Matthew Irvine was born in Ireland in 1755 and came to the United States as a young boy to live with his brother in Philadelphia. He fought against the British during the Revolutionary War, serving as a surgeon in the army. He studied medicine before and after the war, though there is no evidence he received a medical degree from a university. After the war he settled in Georgetown, South Carolina, where he practiced medicine for ten years. Later he moved his practice to Charleston. Illness limited his practice, but he was pressed into service during the 1817 yellow fever epidemic about which he wrote his "Treatise on the Yellow Fever." He was a member and later president of the Medical Society of South Carolina in 1826 and received one of the first honorary degrees from the Medical College of South Carolina. He died in Charleston on August 31, 1827.
From the description of Matthew Irvine Letters. 1796, 1811. (Medical University of South Carolina Library). WorldCat record id: 19486523
