Francis Home

Francis Home FRSE FRCPE (17 November 1719 in Eccles, Berwickshire – 15 February 1813) was a Scottish physician, and the first Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Edinburgh,[1] known to make the first attempt to vaccinate against measles, in 1758.

[5] From 1742 to 1748 he served as surgeon of dragoons in Flanders in the Seven Years' War,[2] studying at Leyden University during the intervals of the campaigns.

He held this post till 1798,[2] and as one of the clinical professors of medicine at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary experimented on the actions of several novel drugs, which he introduced into practice.

His 1756 essay "Experiments on Bleaching", which won a gold medal was awarded by the trustees for the improvement of manufactures in North Britain, was translated into French and German.

Home was also the first to call attention to croup as a distinct disease in his tractate on the subject, which Dr. Squire, in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' 1866, i.