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110:, and held the post till his death, twenty-seven years later. During his tenure of office the institution doubled in size, and he attracted a succession of gifted assistant physicians. From 1853 and up until a few years before his death, he lectured on insanity for medical students in the wards of the asylum. A number of his lectures (some of the very earliest of their kind ever given in Britain) have been collected and are today held within the archives of the
168:. Skae's classification is founded upon what he called the 'Natural History of Insanity.' Instead of separating the insane into groups of maniacs, melancholiacs, and so on, Skae proposed that classification should be based on the underlying bodily condition of the patient—puerperal mania, traumatic mania, and so on. Skae's classification was not generally adopted. His definition of insanity was "a disease of the brain affecting the mind".
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Skae published papers on 'The
Treatment of Dipsomaniacs' in 1858, and on 'The Legal Relations of Insanity' (1861 and 1867). His major work was the 'Classification of the Various Forms of Insanity on a Rational and Practical Basis.' He made this topic the subject of an address which he delivered at
164:, on the occasion of his occupying the presidential chair of the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums (9 July 1863); and he further developed it in the Morisonian lectures on insanity, 1873. These lectures were completed and published posthumously by his pupil and successor,
47:(5 July 1814 – 18 April 1873) was a Scottish physician specialising in psychological medicine. He has been described as the founder of the Edinburgh School of Psychiatry and several of his assistants and pupils went on to become leading psychiatrists throughout the British Isles.
67:. At sixteen years of age he left St Andrews to take up a post as a clerk in a lawyer's office in Edinburgh. Shortly thereafter he enrolled as a medical student and in 1835 he qualified as a Licentiate of the
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his special study, approaching it from the point of view of a student of nervous and mental physiology. In 1846 he obtained the appointment of physician superintendent of the Royal
Edinburgh Asylum at
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and his lectures on medical jurisprudence soon became popular. After delivering fourteen courses of lectures, he began to teach anatomy at the
Extramural School where his colleagues included
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the son of David Skae, an architect and builder, and his wife, Helen
Lothian. Both parents died whilst David was a child. He was educated by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Lothian, at
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List of fellows of the Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh [electronic resource] : from the year 1581 to 31st December 1873
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71:(LRCSEd). In the following year he was awarded Fellowship of the College (FRCSEd). In 1836 he began to teach in the
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His children included Dr
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63:. At the age of fourteen Skae began his university career, studying liberal arts at the
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in south
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on insanity at the RCPE; but he did not live to complete his term of office.
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187:"David Skae, M.D., F.r.c.s: Founder of the Edinburgh School of Psychiatry"
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132:, of oesophageal cancer, on 18 April of that year. He is buried in
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He had married Sarah
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Meanwhile in 1836 Skae filled the office of surgeon at the
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He died at his official residence at
Tipperlinn House in
262:Beveridge, Allan (2004). "David Skae (1814–1873)".
241:Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1814-15
328:. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
295:Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1874).
114:. From 1870 he was assisted by Dr (later Sir)
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268:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
376:. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
301:. Edinburgh : Printed by George Robb.
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55:David Skae was born at 5 Elder Street in
112:Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
33:The grave of David Skae, Grange Cemetery
265:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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98:, and wrote several original papers on
73:Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine
400:Alumni of the University of St Andrews
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69:Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
415:19th-century Scottish medical doctors
91:awarded him a Doctorate of Medicine.
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312:Urquhart, Alexander Reid (1897).
373:Dictionary of National Biography
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325:Dictionary of National Biography
410:Heads of psychiatric hospitals
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425:19th-century Scottish writers
282:UK public library membership
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203:10.1017/s002572730003012x
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121:In 1873 he was nominated
405:Scottish medical writers
65:University of St Andrews
420:Scottish psychiatrists
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130:Morningside, Edinburgh
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166:Thomas Smith Clouston
89:St Andrews University
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185:Fish, Frank (1965).
367:"Skae, David"
315:"Skae, David"
123:Morisonian lecturer
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351:Psychiatry portal
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320:Lee, Sidney
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87:. In 1842,
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172:References
102:. He made
61:St Andrews
38:David Skae
25:David Skae
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104:insanity
100:syphilis
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318:. In
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