Medical Pioneer. He was born in Keswick, Cumberland, England, but his medical education took him to London, Paris, and Edinburgh. After passing the Royal College of Surgeons examinations in 1817, he went into private practice. He soon tired of being a general practitioner, and after obtaining a Medical Degree from the University of Erlanger in Germany, focused on obstetrics and pediatrics. In 1824, while practicing in London, he was approached by an agent of former President Thomas Jefferson, and offered a spot on the faculty of Jefferson's University of Virginia. The opportunity to establish himself academically in America proved to be a great lure to him, and he agreed to go. He arrived in Virginia in 1825, and joined the university as chair of anatomy, physiology, materia medica, and medical jurisprudence. He was one of only seven professors on staff. However, Jefferson's contract stipulated that he practice medicine only as a consultant, so in effect he became America's first full-time medical professor. In his tenure he began the practice of including lectures on the history of medicine, and he sought out medical texts from Europe to be translated for American students. He taught at the university for nine years. Soon after he began his career in America, he became the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, administering to the former President until his dying day. When Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, Doctor Dunglison was there at his side, as one of three people to record his last words. His reputation was such that he would go on to administer to Presidents James Madison, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson. He treated former President Madison only a few weeks before the "Father of the Constitution" died. In 1832 he produced his most influential work in the text Human Physiology, which was the first comprehensive treatise on physiology by an American author. The scope, popularity and renown of the work brought to Doctor Dunglison the sobriquet of "Father of American Physiology". In 1833 he was offered the chair of materia medica and medical jurisprudence at the University of Maryland, which he accepted. As professor of hygiene there, he espoused preventative medicine and comprehensive public health, the first professor to advocate it. He produced a book on hygiene draw from his lectures that became the first formal public health and hygiene textbook. In 1836 resigned the position, came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and accepted the Chair of Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at Jefferson Medical College. In 1854 he became Dean of the medical school, serving until his retirement in 1868. He was not limited to pure medicine – he advocated for the poor and insane, and on educating the blind. He edited with William Chapin the first Dictionary for the Blind, and worked in the 1850s to bring a raised type of printing to allow the blind to read after visiting a number of blind education schools in Europe. In 1844, Doctor Dunglison was elected to the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind. He subsequently served fifteen years on the Committee of Instruction and was elected vice-president in 1862. He died in Philadelphia in 1869.