Douglas Kinchin Adams was educated at Kelvinside Academy and Glasgow University, graduating MA in 1910, BSc in 1912 and MB ChB a year later. Apart from service with the Royal Navy during the first world war, his whole medical career was spent in Glasgow. On demobilization in 1919 he became an assistant to Professor T.K. Monro at Glasgow University, and also an extra dispensary physician at the Western Infirmary.In the same year he took the FRFPS Glasgow, followed by the MRCP in 1926 and rapidly acquired an extensive consultant practice in the West of Scotland. He was elected FRCP in 1937 and became FRCP Glasgow in 1964. He was visiting physician at the Ministry of Pensions hospital at Bellahouston, physician in charge of wards at Stobhill General Hospital, and later visiting physician in charge of wards at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. He held the latter post until he retired from hospital work at the age of 65, when he was appointed honorary consulting physician to the Western Infirmary.

Adams had a brilliant academic career and was outstanding among his colleagues in stature and intellect, acquiring a well merited reputation as a clinical teacher. His dogmatic and very clear opinions appealed greatly to undergraduates. His major interest lay in neurology and in 1921 he was awarded the Bellahouston gold medal for his MD thesis on disseminated sclerosis, a disease in which he took a special interest, undertaking experimental work with monkeys in addition to his clinical observations. He was a man of strong personality and generations of students will remember him with awe, affection and admiration as a teacher. He won the approval of general practitioners by reaching clear decisions and advising clear action. He wrote little, but his few articles were of a high order and always commanded attention.

Sir Gordon Wolstenholme
V Luniewska

[Brit.med.J., 1967, 4, 365]