Scottish physician influenced pasteurisation of milk and bonding of whisky
Dr Thomas Goodall NasmythFRSE DL JP DPH (28 February 1855 – 16 January 1937) was a Scottish physician, medical author and historian. He served as Medical Officer of Health for Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire. He was one of the first (1899) to link
Bovine Tuberculosis to the human form, later leading to the widespread use of pasteurisation of milk. He was influential in the decision to bond whisky for 3 years[1]
Life
He was born in
Auchterderran in
Fife on 28 February 1855 the son of Isabella Chisholm and her husband, James A. Nasmyth.[2] who owned the Fife Coal Company. He graduated
MB ChB from the
University of Edinburgh in 1876. In 1886 he gained a Diploma in Public Health (DPH) from the
University of Cambridge. He gained his DSc from the University of Edinburgh in 1887[3]
In 1916 he was living at 27 Palmerston Place in Edinburgh's West End and also noted as having property, Torrie House in Newmills, Fife.[8] He retired to
Edinburgh and died at his home, Canaan Lodge [9] on 16 January 1937. He was cremated at
Warriston Crematorium, his ashes being buried in
Dean Cemetery. He was an early subscriber to the development of an Edinburgh Crematorium.[10] The grave lies on the main east–west path of the first northern extension, slightly to the south-west of the central obelisk. He is buried with his wife and daughter Jenny McKillop (1883-1917) and Violet Nicol Nasmyth née Denny (1859-1941).
Publications
Hints about the Prevention of Consumption (1899)
Milk-borne Diseases (1899)
Report on Methods of Sewage Purification (1900)
The Kingdom: Its Characteristics and Distinguished Sons (1922) – A history of
Fife
Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary Conditions of the County of Fife
A Manual of Public Health
The Geographical Distribution of Cancer in Scotland
^Nasmyth, Thomas Goodall (1887). Organic matter and micro-organisms in drinking water with the results of an enquiry into Koch's method of analysis (Thesis). University of Edinburgh.
hdl:
1842/24193.