Geriatrics one hundred years ago.

JUST OVER A century ago, Daniel Maclachlan, Physician to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, published his book The Diseases and Infirmities of Advanced Life. This was based on his extensive experience among the Chelsea pensioners as well as patients seen in private practice. He begins by stating 'the diseases of advanced and declining life have been comparatively neglected ... they have nowhere received the attention they deserve'. The volume of 718 pages is full both of original observations and also copious quotations from the literature of the period. It is superior in many ways to the two books written by his successors at Chelsea. The clinical descriptions are more vivid than those of Lipscombe (1932), while the references are more extensive than those ofmy own little work composed under wartime conditions (1940-44). Maclachlan had been born at Glasgow in 1807, being educated at the local grammar school. He qualified with the Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh during 1827. Joining the army shortly afterwards, he volunteered for service as Hospital Assistant on the West Coast of Africa. A year later he was transferred to be Assistant Surgeon to the 79th Highland Regiment. In 1840, he was appointed Physician and Surgeon of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where he served for twenty-three years, until repeated attacks of respiratory infection caused-him to retire at the age of fifty-six. He was known professionally as able, well-informed, but not brilliant. The officers at the Royal Hospital noted that 'he persisted in the performance of his duties in spite of great suffering and consequent exhaustion'. Apart from his celebrated book, he wrote relatively little-the chief contribution being the report of a case with 199