Lionel Chalmers (182)

Lionel Chalmers (1715–May 1777) was a physician and public officeholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born in Scotland, he arrived in South Carolina in 1737. He spent the majority of his life in the study and pursuit of medicine. After a brief time in Christ Church parish, he had moved to Charleston by 1740 where he remained permanently. He partnered with the leading physician in the area, Dr. John Lining, and this relationship would influence Chalmers in a number of ways. In addition to Lining’s mentorship in medicine, the doctor kept regular records of the weather to study both meteorological changes and conditions and their possible effects on diseases. Chalmers drew on Linings work before beginning his own explorations into the relationship between climates and diseases, a pressing matter given the Carolina Low Country’s ongoing battle with various fevers. His interest in the natural world and medicine brought him into ventures and correspondence with a number of like-minded men in Philadelphia including APS members William and John Bartram as well as Benjamin Rush. Between his practice, his own research, and membership to a number of institutions including the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and the Charleston Library Society, Chalmers remained a lifelong learner. Maybe that is why Chalmers, even as the principal (and published) physician in Charleston, still longed for a university degree. His desire was at last fulfilled in 1756 when St. Andrews awarded him the degree of doctor of medicine. (PI)