in two versions, Latin and English. His Latin epitaph on Graham of Claverhouse, viscount Dundee, was translated by Dryden (Works, ed. Scott, xi. 114), and Scott remarks regarding it that ‘it will hardly be disputed that the original is much superior to the translation, though the last be written by Dryden.’
Pitcairne died at Edinburgh on 20 Oct. 1713, and was buried in the Greyfriars churchyard, where there is a monument with a Latin inscription to his memory. By his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Colonel James Hay of Pitfour, he had a son and daughter, who died in infancy. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Archibald Stevenson, he had one son and four daughters. The son, before attaining his majority, engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and was confined in the Tower; but, through the intercession of Dr. Mead with Walpole, he obtained his release. He then entered the Dutch service, but died soon afterwards. The second daughter, Jane, married Alexander, fifth earl of Kellie.
Pitcairne was one of the most celebrated physicians of his time, and, on the whole, his merits equalled his reputation. He was a very successful practitioner, and acquired a large income, but spent his money freely, a considerable part of it in charity, and died poor. The statements as to his indulgence in drink are probably exaggerated, his convivial habits being at variance with the puritanism of the period. He succeeded in 1694 in persuading the town council to agree to his offer to wait without fee on the sick poor who were without relatives, on condition that he afterwards obtained their bodies for dissection. Although too much influenced by mechanical theories, he had no inconsiderable share in promoting the advancement of medical science, the popularity of his publications being enhanced by his literary style and power of clear exposition. His library, said to have been one of the best private collections of the period, was purchased after his death by the emperor of Russia. His portrait, by Medina, is in the College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. It has been engraved by Strange (cf. Bromley).
An English translation of Pitcairne's medical dissertations appeared in London in 1717, under the title ‘The whole Works of Dr. Archibald Pitcairne, published by himself; wherein are discovered the true Foundation and Principles of the Art of Physics, with Cases and Observations upon most Distempers and Medicines. Done from the Latin original by George Sewel, M.D., and J. S. Desaguliers, LL.D. and F.R.S., with some Additions.’ The same year there was also published at London ‘Archibaldi Pitcarnii, medici celeberrimi Scoto-Britanni, Elementa Medicinæ Physico-Mathematica, libris duobus, quorum prior Theoriam posterior Praxin exhibet’ (compiled from notes taken by his pupils). An edition was published at the Hague in 1718, and at Leyden in 1737, and an English translation at London in 1718 and 1727. A collection of all his Latin works, with the addition of a few poems, appeared under the title ‘Archibaldi Pitcarnii Opera omnia Medica,’ Venice, 1733; Leyden, 1737. An ‘Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Pitcairne,’ by Charles Webster, M.D., was published at Edinburgh in 1781.
[Webster's Account of Life and Writings, 1781; Wodrow's Analecta; Lauder of Fountainhall's Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club); Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman; Tytler's Life of Lord Kames; Cheyne's Essay of Health, 1724, pref. p. ii.; Biographia Britannica; Irving's Scottish Writers; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen.]
PITCARNE, ALEXANDER (1622?–1695), Scottish presbyterian divine, was son of Alexander Pitcarne, minister of Tannadice, Forfarshire. The family was subjected to much loss and suffering during the civil wars, and the father's petition for redress lay before the Scottish parliament from 1641 to 1661, when it was ‘recomendit’ to the privy council (Acts of Parl. vols. v. vii.). Alexander entered St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews, in November 1639, matriculated in February 1640 (Univ. Matric. Books), was laureated M.A. in 1643, became regent in February 1648, and so continued till December 1656, when he was ordained minister of Dron, Perthshire. Although he was deprived by acts of parliament and of privy council in 1662, Robert Leighton, bishop of Dunblane, within whose diocese Dron was included, so highly respected his character, learning, and scruples, that Pitcarne was permitted to continue to discharge his ministerial duties (Register of the Diocesan Synod of Dunblane). But after Ramsay had succeeded Leighton as bishop, Pitcarne was charged at a synodical meeting held at Dunblane on 8 Oct. 1678 with having ‘begun of late to doe things verie disorderlie,’ in admitting people of other parishes to church ordinances. His case was referred to the moderator of his presbytery, who on 8 April 1679 reported that ‘Mr. Pitcairne had verie thankfully entertained the connivance and kindness he had met with,’ the matter of offence being ‘done mostly without his knowledge’ (ib.) The imposition of the test in 1681
