[Collection of pamphlets on medical subjects / by John D. Comrie].

  • Comrie, John D. (John Dixon)
Date:
1909-1922]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: [Collection of pamphlets on medical subjects / by John D. Comrie]. 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 anaesthetic properties of chloroform by Simpson, of the properties of certain powerful drugs by Christison, and of the importance of antiseptic procedures by Lister, the influence of Edinburgh medicine has been of a steady constructive rather than of a revolutionary type. Scotland possessed no mediaeval School of Medicine, though in the presence of Michael Scot at Salerno and Bernard Gordon at Montpellier the capacity of Scots- men as teachers was early recognised. Owing probably to the frequency and facility of intercourse between the East of Scotland and France the study of anatomy was early prosecuted in Edinburgh, certainly in the early years of the sixteenth century, and therefore before the renaissance of anatomy that began on the Continent with the publication of Vesalius’s Fabrica in 1543. It was initiated by the Corporation of Surregianis and Barbouris, which must be regarded as a trade guild rather than a learned body. Some of its members rendered good service in war-time; and no doubt often passed overseas like Maister Peter Lowe of the West Country, who became a Doctor in Surgery of Paris and Surgeon to the King of France, and who, returning to his native country in 1597, founded the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow. During the seventeenth century anatomy was regularly taught and entrants to the Corporation were regularly examined in this subject ; while in 1705 a Professor of Anatomy, Robert Elliot, was appointed in the Town’s College at a yearly salary of £15, “ as an encouragement to young men to stay at home instead of travelling to foreign universities, which was attended by expenses and perils to youth.” During the seventeenth century Edinburgh had become a place of considerable social, political and literary importance ; and though in the early part of the century it boasted no medical school beyond the anatomical instruction given to the barbers and surgeons, it possessed physicians of ability and distinction, who occupied moreover a respected social position.