Matthew Charteris

Prof Matthew Charteris FRSE LRCSE (1840 - 1897). He served as Regius Professor of Materia Medica at Glasgow University. He is primarily remembered as author of the standard medical textbook the Practice of Medicine. He was a strong advocate of the influence of good climate upon health.

He was born in Wamphray in Dumfriesshire in 1840, and educated at Wamphray Parish School before winning a place at Edinburgh University to study Medicine.

He graduated MD in 1863. After some further study in “foreign schools” he set up practice in Airdrie before moving to Glasgow. From 1874 he was working in Glasgow Royal Infirmary and from 1876 was Professor of Medicine at Anderson’s College in Glasgow. From 1880 to 1897 he was Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at Glasgow University. He lived nearby at 3 Kirklee Gardens in Kelvinside.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1896, his proposers being Patrick Heron Watson and John Batty Tuke.

After a prolonged illness he died of influenza in July 1897 in Glasgow.

His photograph is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

• The Students Guide to the Practice of Medicine (1881)
• Practice of Medicine (1888 plus further editions)

Matthew was the younger brother of Archibald Charteris, theologian and founder of the Woman’s Guild.

Matthew was married to Elizabeth Greer, with three sons: Archibald Hamilton Charteris (1874-1940) Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney; Francis Charteris (1875-1964) Professor of Materia Medica at St Andrews University; and John Charteris (1877-1946) a senior intelligence officer in the First World War.