Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/129

 After travelling abroad for a year he spent six months in the office of his brother-in-law, who was a solicitor, and thus obtained a training in business methods. He then turned to medicine, working first for a year at Cambridge and then at King's College and at St. George's Hospital; in 1835 he graduated M.B. at Cambridge, and after passing in 1838 the then necessary additional examination for the licence at that university, he proceeded M.D. in 1841. In 1840 he became a licentiate (equivalent to member), and in 1845 a fellow, of the Royal College of Physicians of London. In 1846 he was elected assistant physician, and in 1857 physician and lecturer on medicine at St. George's Hospital. He resigned in 1866 and was the first to be elected consulting physician there. After being censor in 1856-7, he was in 1858, in succession to Dr. [q. v.], elected registrar to the Royal College of Physicians.

Pitman, whose mental equipment was rather of the legal than of the medical order, had a gift for administration. He was long identified with the management of the Royal College of Physicians and the regulation and arrangement of the medical curriculum. The Medical Act of 1858 entailed numerous changes in the organisation of the college, which then surrendered the power to confer the exclusive right to practise in London. He was largely responsible for the translation of the old Latin statutes of the college into English bye-laws and regulations in harmony with the Medical Acts of 1858 and 1860. He took a prominent part in the construction of the first edition of the 'Nomenclature of Diseases,' which was prepared by the college for the government, being begun in 1859 and published in 1869. A fresh edition is issued decennially. He was largely responsible for the initiation and organisation of the conjoint examining board in England of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons, and it was in recognition of his work on the new diplomas (L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S.) that he was knighted in 1883. He also took an active part in the institution of a special examination and diploma in public health. From 1876 to 1886 he was the representative of the college on the general council of medical education and registration, and in 1881 chairman of the executive committee of the council. He resigned the registrarship of the College of Physicians in 1889, being then elected emeritus registrar.

Pitman died at the patriarchal age of 100 at Enfield on 6 Nov. 1908, and was buried in the Enfield cemetery. He married in 1852 Frances (d. 11 Nov. 1910), only daughter of Thomas Wildman of Eastbourne, and had issue three sons and four daughters.

A portrait by Ouless hangs in the reading-room of the Royal College of Physicians, to which it was presented on behalf of some of the fellows by Sir Risdon Bennett in 1886.



PLATTS, JOHN THOMPSON (1830–1904), Persian scholar, born at Calcutta on 1 August 1830, was second son of Robert Platts of Calcutta, India, who left at his death a large family and a widow in straitened circumstances. John, after being educated at Bedford (apparently privately), returned to India in early manhood, and during 1858-9 was mathematical master at Benares College. He was in charge of Saugor School in the Central Provinces from 1859 to 1861, when he became mathematical professor and headmaster of Benares College. In 1864 Platts was transferred to the post of assistant inspector of schools, second circle. Northwest Provinces, and in 1868 he became officiating inspector of schools, northern circle. Central Provinces. He retired on 17 March 1872, owing to ill-health. Platts then returned to England, and settling at Ealing occupied himself with teaching Hindustani and Persian. He had closely studied both languages and had thoroughly mastered their grammars and vocabulary. On 2 June 1880 he was elected teacher of Persian in the University of Oxford. He matriculated from Balliol College on 1 Feb. 1881, and on 21 June of that year was made M.A. honoris causa. On 19 March 1901 the degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by decree. He died suddenly in London on 21 Sept. 1904, and was buried at Wolvercote cemetery near Oxford.

Platts was twice married: (1) in 1856, at Lahore, India, to Alice Jane Kenyon (d. 1874), by whom he had three sons and four daughters; and (2) on 4 Oct. 1876 to Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Thomas Dunn, architect and surveyor, of Melbourne, Australia, and widow of John Hayes, architect and surveyor, of Croydon; by her Platts had one son. His widow was awarded a civil list pension of 75l. in 1905.

Platts compiled:
 * 1) 'A Grammar of the Hindustani Language,' 1874.
 * 2) 'A