Ernest Muir (doctor)

Ernest Muir FRCS, CIE, CMG (17 June 1880 – 1 November 1974) was a Scottish medical missionary and educator in British-controlled India and Nigeria most noted for his work with Hansen's disease (leprosy).

[1] In 1920, Leonard Rogers invited him to come to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to study Hansen's disease at its School of Tropical Medicine,[1] beginning with an annual grant of Rs 20,000.

[3] Muir advocated for the use of the traditional[4] Ayurvedic treatment[5] of hydnocarpus oil from the chaulmoogra tree[6][7] and counterirritants[8] to treat Hansen's disease.

[3] He began travelling to speak on Hansen's disease in 1925, visiting Hong Kong, Mainland China, Japan, Canada, and the United States.

[12] Muir finally left India in 1936[13] and the same year was sponsored by the Leonard Wood Memorial to tour the United States, speaking before the American Society of Tropical Medicine in Baltimore and visiting the Carville Leprosarium in Louisiana and the leprology researchers at George Washington, Harvard, Rochester, Vanderbilt, and Western Reserve universities.