Dr William Smoult Playfair FRCP (27 July 1836 – 13 August 1903) was a leading Scottish obstetric physician and academic. In 1896 a trial, Kitson v. Playfair, found against him for a breach of medical confidentiality.
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Biography
Playfair was born in St Andrews on 27 July 1836, the fourth of the five sons of Jessie (née Ross) of Edinburgh and George Playfair, inspector-general of hospitals in Bengal and son of James Playfair (1738–1819). Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair and Robert Lambert Playfair were among his brothers. He was educated in St Andrews before going on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1852. He graduated with an M.D. in 1856, presenting the thesis "Calculus of the bladder among the natives of India" He worked for some time in Paris.
In 1857 Playfair entered the Indian Medical Service, and was an assistant surgeon at Awadh during the Indian Rebellion. From 1859-60 he was professor of surgery at the Calcutta Medical College; but left for reasons of health. He practised medicine for six months in St. Petersburg before returning to London in 1863 with no definite plans.
Playfair was shortly elected assistant physician for diseases of women and children at King's College Hospital. In 1872, on the retirement of Sir William Overend Priestley, he was appointed professor of obstetric medicine at King's College, London, and obstetric physician to King's College Hospital, posts which he gave up in 1898 after 25 years of service. He was then elected emeritus professor and consulting physician at King's College.