Morison was born at Anchorfield, near
Edinburgh, and was educated at
Edinburgh High School and the
University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. on 12 September 1799. He became a licentiate of the
Edinburgh College of Physicians in 1800 and a Fellow in 1801. He would serve as President of the college from 1827 to 1829. For a time, Morison practised in Edinburgh, but during 1808 he moved to London; on 11 April that year he was admitted a licentiate of the
College of Physicians of London, and 10 July 1841 he was elected a Fellow. He was appointed inspecting physician of lunatic asylums in
Surrey in 1810, and from 7 May 1835 physician to
Bethlehem Hospital. He was physician to
Charlotte, Princess Royal, and was knighted in 1838. A lifelong restlessness seems to have haunted Morison's career – as a child he repeatedly ran away from school in Edinburgh (on one occasion as far as to the harbour in
Arbroath) – and, as an adult, he (like
Lord Monboddo) excited astonishment with his regular, exhausting rides between London and Edinburgh, lecturing in both cities. A portrait of Morison – of almost hallucinatory intensity – was created by the psychotic Victorian artist
Richard Dadd in 1852, and it incorporated images of Anchorfield created by Morison's daughter. This picture now hangs in the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Morison died at home, Balerno Hill House, south-west of
Edinburgh on 14 March 1866, and was buried at
Currie. ==Works==