David Douglas Cunningham

David Douglas Cunningham (29 September 1843 – 31 December 1914) was a Scottish doctor and researcher into cholera.^[1]

He was born in 1843, in Prestonpans, the third son of the Rev. William Bruce Cunningham (1806–78) and Cecilia Margaret Douglas (1813–98), daughter of David Douglas, Lord Reston (1769–1819), the heir of Adam Smith.

He attended the Queen Street Institution in Edinburgh, and graduated with Honours in Medicine from Edinburgh University in 1867.

He entered the Indian Medical Service in 1868, and was selected to conduct a special enquiry into cholera by the Secretaries of State for India and for War. He studied for a time in Munich, and arrived in Calcutta in January 1869. In June 1879 he was appointed Professor of Physiology in the Medical College, Calcutta, where he was much engaged in the investigation of cholera. he was appointedSurgeon Major of the Bengal Medical Service by 1888 and Honorary Surgeon to the Viceroy of India. He was selected as the Naturalist for the Tibet Mission of 1886 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1889 ^[2]. In June 1893 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.

He retired due to ill-health in 1898. He was appointed Honorary Physician to George V. Publications: "Some Indian Friends and Acquaintances: A Study of the Ways of Birds and other Animals Frequenting India" (John Murray, 1903); "Plagues and pleasures of life in Bengal" (John Murray, 1907).

He was unmarried, and died on 31 December 1914. See Obituary Notice from the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1915, B. Vol 89 pp. xv-xx.

References

1. ^ "David Douglas Cunningham (1843–1914): a biographical profile". Aerobiologia (Springer) 15 (4): 255–258. Dec. 1999. 
2. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=1&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27cunningham%27%29. Retrieved 26 December 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Cunningham, David Douglas
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Date of birth	29 September 1843
Place of birth
Date of death	31 December 1914
Place of death