James Macfadyen

Who was James Macfadyen?

James Macfadyen was a Scottish doctor and botanist who made a significant contribution to the scientific study of the plants of the Caribbean region. Born in Glasgow on 3 May 1799, he was the eldest son of a music publisher and bookseller, John Macfadyen, and his wife Elisabeth [1]. Macfayden was the first to describe the grapefruit scientifically - he gave it its Linnean name, Citrus paradisi - and to describe new species of fig trees and other Caribbean plants. In addition to his contributions to botany, MacFayden practiced medicine and was actively involved in social organisations in Jamaica. He was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London on 16 January 1838 and Fellow of the Geological Society of London on 30 November 1850. On 25 November 1832 in Port Royal he married Margaret McGowan, by whom he had two daughters. After his wife’s death on 21 June 1843, he married Emma, by whom he had a son and a daughter [4, 5]. Whilst treating patients during one of the periodic epidemics of cholera there, he himself contracted the disease and died on 24 November 1850.