William Gairdner, M.D., was a son of Robert Gairdner, esq., of Mount Charles, in Ayrshire, a captain in the Bengal artillery, and was born 11th November, 1793. He received his elementary education at the Ayr academy; entered as a medical student at Edinburgh in 1810, and graduated doctor of medicine there 13th September, 1813 (D.M.I. de Dysenteria). He continued his studies for some time longer at the London hospitals, and then passed some years as domestic and travelling physician to persons of rank and station.

He settled as a physician in London in 1822, and was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians 24th March, 1823. Dr. Gairdner quitted the practice of his profession only a short time before his death. He passed the winter with his family in the south of France, and was on his way from Mentone to Lausanne, when he was suddenly seized with illness at Avignon, and died there after a few days’ illness, on the 28th April, 1867, aged seventy-three.

Dr. Gairdner was the author of—
An Essay on the Effects of Iodine on the Human Constitution. 8vo. Lond. 1824.
On Gout; its History, its Causes, and its Cure. 12mo. Lond. 1849.

William Munk