Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loudon, Charles

by Gordon Goodwin

LOUDON, CHARLES, M.D. (1801–1844), medical writer, a native of Scotland, was born in 1801. By 1826 he had become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and in 1827 graduated M.D. at Glasgow. He then established himself as a physician at Leamington, and in 1830 was appointed one of the royal commissioners for inquiring into the employment of children in factories. He retired about 1841 to Paris, where he died on 2 Feb. 1844. About 1828 he married Miss Ryves of Castle Ryves, co. Limerick, but had no children.

Loudon was author of:

1. ‘A short Inquiry into the principal Causes of the unsuccessful Termination of Extraction by the Cornea,’ 4to, London, 1826.
2. ‘A practical Dissertation on the Waters of Leamington Spa,’ 8vo, Leamington Spa, 1828; 3rd edit. 1831.
3. ‘The Equilibrium of Population and Sustenance demonstrated, showing, on physiological and statistical grounds, the means of obviating the fears of the late Mr. Malthus,’ 8vo, Leamington Spa, 1836.
4. ‘Solution du Problème de la Population et de la Subsistance,’ 8vo, Paris, 1842, a different work from the former.

[Loudon's Works; Gent. Mag. 1844, pt. i. p. 657.]

G. G.