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Alston, Charles, 1683-1760 (physician and botanist)

 Person

Staff Only

Dates

  • Existence: 1683 - 1760

Biography

Charles Alston was born at Eddlewood (now part of Hamilton). He was educated in Glasgow, and then went to Leyden in the Netherlands to study medicine under Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738). There he met Dr. Alexander Monro, primus (1697-1767). Together, on their return to Edinburgh, they revived medical lectures at the University with Alston being appointed Lecturer in Botany and Materia Medica. He was also Superintendent of the Botanic Garden. Alston published various medical papers and an index to the plants in the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. In hisTirocinium Botanicum Edinburgense(1753), he attacked the Linnaean system of classification. Dr. Charles Alston died on 22 November 1760.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Papers of Joseph Black and family

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-16
Scope and Contents 5 boxes of correspondence between himself and a variety of individuals (including James Watt, Prince Paul Dashkov, John Robison) and on a variety of subjects: linen bleaching, use of lime water, assays of ores, civic water supply, mineralogical specimens, absorption of heat etc 1 box of family letters between Black, his father and his brothers Samuel, George and Thomas ...
Dates: 1746-1799
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections

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