Some early Nigerian doctors and their contribution to modern medicine in West Africa.

To THE medical historian two roads at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, would excite a good deal of interest. One is the Africanus Horton Road which leads to the Computer Centre, and the other is Sapara Road along which lies the Department of Nursing. Africanus Horton, together with his colleague, William Davies, were the first Nigerians to qualify as medical doctors' when they simultaneously gained the M.R.C.S. of England at King's College, London, in 1858. On the other hand, Oguntola Sapara, who obtained the L.R.C.P. and S. of Edinburgh in 1895, was the last and eighth Nigerian to qualify in medicine in the nineteenth century. Between 1858 and 1895, five other Nigerians graduated in medicine, namely Nathaniel King (1874), Obadiah Johnson (1884), John Randle (1888), Orisadipe Obasa (1891) and Akinsiku Leigh-Sodipe (1892). This paper briefly sketches the life histories of these illustrious nineteenth-century Nigerian doctors and the contributions which they made as pioneer physicians to the practice of modem medicine in West Africa. After completing their studies at King's College, London, William Broughton Davies and James Africanus Beale Horton left England for Scotland where they obtained the M.D.; Davies, in October 1858 by examination from the University of St. Andrews,2 and Horton by a thesis from Edinburgh University in August 1859.3 In September 1859, Davies and Horton were commissioned in the British Army as Staff Assistant Surgeons for services in West Africa. Until their retirement some twenty years later, they served most of their time in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and some time in Sierra Leone. The first Nigerian to practise modem medicine in his own country was Nathaniel King, who graduated from King's College, London, in 1874.4 He thereafter studied in Edinburgh before returning to Lagos to serve as the medical attendant to the agents of the Church Missionary Society. Although Dr. King occasionally acted as locum at the Colonial Hospital of Lagos, the first Nigerian "Colonial surgeons" in that hospital were Obadiah Johnson and John Randle who were both brought into the colonial medical service of Lagos in 1889 by Governor Moloney.5 After he became M.R.C.S. of England at King's College, London, in 1884, Johnson went to Edinburgh and obtained the M.B., C.M. in 1886. While in Scotland, he became acquainted with a fellow Nigerian, John Randle, who had entered Edinburgh University in 1884 and later graduated M.B., C.M. in 1888.