Robert Macnish

Born in Glasgow on February 15, 1802, Robert Macnish trained in medicine at the University of Glasgow and became a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He came from a family of doctors, but he also built a reputation as a writer with wide interests beyond medicine.

While working in north Scotland and later studying further in Paris, he began publishing stories, essays, and poems. He went on to write for Blackwood's Magazine and became especially known for books such as The Anatomy of Drunkenness, The Philosophy of Sleep, Book of Aphorisms, and Introduction to Phrenology. His writing often brought together science, philosophy, and a flair for the strange and memorable.

Macnish's work was widely read in his lifetime and was translated into French and German, with editions also appearing in the United States. He died in Glasgow on January 16, 1837, at just 34, after an illness that developed from influenza into typhus fever.