Andrew Stewart (died 1838), minister of Bolton in East Lothian, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Alexander Stewart, tenth lord Blantyre, was born at Bolton on 28 August 1813.
Alexander was educated in the Faculty of Arts of the university of Glasgow, and became a good Greek scholar.
He published in 1849 ‘Sanitary Economics,’ and in 1854 (‘Medical Times and Gazette’) a paper on cholera, and several other papers, but his title to recollection rests upon ‘Some Considerations on the Nature and Pathology of Typhus and Typhoid Fever applied to the Solution of the Question of the Identity or Non-Identity of the two Diseases,’ read before the Parisian Medical Society on 16 and 23 April 1840.
From the time of Antonius de Haen (1760), a discussion had continued among physicians on the distinction of certain fevers.
Stewart's experience in the post-mortem room at Glasgow led him to believe firmly in the distinction between the two fevers, and in this essay he states clearly, from his own observation of cases, their differences in origin, cause, course, symptoms, and anatomical lesions, while his remarks against the use of purgatives in typhoid fever entitle him to further distinction as one who has contributed to the saving of many lives by pointing out the danger of what had been a prevalent method of treatment.
Sir William Jenner's celebrated papers in 1849, 1850, and 1853 are written on the same lines as Stewart's; but as they were based on a far more extended field of personal observation they had more public effect, and are justly regarded as having finally settled the question.