Sketch of the early history of the medical profession in Edinburgh : being an address delivered at a conversazione in the hall of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, on 22d January 1864 / by John Gairdner, M.D.

  • Gairdner, John, 1790-1876.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketch of the early history of the medical profession in Edinburgh : being an address delivered at a conversazione in the hall of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, on 22d January 1864 / by John Gairdner, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the caprices of a pragmatic and irresponsible despotism. We, the graduates of modem times, have learned to he less vain of our doctor's cap, as well as of our Greek,—with which latter, I grieve to say, there are among us some who dispense altogether, and who contrive to do with such a modicum of Latin as would have horrified King James and the doctors of his and of Cromwell's day. It is agreeable to turn from those degrading conspiracies to the event of a quarter of a century later, the establishment of our Royal College of Physicians on far more rational principles. Sir Robert Sibbald, its principal founder, had profited by the errors and failures of the preceding attempts.1 But it was not to be expected, after what I have told you, that his object could be effected without raising jealousies in certain quarters. Graduates, both in Arts and in Medicine, had, in the interval, begun to enrol themselves in the ranks of the Surgeons. One of these was Dr Christopher Irvine, who, being an author, which few then were, is perhaps worthy of a brief notice. This gentleman tells us that he was turned out of u a plentiful patrimony in Ireland by the troubles in that kingdom, and also out of the College [University] of Edinburgh, by the Covenant, and that he was im- prisoned, and obliged for his subsistence to teach grammar. By the favour of James the Seventh, he was compensated for these losses, by the office of historiographer for Scotland, and also by that of first physician to his Majesty. In 1656, he published his Medicina Magnetica a very different thing from what its title would suggest to us. It is dedicated to General Monk, and con- tains one hundred aphorisms, not one of which can possibly be admitted, twelve conclusions equally inadmissible, and a hopeful application of both of these to his method of cure by what he calls magical physic. His sense of the value of his own labours is thus expressed in an address to the reader,2 If thou be candid, I am glad to serve thee, and am confident in these books thou shalt find tilings both rare and delectable. But if thy nature or principle make thee froward, injoy thyself, and provide such kick-shaws as 1 Sir Robert, writing of the attempt of 1657, ascribes it to Dr George Purves, whom he characterizes as a man of great parts, and of much boldness and vivacity of spirit; and who was of a pragmatic temper, and did not spare charges for to accomplish the design. See Report on the Examination of Medical Practitioners, p. 8. 2 P. 96.