Glasgow's Doctor : James Burn Russell, Moh, 1837-1904 by Edna Robertson - 1998

Tuckwell Press, 1998. 1st Edition . Soft cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 5.5" X 8.5. P/B. 248 pages, condition is Very Good, minor edge wear. As a young man James Burn Russell was nearly lost at sea while assisting Lord Kelvin's transatlantic cable-laying operations. His later life contained dramas of a different kind. As Glasgow's first full-time Medical Officer of Health he was constantly embroiled in controversy. Although extremely shy, he was outspoken on the subject of living conditions in the city's Victorian slums, which were among the worst in Europe. He fought slum landlords, irresponsible industrialists, reactionary town councillors, and public apathy. He was constantly out and about in the poorest areas of the city and his vivid accounts of what he saw opened the eyes of middle class Glaswegians to living conditions in their own city. His impact on Glasgow was huge. A key figure in Glasgow's late-Victorian flowering of municipal enterprise and civic values, James Hum Russell was internationally renowned in his day. But not even the Victorian public was aware of the tragedy that dogged the private life of this reserved, enigmatic, but endearing man.