Colin Chisholm

Colin Chisholm M.D. (1755–1825) was a Scottish surgeon, medical writer and Fellow of the Royal Society. Life Chisholm served as a military surgeon to the British forces in the American War of Independence. After the war was over, he moved to practise medicine in Grenada; he went there in 1783, at the invitation of John Rollo. In 1790 he visited Demerara, purchasing a cotton plantation. He also picked up an eye remedy from the Arawak Indians, based on a genus Bignonia root. In 1793 Chisholm was awarded the M.D. degree by King's College, Aberdeen. In 1795 he was made surgeon-general to the ordnance. Attached to Ralph Abercromby's expedition, he then spent five months in the Virgin Islands in 1797, and was promoted to inspector-general of hospitals. Chisholm retired on half-pay in 1800, moving to his estate in Demerara, where he spent three years growing cotton. Then he migrated back to Europe. He settled in Bristol, where he had a good medical practice.