Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/235

 of Physicians. After practising medicine for some years at Edinburgh, and obtaining in 1757 a gold medal for an essay on the principles of agriculture, given by the Edinburgh Society for the Improvement of Arts and Manufactures, he was appointed in 1768 the first professor of materia medica in the university, the subject being then dissociated from botany. He held this post till 1798, and as one of the clinical professors of medicine at the infirmary experimented on the actions of several novel drugs, which he introduced into practice. He first called attention to croup as a distinct disease in his tractate on the subject, which Dr. Squire, in Reynolds's ‘System of Medicine,’ 1866, i. 236, terms a ‘careful and most philosophical inquiry,’ deciding the dependence of the symptoms on pathological changes in the larynx and trachea. As a professor he speculated somewhat rashly, but carefully treated the physical characters and mode of administration of drugs. His ‘Principia Medicinæ’ was a valuable work in its day, and was used as a text-book by several continental professors. He died on 15 Feb. 1813, aged 93. His son James is separately noticed.

Home wrote: 1. ‘Dissertatio de Febre Intermittente,’ Edinburgh, 1750, 4to; republished in Smellie's ‘Thesaurus Medicus,’ 1778. 2. ‘Experiments on Bleaching’ (an essay to which a gold medal was awarded by the trustees for the improvement of manufactures in North Britain, and which was translated into French and German), Edinburgh, 1756. 3. ‘The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation,’ Edinburgh, 1757; 3rd edition, 1759; French translation, Paris, 1761; German translation, Berlin, 1779. 4. ‘Principia Medicinæ,’ Edinburgh, 1758; 3rd edition, 1770. 5. ‘Medical Facts and Experiments,’ Edinburgh, 1759. 6. ‘An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Croup,’ Edinburgh, 1765; French translation, 1810, by F. Ruette. 7. ‘Methodus Materiæ Medicæ,’ Edinburgh, 1770, 12mo. 8. ‘Clinical Experiments, Histories, and Dissections,’ Edinburgh, 1780; 3rd edition, London, 1783. 

HOME, GEORGE, fourth (d. 1547), was the brother of Alexander, third baron Home [q. v.], and the second son of Alexander, second baron Home [q. v.] On the execution of his brother in 1516 he took refuge in England, but through the energy of his kinsman, Sir George Home of Wedderburn, and in terms of an agreement between Sir George Home and the Duke of Albany, was on 12 Aug. 1522 formally restored to his title and to such lands as were in the possession of the crown. On 25 June 1526 a summons of treason was issued against him for not assisting Archibald Douglas, sixth earl of Angus [q. v.], at days of truce; but on the case being called he was declared innocent, a private understanding having been come to that he should in future lend his support to Angus. At Hallidon Hill in the following July it was chiefly by his action that the attempt of Scott of Buccleugh to take the king out of the hands of Angus was frustrated. He was returning home from escorting the king when, learning of the appearance of Buccleugh's force, he returned to the assistance of Angus, and put Buccleugh to flight. His support of Angus was, however, a matter of temporary policy. On the escape of the king from the hands of Angus in 1528, Home, with the Earl of Argyll, commanded the force which compelled him to take refuge in England. When Northumberland, in the winter of 1532, made a raid on the south-eastern counties of Scotland, Home gathered a large force with the design of attacking him at the pass of ‘Billy Myre,’ but he was compelled to forego his plan when the friends of Angus, on the plea that the enterprise was too hazardous, deserted him, leaving only a thousand men under his command (Cal. State Papers, Henry VIII, vol. v. entry 1635). In 1542 Home, in command of four hundred border spearmen, assisted the Earl of Huntly in defeating at Haddenrig a strong English force under Sir James Bowes, captain of the east marches, and subsequently rendered important service, along with Huntly and Seton, in holding in check the large force raised by Norfolk to avenge Bowes's defeat. In the army raised to resist the English invasion of 1547, Home commanded a body of fifteen hundred light horse, which on 8 Sept. showed themselves on the hill of Fauside and endeavoured to provoke an attack. In this they were successful, Lord Grey, contrary to orders, charging them at full speed with a thousand men-at-arms. The superior weight of the English horse decided the conflict, the Scottish borderers, notwithstanding a stubborn resistance, being not only routed but almost decimated. Home was thrown from his horse and so severely injured that he died shortly after his removal to Edinburgh.

By his wife Mariota, second daughter and coheiress of Patrick, sixth baron Halyburton, Home had two sons, Alexander Home, fifth baron [q. v.], and Andrew Home, who died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, married to Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, Midlothian. 