Francis Mitchell Caird

Francis Mitchell Caird FRCSEd (8 August 1853 – 2 November 1926) was a Scottish surgeon who was an early advocate of Listerian antisepsis and then asepsis.

[1][2] He was born on 8 August 1853 in Edinburgh in 1853 the son of Margaret (née Dickson) and Francis Garden Caird who lived at 22 Gayfield Square at the top of Leith Walk.

While an undergraduate he served as a dresser on Joseph Lister's' wards at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary[6] This experience was to have a major influence on his future career and life's work.

[2] He then made the first of what became a series of regular visits to surgical centres in Europe, studying under the leading German pathologist Friedrich von Recklinghausen in Strasbourg.

[4] Together with his lifelong friend and colleague C W Cathcart, he wrote A Surgical Handbook for the Use of Students, Practitioners, etc, which was illustrated with many of his own drawings.

[7] His use of rigorous aseptic technique and visits to continental surgeons like Jan Mikulicz-Radeckin at what was then the University of Breslau and Theodor Billroth in Vienna allowed him to successfully pioneer intestinal surgery in Scotland.

[8] He was awarded the Liston Victoria Jubilee Prize by the RCSEd in 1901 "for the greatest benefit done to practical surgery by any Fellow or Licentiate of the College" in the preceding four years.

[11] In later life he lived at 13 Charlotte Square in Edinburgh's New Town in a house which had originally been the home of Sir William Fettes.