William Gregory

William Gregory FRCPE FRSE FCS (25 December 1803 – 24 April 1858) was a Scottish physician and chemist. He studied under and translated some of the works of Justus von Liebig, the German chemist. Gregory also had interests in mesmerism and phrenology. Life Gregory was the fourth son of Isabella MacLeod and James Gregory, and was born at 2 St Andrew Square in Edinburgh, (since demolished). After a medical education he graduated at the University of Edinburgh in 1828, and moved into chemistry, studying at the University of Geissen. In 1831 he introduced a process for making the "muriate of morphia", which came into general use. "Gregory's salt" in terms of modern chemistry was a mixture of morphine hydrochloride and codeine hydrochloride, obtained from opium by use of calcium chloride. In the 1830s he is recorded as living in his father's townhouse with his brothers at 10 Ainslie Place on the Moray Estate in the western New Town of Edinburgh.