Testimonials in favour of James Irving, a candidate for the office of physician to the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Edinburgh.

Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Testimonials in favour of James Irving, a candidate for the office of physician to the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Edinburgh. 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.

    5/36 (page 3)
    TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL LUNATIC ASYLUM OF EDINBURGH. Morningside, 28 September 1846. My Lokd and Gentlemen,—I beg leave to announce myself as a Candidate for the office of Physician to the Royal Lunatic Asylum and, with your permission, I will briefly mention the grounds on which I have at length ventured to solicit the appointment. Having received a classical education, I was for six years engaged in the study of literature and medicine in the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. Towards the close of my academical studies, and after I had taken the degree of M. D. and received a surgeon’s diploma, I enjoyed ample opportunities of practising my profession at the Royal Dispensary. For the last two years I have been attached to this Asylum, and have had the benefit of the able instructions of Dr Mackinnon, who always took great pleasure in imparting to his assistants a great variety of information as to the treatment of mental diseases, and the management of hospitals for the insane. For the above period, my reading has in a great measure been confined to works on insanity; and I have, besides, carefully perused the Case Books and other Records of this Asylum, so that I am acquainted with the history and cha- racter of most of the cases now in the house. During Dr Mackinnon’s continued indisposition before he left the Asylum, his duties devolved upon me; and I may with some degree of confidence refer to his expressed opinion as to the mode in which those duties were discharged. Since his retirement in the month of May, I have had the whole charge and sole