brings together information from a number of sources including the diaries of his friend and patient, James Boswell, and anecdotes recorded by James Paterson who wrote the biographical notes for Kay's Portraits. Wood was a fashionable eccentric who took a sheep and raven on his home visits and he was as popular with the poor and working classes as he was with more well-to-do patients. He was a Deacon of the Incorporation of Surgeons and one of the first Surgeons-in-Ordinary at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. His clinical skills were admired by patients and colleagues alike and he did much to enrich the life of the Edinburgh medical fraternity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds.
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rix
mesh_terms: D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D012606:Scotland