Boerhaave-Herdenkingsrede / D. Schoute.

  • Schoute, D. (Dirk), 1873-1953.
Date:
[1938]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Boerhaave-Herdenkingsrede / D. Schoute. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    number trained in the art of teaching medicine, although occasional demonstrations on botany, anatomy and other subjects still proceeded 1). The Town Council of Edinburgh showed much interest in the scheme for a medical school by appointing professors of medical subjects in the Town’s College. An abortive attempt to found a medical school had been made in 1685 when the Town Council conferred the title of professor of medicine, without salary, upon PITCAIRNE and two colleagues, james halket (inscribed at Leiden February i2th 1675), and.Sir robert sibbald (inscribed at Leiden April 28th 1660). Both the latter had therefore been students at Leyden under sylvius and his successors, but as no students came to hear thejn in Edinburgh, their appointment as professors had been little more than an ineffective gesture. The quickening spirit of boerhaave’s genius had not. yet arrived to give life to the medical school. Two students who came from Scotland to Leiden before boerhaave became a professor of medicine, were Charles preston and james crawford. Charles Preston (inscribed at ' Leiden May i8th 1694) became professor of botany under the Town Council of Edinburgh in 1706, and james crawford (inscribed at Leiden May 3ist 1707) became the first professor of chemistry under the Edinburgh Town Council in 1713. Crawford had not only studied under boerhaave, but had graduated M.D. at Leiden with a thesis De Scorbuto in 1707, and two rooms Were allotted to him in the Town’s College where he sometimes held a class of chemistry', but he receiyéd no salary so that the inducement to energetic teaching of his subject was not great. One of his pupils was alexander MONRO who was being educated by his father with the intention of developing the medical school. Alexander Monro (inscribed at Leiden November ióth 1718) had been apprenticed to his father as a surgeon in Edinburgh, and after attending demonstrations by professors preston in pharmacy and crawford in chemistry, together with the anatomical demon¬ strations which were available in the College of Surgeons, he was sent to London in 1717 to attend the anatomical demonstrations and surgical teaching of cheselden the surgeon. Later he was sent to Paris for further study, and finally to boerhaave at Leiden for finishing instruction in chemistry, medicine and clinical medicine. On his return to Edinburgh, he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery under the Town Council in 1720. PiTCAiRNE died in 1713, and of his two colleagues in the titular professorship of medicine at Edinburgh, james halket died in jynandSir robert sibbald in 1722. It thenbecame desirable to appoint another professor if the hopes for a medical school werev to come to fruition. Accordingly, william porterfield (inscribed at Leiden January 24th 1718), who had taken an M. D. degree at Rheims, was appointed professor of medicine at Edinburgh in 1724. It is doubtful if he ever delivered lectures, although he wrote a 1) See Comrie, History of Scottisli Medicine, London 1932, Vol. I, p. 298.