1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abercrombie, John

ABERCROMBIE, JOHN (1780–1844), Scottish physician, was the son of the Rev. George Abercrombie of Aberdeen, where he was born on the 10th of October 1780. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and after graduating as M.D. in 1803 he settled down to practise in that city, where he soon attained a leading position. From 1816 he published various papers in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which formed the basis of his Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord, and of his Researches on the Diseases of the Intestinal Canal, Liver and other Viscera of the Abdomen, both published in 1828. He also found time for philosophical speculations, and in 1830 he published his Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers of Man and the Investigation of Truth, which was followed in 1833 by a sequel, The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings. Both works, though showing little originality of thought, achieved wide popularity. He died at Edinburgh on the 14th of November 1844.