Mar 242017
Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL
William Gregory, the discoverer of morphine, was professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1844 till his death in 1858. In 1831, while teaching as an ‘extra-academical lecturer’ in chemistry in Edinburgh, he discovered a method of isolating morphine hydrochloride for use in controlling pain. It became commercially available in 1833, manufactured by the Edinburgh pharmaceutical company of John Macfarlane and Rennie Brown. Gregory’s laboratories during his time as a professor at the University were located in the south-west corner of the Old College courtyard, in what is now the Talbot Rice Art Gallery.
Portrait of William Gregory (c.1850).
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