From 1800, arterial thrombosis and venous thrombosis were increasingly recognised as causes of sudden death. By 1960, they had replaced infections as the commonest cause of death in Scotland and the UK, as in many developed countries. The important contributions of Scotland's doctors between 1800 and 1960 to the knowledge of thrombosis, and to its treatment and prevention by anticoagulant drugs, are reviewed.
Keywords: anticoagulant drugs; arterial thrombosis; history; thrombolytic drugs; venous thromboembolism.