Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
James Niven
Summary
James Niven (12 August 1851 – 30 September 1925) was a Scottish physician, perhaps best known for his work during the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918 as Manchester's Medical Officer of Health. He held that position for 28 years (1894–1922), until he retired. He had previously been Oldham's Medical Officer of Health. He lectured in Public Health in Manchester. He died by suicide in 1925.
A son of Charles Niven, James was born in Peterhead on 12 August 1851. He graduated with a Scottish MA from the University of Aberdeen and from 1870 studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, gaining his BA in 1874 as 8th Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos and becoming a fellow at Queens'. His intention was to study engineering but he switched to the study of medicine after gaining his Cambridge MA in 1877.
Niven trained in medicine at St Thomas' Hospital in London. He qualified in 1880, as MB, and worked first for the Metropolitan Asylums Board, being appointed an Assistant Medical Officer at the Deptford fever and smallpox hospital. It was not long before he left that post to take up a private practice in Manchester.
In 1886, Niven left private practice after four years and was appointed as Medical Officer of Health for Oldham, a post that he held until 1894. He was simultaneously appointed as Medical Superintendent at Westhulme Hospital. During that time, he campaigned to have tuberculosis classed as a notifiable disease by the town's council, obtaining the support of local medical practitioners but failing in his pioneering aim. Doctors and physicians in Oldham raised enough money to send Niven to Berlin to study with Robert Koch, who had discovered the TB bacillus in 1882, thereby proving that the disease was not caused by "bad air" as was generally believed in accordance with the prevalent miasma theory. He also used Koch's treatment at the Oldham General Infirmary on his return, as well as dealing with smallpox, typhus, measles, scarlet fever and whooping cough. An Oldham Chronicle obituary of 1925 said: "Dr Niven also showed an interest in child welfare well in advance of his time.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.