Life

David Skae was born in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 on 5 July 1814. His parents were David Skae, an architect and builder, and Helen Lothian. Both parents died while David was a child, and he was educated by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Lothian, at St. Andrews. At the age of fourteen Skae began his university career and studied liberal arts at the University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...

. At sixteen years of age he left St. Andrews to take up a post as a clerk in a lawyer's office in Edinburgh. Shortly thereafter he enrolled as a medical student and in 1835 he was awarded a medical licence from the College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. The following year he was granted fellowship of the College. In 1836 he began to teach in the extramural medical school, and his lectures on medical jurisprudence soon became popular. After delivering fourteen courses of lectures, he began the teaching of anatomy, having as colleagues James Young Simpson

James Young Simpson

Sir James Young Simpson was a Scottish doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use....

, Professor Spence, and William Fergusson

Sir William Fergusson, 1st Baronet

Sir William Fergusson, 1st Baronet FRCS FRS was a Scottish surgeon.-Biography:William Fergusson son of James Fergusson of Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, was born at Prestonpans, East Lothian on 20 March 1808, and was educated first at Lochmaben and afterwards at the high school and University of...

. In 1842 the University of St Andrews conferred on him the honorary degree of M.D.

Meanwhile from 1836 Skae filled the office of surgeon to the Lock Hospital

Lock hospital

A Lock Hospital was a hospital that specialised in treating venereal diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th. The military had a close association with a number of the hospitals. By the mid 19th century most of the larger army bases in...

, and wrote several original papers on syphilis

Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...

. He made insanity

Insanity

Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

 his special study, approaching it from the point of view of a student of nervous and mental physiology. In 1846 he obtained the appointment of physician superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum at Morningside

Morningside

-Places:Morningside may be one of the following place names:Australia*Morningside, QueenslandCanada*Toronto:**Morningside, Toronxto, a neighbourhood in Scarborough**Morningside Avenue , a street in Scarborough...

, and held the post till his death, twenty-seven years later. During his tenure of office the institution doubled in size, and he attracted a succession of gifted assistant physicians. In 1873 he was nominated Morisonian lecturer on insanity at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; but he did not live to complete his term of office. He died at his official residence at Morningside, of cancer of the gullet, on 18 April of that year. He had married Sarah, daughter of Major Macpherson of Ayr

Ayr

Ayr is a town and port situated on the Firth of Clyde in south-west Scotland. With a population of around 46,000, Ayr is the largest settlement in Ayrshire, of which it is the county town, and has held royal burgh status since 1205...

, and left issue.

Works

Skae published papers on 'The Treatment of Dipsomaniacs' in 1858, and on 'The Legal Relations of Insanity' (1861 and 1867). His major work was the 'Classification of the Various Forms of Insanity on a Rational and Practical Basis.' He made this topic the subject of an address which he delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on the occasion of his occupying the presidential chair of the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums (9 July 1863); and he further developed it in the Morisonian lectures on insanity, 1873. These lectures were completed and published posthumously by his pupil and successor, Dr. Thomas Smith Clouston. Skae's classification is founded upon what he called the 'Natural History of Insanity.' Instead of separating the insane into groups of maniacs, melancholiacs, and so on, Skae proposed that classification should be based on the underlying bodily condition of the patient—puerperal mania, traumatic mania, and so on. Skae's classification was not generally adopted. His definition of insanity was "a disease of the brain affecting the mind".