COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 
 HhAl IH SCItNCESSIANDARl) 
 
 HX641 08406 
 R497.G6 D91 Memorials of the Fac 
 
R49T.^ (o 
 
 iPRKSEXTED INMEMORVOF 
 
 WILLIAM HEXRYDRAPER 
 
 18;U)--1901-P AND S-1855 
 AXl) HIS SOX 
 
 WILUAVI KINMCUTT DRXPER 
 
 l.S(i { l't2r, r.vM, S 1888 
 
MEMORIALS OF 
 
 THE FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
 
 OF GLASGOW 
 
PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW, 
 $)ttblish(rs to the ^nibttsit^. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. 
 Neiv I'orA-, ■ ■ Mac)nilla7i aitd Co. 
 London, ■ - ■ Simpkin, Hamilton ajid Co. 
 Cambridge, ■ • Macviillan atid Bowes. 
 Edinburgh, ■ ■ Douglas a7td Foulis. 
 
 MDCCCXCVI. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Open Knowledge Commons 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/memorialsoffaculOOdunc 
 
rUrc^VKnu* hfl fcK-Aaiaa & Eai«. fr»i » P«nlmq in Afl poM«««an rf^» Fwciaiy r*' Plymcxana & Sut^KHK, GUs-ji 
 
 (S¥©IB [PETTEl Litt^E 
 
MEMORIALS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
 
 OF GLASGOW 
 
 1599-1850 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 AND OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN THE WEST OF SCOTLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER DUNCAN, B.A.Lond. 
 
 SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN OF THE FACULTY 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS 
 
 Jpubliehfrs to thr ©nibtraitB 
 
 1896 
 

 
PREFACE 
 
 The writer of even the local memorials of such a calling as that of the 
 healing art is at some disadvantage should he happen not to be a 
 member of it. On some matters his point of view is apt to be a little 
 different from that of the man specially initiated into the mysteries of the 
 craft. In the preparation of these pages the sense of this disadvantage 
 has often been felt by the writer, even although he has been closely 
 connected with the Faculty in Glasgow for over thirty years. His only 
 apology indeed for putting his hand to the work at all is that it seemed 
 a thing sooner or later to be done, and he saw no likelihood of the task 
 being undertaken by any of the present Fellows. In their relation to 
 such an undertaking the members of the medical profession generally may 
 be placed in two categories — those who have much professional work to 
 do, and those who have little. The former have rarely adequate time to 
 devote to work of the kind ; the latter, who are often juniors, have 
 seldom much taste for it. 
 
 A considerable part of this memoir was written about twenty years ago, 
 and a few words may be necessary to explain the circumstances under 
 which its preparation was undertaken, and why it only now sees the light, 
 at a time when many of those who interested themselves in its inception 
 have passed away. 
 
 In 1869 the late Dr. William Weir handed over to the Faculty a MS. 
 of considerable size consisting of copious extracts from the Minute Books 
 of the Faculty, connected by a thread of comments and reflections of his 
 own. It had not been written with any view to publication, and indeed 
 in the letter presenting it he expressly stated that " the printing of 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 such a large mass is out of the question." The document was how- 
 ever fitted to serve a useful purpose as a key to the Minute Books, 
 rendering their contents more available for reference, and also as a kind of 
 annotated digest of these records. A year or two later the writer was 
 requested in quite an unofficial way by the late Dr. J. G. Fleming, the 
 then President, to carefully look into the record books, with such aid as 
 Dr. Weir's MS. might afford, with a view to ascertain how far they really 
 contained the materials of a fairly complete, but condensed historical sketch 
 of the corporation. On this being done, it was found that the earliest 
 Minute Book (1602-81) was not only extant but readily available, a 
 transcription of it from the crabbed caligraphy of the original having been 
 made by Mr. William Hill, LL.D., Clerk of the Faculty, himself an adept 
 in Glasgow archaeology; that the second Minute Book (i 681- 1733) was 
 awanting, having been accidentally destroyed by fire last century, under 
 circumstances stated in the text; and that from the latter part of 1733 
 onwards, the set of Minute Books was unbroken. 
 
 It did not require a prolonged examination to make it evident that 
 for anything approaching to an adequate sketch it would be necessary to 
 largely supplement the information in the official Records by gatherings 
 from outside sources. The early Minutes are often bald, and not always 
 self-interpreting, and for over fifty years, a sixth part of the entire period 
 of the Faculty's existence, they are awanting altogether. Further, the 
 Minute Books are concerned only with the doings of the calling as a 
 corporate body, and yield no information as to the personal history 
 of the members. To other quarters therefore it was necessary to turn ; 
 and the gleanings from these occasionally referred to medical affairs 
 or movements not directly connected with the Faculty. The notion 
 accordingly took shape of so enlarging the scope of the memoir as to 
 make it a historical sketch, imperfect though it might be, of Glasgow in its 
 medical aspects, instead of, as at first contemplated, strictly limiting it 
 to the .doings of the corporate body first charged with the regulation of 
 the calling in the City and Western Counties. 
 
 In casting about for the materials of information outside the Faculty 
 Records, the most obvious and likely sources were the volumes of the 
 published Records of the Town Council of Glasgow. Those consulted 
 were — Biirgh Records of the City of Glasgow, 1573-81 (Maitland Club, 1832); 
 Memorabilia of the City of Glasgow ( i 5 B 5 - 1 7 50), reprinted for private circulation 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Vll 
 
 in 1868 ; Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1573-1642 
 (Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1876); Extracts from the Burgh Records of 
 Glasgow, 16^0-1662 (J bid. 1 8 8 i ). 
 
 A search through these brought to light the points of early contact between 
 the Town Council and the Faculty or their members. An examination 
 kindly permitted by Dr. (now Sir James) Marwick, Town Clerk, was also 
 made of the MS. volumes of the Minutes of the Town Council from about 
 1 700- 1 722, chiefly with a view to elucidate the disputes within the Faculty 
 which resulted in the renunciation of the Letter of Deaconry by the surgeons 
 in 17 19 and their consequent separation from the barbers. In this way 
 the hiatus in the Minute Books of the Faculty was made somewhat less 
 serious ; and the gap was still further diminished by information afforded by 
 a careful examination of a number of documents, printed and manuscript, in 
 the possession of the Faculty. The various histories of Glasgow from M'Ure 
 downward were of course laid under contribution, as were other works likely 
 to contain local medical references, such as the Munimenta of the University, 
 and other publications of the Maitland Club ; whilst some of the histories of 
 the counties of Ayr, Dumbarton, Renfrew, etc., and those of some of their 
 chief towns, were occasionally of assistance in reference to medical men 
 outside the city. 
 
 As regards the present century, the materials made use of, as being the 
 most serviceable and interesting for the purpose, were nearly all obtained 
 from sources outside the Faculty Minutes. The voluminous printed documents 
 in the lawsuit raised by the Faculty against certain medical graduates, and 
 later in that of the University and its Masters of Surgery against the Faculty, 
 were examined to bring out the various points in these suits, the latter of 
 which may be said to have been a cause celebre. From the Records of the 
 Glasgow Royal Infirmary, an inspection of which was kindly permitted by 
 Mr. Henry Lamond, clerk of the institution, was obtained, among other 
 things, the information centering round the subject of Clinical Teaching in 
 that hospital. The sources of the materials for the sketch of the rise and 
 progress of the Glasgow Medical School are generally stated in the footnotes 
 unless they are too obvious to require definite references. 
 
 To the Faculty Clerk, Dr. William H. Hill, already mentioned, thanks are 
 due for some notes on the visitations of the plague in Glasgow, which were 
 utilized in the chapter on the early " Epidemiology " of the City ; whilst some 
 interesting " Notanda anent the Glasgow Poor " by the same gentleman, 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 which could not well be assimilated in the text, have been given in 
 Appendix V. 
 
 That the monograph of Dr. James Finlayson on Dr. Peter Lowe was at 
 hand, if not in the preparation, at least on the revision of the chapter on 
 that surgeon, is sufficiently obvious on the face of it ; and to other obligations 
 in connection with this work Dr. Finlayson has added that of placing at the 
 service of the publishers the portrait of the subject of his memoir reproduced 
 from the painting in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 The inclusion of an annotated Roll of Members did not enter into the 
 original plan of the book. Had the suggestion of this addition come earlier 
 it would have so far modified the arrangement of the materials as to preclude 
 the repetition of any statements or references in the "Roll" which had appeared 
 in the text. Under the actual circumstances some iteration could not 
 altogether be prevented without recasting the whole. When the name of 
 the wife of a member is given, it is usually taken from the list of widows 
 in the Records of the Widows' Fund of the Faculty. To Mr. W. Innes 
 Addison, of the University, acknowledgment is due for his kindness in giving 
 and verifying many dates of graduation in the " Roll." 
 
 On a review made of the whole materials after they were fairly well in 
 hand and had to a considerable extent been put into shape, it appeared to 
 the writer very doubtful whether the story as he had pieced it together 
 was one of such general interest as to make it worth giving to the public. 
 In view of this doubt the work was thrown aside for a good many years. 
 Later consideration, taking perhaps a more hopeful tinge from the views of 
 others, suggested that the lapse of years would probably rather help to 
 dissipate the materials collected than to greatly add to them ; and that the 
 publication of these memorials now, though it might serve no other end, 
 would so far be a contribution to local history. It is, however, mainly 
 owing to the friendly insistence of the late President of the Faculty, 
 Dr. David Yellowlees, and to the desire of the Fellows for its publication 
 as formally expressed in their Minute of 3rd June, 1895, on hearing 
 a report by a small committee they had appointed to advise on this point, 
 that the work now sees the light. 
 
 The question of the date to which these Memorials should be brought 
 down was not settled without some hesitation. In fixing the middle of 
 the present century as the line, the dominant consideration was, that it 
 was obviously very undesirable to extend the limit down to a period in 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 which men now h'ving would to any extent figure as the actors in the 
 transactions recorded. The date was, however, not made absolute, but only- 
 kept in view as a landmark which might be worked up to, but not far 
 passed. As far as the history of the Faculty proper is concerned, the 
 events recorded have been kept fairly well within the limit. Indeed, it 
 would have been no easy task to invest with interest to the present 
 generation the subject matter of not a few of the Minutes of many years 
 anterior to the passing of the Medical Act of 1858, which practically 
 abolished local jurisdiction all over the country. The kaleidoscopic views 
 of medical politics and medical reform as exhibited in the records of the 
 endless negotiations, deputations, reports of committees, abortive medical 
 bills, and schem.es to set the medical world right were no doubt of absorbing 
 interest to some of the fathers of the Faculty of that period. To the 
 present generation of the Fellows the tale would be " stale, flat, and un- 
 profitable." 
 
 That these Memorials are in no sense official will perhaps sufficiently 
 appear on the face of them. For neither statement of fact nor expression 
 of opinion is any one responsible except the writer. Inaccuracies and 
 errors of judgment will doubtless be found in the book, but the burden 
 of them must rest on the proper shoulders. The plan which invests the 
 writer with the sole personal responsibility for what he says has the com- 
 pensating advantage of divesting him of official trammels and leaving him 
 perfect freedom in the expression of his opinions, a liberty of which he 
 has not hesitated to avail himself. 
 
 To the obligations already acknowledged here or in the body of the 
 work, there must be added the very great indebtedness to the three gentlemen. 
 Dr. James Finlayson, Dr. John Glaister, and Dr. John Lindsay Steven, who, 
 on the suggestion of the writer, were nominated by the Faculty to act 
 as a committee of consultation during the preparation of the book for 
 publication. 
 
 § 
 
« 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I PAGE 
 
 Introductory ..... ... i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 Old Glasgow — Sanitation and Epidemiology 7 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Early Glasgow Mediciners • - - - 17 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Dr. Peter Lowe - - 21 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Faculty : Charter and Inauguration 39 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Faculty in the Seventeenth Century 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Faculty in the Seventeenth Century {cotifintied) 5^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Faculty in the Seventeenth Century {continued) <'6 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX PAGE 
 
 The Faculty at the End of the Seventeenth Century 77 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 The Contest between the Surgeons and Barbers, 1700- 1722 - - - - 83 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 The Faculty in the Eighteenth Century 91 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 The Faculty in the Eighteenth Century {continued) 98 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Glasgow Medical Men of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - no 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 The Rise of the Glasgow Medical School 124 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 The Faculty and the Medical Charities of Glasgow 136 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Faculty and the Medical Charities and other Institutions of 
 
 Glasgow 144 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 The Faculty in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century - - - 153 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 A Long Lawsuit - - 162 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 The Glasgow Medical School {continued) 171 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 Glasgow Medical Societies and Clubs 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 Early Glasgow Medical Bibliography and Journalism 199 
 
 CHAPTER XXn 
 The Faculty Library 211 
 
 The Names of such Worthie Persons as have Gifted Books to the 
 
 Chierurgions Librarie in Glasgow 216 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. Charter by King James VI. to the Faculty of Physicians and 
 
 Surgeons of Glasgow - - - 217 
 
 II, General Signet Letters, the Surgeons of Glasgow against the 
 
 Magistrates, and all and sundry 219 
 
 III. Letter of Deaconry 223 
 
 IV. Ratification of King James' Charter to the Faculty of Physicians 
 
 AND Surgeons of Glasgow 225 
 
 V. NOTANDA ANENT THE GLASGOW PoOR 226 
 
 VI, Act for Regulating the Faculty 229 
 
 VII. Roll of Members, 1599-1851 232 
 
 VIII. Roll of Honorary Members and Fellows 293 
 
 INDEX 295 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Dr. Peter Lowe frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Facsimile of Minute of First Meeting, 3RD June, 1602, 48 
 
 Facsimile of Signatures to Minute of 8th November, 1733, - - - - 96 
 Faculty Hall, i 791-1860 104 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The history of the medical profession in Glasgow differs in one respect 
 from that of other medical centres of the British Islands. In London, 
 Edinburgh, and Dublin, physicians and surgeons were organized in different 
 colleges.^ In Glasgow, the practitioners of the two great branches of the 
 healing art were from a fairly early period united in one corporation. How 
 this distinction arose need not here be discussed ; but no special credit can 
 be claimed for the West of Scotland in having recognized thus early the 
 essential unity of medicine. 
 
 That this unity existed as far back as the origin of the healing art can 
 be traced seems beyond question. At the period of Hippocrates, and long 
 after, it is evident that medicine and surgery were one. By the time of 
 Galen, in the second century, there are indications of a beginning of the 
 separation of the offices of physicians and surgeons, at all events in Rome. 
 But it was not till all the functions of the practitioners of the art of healing 
 had been assumed by ecclesiastics, about the seventh century, that the way 
 was paved for the eventual disruption of medicine from surgery. In the 
 condition of society then existing this usurpation of office was by no means 
 an unmixed evil. If the cleric was but poorly fitted to treat disease, it must 
 be admitted that whatever rivals he had were, as a rule, still worse equipped 
 for the office than himself The Jews, it is true, had a hereditary know- 
 ledge of simples and leech-craft, and some of them were learned physicians ; 
 but the pariah condition of this despised race injuriously affected the range 
 of their usefulness. Of mediciners of all kinds there was no lack. Every 
 country in Europe was overrun with charlatans and pretenders to medical 
 secrets, possessing, as a rule, very little knowledge of disease, or of the powers 
 
 'About 1421, the physicians and surgeons of London were united in one faculty; but 
 the union does not appear to have lasted long. (South's Craft of Surgery^ Introd. xi. ; 
 also 52.) 
 
 A 
 
2 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the medicaments with which they combated it. The ecclesiastic had, at 
 his worst, a Httle Latin, and, at his best, could read it fluently ; and by 
 means of this, the common language of the literate class, he could collect 
 recipes and acquire useful information ; and on the Revival of Letters he 
 could, by the same key and by the aid of Greek, unlock the storehouse of the 
 ancients. For conserving and propagating knowledge the organization and 
 discipline of the church were also of service. 
 
 For centuries then the cleric treated all manner of diseases, internal and 
 external. Nor did the clerical practitioner neglect to exact his fees. 
 Physicking the body was often more remunerative than ministering to the 
 soul. The monks especially took kindly to medicine, often making long 
 excursions for the purpose of finding patients. At last the ecclesiastic 
 seems to have devoted himself to the work of preparing for and practising 
 his medical duties so ardently that it was alleged he was apt to forget 
 his prescribed religious obligations. At this open preference of physic to 
 divinity the church took alarm. Various edicts were issued with a view 
 to limit the range of their medical work; and, in 12 15, an edict of 
 Pope Innocent III. debarred ecclesiastics from performing any operation 
 involving the shedding of blood. But the aphorism, " Ecclesia abhorret 
 a sanguine," expressed rather the pretext than the reason of this new 
 departure. Coincident with this pious horror of blood, another feeling 
 prompted the churchman to withdraw from the practice of surgery. The 
 spirit of feudalism had drawn a line, deep and sharply cut, between the 
 gentleman and the handicraftsman. Manual labour, from which the worker 
 derived his subsistence, became the badge of an inferior class. Surgery was 
 now regarded as simply a manual art ; its deep and essential relations to 
 medicine were to a large degree lost sight of 
 
 But though debarred from the practice of surgery, the churchmen saw no 
 valid reason why they should not share in the emoluments accruing therefrom. 
 They accordingly hit upon the expedient of sending a deputy in surgical 
 cases from among their own retainers. Of all the servants of the monastery 
 his special duties pointed out the barber as the most fitting substitute. 
 Already he had some of the training of a cunning leech. In phlebotomy 
 he was skilful ; and this depleting operation was universal, and, indeed, 
 periodically obligatory on monks. Cold applications to the shaven head 
 was a favourite treatment for not a few diseases; and in the tonsure of crowns, 
 which in those days was a work of art regulated by canon, the monastic 
 barber was an adept. 
 
 The change was not, therefore, in all respects the worse for the patient. 
 If less cultured in mind, the barber was more cunning in hand than his 
 monkish masters. With his functions thus widely enlarged he emancipated 
 himself by degrees, and gained a position of comparative independence. 
 Hence there eventually arose throughout Europe, in the twelfth and 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 thirteenth centuries, a new class of craftsmen : men who wielded the lancet 
 and the knife equally with the scissors and the razor ; cunning in the 
 application of ointments, plasters, and baths ; blending suppleness and 
 humility often wath inordinate conceit. 
 
 Such appears to have been the mode of evolution of that, perhaps to us 
 the oddest of all figures in later mediaeval society — the barber-surgeon, a 
 figure which did not finally disappear from Europe till the beginning of the 
 present centur\'.^ 
 
 By the end of the twelfth century surgery then had been divorced from 
 medicine over Western Europe. For the next century and a half the new 
 class of practitioners exercised both the arts of surgery and barbery, even 
 the royal surgeon being no exception.^ But as time went on forces came 
 into play which tended to resolve this singular conglomerate into its 
 original elements, though the process of resolution was often slow. Differ- 
 ences amongst various craftsmen in the matter of manual dexterity, of 
 boldness, of acquired information, and of natural fitness, pointed out some 
 as best adapted for the higher, and others for the lower, sphere of 
 handicraft work. Of the composite craft, some members evinced such a 
 deftness in operative surgery as to raise them above the necessity of 
 wielding the brush and razor. The necessities of military service in those 
 days of constant fighting also stimulated the formation of a grade of 
 surgeons superior to the ordinary barber. Later on, the traditions of the 
 pre-mediaeval epoch, when medicine and surgery were looked on as an 
 indivisible unity, must have contributed to the separation of the two crafts. 
 It is probable that the process of resolution would have been considerably 
 accelerated, at all events in the British Islands, but for the drag placed 
 on the natural movement of events by the conservative tendency of the 
 trades-guilds, or corporations. 
 
 The guilds of craftsmen appear to have been called into existence 
 partly for the observance of religious rites, and partly by the powerful 
 instinct of self-preservation. In the rude state of society the clash of con- 
 flicting forces was so great that it was only by union that class interests 
 could be effectually protected. But once originated, the utility of the 
 guilds for other purposes than self-defence was manifested. They formed 
 
 1 In 1 801 some English assistant surgeons, on joining the Swedish navy, found that one 
 of the duties required of them was to shave the ship's company. On declining to undertake 
 this duty, they were summarily dismissed the service. In the Peninsular war, shaving was 
 included among the duties of the Portuguese army surgeons. (Millingen's Curiosities of 
 Medical Experience, \\. 13.) 
 
 ^Thus, in 1443, in a patent issued for the naturalization of Michael Belwell, surgeon 
 to Henry VI., he is designated "Valettus et Sinirgicus Noster." In a warrant issued to two 
 other surgeons of the same monarch, in 1454, named Wareyn and Marshall, amongst their 
 necessary duties is enumerated capitis rasnra. (RymeHs Foedera, XI. 18, 347). 
 
4 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 what was greatly needed, a centre or bond of organization for each calHng, 
 by means of which the common affairs of the members of the craft could 
 be regulated. As regards the guilds having relation to the healing art, 
 things shaped themselves somewhat differently in different countries. In 
 Paris the surgeons appear to have separated themselves from the barbers at 
 a much earlier period than in this country, and were incorporated into a 
 " Confraire," or College, in 1268. In the same century the Faculty of 
 Medicine of Paris, which was an academic foundation of physicians, took 
 its origin ; while the barbers who practised surgery formed, for a con- 
 siderable period, a third party. 
 
 The records of the quarrels of the first two of these bodies have formed 
 the theme of a good deal of literature. The barbers were at one time taken 
 under the wing of the surgeons, at another adopted by the physicians, 
 played off by the Faculte against St. Come (as the " Confrairie," or 
 College of Surgeons, was familiarly called), which in turn used them 
 to " dish " the physicians. It was a long-continued struggle on the part 
 of the surgeons to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of the 
 physicians. 
 
 In regard to the British Islands, the barbers of London appear to 
 have existed as a Guild in 1308, and as a Livery Guild in 1387.^ In 
 1462 they were incorporated not only as barbers but as surgeons by Edward 
 IV., under the style of " The Masters or Governors of the Mystery or 
 Commonality of Barbers of the City of London, using the Mystery or 
 Faculty of Surgery." ^ But besides the barber-surgeons there existed in 
 London a fellowship of barbers who practised surgery only, its members 
 having probably been trained in camps. These two societies were con- 
 joined by an Act of Parliament in 1540. The barbers were incorporated 
 in Dublin in 1446, and in 1572^ united into a Barber-Surgeons' 
 Company. In Edinburgh the surgeons were incorporated by a municipal 
 "Seal of Cause" in 1505, this being confirmed next year by a 
 grant from James IV. The surgeons were formally disjoined from the 
 barbers in London in 1745 ; in Dublin the Barber-Surgeons' Company 
 was dissolved by a Reform Act in 1840;* while in Edinburgh, as in 
 Glasgow, as we shall see, the formal separation of surgery from barbery 
 took place in 17 19. But in all these cities the actual had doubtless 
 preceded the formal and legal separation by many years ; barber-surgeons 
 had been resolved into barbers and surgeons, and the somewhat ludicrous 
 incongruity of the corporate union had been in most cases fully realized. 
 
 ^ South, op. cit., 15, 75. 
 
 '^ This title, however, seems to be obtained only by coalescing the different titles in the 
 Charter. (See Young's Attn, of the Barber-Surgeons., 55.) 
 
 3 Cameron's History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 60. 
 * Cameron, op. cit., 89. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 5 
 
 In England, probably much about the same time as witnessed the 
 separation of surgery from medicine, there happened a further specialization 
 of office. Men who devoted themselves specially to the composition of 
 drugs and the study of the materia medica, took rank as a separate class 
 of apothecaries. They were incorporated in 1606, and some of them, in course 
 of time, began to prescribe as well as to dispense their medicines ; but it 
 was not till the present century that they blossomed out into a corporate 
 body with power to license throughout England and Wales, both as regards 
 the preparation and administration of drugs. The apothecary thus became 
 the complement to the surgeon, the two united in one person being the 
 general practitioner. In Scotland the case was different. The surgeon and 
 apothecary were not necessarily disjoined ; on the contrary, they were 
 usually united in the same individual, who was known officially as a 
 chirurgeon-apothecary, though it often happened that, either from choice 
 or necessity, some limited themselves to the duties of pharmacists only. 
 
 As regards medicine, a few words will suffice for our present purpose to 
 explain the course of events. Long after the cleric was debarred from the 
 practice of surgery, he was permitted and continued — in England under 
 Parliamentary enactment — to practise physic; and even so late as 15 12, 
 six years before the Royal College of Physicians of London was incorporated, 
 the Bishop of London was still placed at the head of a board, with 
 authority to call to his assistance four physicians for examining purposes. 
 But it became clear with the advance of time that the two characters of 
 cleric and physician would be better disjoined. On the separation being 
 accomplished, it was however still recognized that the doffing of his 
 ecclesiastical character did not exempt the physician from the necessity of 
 having the liberal academic training of the best of the churchmen. The 
 would-be physician became thus the student of the University, from which 
 he took his degree. Socially he was recognized as in a different grade 
 from the surgeon. In feudal eyes the latter ranked as only a handi- 
 craftsman, the former as a gentleman. A similar distinction marked their 
 qualifications to practise. The surgeon's membership or master's grade 
 involved a license to practise within prescribed limits. The physician's 
 degree was an honorary academic distinction, implying general culture and 
 a scientific knowledge of medicine, but conditioned by no territorial 
 restrictions, and conferring no right to reap, or, at all events, to legally 
 recover, the rewards of practice. In Scotland, however, although there 
 had been in the sixteenth century attempts to teach medicine at St. Mary's 
 College, St. Andrews, and perhaps with better success at Aberdeen, there 
 was no proper medical faculty in any of the Universities, and virtually no 
 medical teaching, till the last quarter of the seventeenth century. When 
 the elder Scaligcr visited Scotland about the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, he states that it did not contain more than one regular practitioner 
 
6 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of medicine ; but fifty years later the number had probably considerably 
 increased. 
 
 If now we take the end of the sixteenth century as a definite epoch 
 for the purpose of a rapid survey of the condition of Scotland in matters 
 medical, a few sentences will suffice to describe it. A few of the larger 
 towns had one and some of them possibly two physicians. These had 
 been educated abroad, generally in Italy, France, or later in the Low 
 Countries. Of what were in Italy and Paris called gown-surgeons — that is, 
 surgeons who did not "barbourize" — there were very few, and of these some, 
 like the physicians, had got their training or acquired their experience on 
 the Continent. The general practitioner of the period was the barber-surgeon ; 
 and there being no medical schools in the country it was necessary to go 
 abroad to obtain any education as a mediciner other than that of the 
 barber-surgeon's apprentice. Fortunately there was little difficulty in the 
 Scottish student finding facilities for his education on the Continent, especially 
 in France. The existence of a special law, which was ratified in 1599 by 
 Henry IV., for the naturalization of Scotchmen in France, often tempted 
 them even to settle in that country permanently, or for a considerable 
 period ; and some of them there rose to eminence. Thus Henry Blackwood, 
 a doctor-regent of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, attained to the dignity of 
 being Dean of that learned body ; while Peter Lowe, as will be seen in 
 another chapter (IV.), was one of the Surgeons in Ordinary of Henry IV. 
 
 In addition to the physicians, the barber-surgeons, and the barbers who 
 practised surgery only, all of whom may be regarded as the regularly qualified 
 practitioners at this period, there was a motley array of nondescripts, many 
 of them specialists of a kind, nearly all of them very ignorant, who swarmed 
 all over the country. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 OLD GLASGOW— SANITATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY 
 
 A RAPID glance at the general condition of Glasgow in the closing years 
 of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries may be of 
 use in giving a clearer apprehension of the specially medical aspects of 
 the burgh. 
 
 The position of the medical profession in Glasgow during the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries will not be properly appreciated unless it is borne 
 in mind that up to the beginning of the present century it was not a town 
 of great size, and in the earlier part of the period may be described as 
 almost insignificant. The population of the town and suburbs in the year 
 1600 does not appear to have much exceeded seven thousand. As regards 
 wealth, less than half a century earlier (1556) it seems to have held only 
 the eleventh place amongst the Scottish towns,^ and at the end of the 
 century the relative proportion would be little altered. It consisted mainly 
 of one considerable street — High Street — crossed at its upper end by the 
 line of Rotten Row on the west, and Drygate on the east ; while similarly 
 at its southern extremity it was intersected by the line of the Trongate 
 and Gallowgate ; and had extended also southward to the Clyde, probably 
 in a straggling way, by the line of Saltmarket and Stockwell. Numerous 
 narrow " wynds " branched off from both sides of the main lines. The 
 general style of the houses would now be reckoned mean and inconvenient. 
 They were mostly built of wood, the booths or shops, if sometimes of stone, 
 were faced with wood, the roof covering usually being of thatch. The 
 houses were pierced at often oddly irregular intervals by windows, nearly 
 always of small size. To most of the houses there were gardens at the 
 back. The " Hie Kirk " or Cathedral, beside it the Archbishop's palace 
 enclosed in its garden, the College in High Street, and near it the Blackfriars 
 Kirk, a noble pile of great antiquity, were amongst the principal buildings. 
 
 * Gibson's History of Glasgow, 78. 
 
8 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 The town was in a sense enclosed, the regular entrance being made through 
 various " ports " or gates ; but there was no surrounding wall. In point 
 of status and municipal liberty Glasgow held an inferior position to the 
 royal burghs. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was still 
 only a bishop's burgh, owing fealty to the head of the See or the temporal 
 barons who succeeded. It had not the power of nominating its own 
 magistrates. 
 
 But the matter of greatest medical interest is the sanitary aspect of the 
 city. In this respect Glasgow appears to have compared favourably with 
 some other Scottish towns of which we obtain glimpses ; yet the light 
 thrown by the Town Council Records on the condition of the burgh shows 
 many dark spots. Not long before the period we have named we find 
 that butchers killed cattle on the street, and dungsteads lay at the very doors 
 of the houses. It is little wonder therefore that filth diseases were common. 
 Leprosy also was so prevalent that at the chief courts regular lists of those 
 affected were delivered to the magistrates, whose duty it was to issue orders 
 for their seclusion. To receive the victims of this loathsome malady a 
 hospital had been erected on the south bank of the river in St. Ninian's croft, 
 somewhere near the bottom of the present Hospital Street. 
 
 Tradition concedes to Marjory Stuart, " Lady Lochow," the honour of 
 founding and endowing this lazar house about 1350.^ To the "poor liper 
 folk " in this hospital, described as "being at the south side of the bridge at 
 Glasgow," we find John Painter, probably the first master of the " Sang Scule," 
 bequeathing the sum of 20s.^ The duty of taking cognizance of the lepers, 
 visiting them and making returns of their number and names to the 
 Michaelmas head court of the burgh devolved oddly enough on the Water 
 Bailie.^ It does not appear why this particular magistrate was singled out 
 for the disagreeable duty. Possibly it was that his name was lowest on 
 the list. The Clyde in those days was no doubt very different from 
 what it is now, but even then its waters, comparatively fresh from the 
 sanctifying influences of its Patron Saint, could hardly have been credited 
 with the healing virtues of the Jordan. The order of notice respecting 
 the " Lipper folks " in the Town Council Records usually is that they 
 are first " delatit as Liper," i.e. legally accused or informed upon as being 
 infected with the disease, and thereupon ordained to be visited, and if found 
 leprous to be " secludit of the town to the hospital at the brig end."^ Not 
 only the Town Council but the Presbytery of Glasgow took cognizance of 
 the disease when occurring within their bounds.^ Thus in December, 1599, 
 
 ^ M'Ure's History of Glasgow, 2nd edition, 52. 
 
 '■^ Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, Vol. i. 159. 
 
 ^Tovvn Council Records, ist May, 1582 ; 20th October, 1588 ; 7th October, 1589. 
 
 ^Minutes of 19th January, 1573; 17th January, 1575. 
 
 ^ Maitland Club Miscellany, Vol. I. 407. 
 
OLD GLASGOW— SANITATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY g 
 
 they refused to allow a man to contract marriage from his being contaminated 
 with leprosy.^ The dread of the disease was very great. The husband 
 sometimes denounced his stricken wife as the victim of the malady. An 
 instance of this occurs in the Presbytery Records, in which the husband who 
 gave in the " lamenting," or complaint, had been shortly before dealt with 
 by the Presbytery for marital infidelity.^ 
 
 From their retreat on the south bank of the river the lepers were permitted 
 under certain stringent conditions to issue forth to the town for the purpose 
 of soliciting alms. They were at this period clad in a gown with hood, 
 and sleeves closed to the finger-tips. To give warning of their approach 
 they were provided with " clappers," which they were obliged to rattle as 
 they went along. A Town Council edict of 1610 (loth October) ordains 
 " that the lipper of the hospital sail gang onlie upon the calsie syde near 
 the gutter, and sail haife clipperis, and ane claith upon their mouth and face, 
 and sail stand afar of qll they resaif almous, or answer under the payne of 
 banischeing from the toun and hospitall." From other sources we learn that 
 the contagion was at that time believed to reside chiefly in their pestilential 
 breath. The resemblance, in some respects, of the municipal statutes regard- 
 ing the leper to the provisions of the Mosaic code will strike the reader. 
 ' And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his 
 head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry. 
 Unclean, unclean."^ 
 
 By the middle of the seventeenth century it is evident from the Town 
 Council Records that the Leper house was not much made use of, the order 
 of the magistrates being usually limited to the seclusion of the lepers in their 
 own houses. As late as December, 1662, however, a man was sent to the 
 retreat at the Brigend.* Though not confined to any one class of the com- 
 munity, there is some evidence to show that the disease drew its largest 
 share of victims from those in humble circumstances. There is little 
 evidence in the Records bearing on its mode of propagation. In one case 
 at least two, and possibly three sisters are named as stricken with the 
 malady.^ Bearing in mind the size of the burgh at this time, the number 
 of lepers was not inconsiderable. About the end of the sixteenth century 
 the annual lists handed in at the Michaelmas Courts amounted usually to 
 about four or five; and we find that in the latter part of 1589 there 
 were six lepers in the hospital.^ 
 
 ^MS. Copy of Presbytery Minutes^ Vol. i., Pt. iii., 141, December, 1599. 
 "^ Ibid., Vol. I., Pt. v., 354, 381, 382, 383, 388. M ait land Club Miscellany, I. 407. 
 ^Leviticus, chap. xiii. 45. 
 
 "^ Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1630- 1662, 498. 
 ^Ibid., 1573-1642, I, 36, 91. 
 
 ^•Memorabilia of Glasgow, 27 ; Cleland's Statistical Facts, 1837, 22. For other references 
 * see Journal of Cutan. Med., iv. 207 ; Proc. Philos. Soc. of Glasgow, XII. 5. 
 
 li 
 
lO FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 But by the old burghers of Glasgow there was a disease more dreaded 
 even than leprosy. The baleful shadow of the " pest," as the Plague was 
 usually called, lay on all classes, rich and poor alike. If less loathsome 
 than leprosy, it was far more desolating in its effects. It attacked the town 
 several times ; but Glasgow appears to have sometimes escaped when the 
 plague was raging all around. In 1330 it seems to have visited the burgh,^ 
 while the Chartulary of Glasgow shows that it appeared again in 1350, and 
 it returned in 1380.^ The Records of the burgh show that it visited Scotland 
 in 1574, and that the townsmen were on the watch, especially as regards 
 the eastern seaports. The " statutes " which the Town Council enacted to 
 avert the danger on this occasion were certainly strong and exacting ; but 
 they hardly deserve the sweeping encomium of Mr. John Smith, youngest, 
 that " Our Boards of Health at the present day, under the afflicting dispensa- 
 tion of cholera, have not, it is believed, ever drawn up a more judicious, 
 precise, and comprehensive body of instructions and orders."^ As regards 
 measures having reference to searching, visitation, isolation, and quarantine, 
 this statement is perhaps not too strong, but the only approach to measures 
 of sanitation was " Item, Ordanis ye sculehouss wynd, and all ye vennallis 
 to be simply condampnit and stekit up."^ 
 
 In 1584 the burghs on the Fife coast were again under suspicion, and 
 men were appointed to watch the various entries to the town. The alarm had 
 in no way subsided by next year, a number of the burgesses leaving the town.^ 
 In 1588 the plague ravaged Paisley, and the Glasgow authorities were in 
 great alarm. They had again recourse to the most energetic measures of 
 quarantine, and to some small extent of sanitation, completely stopping all 
 communication with the infected district. By these sensible measures the 
 danger for the time appears to have been averted. From the Records of the 
 Presbytery of Glasgow*^ it appears that on 8th August, 1598, a fast day was 
 ordered " to be proponit . . . for eschewing of the pest within this cuntrey." 
 In 1602 it is spoken of as in the town, and we learn incidentally that the 
 townsmen had taken to absenting themselves from church for fear of infection. 
 
 From the Records of the Presbytery '^ we gather that marriages were 
 authorized to take place when the parties had not been proclaimed in the 
 parish church of Glasgow, but in Govan ; the reason being " thro' ye not 
 convening of ye people in yir perellous tymes of Godis jugements, threatened 
 throut ye feir of ye pest." 
 
 In 1604 the old expedient of a fast of a week's duration was again 
 tried in face of a threatened invasion. " And y' for avoiding of God his 
 
 ' Cleland's Statistical Facts, Appendix, 22. 
 
 ^Gibson's History of Glasgow, 72, 73. 
 
 '^ Burgh Records of Glasgow, Maitland Club, Pref. Notice, xviii. 
 
 * Ibid., 27-30. ^ Minute, 9th October, 1585. 
 
 6 Maitland Club Miscellany, Vol. I., Pt. I., 91. ''MS. Copy, Vol. i., Pt. i., 67. 
 
OLD GLASGOW— SANITATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY u 
 
 jugementis threatened on yis country be ye plague of pestilence for avoiding 
 his jugmentis qlk for ye sins of yis land he may send on ye fruitt of ye grund 
 qlk he has blassit in manis apperace abundatlie."^ Even the most stringent 
 rules of ecclesiastical discipline had to be relaxed in presence of the awful 
 pest. Thus in 1605- the Presbytery accepted as a sufficient reason for 
 granting baptism to an illegitimate child, instead of remitting the mother 
 back to be dealt with by her own presbytery, " because scho durst not resort 
 to Ly'gow q"" scho offendit for feir of ye pest of w^ ye bur' of Ly'gow is 
 pntlie (presently) visited." Next year^ we learn "Tryell being tane of the 
 seiknes in Archibald Muiris hous and Marioune Walker, his mother, and fund 
 to be the plaige," an order was given to ascertain " quha last frequentit 
 with hir and quhat scheraris schewr with hir " (what reapers reaped with 
 her). Pestiferous persons who declined to be " enclosit " were to be trans- 
 ported with the plague-stricken to the " Muir." Dogs and cats were to be 
 kept fast or hung, and strangers were to leave the town on pain of being 
 " enclosit " with the persons harbouring them. The Council voted " ane 
 hunderithe pundis of the reddiest of the taxatioune that is in his [a bailie's] 
 handis " for the sustenance of those on the muir. 
 
 But the most memorable epidemic of the plague was that which visited 
 Glasgow in 1645-46, and during that and perhaps the next two or three 
 years made terrible havoc amongst the townsmen. Almost from the first 
 the most determined efforts were made to stamp out the disease. Daily 
 house-to-house visitation was eventually adopted, and daily reports sent to 
 the magistrates of the sick.* When the measures to arrest its progress 
 failed, it was resolved to have recourse to the old expedient of transporting 
 the infected out of the town to the muir. This muir is believed to have 
 comprised the waste lands of Sighthill, Seggieholm, and others in the district 
 to the north of the burgh. Intimation was to be made, " be touk of drum 
 that na manner of persone goe out to the muir quher the foull persones are 
 without leave of the magistratis, and to certify that those who on the 
 contraire schall be put out to the muir with the haill families they are in." 
 
 The prevailing terror invaded the academic precincts in High Street, the 
 University authorities migrating in a body to Irvine, where the Principal, 
 the regents, and the bursars of the College were boarded in 1645 and 
 part of 1646. Local trade was almost at a standstill. Nearly all who 
 could leave the town appear to have done so. The burgh tollmen and 
 tacksmen had to beg off from the payments of their rents. " Comperit the 
 haill takismen of the mylnc, laidells, tron, and brig, and intimat to the 
 Councell that in respect of the seiknes and visitatioune they could get 
 
 1 Records of the Presbytery, 8th August, MS. Copy, Vol. I., Pt. v., 97. 
 
 "^ lb., 17th August, Vol. I., Pt. v., 242. 
 
 ^ Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 20th September, 1606. 
 
 * Minute, 5th November, 1646. 
 
12 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 naething of ther deuties." The burial of the dead was unaccompanied by 
 the usual rites. On I2th December, 164.6, it was ordained "that ther be 
 na meiting at lykwakes nor efter burrialls and that this be intimat by touk 
 of drume." 
 
 If such was the state of things in the burgh, who can imagine the 
 horrors of the plague-stricken banished to the bleak moor ? The time was 
 the depth of winter, their only shelter was " ludges made of daills and 
 spairs," with straw for their bedding. By 20th February, 1647, the visitation 
 of this miserable colony had assumed a systematic form. " James Robiesoune, 
 baxter, is maid choyce of to be visitour of the muire quhair the oncleane 
 fokes ar, and to set doune in a register all occurantes daylie anent the 
 infectioune, . . . and to tak notice of the graves." Frequent entries 
 also appear in the Treasurer's Accounts at this time ^ of disbursements for 
 supply of the poor on the muir, and for " coals, peitts, and strae," furnished 
 to them. On 17th July, the Councillors are appointed by turns for a 
 week to visit the muir, each selecting " an other honest man " to receive a 
 list of all in the muir, and to " disburse to James Robiesoune such money 
 as he sail requyre to sustean the puire on the muir, and to viseit the muir 
 tweiss or thryiss in the week," with other necessary duties of a similar kind. 
 Doctor Rae, possibly a physician reputed to have skill in the treatment 
 of the plague, is written for, but apparently does not come, and Dr. M'Cluir 
 is engaged, and on 26th July gets ten dollars " for bygane service to 
 incouradge him." From a subsequent minute it appears that John Hall, 
 the principal surgeon in Glasgow at that period, by arrangement with the 
 magistrates, gave his services to all and sundry gratuitously, being subsequently 
 paid by them as well for inspecting the bodies of the dead as for his care 
 of the living.^ 
 
 Within the burgh it would appear that sanitary measures were prosecuted 
 with energy. There is a curious minute of loth March, 1647, in which the 
 bailies, with the aid of a hired man, are charged with the duty of removing 
 " suspect fulyie." In these days the honourable office of the magistracy was 
 clearly very far from a sinecure. One noteworthy result of the compulsory 
 removal of such large numbers of the citizens to the muir, was that the 
 magistrates found that they were obliged />ro tempore to make payment of 
 their plague patients' debts.^ From some subsequent minutes we infer that 
 some amount of imposition had been practised by the " unclean " or their 
 friends. Thus on 13th March we find two men appointed to revise "the 
 compts debursit for honest men the tyme they closit up for fear of infectioune." 
 Through the whole of the summer and autumn of 1647 the plague appears 
 to have been raging with virulence. As the College session drew near it 
 
 ' Minute, 29th May, 1647, etc. 
 
 2 Minutes of i8th September, 1647, and 26th August and 2nd October, 1648. 
 
 ^Minute, 20th February, 1647. 
 
OLD GLASGOW— SANITATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY 13 
 
 was necessary to make some arrangement in regard to a temporary local 
 habitation till the plague abated. Irvine had probably been found incon- 
 venient on account of its distance from the city. Paisley was now selected 
 for the purpose, being clear of the pest, though its past reputation as a 
 plague-haunt was not good, and there the College authorities spent part of 
 the winter.^ 
 
 On 22nd July, 1648, the pestilence was still on the increase; a daily 
 inspection of everybody in town was again arranged for ; and a proclamation 
 made by tuck of drum prohibiting the frequenting of taverns, or even idle 
 wandering through the streets. From the Town Council Records (for 1 2th 
 August, 1648) we learn that Glasgow was now in sore straits for money 
 for the maintenance of such numbers of the stricken poor. Accordingly 
 they agreed to call in a sum of two thousand marks, collected but not 
 expended some years before for a similar purpose, and now on loan to the 
 Earl of Wigtown. It was not till the following year that this terrible 
 visitation of plague appears to have come to an end in Glasgow, 
 
 In 1665, when the dreadful scourge made its memorable inroad on 
 London, and more than decimated the population, the Town Council Records 
 (3rd September) show that the people of Glasgow were alarmed and on 
 the watch. In the previous year even they were evidently on the alert, 
 the Master of Works having been ordered to repair the ports. This was 
 always done when they had reason to fear an outbreak, as if the magistrates 
 hoped to repel the impalpable infection of what with emphatic tautology 
 they call " the plague of pestilence " from their gates by the same measures 
 as they would the attack of an armed foe. The dreaded visitor, however, 
 did not make its appearance in Glasgow then or subsequently. Its sudden 
 disappearance not long after, not only from this country but from Western 
 Europe generally, has often been made the subject of remark, though scarcely 
 explained.^ 
 
 It is worthy of note that the parts of the burgh which are still or 
 were recently the most obnoxious in a sanitary point of view, had even 
 in these early days acquired that unenviable notoriety as the hot-beds of 
 disease which has since given them a bad pre-eminence. Thus by minute 
 of the Town Council, 29th October, 1574, we find an order already 
 quoted, condemning and shutting up the Sculehouse Wynd. By a subse- 
 quent minute (31st October, 1588) "the Senile Wynd, Lindsay's Port, the 
 Stinking Vennail," are particularized as bad localities, on the occasion of an 
 anticipated infection from Paisley. 
 
 During part of the period the pest was intermittently visiting the town, 
 
 ' Mackie's History of Paisley, 143. See also Munimenia Universitatis Glasguensis, 
 HI. 537- 
 
 '''The cause of its sudden decline and extinction are discussed by Creighton {Hislory 
 of Epidemics in Britain, \\. 34, ct scq.). 
 
14 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 we get occasional glimpses of another plague which is generally associated 
 rather with moral than physical impurity. This was the "Glcngore" (corrupted 
 from the French Grandgore, a la grande gorre, equivalent to a la grande mode), 
 a name by which the disease was known in Scotland alone of all the divisions 
 of the kingdom. As is well known the mode of introduction and rapid 
 propagation of this formidable affection has given rise to no small amount 
 of discussion and controversy amongst medical archaeologists. For our pur- 
 pose it is enough to say that within three years of the arrival of Columbus 
 at Palos from the New World, with which event the sudden outbreak of 
 syphilis in Southern Europe is usually associated, it had unmistakably 
 made its appearance in Scotland. The earliest notice of it we have is from 
 a minute of the Town Council of Aberdeen, dated 21st April, 1497. "The 
 said day it was statut and ordanit be the Alderman and Consale, for the 
 eschewin of the infirmitey cumm out of Franche and Strang partis, that all 
 licht wemen be chargit and ordanit to decist fra thar vices and syne of 
 venerie, and all thar buthes and housis skalit, and thai to pass and wirk for 
 thar sustentacioun, vnder the payne of ane key of het yrne one thair cheekis 
 and banysene of the toune."^ 
 
 As Sir James Simpson^ has pointed out, this Aberdeen edict has an interest 
 apart from its being the earliest notice of the presence of syphilis in Scotland. 
 Before 1500 no medical writer on the subject had even hinted that it had 
 any connection with the " syne of venerie." Yet, here in this northern Scottish 
 burgh, the astute municipal authorities had anticipated conclusions subse- 
 quently come to by the faculty. Six months after the Aberdeen edict the 
 Scottish Privy Council issued the oft-quoted " Grangore Act," which ordained 
 all the inhabitants of Edinburgh affected with the disease to pass out of the 
 town and to appear upon the sands of Leith on a stated day and hour, thence 
 to be conveyed by boat to the island of Inchkeith.^ In this next year, if 
 not earlier, the disease appears to have shown itself in Glasgow. In the 
 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1497-98, occurs the 
 following entry of payment by the King (James IV.) : — ""'Itein the xxij day of 
 Februar giffen to the seke folk in the grangore at the tounn end of Glasgo ij.f."* 
 
 There may be other notices of the presence of the disease in Glasgow 
 before 1592, but we have not met with them. In that year a minute of 
 the Kirk Session directs " that the hous beyont the Stable Grein Port^ for 
 women affectit with the Glengore be looked efter." We gather from this 
 that the method adopted to stop the spread of the disease was the same as 
 had been put in force for leprosy. But this attempt at seclusion, which 
 had been unavailingly tried in Edinburgh by the Grandgore Act of 1497, 
 
 ^ Extracts from the Couticil Register oj the Burgh of Aberdeen, Vol. I. 425. 
 '^Antiquarian Essays, 1872, n. 326. ^Arnot's History of Edinburgh, 260. 
 
 * Simpson's op, cit., ll. 310. 
 ■^This port was near the wall surrounding the Castle Garden. 
 
OLD GLASGOW-SANITATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY 
 
 15 
 
 would appear to show that the Glasgow authorities had failed to learn what 
 the long-headed Aberdonians had rightly inferred as to its mode of propaga- 
 tion almost a century earlier. That the Glasgow burghers were much 
 perplexed on the subject is evident from a minute of the Session of 17th 
 April, 1600. It states that "after the morning preaching the Session consulted 
 how the infection of the glengore within the city may be removed. Some sent 
 to the Council to deplore the infection that's in this city by the Glengore, 
 and some to convene again in the Blackfriars Kirk anent it, and the whole 
 chirurgeons and professors of medicine to be present. So much was given 
 to a man for bigging a lodge without the Stable Green Port to the women 
 that hath the glengore."^ The alarm seems rapidly to have reached the Town 
 Council, as we learn from the minute of 3rd May, a fortnight later. "The 
 provest, baillies, and counsale hes appoyntit Weddinsdye nixt efter the 
 preiching to convein thameselffis for taking tryall of the inhabitantis anent 
 the greit suspicioune of sindry persones infectit with the glengoir, quilk, 
 gif it be nocht preventit will endanger the haill toune, and hes ordanit the 
 haill chirurgiones to be warn it to that effect to compeir in the Greyfreir Kirk 
 and qu'haever beis v.^arnit [and comes nocht] to pay fyve li of vnlaw." What 
 the result of this combined assault of the powers, ecclesiastical and civil, 
 may have been does not appear. More well-directed measures than quarantine 
 would probably be needed to banish this particular plague from the burgh. 
 The town's surgeon, Mr. Peter Lowe, had, four years earlier, written a book 
 on the disease which he had called " The Spanish Sicknes." Possibly his 
 large experience in treating " Spaniards and French, both men and women, 
 of divers temperatures, who had often been treated both in Spain, Lowe 
 Countries, and Fraunce," and whom, he says, he had cured " by the help 
 of God and my confection," may have had some effect, if not in staying the 
 plague, in robbing it of some of its terrors. 
 
 This brief glance at Old Glasgow, its sanitary defects and epidemiology, 
 will serve to show that neither as regards hygiene nor morals was it in a 
 very satisfactory condition. Notwithstanding the undoubted energy and zeal 
 of its municipal rulers, it was the frequent haunt of diseases begotten of 
 filth and disregard of sanitary laws ; and despite the exacting rigour of its 
 puritanism, and the terrors of Kirk discipline, it was not without its dark 
 social plague-spots. Licence of many kinds was common, from the amazingly 
 frequent misuse of the tongue for vilification, to that of the hands for physical 
 violence. The old Glaswegians were indeed a turbulent race. A burgh law, 
 which enacted that every booth-keeper should have in readiness within his 
 booth " ane halbert jak and steill bonnet for eschewing " — so the ordinance 
 euphemistically puts it — " sic inconvcnients as may happen," - casts a lurid 
 light on the lawless condition of the populace. It was not without adequate 
 
 ^Clasi^ow Ancient and Modern, F. 131. '^ Burj;h Records, Matt land Club, 18. 
 
l6 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 reason that clergymen went armed to the pulpit,^ in which their great 
 influence was not always exerted in the cause of peace and order. The 
 power of the Kirk was great, and the behests of the body called the 
 " General Session " exacting and inquisitorial to an almost incredible degree. 
 Yet it must be admitted that though the ecclesiastical yoke was almost 
 intolerably heavy, such a power as was wielded by the Kirk was perhaps, 
 on a broad view, beneficial. 
 
 It need only further be said that the various craftsmen of the burgh 
 were associated into incorporations by charters from the Town Council, 
 some of them dating back to the fifteenth century and possibly earlier. 
 The craftsmen had suffered greatly from the long-continued civil wars, and 
 the Scottish court had made efforts to recruit their ranks from France, 
 Flanders, and other places. 
 
 For the purpose of this sketch, Glasgow at the end of the sixteenth 
 century may be regarded as a town of great antiquity, of no great size, 
 and in point of civic status inferior to several of the royal burghs around 
 it. It had, however, a Cathedral of great age and architectural beauty, 
 around which had gathered old traditions ; a University dating back to 
 1450, with such a well-earned reputation for good work done that Melville 
 could write in his Diary, " There was no place comparable to Glasgow for 
 guid letters during these years, for a plentiful guid cheap mercat for all 
 kind of languages, artes, and siences." But the University had no medical 
 faculty or medical chairs — except for a few years, when it could boast one 
 solitary professor — for more than a century after Melville wrote. 
 
 ^ Thus it appears from the Records of the Presbytery for 1587 that Mr. David Wemyss, 
 father-in-law of Dr. Peter Lowe, being attacked on the street when coming from the church, 
 "in fear of his hfe cast his goun over his arm and drew his qithingear in his defence. 
 Eventually another clergyman, the parson of Renfrew, joined in the fi'ay, the latter also 
 drawing his 'quhingear.' The two clerics defeated the attacking party" (Macgeorge's Old 
 Glasgow, 204). 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY GLASGOW MEDICINERS 
 
 There is no reason to believe that the state of the medical profession in 
 Glasgow in the latter part of the sixteenth century materially differed from 
 that already described as characteristic of Scotland generally (Chap. L) 
 The regular practitioners, as has been explained, consisted of a very small 
 number of physicians, with barber-surgeons, and also a few surgeons who 
 were not barbers. In all, they formed only a little band, and the encourage- 
 ment they received appears to have been in the same proportion. Glasgow 
 had then few attractions for a medical man. The royal burghs, and 
 especially those of them, such as Edinburgh and Stirling, favoured as royal 
 residences, doubtless presented better inducements for ambitious men. Hence 
 it happened that practitioners who had settled in Glasgow were very often 
 attracted elsewhere. To compensate for the scanty inducements from 
 ordinary practice, the civic authorities of Glasgow, like those of some other 
 towns, at an early period began to offer salaries or " pensions " to doctors 
 whom they invited to settle in the place. It does not appear when this 
 device was first hit upon in Glasgow. Here is a minute of the Town 
 Council, of 17th May, 1577: — "The prouest, baillies, and counsale under- 
 standand the supplicatioun gewin in be Allexander Hay, chirurgiane, quhairby 
 he is myndit to remane in the towne, being in redynes for serwing of the 
 towne in his craft and art, thairfoir for his support thai haif grantit, as be 
 thir presentis grantis ane yeirlie pensioun to him of ten markis money 
 yeirlie, to be payit be the thesaurare of the towne for the tyme, in tymes 
 cuming during thair willis and his guid serwice and bering, begynnand the 
 first payment fra the thesaurar in the threscoir sewintene yen's ; and attour 
 the said Allexander for serwice bigane is maid burges and freman of the 
 burght and citie of Glasgw, and hes gewin his aitht of fidelitie to the towne 
 and for obserwing of the statutis thairof, and sail paye na maner of taxt in 
 tyme cwming, conforme to the preuilege haid be vmquhile James Abernethie 
 his maister." The precaution of pensioning only ad culpmn was not quite 
 
 li 
 
l8 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 unwarranted. Thus we find from the Records of the Town Council for 3rd 
 June, 1589, that Thomas Myln, a salaried surgeon, was brought up before 
 the Council for speaking " sclanderouslie of the town [calling it the] hungrie 
 toun of Glasgw." The irate surgeon doubtless spoke from the depths of 
 his experience. But the good name of the city was a point on which the 
 magistrates were as excessively touchy as they were on that of their own 
 official dignity. Heinous then was the offence and condign the punishment. 
 The culprit was ordained to appear at the Cross, confess his fault, and forfeit 
 his pension for one year, or longer if the magistrates thought fit. Small 
 consolation would it be to the starving surgeon to know that his confiscated 
 pension was to go to the improvement of the burgh — even though the 
 " bigging of thair calsay " (paving of the street) to which it was to be 
 allocated might after all conduce as much to the health of the lieges as 
 would the suspended surgeon's plasters and medicaments. In the seven- 
 teenth century the municipal authorities not only subsidized a surgeon, but 
 for a considerable period they also in the same way assisted a physician ; 
 while the city " stone cutter," a functionary to whom we shall advert in a 
 subsequent chapter, apparently drew his pension after those of the other two 
 had been stopped. 
 
 It was in 1684 that the stoppage occurred, the cause of abandoning the 
 practice of paying a " retaining " salary being the impecunious state of the 
 burgh exchequer from debt at the time.^ Provision was, however, made for 
 necessitous cases by the magistrates having power to employ for these any 
 practitioner they might select. In the exercise of their discretion the magis- 
 trates must have been pretty liberal in their reading of a provision intended 
 for the poor. Thus in August, 1685, it is recorded: "The said day ordains 
 the thesaurer to pay John Hall, younger, Chirurgian, the soum of fourty 
 pounds Scots for cureing of James Hamilton, son to vmqll James Hamilton, 
 wryter, of ane whyte scabbed head being ordained to be cured be the 
 provest." There is another entry on the same day less liable to exception. 
 " The same ordains the thesaurer to pay John Hall, elder, the soum of 
 fyfty-fyve pounds two shillings Scots, for dressing the lait Argyle, Rum- 
 hold, Mr. Thomas Archer, Mr. Lockhart, and ane poor Dutchman, the tyme 
 they wer prisoners in the tolbwoth, being all wounded." 
 
 At the end of the sixteenth century the number of surgeons practising 
 in the town did not probably exceed half-a-dozen, and there is only evidence 
 of the presence of one physician, though the plural is sometimes used. There 
 were, however, in addition at least two midwives, and it is presumed that the 
 whole of the obstetric practice of the burgh, except that of difficult cases, 
 was in their hands. It was not till the first half of the eighteenth century 
 that man-midwifery, as part of ordinary practice, became common, though 
 surgeons such as Guillemeau wrote on the subject. The learned Astruc 
 
 ^ Glasgow Memorabilia, 248. 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICINERS I9 
 
 could find no instance earlier than 1663.^ Where the Glasgow midwives 
 got their training at that time does not appear, but that their morals were 
 looked after by the Kirk there is evidence to prove. Thus, from the 
 Records of the Presbytery, 4th April, 1589, we learn that one Kate 
 Freland was summoned before that body, " to ass'- for her professioun to 
 be ane midwyfe, qlk hes not been knawin w'in ye toun and citie of 
 Glasgow to ye inhabitatis yair, and to underly ye [censure?] of ye Kirk 
 according to her demerites." It further appears that the special interest 
 of the ecclesiastical authorities in the midwives lay in the fact that under 
 certain circumstances they were called on to perform one of the ordinary 
 functions of the minister. Thus, by minute of 8th February, 1599, the 
 midwives are " dischargit to go to any unmarried woman, within, while 
 first they signify the matter to some of the ministeris in the day-licht, and 
 if it be in the nicht time that they take the aiths o the said woman 
 before they bear the bairne wha is the fayther of it, as they will be 
 answerable to God and the Kirk."^ 
 
 This was the state of matters medical in the burgh at the end of the 
 sixteenth century. It was far from satisfactory. There was no authority 
 accredited to inquire into the fitness of any practitioner. Every man was 
 a law unto himself, and ignorant pretenders flourished. Things appeared 
 to have come to such a pass about two years before the end of the century 
 that the ruling powers felt that something must be done. The Kirk was 
 the first to move in the interests of reform. From a minute of the Session 
 of 14th September, 1598, it appears that body thought it right that the 
 University, Ministers, and Presbytery " take cognition who are within the 
 town that pretend to have skill in medicine and hath not the same ; that 
 those who have skill be retained and others rejected." A deputation was 
 accordingly sent to the Council to make a representation.^ The civic 
 authorities seem to have been a little slow to respond to the stimulus ; but 
 at last on April 14, 1599, we come upon the following minute of the 
 Council : " The provest, bailleis, and counsale, at desyre of the sessione, 
 ministrie, and elderis thairof, being informit of mediciners and chyrurgianes 
 quha dayele resortis and remanis within this towne, and ar not able to 
 discharge thair dewtey thairintill, in respect thai have not cunyng nor skill 
 to do the same, and for evading of inconuenientis that may follow thair- 
 upon, hes deput and assignit thir persones onderwrittin of the counsale to 
 
 ^The confinement was that of Mile, de la Vali&re. To secure concealment she is 
 said to have called in Julian Clement, an eminent surgeon. The story goes that he was 
 secretly conducted to the house, where the lady lay covering her face with a hood, the king 
 being concealed behind the curtains. The fashion thus clandestinely begun gradually spread 
 over Western Europe. Witkowski {Les Accouchetnents d. la Cour., i88) gives another version 
 of the story and dates man-midwifery half a century earlier. 
 
 ^ Glasgow^ Ancient and Afodern, I. 131. ^ Jbid., i. 131. 
 
20 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 concur and assist the ministrie, certane of the sessione, and vtheris cunyng 
 men of that arte, to examinat and tak tryall of all sic persounes as vsit or 
 sal happin to vse the said arte within this towne in tyme cumyng, and with 
 thair advyis and consent to tak the tryall thairof, viz. the thrie bailleis, 
 James Forret, Alexander Baillie, and Thomas Pettigrew, to convein with 
 thir persones of the ministrie, viz. the thrie ministeris, the principall, Mr. 
 Blais Lowery, and Mr. John Blakburne, wpon Weddinsdye nixt eftir the 
 preiching in the Blakfreir Kirk, and to reporte." ^ 
 
 This was the first medical examining board in Glasgow, if indeed it ever 
 acted, for there appears no published evidence that it reported. What 
 might be the special qualifications of three bailies, three clergymen, the 
 principal, and one of the regents of the University, and the master of the 
 grammar school (the last three being also clergymen), to test the professional 
 skill of practitioners of medicine, the Records say not. Doubtless the persons 
 described as " vtheris cunyng men of that arte " were intended to do the 
 work, and that the co-operation of lay assessors occupying official positions 
 should throw some semblance of authority over the board thus improvised. 
 Whence arose this new-born zeal for medical reform? One coincidence cannot 
 be overlooked. This activity followed hard upon the settlement in Glasgow of 
 an eminent man " cunyng in that arte," Dr. Peter Lowe. The conjecture is 
 therefore probably not very far wrong that the quickened sense of medical 
 misrule in Glasgow all at once manifested on the part of the powers of Kirk 
 and State was mainly due to the representations and remonstrances of that 
 gentleman. As will be seen in the next chapter, he made at this time 
 a strong representation to the Scottish Court on the subject, with the result of 
 obtaining a royal gift accrediting him to set matters right. That charter is 
 prefaced by a sentence in which the existing state of things was painted in 
 bold colours. " Understanding the grit abuisis quhilk hes bene comitted in 
 time bigane und zit daylie continuis be ignorant unskillit and unlernit 
 personis, quha, under the collour of Chirurgeanis, abuisis the people to their 
 plesure, passing away but [without] tryel or punishment and thairby destroyis 
 infinite number of our subjectis." A formula of this kind appears in most of 
 the early medical charters ; but there is no reason to suppose that the picture 
 was overdrawn, as there is evidence that the country was over-run by ignorant 
 pretenders, and that lives were frequently sacrificed through their treatment. 
 The popular ideas in regard to medicine were deeply coloured by superstition. 
 The powerlessness of ordinary medicaments in the presence of disease attri- 
 buted to the operation of witchcraft and the powers of evil was fully recognized 
 long after the period under review. 
 
 Such was the condition of the medical profession in Glasgow, and generally 
 in the West of Scotland, on the advent of Dr. Peter Lowe from France at the 
 end of the sixteenth century. 
 
 ^ Extracts frotn the Records of the Bur^h of Glasgow^ 1 573-1642, 192. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DR. PETER LOWE 
 
 The following is an excerpt from the Minutes of the Town Council of 
 Glasgow, 17th March, 1599: — 
 
 "It is aggreit of new and contractit betuix the towne and Doctor Low 
 for iiij'"^' merkis money be yeir." 
 
 This minute implies a former agreement, probably a year earlier, which 
 would mark the arrival of Dr. Peter Lowe in Glasgow about the beginning 
 of I 598, though it may have been a few months before this date. 
 
 Of the date and place of his birth nothing has been ascertained. The 
 hypothesis discussed by Dr. James Finlayson in his admirable Memoir,^ that 
 he was a native of Errol,^ from his use of the title " Arellian," is probably 
 as wide of the mark as Astruc's half contemptuous suggestion, made from 
 the same premiss nearly a century and a half earlier, that Ayr was his 
 place of origin. The fact of his selecting Glasgow for his residence when 
 he returned from the Continent raises some kind of presumption that he 
 belonged to the West of Scotland ; but that is all that can be said. Of 
 his nationality he has left us in no doubt, the word " Scottishman," or 
 " Scotchman," being affixed by him to his name almost as often as he 
 has occasion to repeat it. The prefix " Mr.," which appears as part of his 
 signature, betokens that he was a Master of Arts ; but of what university 
 is not known. It is not easy to say whether his knowledge of the ancient 
 classical languages was scholarly ; but his writings, at all events, abound in 
 exact references to classical authors. His translation of the Presages of 
 Hippocrates may have been, and probably was, made at second hand 
 through the French ; and his original writings are in the vernacular. But there 
 can be no doubt that he was a man well educated for the time in which he 
 
 ^Account 0/ the Life and Works oj Maister Peter Lowe. Glasgow, 1889, 56, etc. 
 2 It must, however, be admitted that it was not an uncommon practice for authors to 
 append to their names an adjective indicating the place of birth. 
 
22 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 lived. In the first edition of his CJiirurgerie he gave a preface in Latin, 
 possibly to show that though he wrote in English it was not from want 
 of ability to use the learned tongue. 
 
 He probably left Scotland for the Continent some time after the middle 
 of the sixteenth century, that is, about the era of the Scottish Reformation. 
 In a brief autobiographical scrap in his Address, " To the Friendlie Reader," 
 prefixed to the second edition of his Chirurgerie^ he speaks in the style 
 of writers of the day, which was not usually characterized by any lack of 
 self-appreciation or of out-spoken expression of it. " But I impart to you 
 my labours, hidded secrets, and experients by me practised and dayly put 
 in vse, to the great comfort, ease, and delight of you, and such as haue 
 had occasion to vse my helpe in France, Flaunders, and elsewhere, the 
 space of 2 2 yeeres ; thereafter being Chirurgian maior to the Spanish Regi- 
 ments at Paris, 2 yeeres ; next following the French King, my Master, in 
 the warres 6 yeeres, where I made commoditie to practise all points and 
 operations of Chirurgerie," This would give thirty years for his career as a 
 surgeon on the Continent. The only statement in this passage which 
 involves a date is that relating to the Spanish regiment in Paris. The 
 Spaniards sent assistance to the famous Catholic League organized by the 
 Guise party; and after the death of Henry III. the Spanish regiments assisted 
 to hold Paris in 1588-90 against Henry IV. 
 
 That this was the period of his serving as surgeon-major in the Spanish 
 army is confirmed by another passage in his CJiirurgerie, in which, speaking 
 of a case of aneurism in the neck of " one of the chiefest captaines amongst 
 the Spaniards at Paris," in 1590, he uses the word, " I, a Chyrurgion-maior to 
 the regiment." ^ In another passage he speaks of himself as an eye-witness 
 of some of the horrors attending one of the numerous sieges which Paris 
 underwent during these two years. From this date, then, as an ascertained 
 standpoint, we can fix the period of his wanderings as a surgeon on the 
 Continent as beginning about 1566 and ending about 1596. During all 
 these thirty years France was a prey to fierce intestine religious wars. The 
 period included such memorable historical epochs as the Massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew and the Revolt of the Netherlands. There could certainly be 
 no period better fitted for a military surgeon finding " commoditie to practise 
 all points and operations " of surgery. But this little bit of autobiography 
 suggests one or two questions which it does not help us to resolve. One 
 would like to know, for example, whether the side on which the Scottish 
 surgeon was found is a correct indication of his religious persuasion at that 
 time. That he was at that period a Catholic is very probable. Pro- 
 fessional offices in those days of embittered religious strife would hardly 
 be bestowed or received independent of creed. The Reformation could have 
 been little more than begun in Scotland when he left his native country ; 
 
 ^2nd Edition, Lib. v., cap. 41, 217. 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 2$ 
 
 and it is not likely that a heretic officer would be found serving in the 
 ranks of the Catholic League. Even the high professional services of 
 Lowe's great contemporary, Ambroise Pare, who was a Protestant,^ did not 
 save him, it is said, from being marked for death at the Massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, and, as the story goes, he only escaped by the king locking 
 him up all night in his wardrobe. How Dr. Lowe managed to change sides 
 about 1590, when he must have taken office under Henry IV., and whether 
 the change indicates a corresponding veering round as to his religious 
 persuasion, these are points on which we can only speculate. 
 
 In the army of Henri le Grand he seems to have attained some degree 
 of rank, though the title he assumes, " ordinary Chyrurgeon to the French 
 King and Navarre," was probably only an honorary military title, equivalent to 
 similar distinctions occasionally bestowed now on retired military medical officers 
 in this country. Matthias calls him ' primarius Chirurgus Castrensis";^ but this 
 is probably merely a free translation of Lowe's " Chyrurgeon Major." The 
 value which he attached to this distinction may be inferred from the fact 
 that he uses it in the title page of his Chirurgerie ; while of the corresponding 
 honours subsequently bestowed upon him by the Scottish Court he appears 
 to make no mention in the book.^ 
 
 Before turning from Dr. Lowe's continental career, a word or two must 
 be said on what we would now call his professional " qualifications," using 
 the term in its technical sense. In the title page of the books he published 
 in London in 1596 and the following year, and in the headings of some 
 of the chapters of one of them, he calls himself Peter Lowe, Arcllian. What 
 the meaning of this word may be is a perfect puzzle. It is sometimes 
 separated by a point from the title following, viz., " Doctor in the Facultie 
 of Chirurgerie in Paris " ; but in other places it is not so disjoined. This 
 last circumstance might lead to the presumption that it was an adjunct 
 qualifying or having reference to the " Doctor " ; but this seems disproved 
 by its standing alone in other places. The suggestion that it denotes his 
 place of birth seems the most improbable of all the conjectures made regarding 
 it. In the Chirurgerie it follows the word " Scotchman," or " Scottishman," 
 thus reversing the natural order of connotation from the particular to the 
 more general. Astruc's suggestion that it possibly stood for the town of 
 " Ayr " is wild on the face of it, and was perhaps only half seriously made.* 
 
 *The question whether he was a Huguenot has, however, been keenly contested. See 
 Dechambrds Dictioti. de MM., 2 Ser. 21. 134. 
 
 ^Conspectus Historiae Medicoruftt Chronologicus, 378. 
 
 3 Dr. Finlayson, however, conjectures that these may have lapsed on the removal of the 
 Scottish king to London in 1603. 
 
 * " Petrus Lowa; Scotus, Arellianus (quod vocabulum non satis video quid valeat, nisi 
 fortd significet Auctorem hunc oriundum esse ex urbe Ayre qua3 caput est comitatus cog- 
 nominis in Scotia). . . ." i^De M or bis Vcncreis, editio secunda, Veneta, 174S, 11. 283.) 
 
24 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Whatever the word meant, it would appear from its position, and his repeated 
 use of it, that it was a title which he thought would reflect credit on his 
 name as a surgeon ; and, in the case of a book published in London, it 
 seems absurd to suppose that any honour could accrue to the author from 
 his parading his natal connection with a town or village in Scotland. By 
 far the most feasible explanation is that put forward by Dr. A. Bureau, 
 who in 1877 was Librarian of the Paris Academy of Medicine, that by 
 Arellian Lowe meant Medicus Aurelianus {Orleanais), that is, medical man 
 trained at the School of Orleans, That Lowe's name is found in some 
 manuscript registers at Orleans, dated 1596, Dr. Dureau states from personal 
 inspection.^ 
 
 The distinction of having been trained at a Medical School would of itself 
 have marked him as a gown-surgeon, and put him on a higher platform than 
 the barber-surgeon, and therefore was something which he could legitimately 
 use as a meritorious affix to his name. This would also be in perfect keeping 
 with the other professional title that follows it in his books, which we shall 
 presently discuss. It need hardly be said that the difference in spelling 
 between *' Arellian " and " Aurelianus " counts for little as an objection to 
 this theory, in view of the fluid condition of orthography even considerably 
 after this period. The title is dropped in the second edition of Lowe's 
 Chirurgerie, published in 16 12. Possibly by that time he may have 
 found that the term was not understood, and he may have thought that the 
 dictum " omne ignotum pro magnifico " did not hold good of enigmatical 
 titles.2 
 
 Immediately following the title " Arellian " in his earlier memoirs, and 
 also used in the second edition of his Surgery, published in 16 12, is the 
 title, " Doctor in the Facultie of Chirurgerie in (or at) Paris." If Lowe has, 
 no doubt unintentionally, mystified the modern reader by using the former 
 title, he has also brought on himself the charge of presumption, and even 
 ineptitude, in the use of the latter. The hostile critic is Astruc, the eminent 
 French physician and writer.^ But Astruc was a very prejudiced judge on 
 such a point. This is evident from the fact that he practically treats the 
 
 1" Arellian veut dire Orleanais, Peter Lowe etait medecin du College d' Orleans {medicus 
 Aurelianus). Je le trouve portd sur plusieurs registres manuscrits de 1596 que j'ai feuillet^s 
 moi-meme k Orleans. II est bon que vous sachiez que cette ancienne ecole de medecine a 
 regu bon nombre de m^decins anglais. Done il n'y a pas de doute k cet egard." Letter of 
 Dr. Dureau, 8th March, 1877. (Finlay son's Maister Peter Lowe, 70.) 
 
 2 For a full discussion of this question the reader is referred to Dr Finlayson's Memoir. 
 
 ^Petrus Lowae . . . se ipse vocat Doctorem in Facultate Chirurgias Parisiensi, 
 arroganter sane, ne dicam inepte, cum nulla sit Lutetia; Parisiorum, fueritve unquam 
 Facultas Chirurgiae, sed Communitas tantum Magistrorum Chirurgorum : Communitas ilia 
 doctores nullos creet, creaveritve dim, sed Juratos tantum magistros Chirurgiae ut in 
 ceteris Europa? civitatibus solenne est. (Astruc, op. cit., II. 283.) 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 2$ 
 
 claim as if it were only personal on Lowe's part, and one never before 
 advanced. He must have known that the assumption of the title was not 
 the claim of a single individual, but had been urged as a right in behalf 
 of a body. The College of sworn Master Surgeons of Paris, the members 
 of which v;ere known as " surgeons of the long robe," to distinguish them 
 from the barber-surgeons, who were " surgeons of the short robe," dated 
 back to 1226. From the name of their patron saint, near to whose church 
 was their hall in Paris, the fraternity was often called the College of 
 St. Come. We cannot, however, trace the history of this institution, and its 
 famous quarrels with the Faculty of Medicine. Suffice it to say, that one 
 of the main grounds of contention between the two bodies was the 
 assumption of academic status on behalf of the surgeons. Astruc can 
 hardly have been unaware that, as a consequence of this assumption, their 
 claim was put boldly forward to rank as a Faculty of Surgery co-ordinate 
 with the Faculty of Medicine, and for their members to be Doctors of a 
 Faculty as well as Maitres of the College.^ The Faculty of Medicine, on 
 the other hand, of which Astruc was a leading member, desired to reign 
 supreme in the whole domain of the profession of the healing art, of which 
 surgery was to be regarded in the light of a mechanical appanage. The 
 surgeons might attend the University lectures, but any more intimate 
 connection was to be disallowed. Their ranks and titles were not to be 
 regarded as University degrees. To these, what seemed to them overbear- 
 ing pretensions of the physicians, the surgeons opposed an undaunted front. 
 Had not their claims to academic rank been recognized by King and 
 Parliament ; and, as a crowning sanction, had they not received the bene- 
 diction of the Chancellor? This was the view taken by at least the most 
 aggressive of the surgeons ; and amongst this class of them Lowe may 
 perhaps be ranked. Whether he would have used such a title if he had 
 published his book in Paris is a matter on which we can only speculate. 
 But it is evident he had no mind to lower the flag of his College amongst 
 his compatriots at home. 
 
 Having spent the best part of his life in foreign service, he had earned 
 a good right to come back to his native land. The return to Britain 
 was probably in 1596, when his six years as a surgeon to Henry IV. 
 would be terminated. In that year his Spanish Sicknes was published in 
 London, and in the following year his Chirurgerie appeared, being dated from 
 London, the 20th of April, 1597. The materials for these and other 
 works had been collected before he came to this country. As already 
 stated, he probably made his appearance in Glasgow about the early part 
 of 1598, and was engaged by the town, whether before or after his advent 
 in it does not appear, as .salaried or pensioned surgeon. In a medical 
 
 ' " Recherches critiques et historiques sur I'origine, sur les clivers dtats, et sur les progres 
 de la Chirurgic en France," 69, 72, 227, etc. Paris, 1744. 
 
26 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 aspect the change from the Seine to the Clyde must have been immense. 
 To a person familiar with the organization of the profession under two 
 corporate bodies, the medical aspect of the Scottish burgh must have been 
 sufficiently uninviting. The state of his surroundings generally, the rudeness 
 of manners, society everywhere dominated by a stern ecclesiastical des- 
 potism, must have struck him as strange. Curiously enough, it was with 
 the high and mighty power of the Kirk that he appears to have come 
 early into collision. The following is a minute of the Presbytery of 8th 
 August, 1598: "The Presbeteri orderis Mr. Peter Lowe, Doctor of 
 Chirurgerie to be convenit before ye Sessioun, thair to asser for his etrie 
 on ye Piller,^ not having satisfyed ye Thesaurer of ye Kirk, and w'out 
 his instructions, and not behaving him on ye piller as becumes, and furder 
 to mak as yet two Sondayes his repetance on ye Piller, and first to 
 satisfie ye Thesaurer, as ye said Sessioun hes ordenit him to do." What 
 the original offence was which rendered him liable to ecclesiastical discipline 
 we are not told. It must have been trifling in its nature, otherwise the 
 penalty would have been different. The sin of incontinence was usually 
 punished by imprisonment in the Blackfriars Steeple for eight days, with 
 bread and water diet, followed by exposure for one day in the cockstool, 
 and one day in the pillar, in addition to a money fine. But even for 
 such sins of the flesh there was considerable inequality and partiality in 
 the penalties. If the offender were an ex-Provost, like the Laird of Minto, 
 the payment of a fine was occasionally deemed adequate.^ But in the 
 present instance, whatever the original peccadillo, we gather from the minute 
 that the Doctor had been condemned to the pillar, and further mulcted 
 in a compulsory contribution to the Kirk funds. Of the first part of the 
 punishment he had apparently made fun, and the fine remained unpaid. 
 Whether he ever " made his repentance, as ordanit," and, if he did, whether 
 on the second occasion the merry Doctor " behaved him as becumes," and 
 even whether, as a preliminary step, he contrived " to satisfie ye Thesaurer," 
 are questions on which the defective records throw no light. Doubtless 
 long residence on the Continent, with so many of these years passed in 
 camps, had impressed on his manners a freedom which would ill accord with 
 rigid Presbyterian notions of decorum. 
 
 ^ " The pillar was an institution more closely allied to the cutty stool than the maister 
 stool was. No authoritative explanation or description of what the pillar was seems to be 
 forthcoming. But it must have been some sort of erection inside the church, at which 
 the sorrowful penitent had to stand — frequently clad in sackcloth — during public worship ; 
 and perhaps it was designed as a punishment for a more serious class of offences than the 
 cutty stool. To have to stand during the protracted services of olden times must indeed 
 have been a tax of no ordinary kind upon the patience and physical endurance of even a 
 hardened sinner." (Writer in the Glasgow Herald, February, 1895.) 
 
 2 " Buttock Mail" was the fine exacted as commutation for public satisfaction in cases 
 of the kind. 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 
 
 27 
 
 But in a few months after this incident, we find indications of his 
 presence in Glasgow more in keeping with his position and reputation as a 
 surgeon. We have already seen^ that a movement towards medical reform in 
 the town, originating with the Kirk Session in September, 1598, was taken 
 up by the municipal authorities in April, 1599, with the result that a 
 sort of Medical Examining Board was improvised to test the qualifications 
 of all who in time to come should practise within the city. That Lowe 
 was the man who inspired this movement cannot be doubted ;' and his efforts 
 in the direction of rectifying abuses were not confined to the town magnates, 
 ecclesiastical and civil. It must have been about the same time that he 
 memorialized the king, James VI., on the subject. In the second edition 
 of his Chirurgerie, dated from Glasgow, 20th December, 161 2, he writes: 
 " It pleased his Saci-ed Majestie to heare my complaint about some fowerteene 
 yeeres agoe vpon certaine abusers of our Art, of diuers sorts and ranks of 
 people, whereof we haue good store, and all things fayling, vnthrifts and 
 Idle people doe commonly meddle themselues with our Art, who ordinarily 
 doe passe without either tryall or punishment. The matter being considered, 
 and the abuse waighed by his Maiestie and Honourable councell, thought 
 not to be tolerated, for the which I got a priuiledge vnder his highnes 
 priue seale, to try and examine all men upon the Art of Chirurgerie, to 
 discharge, and allow in the West parts of Scotland, who were worthy or 
 vnworthy, to professe the same." 
 
 Such was the origin of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of 
 Glasgow as narrated by the founder. The provisions of the charter, dated 
 Penult. November, 1599, will be discussed in the next chapter; but in this 
 we follow the personal history of Lowe. On obtaining the charter, his 
 first care was to advise the Town Council of the grant, in view of the fact 
 that on the magistrates of Glasgow would chiefly fall the duty " to assist, 
 fortifye, concur, and defend," as the charter bears, the body it created. The 
 minute of the Town Council, 9th February, 1600, is as follows: "The provest 
 bailleis, and counsale, viz., Thomas Muir [and eleven others] present, haueand 
 inspectioune and advyseand with the priuilegeis and statutes of our Souerane 
 Lordis letter of gift and faculte grantit to maister Petir Low, Chyrurgian, 
 maister Robert Hammiltoune, and William Spang, and thair successouris, pro- 
 fessouris of thair artes, touching the liberte of thair artes, grantit be his 
 Maiestie to thaime and thair Successouris, as in the said letter of gift vnder 
 the privey seale at lenthe bcris, hes promesit to hold, haue, concur, fortifie, and 
 menteine thame and thair successouris and liberteis grantit to thame in the 
 same in all poyntis in tyme cuming : provyding that the same nor na actis 
 that thai salhappin to mak salbe preiudiciall nor hurtfull to the commouneweil 
 and liberte of the towne." ^ But notwithstanding this promptitude in obtaining 
 
 ip. 19. 
 
 "^ Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1876, 202. 
 
28 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 municipal ratification at the outset, no other immediate steps seem to have 
 been taken to properly launch the new institution. Possibly enough Lowe 
 was not at this time quite satisfied with the materials at hand for constituting 
 the " successors in office " of himself and Dr. Robert Hamilton, the grantees 
 named in the charter. In the meantime these two, without any other 
 assistance than that of William Spang, the apothecary also mentioned in 
 the charter, could carry its provisions into effect. In the next year the 
 absence of Dr. Lowe from Glasgow would prevent any steps being taken in 
 the matter. 
 
 In 1 60 1, Ludovick, Duke of Lennox, Lord Great Chamberlain of Scot- 
 land, and feudal Superior of Glasgow, was appointed special ambassador for 
 the Scottish king at the Court of France. To form a fitting retinue, a 
 number of gentlemen were asked to accompany him, and, among others. Dr. 
 Peter Lowe, probably as surgeon or medical officer of the embassy. The 
 chaplain was Rev. John Spottiswoode, parson of Calder, and two years after- 
 wards promoted to be Archbishop of Glasgow. It will be noted from the 
 subjoined minute of the Town Council that the leave of absence asked 
 from the Council on behalf of Dr. Lowe, as Town's Surgeon, was granted, 
 his salary being continued during his absence: "18 June, 1601. The 
 baillie and counsale present, at the special requeist and desyre of my Lorde 
 Duikis grace, hes licenciat and gevis licence to maister Peitir Low, chyrurgian, 
 to pas in company with my Lorde Duike as ambassadour appoyntit to France, 
 and dispensis with his absence and not remanyng of the said maister Peitir, 
 and that he may injoy his pensione of the towne, and that quhill the xi. 
 of November nixtocum, but preiudice of his contract in caice of his returnyng 
 or soner at the said tyme as sal happin his lordschip to returne." ^ 
 
 The Duke and his cortege embarked at Leith, loth July, 1601. It 
 was merely an embassy of royal courtesy such as in these days was not 
 uncommon. From a letter written by the French king in October of that 
 year, we gather that the embassy remained at Court only a few days ; 
 though from another source it appears that Lennox did not return to Scotland 
 till 1604. Dr. Lowe was probably in Glasgow by the time his leave of 
 absence expired ; and in the following summer (1602), as will appear from 
 next chapter, he took steps, along with Dr. Robert Hamilton, his co-grantee 
 in the charter, to formally hand over the powers vested in them by the 
 gift to those whom they had nominated for the purpose. It is somewhat 
 singular that, having thus divested himself of his powers as original 
 grantee, he never resumed or was elected to the chief office of the body 
 thus constituted. But whatever the reasons may have been for this, they 
 did not operate as regards his accepting and filling a subordinate office. 
 For several years in succession he was regularly elected a " quartermaster," 
 or collector of the quarterly accounts ; and when the sederunt of the meetings 
 ^Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1876, 222. 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 29 
 
 is stated, he is generally found present. The last occasion on which his 
 name appears was on the 22nd September, 1609, when he was re-elected 
 quartermaster. 
 
 During the early years of the seventeenth century Dr. Lowe's position 
 as a surgeon must have been the best in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. 
 That he was looked upon in the community as a man of probity and good 
 social position is shown by his having been appointed, in 1604, one of the 
 commissioners to settle a dispute which had arisen between the Merchants' 
 House and the Trades' House or Craftsmen. The result of the arbitration 
 of this commission was the Letter of Guildry, dated 6th Februar}^, 1605, 
 under which the Merchants' House and the City Incorporations are still 
 constituted. Only two other notices of him in the Town Council Records 
 have been printed, and probably no more exist. In the accounts for 1608 
 it is entered, " Gifin upone the last day of August, to Mr. Petir Lou, 
 chyrurgin, for his pensioun in Anno 1608, addedit be the toun to him, 
 conforme to ane warrand, \\\\£ v\s. viii^." Two years later we come on 
 a minute regarding him, dated 26th May, 1610,^ which need not be 
 quoted in full, but the essential part is here given. "The said James 
 Braid wod debursit and gaif furth the said sowme [' fourtie poundis 
 money'] to maister Petir Low, pairtlie for his fey and pairtlie for the 
 expensis maid be him in bowelling of the lard of Howstoun, lait provest ; 
 thairfoir the said James be this present act is dischargit of the said sowme 
 resauit be him as said is, and siklyke ordanis ane warrand to be direct to 
 Robert Hogisyard, thesaurer, vnder subscriptioun of the clerk, to ansuer 
 Mareoun Steward of the sowme of xxxvij li xs as for wyne and vthir 
 expenssis furnist and maid be hir the tyme of the said provestis bowelling." 
 The minute requires a word of explanation. Why it was that the defunct 
 Sir John Houston, late Provost of Glasgow, was not allowed to sleep with 
 his fathers without being subjected to the procedure of " bowelling " ; in 
 what that process consisted ; and why in connection therewith there was 
 incurred such a considerable bill for wine and other et ceteras, as if the 
 occasion had been something of a gaudeamus or an Irish wake — these are 
 points on which the minute quoted throws no light. At this period the 
 provosts of Glasgow were selected from the magnates of the surrounding 
 district, who were willing to accept the position of chief magistrate on 
 account of the increased consideration with which such a dignity invested 
 them. To the burgh, on the other hand, the arrangement was of advantage 
 in conferring enhanced importance and greater security ; and the Town 
 Council were in the habit of making acknowledgment by occasional gifts 
 to their chief magistrate, often apparently at great expense. The quantity 
 of wine, etc., in this way " propyned " to my Lord Provost and others 
 in respect of services rendered or expected, was something phenomenal. 
 "" Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1876, 314. 
 
30 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 It is to be hoped that the post-mortem attentions paid to the laird of 
 Houston by the Council were not by way of compounding for neglect 
 or inadequate appreciation of him in the way of " propynes," while living. 
 The process of embalming, which a prosaic town clerk has most in- 
 adequately designated by the term " bowelling " — albeit a term once made 
 use of by Dr. Lowe himself^ — seems not to have been very uncommon in 
 these days, especially in France and London, though in Scotland it was 
 not so often practised. Ambroise Pare, the famous French surgeon, devotes 
 a section of his Surgery to its description ; Lowe himself has a chapter on 
 the procedure in his Chirurgerie, and anyone reading it will see for what 
 purpose the wine of Marion Steward, who by the way appears to have been 
 the purveyor of municipal banquets of the day ,2 was needed. 
 
 This curious minute appears to be the last which has been published 
 in the city records referring to Dr. Lowe. He must now have been a 
 man well advanced in years. As to the period of his death we have 
 conflicting testimony. At the head of his tombstone in the High Church- 
 yard is inscribed the year 161 2, and this has usually been accepted by 
 local historians as the date of his death. On the other hand, the second 
 edition of his Chirurgerie bears to be dated " from my own house in 
 Glasgow, 20th day of December, 16 12," leaving only a margin of ten days 
 in which the death must apparently have occurred. From France we have 
 evidence which, if it could be relied upon, would fix the date with 
 exactitude. This is contained in the " Index Funereus Chirurgorum 
 Parisiensium, ab anno 131 5 ad annum 1729," being the death-roll of the 
 members of the Confrairy of Surgeons of Paris, which, as already stated, 
 was Lowe's College : " Petrus Louvet, Scotus, Medico-Chirurgus prae- 
 stantissimus obiit 30 Junii anni 16 17." A fact stated so definitely might 
 be presumed to be accurate, but there is conclusive evidence to show 
 that the Paris record is in error. Dr. Lowe's widow married Mr. 
 Walter Stirling, a Glasgow merchant. From the register of baptisms of 
 the Kirk Session of Glasgow it appears that the eldest son of this couple 
 was baptized nth January, 161 5. It is therefore improbable that Lowe's 
 death happened later than 161 3, and it is possible that the year on the 
 tombstone is that of his death. The date in the Paris record is probably 
 that on which information of the death reached the College. The reputation 
 which he had acquired as a distinguished medical man, as a surgeon 
 who practically recognized the relations of surgery to medicine, is sufficiently 
 indicated by the term used regarding him in the entry of his death : 
 " medico -chirurgus praestantissimus." The Glasgow tombstone stands 
 against the south wall of the High Churchyard, near the entry gate to 
 
 1 Chirurgie, 2nd edition, 367. 
 
 2 On i2th December, 1605, she is ordered to be paid for a banquet "at the proveistes 
 gudnicht quhen he past to Lundoune." 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 
 
 31 
 
 the Cathedral. When or by whom it was erected we have no information. 
 It is the property of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 
 having come into their possession in 1834 by purchase from Rev, John 
 Hamilton Gray of Chesterfield, the eminent genealogist, whose family had 
 acquired it in consequence of some of their descendants being also de- 
 scendants of Dr. Lowe. The quaint inscription is still legible, though the 
 stone shows too evident signs of the corroding hand of time. 
 
 1612 
 
 M 
 
 P L 
 
 lOHN LOW lAMES LOW 
 
 DOCTOR PETER LOW 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF THE FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
 
 Stay , Passenger . And . View . This . Stone 
 
 For . Under . It . Lyis . Such . A . One 
 
 Who . CuiRED . Many . Whill . He . Lieved 
 
 SoE . Gracious . He . Noe . Man . Grieved 
 
 Yea . WHEN . His . Phisicks . Force . oft . Failed 
 
 His . Plesant . Purpose . Then . Prevailed 
 
 For . OF . His . God . He . Got . The . Grace 
 
 To . Live . in . Mirth . And . Die . in . Peace 
 
 Heavin . Hes . His . Soul . His . Corps . This . Stone 
 
 Sigh . Passenger . And . soe . be . Gone 
 
 Ah Me I Gravell Ari And Dust 
 And To The Grave Deshend I Most 
 O Painted Peice Of Liveing Clay 
 Man Be Not Proud Of Thy Short Day 
 
 In view of the fact that this tombstone was rapidly decaying, the Faculty, 
 in 1892, resolved to erect a bronze memorial tablet to Dr. Lowe within 
 the nave of the Cathedral. An appropriate design was made by Mr. 
 Pittendreigh Macgillivray, the eminent sculptor, then of Glasgow, now in 
 Edinburgh ; and the epitaph on the tombstone is reproduced under the 
 figured part of the tablet, which stands on the north wall of the nave, 
 almost opposite the south door. This memorial tablet was unveiled by 
 Dr. Bruce Goff, President of the Faculty, in presence of a number of the 
 Fellows and Glasgow citizens, on the 5th April, 1895. 
 
32 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Dr. Lowe was married to Helen Weems (or Wemyss), daughter of the 
 Rev. David Weems, often called the Parson of Glasgow. He was the 
 first Protestant minister of the town and officiated in the Inner High 
 Church (Cathedral), in the nave of which the memorial to his distinguished 
 son-in-law now stands. The lady must have been much younger than the 
 Doctor, whom she survived for at least forty-six years, as we find her alive 
 in 1658. Dr. Lowe had a son, John, who is described in the public 
 records having reference to the succession of his son to his estate in 1670, 
 as Merchant Burgess of Glasgow.^ The name of the son is introduced by 
 Dr. Lowe into his Chirurgerie (2nd edition, 16 12), along with his own, as 
 holding a dialogue with a view to preparing the son for the Paris exam- 
 ination. This is, of course, a literary figment ; and it is probable that the son 
 never studied or qualified in surgery. But, layman though he probably was, 
 he was in 1636 admitted a member of the Faculty under exceptional circum- 
 stances. There is nothing said in the minute of his admission regarding 
 his being examined, or paying the usual entry fine. The record states 
 that the Faculty from the " respect they had to beir towards the said unqll 
 Mr. Peter, and the rather becaus he was the principall procurer to this 
 vocation of ye Letters of visitation under the Privi Scale, they hev admitit 
 the said John freman, who hes given his oath conforme to ordor : yis for 
 ye benefit of his children." It appears, however, that he did not take his 
 seat till 1652, when another minute records the fact ; after which he attended 
 the meetings pretty regularly. On 26th May, 1677, James Lowe, a writer 
 in Edinburgh, son of this John Lowe, presented a memorial to the Faculty 
 " desyring that in respect of Mr. Peter Low, his grandfay"", procurer to the 
 Faculty of the gift grantit be King James in anno 1599 To the Chirurgians 
 of Glasgow, The faculty did in considera°ne yrof, and for ther respect 
 to him, admitt Jon low, sone to the sd Mr. Pit, and father to the supplicant, 
 a member of the sd faculty ffor a benefit to his children in anno 1636, 
 And sine the sd Jon, his father, is now deceissit. They wold be pleisit 
 to confer the same favor upon him. Qlk being considred by the members 
 of the faculty pnt togither w' the act of his fayrs admission in Junii 1636, 
 They for the same cause, having the same vena°ne for his grandfather, 
 first procurer of ther gift of visita°ne, and for the sd James his good 
 service doon and to be doon be him to the faculty. They heirby admittit 
 the sd James frieman w' them and to have the priviledg of a member of 
 ther faculty. Who made faith as use is." This grandson of Peter Lowe 
 had a son Robert, also a writer in Edinburgh, who in his turn was admitted 
 a freeman of the Faculty on 2nd October, 1721. Such membership is not to 
 be looked upon as a mere honorary distinction. It should be more properly 
 regarded as being, from the member's point of view, a species of insurance. 
 In the event of the person thus admitted falling into poverty, or leaving 
 
 * Finlayson, op. tit., 74, 75. 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 
 
 33 
 
 his children unprovided for, he, or they, would, in accordance with the 
 practice of the Faculty and other City incorporations at that period, receive 
 an alimentary pension. Whether, however, in these cases of admission to 
 the membership, the sentiment of corporate veneration^ did not somewhat 
 outrun the powers the Faculty possessed by charter, is a question which 
 does not appear to have troubled them. For three centuries the memory 
 of Peter Lowe has certainly been warmly cherished by the corporation which 
 he was the means of calling into existence. 
 
 Turning briefly to his writings the earliest, in point of time, is, — 
 
 "An I Easie, certaine, and perfect | method, to cure and preuent the f 
 Spanish sicknes. | Wherby the learned and skilful! Chirurgian | may 
 heale a great many other diseases. | (. " •) | Compiled by Peter Lowe, 
 AreUian : Doctor in the facultie | of Chirurgy in Paris ; & Chirurgian 
 ordinary to Henry the fourth, | the most Christian King of France and ( 
 Nauarre. | At London, | Printed by James Roberts. Anno | Dom. 1596." 
 
 This is a small quarto, very scarce, of forty-two pages, with a dedication 
 " To the Right Honourable Robert Deuorax, Earle of Essex." The author 
 half apologises for the somewhat equivocal compliment of dedicating to 
 him a treatise " far dissonant from your studies," by telling him that he 
 had " diuers other Bookes of Chirurgie, all of which shall be shrouded 
 vnder your honourable shield," and explains that he had selected him in 
 respect especially of his " rare martial exploits in ayding my dread 
 Soueraigne and Master, the most victorious King of France." 
 
 It is not necessary here to analyze the contents. The work was published 
 in the same year as Clowes' memoir on the same disease, which was first 
 issued in another form in 1579. These treatises appear to be among 
 the earliest on the subject written in English. The " Spanish Sicknes " 
 was a disease which Dr. Lowe was, as we have already seen, to encounter 
 in Glasgow four years after the publication of this book, under the 
 corrupted French name of the Glengore {Grandgore), and which seems to have 
 a good deal alarmed the townsfolk, lay and clerical (p. 14). The name 
 Dr. Lowe gives it had reference to its presumed importation from the New 
 World into Spain by the sailors of Columbus. In nomenclature, however, it 
 was associated, as Lowe points out, with several nationalities : and although 
 the author avers that " there are some ignorant malicious people who call 
 it the French Sicknes, without any cause or reason," he sometimes, in the 
 
 ^The feeling broke out again in similar fashion on two occasions. See in Roll of 
 Members in Appendix the names of John Or, entered in 1680, and William Hastie in 1735. 
 What the relationship to Dr. Lowe founded on in these cases was does not appear. As 
 regards the rest of Lowe's descendants, one of them, Robert Lowe, W.S., Edinburgh, 
 the only son of James Lowe mentioned in the text, married a daughter of John Gray of 
 Dalmarnock and Carntyne. The issue of the marriage was a son, William Lowe, who had 
 valuable property in America, which he lost by the American War, and who died without 
 issue towards the end of last century ; and a daughter, Annabella, who died unmarried. 
 
 C 
 
34 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 second edition of his Chirurgerie gives it this name himself. Of his own 
 powers to cope with it successfully he speaks with much confidence, one 
 chief article of his armamentarium being " my Confection," or " my Electuary." 
 It has been charged against Lowe that he does not divulge the composition 
 of this " precious jewel " of a medicament. And this is literally true, 
 although at the same time, doubtless in perfectly good faith, he takes 
 credit to himself for revealing it, and lets it be known that its value made 
 this a matter of some self-sacrifice. " Wherefore albeit it be a very precious 
 iewell vnto me, yet for the loue that I haue to the Commonwealth I will 
 not hide it." The truth is, that whether on a preconceived plan of relegating 
 matter involving formulae to a separate collection, or for some other reason, 
 he is constantly in the habit of referring the reader for information to one 
 or other of two works of his, one The Poore Man's Guide, and the other 
 the Book of the Infantment. Nevertheless, as Dr. Finlayson has pretty 
 conclusively shown by an analysis of these many references, as late as 
 1 6 1 2 the Book of the Infantment had not been published, and the 
 other was probably in the same condition ; and, if this were the case, it 
 is all but certain that they never saw the light at all. Yet the references 
 to these treatises are so many and various, that it strikes the reader with 
 amazement to be informed that they are made to non-existent works. 
 Granting Dr. Finlayson's conclusion to be sound, this is certainly one of 
 the most singular instances of references and appeals not to one but to 
 two literary Mrs. Harrises ^ ; and it is all the more singular that these 
 appeals are repeated so late as in 1612, after a lapse of sixteen years. 
 
 Doubtless the two missing books were on the stocks at the same time 
 as the Spanish Sicknes and the Chirurgerie ; the two latter were launched 
 within a year of each other, while the other two were kept back awaiting 
 the day of completion which never arrived. As late as 1 6 1 2 he appears 
 even to have contemplated the publication of a Booke of the Plague^ a 
 disease he had probably encountered in Glasgow in 1602. The Poore Man's 
 Guide was intended to be a book of receipts and instructions for popular 
 use, and, had it been published, would have shown still more than did the 
 fact of his writing his other books in English, that he had broken with 
 the traditions of the old school of medical writers. The Book of the Infant- 
 ment has a title which sufficiently indicates its nature and contents. It 
 seems doubtful, however, whether an army surgeon could have had any 
 experience in obstetrics, especially before the days of man-midwifery. One 
 thing is certain, that the attempt implied in this title to naturalize in this 
 country the old French term " enfantment " did not succeed. 
 
 1 It is somewhat droll, as regards this reference, to find Astruc playing the role of the 
 incredulous Betsy Prig. Speaking of The Poore Mail's Guide, he says, " Qui an unquam in 
 lucem prodierit addubito, de cujus editione saltern nihil comperti hactenus habere potui.'' 
 
 - Chyrurgerie, 2nd ed., 264. 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 
 
 35 
 
 But the book on which Lowe's reputation as an author mainly depends 
 is his general work on Surgery. The first edition — a small unpaged quarto — 
 bears the title : — 
 
 " The I Whole Covrse of | Chirurgerie, wherein is briefey set | downe the 
 Cause, Signes, Prognostications | & Curations of all sorts of Tumors, 
 Wounds, I Vlcers, Fractures, Dislocations, & all other Dis- | eases, vsually 
 practised by Chirurgions, j according to the opinion of all our \ auncient 
 Doctours in | Chirurgerie. | Compiled by Peter Lowe Scotchman, Arellian, 
 Doctor in the Facultie of Chirurgerie in | Paris, and Chirurgian ordinarie 
 to I the most victorious and christi- | an King of Fraunce and | Nauarre. f 
 Wherevnto Is Annexed The | Presages of Diuine Hippocrates. | London. ) 
 Printed by Thomas Purfoot. | 1597." 
 
 Copies of this edition are very scarce, only three being known to the 
 writer — one in the Radcliffe Library, Oxford ; another in the library of the 
 Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London ; and a third, recently 
 acquired by gift, in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edin- 
 burgh. In the second edition there are some changes in the title page : — 
 
 " A I Discovrse | of the whole Art | of | Chyrvrgerie | Wherein is 
 exactly set downe the | Definition, Causes, Accidents, Prognosti- | cations, 
 and Cures of all sorts of Diseases, both in | generall and particular, which 
 at any time hereto- | fore have been practised by any Chirurgion : Accor- | 
 ding to the opinion of all the ancient professors | of that Science, | Which 
 is not onely profitable for Chyrurgions ; but | also for all sorts of people : 
 both for the preuenting of | sicknesse and recouerie of health. | Compiled 
 by Peter Lowe, Scottishman, Doctor in the | facultie of Chirurgerie at 
 Paris : and ordinary Chyrurgion | to the French King and Navarre. | 
 Whervnto is added the rule of making Remedies which Chirur- | gions 
 doe commonly vse : with the Presages | of Diuine Hippocrates. | The 
 Second Edition : corrected, and much augmented | and enlarged by the 
 Author. I At London. | Printed by Thomas Purfoot. | An. Dom. 1612." 
 
 In the second edition the pages are xxiv. unnumbered, introductory, and 
 446, in addition to 9 pp. of index and 30 pp. unnumbered of the 
 " Presages of Hippocrates." 
 
 A third edition bears date 1634, and the fourth and last, 1654. These 
 two are almost reprints of the second edition, the changes made being mostly 
 verbal and orthographic. The dedication in the first edition is to James VI. 
 of Scotland ; in the second, to a Scottish west country nobleman, the Earl 
 of Abercorn, a copy of whose armorial bearings faces the first page of the 
 dedication. The first edition is in Roman type, fairly good for the period. 
 The other editions have the bulk of the type in black letter, the introductory 
 matter, the rubric, the questions, etc., being in Roman or Italian type. 
 
 The Chirurgerie, as has been stated, is not in Latin, but in English 
 the use of which for a book on surgery he defends and justifies. Though 
 treatises on parts of surgery had already appeared in the vernacular, it may 
 be fairly claimed for Lowe's book that, apart from translations, it is the 
 
36 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 earliest systematic work on the whole subject which was written in English, 
 or published in this country. It required some degree of courage in a 
 lettered surgeon to write a professional work in English at that period, and 
 laid him open to much hostile criticism. It had also, perhaps, the dis- 
 advantage of limiting the circle of his readers. Neither in idiom nor words 
 is the language Scots, at least to any noticeable extent. It might be 
 thought that, after a residence of fourteen years in Glasgow, his second 
 edition might have taken a Doric tinge. The book is in the form of a 
 dialogue — in the first edition between John Cointret, Dean of the Paris 
 College of Surgeons, and Peter Lowe, as his scholar ; and in the second 
 edition, between Peter Lowe and John Lowe, his son. The dialogue form 
 is, however, imperfectly adhered to, whole books being given in the ordinary 
 direct didactic form. It would seem as if the different parts had been 
 written at so long intervals that the writer often forgot the literary form 
 with which he started. As regards the subject matter of the work, it has 
 been averred by a French critic that Lowe relies more on the authority of 
 the ancients than on personal experience. This criticism seems hardly 
 justified. Faith in the infallibility of the ancient writers on medicine was 
 the vice of all the authors, physicians as well as surgeons, who wrote at 
 that time and some years later. But Lowe seems much less chargeable in 
 this respect than many others. Authorities he certainly does quote in 
 abundance ; but he is also constantly referring to personal experience, giving 
 the names of patients in Paris and Glasgow and clinical details. Especially 
 does he refer to what he has seen in the " great Hospitall of Paris," and 
 alludes to dissections seen in the Paris School of Surgery. He introduced 
 to the notice of English surgeons some improvements in operative surgery 
 effected by Ambroise Par6, such as the ligature of arteries. Yet in amputation 
 in gangrene he prefers the old method of the actual cautery, on account 
 of the tenderness of the parts. His commentary on the last chapter of the 
 Book of Ecclesiastes is well known. This passage, he says, " requires a good 
 anatomist to expound." His own exegesis on this well-known chapter 
 introduces a few anatomical refinements which would not occur to a non- 
 medical commentator. Thus the " silver cord " is " the marrowe that goeth 
 along the backe," and in the same way the bladder, liver, nerves, etc., are 
 all worked in so as to render the passage almost an anatomico-pathological 
 description of the infirmities of age.^ 
 
 ' Lowe's fancy in regard to the medical significance of this passage was expanded, 
 and reduced to absurdity by a later writer, who found in the passage the circulation of the 
 blood, in the discovery of which Harvey had thus been forestalled by King Solomon. 
 The book in which Dr. John Smith in all seriousness elaborates these and other notions 
 equally curious is entitled, " King Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age, wherein is contained 
 a Sacred Anatomy both of Soul and Body. Lond. 1666." (See also British Medical 
 yournal, 1895, I. 106.) 
 
DR. PETER LOWE 37 
 
 To all the editions of the Chirurgerie is appended, with a separate title- 
 page, etc., his translation of the " Prognostics " of Hippocrates. The title in 
 the first edition is 
 
 "The I Booke of the Pre- | sages of deuyne Hyppocrates deuyded into 
 three partes. Also the | protestation which Hyppocrates caused his 
 SchoUers | to make. | The Whole Newly Col- | lected and Translated 
 by Peter | Low Arellian Doctor in the fa- | cultie of Chirurgerie | in 
 Paris. I (• . •) I At London | Printed by Thomas Purfoot, | 1597." 
 
 This appears to have been the first attempt to render into an English garb 
 any part of the writings of the great physician of Cos. The first edition 
 is dedicated to "Lord Robert Sempill, Sheriff of Renfrew"; the second and 
 subsequent edition to " The Reverend father in God, John, Archbishop of 
 Glasgow." This was the Rev. John Spottiswoode, in whose company he had 
 made a visit to France in 1601. As regards the translation there is internal 
 evidence that it was not made from the original Greek, but from a French 
 traduction. Dr. Finlayson has remarked on the peculiarity of his translating 
 the Greek tarpo? not as " Physician," but as " Mediciner-Chirurgian," or 
 " Phisitian-Chirurgian." After all, the rendering is perhaps not inaccurate, 
 and has its modern equivalent in the " general practitioner." Dr. Lowe 
 himself seems to have been regarded in this light by his brethren in Paris, 
 as the title " Medico-Chirurgus," added to his name in the " Index 
 Funereus " of the College of Surgeons, shows. It would perhaps imply 
 too high praise of him to conjecture that it was to some appreciation by 
 him of the essential unity underlying the division of the practitioners of the 
 healing art into two branches that, in the institution which he founded 
 in Glasgow, physicians and surgeons had each functions assigned to them 
 in one body corporate. 
 
 Turning from Peter Lowe as a surgeon and author, one would like to 
 be able to say something of his personal qualities. As might be expected, 
 however, the distance of three centuries has dimmed the outline almost to 
 the point of indefiniteness. Only one or two lineaments of his character 
 can be made out with anything like distinctness. Reading his books apart 
 from any knowledge of his personal history and position, one would conclude 
 that he had a tolerably good opinion of himself His way of speaking from 
 an altitude, his grandiloquent railing against quacks of all kinds, and his 
 mode of vaunting his successes, are apt to leave the impression on the 
 reader that he was fully conscious of his professional worth. But this air 
 of assumption is pretty much characteristic of most of those who wrote at 
 the period. Among the common herd of barbers practising surgery Lowe 
 could not but feel his own superiority; and his expression of this consciousness 
 is not to be reckoned as akin to arrogance. We can also make out that 
 the Doctor must have had some sense of wit and humour. In his surgical 
 writings there was little room for the display of such a trait. But it peeps 
 
38 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 out occasionally in satirical touches, in one case even when the incident 
 related has a tragical ending, as in the following example. " I remember," 
 he says, "in Paris in Anno 1590, there happened such a disease to a 
 valiaunt Captaine (my great friend Captaine Bayle, who was one of the 
 chiefest Captaines amongst the Spaniards at Paris) on the right side of 
 his cragge, for the which I, a Chyrurgion Maior to the regiment, was 
 sent for, and found it to bee an Aneurisnie, so not to be touched ; of the 
 which opinion was my good friend Andrew Scot, who was a great Prac- 
 ticioner at Paris for y^ time, and wel exercised in the art of Chyrurgery, 
 we did ordaine remedies to let [prevent] the encrease of it, which receipt 
 being sent to the Apothecary, who before had scene the sayd Captaine, 
 did thinke it no meete medicine for an Aposthume (as he tearmed it), so 
 presently he sent for ^ his brother, the glorious Barbor, who, seeing the 
 Captaine, found no difificultie, but swore with great othes that he had 
 charmes for al sores, and the Apothecaire swore that he had salues for 
 al sores, and so presently opened it with a lancet to auoide the matter as 
 they thought, which being done the spirrit and blood came furth with such 
 violence that the Captaine died presentlie." We have already seen how 
 he could make sport of the terrors of Kirk discipline in Glasgow, at a time 
 when the church's word of command or threat was far from being a 
 brutuni fulmen} His epitaph, which has been already quoted,^ must have 
 been written when the memory of the Doctor's " pleasant wit " was still 
 green in Glasgow. It makes more than one reference to this trait of his 
 character : 
 
 " Of his God he got the grace 
 To live in mirth." 
 
 If the sentiment is cavalier, the expression of it is puritan ; and the com- 
 bination may not inaptly characterize the man in his relation to his Glasgow 
 setting and surroundings. The quaint conceit of the kindly humorist triumph- 
 ing after the mediciner had been baffled may after all have a bit of truth in it — 
 
 " Yea when his phisicks force oft failed 
 His plesant purpose then prevailed." 
 
 For a man whose lot was cast in stern and troublous times, and latterly 
 among a generation not much given to mirth, to be able thus to laugh 
 betokened some strength and individuality of character. That he must 
 have wielded powerful influence is proved by his obtaining authority not 
 only to make a comparatively small provincial town self-governing in 
 matters relating to his calling, but even to make it the centre of juris- 
 diction in these affairs over the West of Scotland, including burghs at that 
 time superior in status to itself 
 
 ^ Up to this the 2nd edition has been quoted. What follows is the more racy reading 
 of the 1st edition. 
 
 2 P. 26. ^ P. 31. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE FACULTY: CHARTER AND INAUGURATION 
 
 It is now proposed, in the briefest possible manner, to indicate the general 
 scope and main provision of the charter which Dr. Lowe obtained from 
 James VI.,^ to point out one or two noticeable features in its form, and 
 some peculiarities in the powers conferred, and to narrate the circumstances 
 under which the corporation was inaugurated. 
 
 Beginning with a brief preamble already referred to (Chapter IV.), in 
 which the anarchic condition of medical affairs in the West of Scotland is 
 dashed off in strong colours, the charter proceeds to confer upon " Maister 
 Peter Low, our Chirurgiane and Chief Chirurgiane to our dearest son the 
 Prince,^ with the assistance of Mr. Robert Hamiltone, professoure of medicine, 
 and their successouris, indwelleris of our Citie of Glasgow, . . . full 
 power to call , . . before thame, within the said burgh of Glasgow, 
 or any otheris of oure said burrowis, all personis professing or using the 
 said airt of Chirurgie " — the bounds of jurisdiction being defined as the 
 " baronie of Glasgow, Renfrew, Dumbartane, and oure sheriffdomes of 
 Cliddisdale, Renfrew, Lanark, Kylie, Carrick, Air, and Cunninghame," to 
 examine them and to license them " according to the airt and knawledge 
 that they sal be fund wordie to exercise," to prohibit practice beyond the 
 license so granted ; to amerce a fine on the " contumax " of fortie pundis, 
 (£^ 6s. 8d.) todies quotics, recoverable by a summary process of Scotch 
 law known as " letters of horning," under which goods to the amount could 
 be seized or the person incarcerated. 
 
 " The Visitors " — the official designation of Lowe and Hamilton, and 
 
 ' For copy of charter, see Appendix I. 
 
 2 Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, who died in 1612 at the age of 19, of what Dr. 
 Norman Moore {The Illness and Death of Henry, Prince of Wales, Lond. 1882) describes 
 as a typical case of typhoid fever. A curious controversy arose after his death as to the 
 propriety of the medical treatment. 
 
40 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 their successors in office — were to " visit everie hurt, murtherit, poisonit, or 
 onie other persoun tane awa extraordinarily," and to report to the Magis- 
 trates. In regard to the practice of Medicine, their powers were limited 
 to inhibiting therefrom all but persons possessed of " ane testimonial of ane 
 famous universitie quhair medicine be taught, or at the leave of oure and 
 our dearest spouse chief medicinaire." Along with William Spang, an old 
 pharmacist in the burgh, they were to prohibit the sale of drugs which 
 they had not " sichtit," and of poisons, except by apothecaries charged to 
 take caution of the purchasers. They were to give monthly advice 
 gratuitously to the diseased poor, while other clauses provided for continuity 
 of succession, the making of bye-laws and exemption of the members from 
 taxation and personal service of specified kinds. 
 
 These were the main provisions of the charter, which bears date the penult 
 day of November, 1599. 
 
 More than two centuries after it was granted, this charter was subjected 
 to fierce criticism on the score of its legal validity. A Lord Chancellor 
 was of opinion that the powers granted involved an illegal stretch of 
 prerogative. It was also contended that the document conferring these 
 powers was not in form a charter at all. It will be observed that the 
 framework of the corporate structure it set up was of a simple and some- 
 what rudimentary character. There was an absence of elaboration about its 
 provisions. The successors of the original grantees were referred to, but not 
 defined. What the charter did — and that rather by implication than by 
 express provision — was to commit to the two men, in whose favour it was 
 granted, the power of selecting (either after or without trial) the persons 
 who should, along with these two, form the original members. The 
 corporation was not even christened, no name being given in the royal 
 grant. These were some of the aspects of the charter which in the present 
 century greatly exercised the minds of English judges in the House of 
 Lords. It turned out, however, that all this bewilderment arose from ignorance 
 of Scots law. The judges had looked at a Scottish legal document through 
 English spectacles.^ 
 
 Turning from the form to the substance of the charter, its comprehen- 
 siveness as a scheme for the regulation of medicine is its most striking 
 feature. The practice of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy all lay within its 
 scope. It instituted ex officio medico-legal examiners under obligation to 
 report to the authorities, thus anticipating what is now known as State 
 Medicine. At a time when hospitals for the treatment of diseases were 
 unknown in this country it provided for the gratuitous medical visitation 
 and treatment of the sick poor. Looking at it a little closer, another 
 peculiarity is observed, to which no analogy is found in any ancient charter 
 of a medical body in the three kingdoms. To the practitioners of medicine 
 
 ' See Chap, xviii. 
 
THE FACULTY: CHARTER AND INAUGURATION 
 
 41 
 
 the corporation was placed in relations different from those it held to the 
 craftsmen of surgery. The surgeons were to be examined and licensed ; 
 the physicians to be called upon to produce their University testamurs. 
 This was in conformity with what has already been explained in regard to 
 the divorce of the two great branches of the healing art originating in the 
 twelfth century. Medicine was recognized as a subject of academic study, 
 surgery as a handicraft to be learned in the same way as any other manual 
 art. Yet in 1599 none of the Scottish Universities had given any proper 
 place to the teaching of medicine. A Bull of Pope Alexander VI., in 
 1494, had indeed provided for a doctor of medicine lecturing in Aberdeen ; 
 but the University had collapsed in 1549, no attempt having been made 
 on its revival to resuscitate a chair of Medicine. Pope Paul III. had also 
 by a Bull authorised Archbishop Beaton to found a college, including 
 medicine, at St. Andrews, but this was altered by another Bull in 1552, 
 apparently before any attempt was made to carry the scheme into effect. 
 The only remaining Scottish University, that of Glasgow, had not even 
 made nominal recognition of Medicine as a subject falling within its domain. 
 It is perhaps too much to assume that it was contemplated by the Faculty 
 charter that the Scottish Universities should eventually assume their proper 
 relation to medicine. The " famous " Universities referred to may have been 
 those of the continent ; at all events, a century and a half had yet to 
 elapse before any of them rose to a true conception of their duty in this 
 respect. As regards constitution and function, the position of the Glasgow 
 Faculty was therefore unique. It was contemplated that its membership 
 should be equally open to physicians and surgeons. But, while as regards 
 the latter it had plenary powers, its legal function in reference to practi- 
 tioners of physic within the bounds was rather a matter of police than of 
 corporate authority, while the terms on which they were to be admitted as 
 members were left undefined. 
 
 The singularity of another provision of the charter will only attract the 
 notice of those familiar with the condition of society at a period when 
 the severity of the old feudal system had been much relaxed, but still had 
 a pretty powerful hold in several ways, as shown in the constitution of burghs. 
 The distinction between royal burghs, free as a rule to elect their own 
 magistrates, and barons' burghs, which did not enjoy this liberty, was marked. 
 Glasgow at this time was not a royal burgh ; it had been, and still virtually 
 was, a bishop's burgh, not possessed of the autonomy of some of its neigh- 
 bours. The status of the burghers, including the craftsmen, was to some 
 extent reflected in that of the town. Viewed in this light, the provision 
 in virtue of which the craftsmen in Surgery of Ayr, Renfrew, Dumbarton, 
 Lanark, and Rutherglen were placed in matters affecting their calling under 
 the jurisdiction of those of another burgh, and one of inferior standing to 
 some of them, is somewhat remarkable. Whether the apparently anomalous 
 
42 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 character of such an arrangement made the early members of the Corpora- 
 tion cautious in beginning to carry it into effect, certain it is that for nearly 
 half a century the Faculty appear to have made few attempts to push their 
 operations into any part of the district outside Glasgow ; and, as regards 
 some of the burghs, it was not till the next century that they obtained any 
 firm foothold. Other causes, such as the unsettled state of the country, and 
 the weakly condition of the young corporation in Glasgow, doubtless also 
 contributed to this result. No similar state of matters existed in the East 
 of Scotland, where the jurisdiction of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons 
 was limited to the city, its extension over the eastern counties not taking 
 place till after the Revolution. Nor was there any parallel case in the sister 
 countries at this period. None of the London Medical Corporate bodies 
 exercised authority beyond a few miles outside the city ; and the juris- 
 diction of the Dublin barber-surgeons was equally limited. The territory 
 assigned to the Glasgow corporation was therefore made the most extensive 
 of any of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons at that period. 
 
 The absence of any mention of the barbers in the charter is another 
 noteworthy feature. It has already been stated that the general practitioner 
 in Scotland was the barber-surgeon. Almost every person who tonsured 
 beards also performed phlebotomy, and a few of the simple operations of 
 surgery. A few surgeons there were who did not " barbourize," and it would 
 appear that to those of this small number who were available Dr. Lowe 
 contemplated to limit his selection of incorporated brethren. The experiment 
 was virtually new in this country. As surgeons, or in conjunction with 
 surgeons, the barbers were at this period incorporated in London, Edinburgh, 
 and Dublin. Yet here in Glasgow the barber was left out in the cold. At 
 the bottom of the exclusion of the craft doubtless lay Dr. Lowe's Paris 
 experience, and his contempt for the tonsor-surgeon. He knew what endless 
 trouble they had caused to the surgeons in that city ; how the supple shavers, 
 from being the humble dependents, had tried to vault into the position of 
 rivals.^ The two classes were therefore at daggers drawn in Paris, and 
 Dr. Lowe, in his Chirurgerie, is unsparing in his contempt for the barber. 
 " Usurping the name of Chirurgion," he says, ..." they have scarce the 
 skill to cut a bearde, which properly pertaineth to them." Their recognition 
 in some form he must have seen was inevitable ; but he had apparently 
 resolved that, as will appear in the next chapter, it should be, not as 
 crafts-brethren, but dependents. 
 
 ^The Faculty of Medicine, with a view to " dish" the too aspiring surgeons, had admitted 
 the barbers to practise all parts of surgery, exalting them to the rank of Scholars of the 
 University. But one rather amusing difficulty presented itself The University prelections 
 were in Latin, while the barbers knew no tongue but the vernacular. The difficulty was 
 compromised by an arrangement under which a kind of supplementary gloss or commentary 
 was given in French 
 
THE FACULTY: CHARTER AND INAUGURATION 43 
 
 Assuming, as we are safe in doing, that the drafting of the charter was 
 the work, or at least the inspiration, of Dr. Lowe, there can be no doubt 
 that he did his best to shape and adapt the unpromising materials at his 
 disposal as closely as the circumstances would permit on the model of the 
 Paris institutions with which he was familiar. From the constitution of both 
 the Faculty of Medicine and the Confrairy of Surgeons he seems to have 
 taken hints for his corporation. Like the former it was to include physicians 
 as members, exercising a certain control as regards their practice, and per- 
 forming for the State certain medico-legal functions. To the constitution 
 of the Paris Fellowship of Surgeons the points of resemblance were more 
 numerous, being noticed even in matters of technical expression,^ and some 
 of detail. Thus the " Morantes Parisienses " of the college of St. Come con- 
 stitution becomes the " indwellers in Glasgow." The resemblance might be 
 made more obvious by placing a passage in parallel columns. Thus : 
 
 The French surgeons were ordered — To the Glasgow Faculty it was enjoined 
 
 De s'assembler tous les premiers Lundis (modernizing the spelling) — That the said 
 
 des mois de I'an, en I'eglise paroissale de visitors, with their brethren and successors, 
 
 Sanct Cosme et Sanct Damien, rue de shall convene every first Monday of ilk 
 
 La Harpe, et y demeurer depuis dix heures month at some convenient place to visit 
 
 jusqu' a douze pour visiter les pauvres and give counsel to poor diseased folks 
 
 malades et donner conseil en I'honneur gratis. 
 de Dieu et gratuitement. 
 
 It is not without some interest to find a practice of giving gratuitous medical 
 advice to the poor on a particular day of every month, originating in Paris 
 in the thirteenth century, transplanted to Glasgow some three hundred years 
 later, and there virtually surviving to the present day ,2 long after it had 
 perished in Paris with the body in which it took origin. 
 
 Before quoting the minute recording the inauguration of the corporation, 
 a word may be said as to the other two persons named in the charter 
 besides Mr. Peter Lowe. Mr Robert Hamiltone, " professor of Medicine," 
 that is, " practising physician," was the representative of the academic 
 element in the body. Of him almost nothing is known apart from the 
 facts of his official position in the Faculty. In 1604-5 he was associated 
 with Lowe and others as a commissioner to settle the dispute between the 
 merchants and the craftsmen. At what University he graduated either in 
 Arts or Medicine cannot be settled with certainty. All that can be said 
 
 'The resemblance as regards the legal form of the two charters was pointed out in 
 the "Revised Case for the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow" against the 
 University of Glasgow, 1833, p. 5. 
 
 '■Tor the arrangement at present in force for "visiting the poor" by the Faculty 
 see Chap. xvii. 
 
44 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 is that during the first twenty years of the history of the Faculty he 
 appears to have been its most active office-bearer. He was elected Visitor 
 for almost every second year up to 1628, when his name finally disappears 
 from the records. He left behind him a son James,^ who was long a 
 prominent member of the body. 
 
 The name of William Spang occurs on the Records of the Town 
 Council in connection with his business of apothecary as early as 1574-^ 
 He was, therefore, on the advent of Mr, Peter Lowe in Glasgow, a burgher 
 of old standing. He had a son of the same name and calling. The 
 " sichting," or inspection of drugs sold in the shops, with which duty, in 
 association with the visitor, he was charged in the charter, appears from the 
 Records to have been required for a different purpose from what is suggested 
 by the office to a modern reader. Whatever sins were chargeable against 
 the old pharmacist, sophistication, a vice of more advanced civilization, 
 does not appear to have been one of them. The insufficiency of his stock 
 was often a matter of complaint,^ and the potency of some of his preparations 
 frequently brought him into difficulties. Some of those used by ignorant 
 specialists and pretenders to secrets often cost the patient his life. The 
 statement in the preamble of the charter that " infinite number of our 
 subjects " were destroyed by these means was only a hyperbolical way of 
 putting an ugly fact. 
 
 The following is the minute of the first meeting held, as will be seen, 
 on 3rd June 1602 : — 
 
 Die tertio Junii Millesimo Sexcentisimo Secundo. 
 
 The qlk day w' in the Blackfreir Kirk * of Glasgow, In presence of Sir 
 George Elphistoune^ of Blaithwood, Knight Provest, James Forret, Johne 
 
 ^This was presumedly the son who is mentioned as present, probably when a boy, 
 at the first meeting after the inauguration (17th June, 1602), "The qlk day comperit Mr. 
 Ro'- Hamiltoune, Visitor, and the Brethren, w' his aine sone." 
 
 ^ Burgh Records, Maitland Club, 3. 
 
 ^ " Becaus ther ar sundrie who sells drogs w'in this brugh, and hes not sufficient 
 drogs," the visitors and quartermasters were charged "to visit the sufficiensie thereof." 
 (Minute, 28th January, 1612.) Adulteration of drugs was not, however, unknown under the 
 old Roman civilization. (Puschmann, //>'.$•/. of Med. Education, 108.) 
 
 *This church was a noble pile of Gothic architecture, belonging at first to the College, 
 and disposed of by the University to the City. After the Reformation it had no regular 
 incumbent, but was used for occasional meetings, such as the one here recorded. Its steeple 
 appears to have been in pretty frequent occupation, being used as a place of custody for 
 Kirk delinquents. In 1670 the church was destroyed by lightning. 
 
 ^Sir George Elphinstone, Lord of Gorbals, Knight of Blythswood afterwards Lord 
 Balmerino, Lord-Chief Justice, a Privy Councillor, and an intimate of the king, was at this 
 time a man of consequence. Thirty years later he sustained a sad reverse of fortune, dying 
 bankrupt about 1634. His body, arrested for his debts, had to be interred secretly in his 
 own chapel. His fine mansion in Gorbals was standing in 1843. 
 
THE FACULTY: CHARTER AND INAUGURATION 
 
 45 
 
 Andersoune, Will Andersoune, Baillies therof, Compeirt Mr. Peter Low and 
 Mr. Ro'- Hamiltoune, wha producit ane gift of our Soveragne Lord anent 
 ther Libertie w' the pro vest and baillies autoritie Interponit thereto as the 
 samyn at lenth beires, and maid convention vv' y'^ breithren, vidilicet Adam 
 Fleming, Mr. Ro'- Allasone, William Spang, Thomas Thomsoune, John Lowe, 
 and the samyn being red, the s'^ Mr. Peter and Mr. Ro'- was content of ther 
 aune consents, notw'standing of ther nomination of gift y' ilk yeir ance at 
 Mickelmes the sam}'n shall be lytit amongst the Brethrine, and wha be 
 maniest votts beis elected to remaine visitor for ane yeir yrefter and so 
 furth yeerly, in all tyme coming. And alse is content yt the forrsds 
 persons, brethren of craft presently admittit by them, shall have power 
 and libertie to use ther craft and calling as free as themselfs efter ther 
 knowlage, and that they shall not visit any of the forrsds brethren patients 
 being on cuir w'out ther aune consents and the patients first had and 
 obtained thereto. Qlk brethrene being present consents to concure, asist, 
 and had hand to. And therefter the sd Mr. Ro'', present visitor whill Michal- 
 me.se, be consent of the brethrein, hes elected Ro'' Herbertsone, Notar, Clark 
 to them, wha hes given his oath of fideliti, and also creat George Burrell 
 officier quill Michelmes, and hes given his oath, & the sd brethren to 
 conveine all such tymes as shall be apoyntit being warnd be the officer 
 wnder the paines conteined in the ordinance to be set doune theranent. 
 The brethren hes pntly given ther oathes, and ordained the rest and Johne 
 Hall to be conveined, at y' they shall concur and asist y''w' vthers as 
 becomes. 
 
 Sic Subscribitur, Ro'* 
 Herbertson, Notarius, 
 
 This minute requires little comment. By co-optation, Lowe and Hamilton, 
 the persons to whom the charter was granted, admitted other five members, 
 and formally divested themselves of the personal advantages they had acquired 
 as grantees of the charter, handing over these as the common property of 
 the body. In this earliest minute it crops out that the perennially burning 
 question of one medical man poaching on another's preserves, in the way of 
 taking his patients, was as urgent three hundred years ago as it is at the 
 present day. It re-appears in several subsequent minutes, and was intro- 
 duced, as shall subsequently appear, in a municipal charter acquired by the 
 surgeons and barbers from the municipality in the middle of the century. 
 
 It will be noted that three of the members are each distinguished as 
 " Mr.," denoting the possession of an Arts' Degree. On this point the 
 successive clerks appear to have been punctilious for a couple of centuries. 
 Of the adopted members. Spang has been already referred to, and of the 
 others it need only be said here that nothing is known as to their antecedents. 
 The members named probably included, with two added at a meeting shortly 
 
46 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 after, all the practitioners of medicine and surgery, as well as pharmacy, in 
 the burgh, except a few barbers. For a community of only 7000, this 
 would be a fair percentage of practitioners of the healing art. It was but 
 a small beginning, there being no attempt, as already stated, to work any 
 part of the territory assigned to them outside of Glasgow till towards the 
 middle of the century. The other similar medical institutions incorporated 
 in the British Isles were located in populous capitals. The Faculty was 
 launched in a comparatively small provincial town — a town, too, whose rate 
 of increase was then so slow that at the end of a century it had not nearly 
 doubled its population.^ The early records of the Faculty cannot be intelli- 
 gently read without constant mental reference to the exiguous surroundings 
 of the corporation. 
 
 ^Even in 1708, after the Union, the population of Glasgow was under 13,000. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Of the history of the first eighty years of the institution founded by Dr. 
 Peter Lowe, we cannot do more than present a mere sketch. This is 
 indeed all that is necessary, and possibly more than may be interesting. 
 The present is an instance in which anything approaching to historical 
 fulness would prove dull and unedifying. The records of these eighty 
 years have been preserved, and they are certainly not devoid of a kind of 
 interest. But after the first freshness of archaeological zest has worn off, 
 they become rather dry reading. It is true that the monotony of incident 
 is now and again relieved by some new and odd illustration of a con- 
 dition of things very different from our own ; some fresh example of 
 modes of thinking or acting long extinct ; or, occasionally, some droll 
 incident related with formal gravity, and apparently without any appreciation 
 of its ludicrous side. In other places, the elliptical character of the record 
 piques the reader's curiosity. It takes for granted as known a good deal 
 that he does not know and can only guess at. The question on which we 
 hope to throw some light is this : What were the functions of a Scottish 
 Medical Corporation in the seventeenth century, and how did it exercise 
 them ? In dealing with these old records, one has constantly to make mental 
 reference to the state of civilization of the period. As veracious historians, 
 we must also, once for all, relieve our historical conscience by admitting 
 that some of the things recorded in these minutes do not greatly redound 
 to the credit of these early Glasgow surgeons. For the narrow and 
 exclusive spirit they displayed, they are entitled to the excuse that this 
 was more or less characteristic of every corporate calling in these times. 
 Their pettifogging way of peremptorily exacting their corporate fees and 
 fines, often from those ill able to pay them, raises unpleasant feelings in 
 the reader. Their relentless mode of cutting off defaulting members from 
 corporate privileges, and thus professionally ostracizing them, strikes us as 
 
48 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 often harsh. Their own defence of their exacting attitude towards those 
 over whom they exercised jurisdiction, would probably have pointed to 
 the purpose for which these exactions were made. The monies were 
 allocated " to the puir of the calling," and that not merely nominally but 
 really. For generations the " freedom fines," and other dues, were applied 
 mostly to eleemosynary purposes. If they showed greed in their corporate 
 dealing, it was in their case the handmaid of charity. It must also be 
 constantly kept in view that the record books show the doings of a craft 
 rather than the proceedings of a profession. This is especially true of the 
 records till the middle of the eighteenth century ; and but for the presence 
 of the physician element in the body this feature would doubtless have 
 been still more marked. 
 
 One of the first acts of the corporation was to adopt the barbers, 
 rather, however, as servants than as sons. On the 22nd June, 1602, " It 
 is statut and ordained that harbors being a pendecle of Chirurgerie, shall 
 pay at ther admission fortie punds Scots and ilk yeir twentie shilling to 
 the puir, and to midle not w' anything farder belonging to Chirurgerie, 
 under the paine of five pund, toties quoties, and sail pay to the Clark of 
 the Calling for his buiking threttie shilling scots, and to the oficer twel 
 shilling." It was no doubt intended from the first to admit the barbers 
 to some corporate privileges. They had been purposely left out in the 
 charter, and they could therefore be dropped at any time should occasion 
 arise. But for the present their recognition was probably inevitable. All 
 over Western Europe the barber still retained the traditional monopoly of 
 bleeding, and exercising some of the simpler procedures of surgery. But 
 in Glasgow his relation to the surgeon was somewhat peculiar. He was 
 admitted to qualified corporate rights, but at first only as a matter of grace. 
 Even when a municipal charter or " Seal of Cause " placed him during 
 the latter half of the century in a position of almost corporate equality, it 
 was not till the beginning of the next century that he fully realized his 
 position. The minute quoted above shows how jealously and guardedly 
 his relation to the surgeon was defined. In the phraseology of the period 
 he was " free of his ain calling," but not of the incorporation as a whole. 
 Surgery was to him a forbidden territory, from which he was warned off 
 by threat of fine and expulsion. In reading the records his corporate 
 insignificance is obvious enough. For considerable periods we hear nothing 
 of the barber at all. Indeed, the number of persons admitted to " barbourize," 
 and nothing else, was at all times small till near the close of the incorporating 
 union. More frequently the applicant was admitted " Simple barber- 
 chirurgeane, to medill with simple wounds allenarlie," following which is 
 usually a list of operations which he is enjoined not to take in hand, on 
 pain of fine and expulsion.^ 
 
 1 There was one Faculty post often filled by a barber, viz., that of officer to the 
 
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 •^f- ^L-^v^^^r^^^t^^^"^ ^^ 
 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 49 
 
 Immediately on its inauguration the attention of the Faculty was 
 turned to the organizing of the calling in Glasgow. The most pressing 
 matter to be dealt with was that of apprenticeship. It must be remembered 
 that at this period medical schools in the country did not exist. To 
 learn his calling the physician, as has been stated, betook himself to France 
 or Italy, and later to Holland ; and a few of the more ambitious class of 
 surgeons followed his example. Dr. Peter Lowe was not a solitary example 
 of a Scots surgeon of that period being attracted to the French schools. 
 Thus Andro Scott, surgeon to the King of Scotland in 1597, and, two 
 years later, Deacon of the Edinburgh surgeons, was with Dr. Lowe in Paris 
 in 1590. Another famous Scots surgeon of the period, whose tragical 
 end must have cast a gloom over the profession in Edinburgh, was for 
 " sometime chirurgion to the great hospitall of Paris." ^ This was Robert 
 Auchmowtie, who, in 1600, was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh for 
 killing his enemy in a duel." But these cases of surgeons being educated 
 abroad were exceptional ; the mass of the craft were trained solely by 
 apprenticeship. In 1602 the Faculty enacted a code of rules for the better 
 and more uniform regulation of the system. The following is the first of 
 several Minutes referring to the matter : 
 
 Die xxii Tunii, 1602. "The sd day ordaines that all prenteises to be Act anent the 
 
 J ^ ■> ^ admission of 
 
 entered shall remaine no shorter space nor seven yeares, and the last two prenteisis 
 thereof for meat and fee, and at his entri shall pay five pund to the ^" °° '"^' 
 craft and to the dark — i lib. 13s. 4d. give he be ane extraordinar on; 
 and give he be a burges son, to pay 2 lib. to the box, and to the dark 
 I lib. 6ss. 8d., and to the officer i2ss. And y' ilk premise shall be 
 examined efter the first thrie yeares, compleating upon his art of Crafte, 
 and to pay 5 lib. for the denner at that tyme and to every examinator 
 20SS., and to the Clark 6ss. S^- at the day of examination; and the Act for Exam- 
 Visitor to admonise the examinatores qron they shall examine to be prenteses. 
 wryten, and at the 5 yeares, and to be examinat lykewise, and to pay 
 alyk . . . And at the seven yeares end, qhen he passes master to 
 be examinat upon the holl particulars of his airt, of the definitions, 
 Gausses, signes, accidents, and cures of all deseises perteaning to his airt, 
 w' the composition of nature and fit medicaments as shall be requisit, 
 payand at the tyme for ane denner, ten pund, and to the examinatores 
 and others as is afoirsd." 
 
 Corporation. In the seventeenth century this office was, in most cases, nominally filled by 
 the last admitted member. If this were a surgeon, the duties were often performed by a 
 deputy, who was almost always a barber. Whether in such cases the acting was remun- 
 erated by the nominal official does not appear. From the examinees of the incorporation 
 he received certain fees ; while the Faculty contributed " a pair of shoon," the price of 
 which figures regularly for a number of years in the accounts. 
 
 'Lowe's Clururircrie^ 1st ed., vill., Chap. 3. '^ Titcairtis Trials^ Vol. n., 112. 
 
 I) 
 
50 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 From one or two of the minutes it would appear that the " denner " 
 was occasionally exacted even though the candidate was unable to satisfy 
 his examiners — surely rather hard measure. Even when he had run the 
 gauntlet of these multiform exactions, and passed the final examination, 
 the new master, if intending to practise in Glasgow, had no liberty to begin 
 till he had first been enrolled as a burgess of the town, this involving a 
 further fee. Armed with his burgess ticket, he presented himself before 
 the Faculty, and was then admitted a freeman of the calling. But even 
 then, when a fully-fledged member of the craft, the drain on his purse did 
 not come to an end. To retain the privileges of membership he had to 
 pay throughout his career an impost called " quarter accounts," for the 
 collecting of which several functionaries called " quartermasters " were 
 annually appointed. If he fell behind in the payment, he could be sus- 
 pended, or even eventually expelled from membership. But it was rare 
 that this extreme step was had recourse to for a mere pecuniary default. 
 Expulsion was, however, the recognized punishment for moral delinquency 
 as a member, such as turbulence or insubordinate conduct at meetings, and 
 especially the crime of slandering the visitor, which was one of no uncommon 
 occurrence. But the punishment being one which involved professional 
 ruin, it generally happened that the Faculty relented, and re-admitted 
 the delinquent on his expressing penitence. When this was done it appears 
 to have cost him a new " upset " (admission fine). 
 
 Such was the system of apprenticeship as it existed at that time and 
 long after, which has now altogether ceased in Scotland. It was obviously 
 inadequate, but it was not devoid of some good points. It secured to the 
 neophyte a good, practical acquaintance with his art ; and the training in 
 the house of his master also secured for him a needed moral control. The 
 weak side of the system is seen in the inadequate provision for securing 
 a sufficient training in anything but routine details. This appears to have 
 been felt even in those early days. To remedy the defect it was made 
 obligatory in 1612 (28th January) "that the deacon [visitor] or on of the 
 qrtmasters teach upon Medicine, Chirurgeri, or Apothecarie, the nature of 
 herbs, droges, and such lyk as shall be though[t] expedient by the brethrene 
 of sd vocation." This appears to have been the earliest attempt at collective 
 medical teaching in Glasgow. The idea was, as subsequent allusions show, 
 to collect the burgh surgeons' apprentices together at stated periods, with 
 such of their masters as chose to attend, in order that the visitor, or other 
 official, should give instruction, oral and demonstrative, with a view chiefly 
 to supplement the isolated instruction given to the apprentices. Occasional 
 references to the matter in the Records attest that the obligation did not 
 remain altogether a dead letter. 
 
 Of the character of examinations of those early days we have sufficient 
 materials in the Records on which to form a notion, if not a judgment. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 51 
 
 They appear to have been quite as exacting as the necessities of the 
 case permitted. " Plucking " was, it is true, not so common as it is now-a-days, 
 but it occasionally happened. Indeed, minutes of the following kind are 
 met with so frequently as to suggest the doubt whether the complaint of 
 the Town Council on one occasion, that the burgh was inadequately supplied 
 with surgeons through the fault of the Faculty, may not be well founded : 
 A candidate, " being examined upon Chirurgerie and Pharmacie, was found 
 ignorant by the sd Facultie as to both the sd airts, and yrfer they hereby 
 discharge him in all tyme coming to exerce any of the sd airts, or to give 
 any potion of physic, &c." In such cases the candidate was obliged to give a 
 bond or written guarantee, for the observance of which he had to find caution 
 that he would abstain from practice, under penalty of a fine of a specified 
 amount, usually forty pounds Scots. Several features of examinations as now 
 conducted, which are looked upon as modern improvements, are met with so 
 far back as the beginning of the seventeenth century. Under minute of 
 June, 1602, part of the examination, as we have seen, was to be in writing, 
 " the Visitor to admonise the examinatores qron they shall examine to be 
 wryten." Many circumstances tend to prove that the examinations were to 
 a considerable extent practical. Even the clinical examination, which is 
 looked on as a thing of the latter half of the present century, was not 
 always awanting in the examinations of these early days. It is not a little 
 curious to note the straits to which the examiners were put to find clinical 
 materiel. To compensate for the want of hospital-patients the examinee was 
 sometimes ordered to accompany the Visitor or other examiner on his round 
 of visits. Sometimes also the procedure was reversed. For example, a 
 candidate was examined and received licence in 1671 on the condition "that 
 before he be recavit he acquaint the Visitour when any patient did employe 
 him to use any pairt of Chirurgerie, who sould tak two of his number with 
 himself, see his applica^'ne, &c." One would imagine that it would be rather 
 an awkward proceeding for a surgeon on probation taking his Examining 
 Board along with him on a visit to his own — and presumably his first — patient. 
 This way of licensing conditionally was not very common. But they 
 had a mode of partial licensing which we in these days find it a little 
 difficult to realize. If a man were found qualified in some particular depart- 
 ment, but unable to pass muster in the whole compass of the art, he was 
 admitted to practice quoad his ability. This mode of admission was usual 
 in those times, and was contemplated in the charter, in which it is ordained 
 that candidates were to receive a " testimonial according to the airt and 
 knowledge that they sal be fund wordie to exercise." When this was done 
 it was strictly stipulated that all beyond the defined field of practice was to 
 the candidate forbidden ground. How this system could ever work well it 
 is a little difficult for us to understand. One would suppose that the 
 exigencies of general practice would be frequently throwing temptations in 
 
52 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the way of the surgeon to stray into the prohibited territory. This must 
 often have happened, but recorded cases of the kind do not occur so often 
 as one would anticipate. It must, however, be constantly kept in view that 
 the medical confraternity in the West of Scotland in those days was com- 
 paratively small. All the surgeons in Glasgow would readily be known to 
 each other ; and the same remark applies equally or more certainly to those 
 of such towns as Ayr, Paisley, Dumbarton, and Kilmarnock. Any violation 
 of the conditions of licence would therefore come to the knowledge of some 
 of the members of the Faculty ; and this in itself would act as a deterrent. 
 The area of limitation in regard to practice differed very widely in different 
 cases, both as to form and extent. The barber-surgeon was licensed " to 
 draw blood," or " to vent blood with ane home," and to " cuir simple 
 wounds." Sometimes, but rarely, the permission was extended " to the 
 curing of broken bones quhair the flesh is not cut," or, " whilk are not 
 come through the skin." But, as a rule, it was only the surgeon who did 
 not " barbourize " who had his tether so far lengthened. The pharmacist's 
 formula entitled him " to sell drogues, and mak up recepies according to 
 ane doctor's directions." In one case, that of a Paisley apothecary, this 
 rider is added, " which he is to receive from ye doctor in ye Scots language, 
 because he has no other language." In turning over the leaves of these 
 Records, we occasionally come upon some oddity in the range of qualification, 
 either superadded to the ordinar}^ formula, or authorizing some specialty to 
 be practised alone. Thus, in 1668, Matthew Miller is licensed to the 
 " appHca°ne of coulters & ventosis, the cuiring of simple woundes, and 
 embalming of corpes " ; and in this, as occasionally in other cases of partial 
 qualification, it is added " in caice it shall happen at any time herefter 
 the said Mathew to attain more knowledge and skill of his calling, being 
 fund qualified by the sd Facultie, then he sail be admitted yrto accordingly." 
 In such cases it often happened that the range of licence was extended on 
 re-examination. 
 
 Lithotomy was at this period a kind of specialty, and was not generally 
 looked upon as a recognized surgical operation. It was, in fact, considered 
 too dangerous a procedure to be admitted to rank with the ordinary 
 practices of the life-preserving art. It might often save life ; but the chances 
 of success were too desperate for it to be encouraged by honourable practi- 
 tioners. This mode of regarding the operation of cutting for stone was a 
 relic from very ancient usages. It has been pointed out by the late erudite 
 Dr. Adams, of Banchory, that in the whole compass of ancient medical 
 literature there is not a single description of the operation by a person 
 who had actually performed it. In Arabia it was regarded in the same 
 light. Avenzohar pronounced the operation to be one which no respectable 
 practitioner would witness, far less perform.^ The operation was forbidden 
 1 Adams' Edition of the Works of Hippocrates, Sydenham Society, TJT- 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 53 
 
 by Hippocrates in the well-known oath which he exacted from his 
 disciples.^ Dr. Peter Lowe, in his Chirurgerie, gives no instruction in regard 
 to cutting for stone, although he refers to writers on the subject, and to 
 his own Poore Mans Guide. It was not till the eighteenth century that it 
 took rank in this country as a recognized surgical operation to be performed 
 by the ordinary surgeon. It was this peculiarity of lithotomy as an operation 
 tabooed by the profession which perhaps obliged the Town Council of 
 Glasgow to appoint a " stone-cutter " for the city, distinct from the ordinary 
 surgeons. From the City Records, of date 21st March, 1 661, we find that 
 " it was concludit be the Magistrates and Counsell to pay yearlie to Evir 
 M'Neill, that cutis the stone, ane hundreth markis Scotis, and he to cut 
 all the poor for that freilie." ^ This salary was paid him for a great many 
 years. In the treasurer's accounts for 1682 it is entered, along with that 
 of Dr. Brisbane, the ' town's physician, and John Robisoune, the town's 
 surgeon. All three receive the same salary — ^66 13s. 4d. Scots. Even 
 after the impecuniosity of the city had obliged the authorities to desist 
 from subsidizing physicians and surgeons, the stone-cutter apparently 
 continued to draw his annual salary as formerly. In 1688 Evir M'Neill, 
 on whom the infirmities of age had begun to tell with effect, retired 
 from the office. At the meeting of the Town Council of 27th March of 
 that year, there is produced " ane testificat in favour of Duncan Campbell, 
 subscryvit be the haill doctors and most part of the chirurganes in toune, 
 of his dexteritie in cutting of the ston, as also in sounding with great facilitie, 
 and hes given severall proofes thereof within this burgh, whilk being taken 
 to the said Magistrats and Counsell their consideration, they nominat and 
 appoynt him to cutt such poor in toune as he shall be desyred be the 
 Magistrats, in place of Evir M'Neill, who is unfit to doe the same through 
 his infirmitie." 
 
 We have no information in regard to Evir M'Neill's mode of operation, 
 or even in what way the unlettered Highlander acquired his skill. Special 
 attention, however, seems to have been paid to calculus in the West 
 Highlands.^ The various methods of procedure were usually kept and 
 
 ^ The question has, however, been raised whether it was not the operation of 
 Castration which Hippocrates thus prohibited. The matter has been fully discussed by 
 Littre, and a fair summary of the arguments on both sides will be found in Pt'trequitis 
 Chirurgie d^ Hippocrate, Vol. I., 192. Paris, 1878. That it was really lithotomy that 
 was the proscribed operation seems to be placed beyond reasonable doubt. 
 
 ^ It appears that the Town Council had ineffectually offered inducements to a " Doctour 
 Soutar" to accept the office of city stone-cutter {Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of 
 Glasgow, 1 88 1, p. 327, 420). If he came to the burgh (he was admitted a Member of the 
 Faculty in 1655), he can only have remained in it a short time. 
 
 'See papers by Professor Mackinnon of Edinburgh University in Edinburgh Medical 
 yoiirnal, January and February, 1895. 
 
54 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 whispered as family secrets. It was in this way that the operation practised 
 by the Collots in France was handed down from father to son and son- 
 in-law, until, as the story goes, the secret was at last filched from Frangois 
 Collot by the students opening a hole through the ceiling over the spot 
 where he generally sat while performing the operation. Evir M'Neill, it 
 must be remembered, flourished nearly half a century before Frere Jacques 
 had improved the operation of cutting for stone. His operation was there- 
 fore probably of a somewhat primitive kind ; and, in spite of " the testificat " 
 of operative dexterity of his successor, Duncan Campbell, signed by the city 
 physicians and surgeons, it is doubtful whether his method would be much 
 better than those of his predecessor. We have unfortunately no kind of 
 statistics which might serve as an index of their success. 
 
 The fact that the city " stone-cutter " was allowed the same annual 
 salary as the town physician and the town surgeon might suggest the 
 question whether in that age stone in the bladder was not a more common 
 affection in Glasgow than it happily is at the present day. The notices we 
 have of it in the seventeenth century refer mainly to the cases of children. 
 Even now, with its population so vastly multiplied, Glasgow produces few 
 cases of stone. In our hospitals, indeed, the affection is occasionally met 
 with ; but most of these cases come from districts beyond the city. There 
 exist no data for deciding the question whether the affection has decreased 
 in frequency. Altered habits of living may have tended in this direction, 
 but it is more probable that in those early days the hazardous nature of an 
 operation excluded from the limits of ordinary surgical procedure, placed a 
 factitious value on the services of the professional stone-cutter. 
 
 Evir M'Neill must have cut for stone for a period of upwards of forty 
 years. This appears from the terms of the minute of his admission to the 
 qualified membership of the Faculty in August, 1656. For just as the 
 Collots in Paris were admitted as lithotomists to the College of Surgeons, 
 Evir M'Neill was in a sort of way affiliated to the Faculty in Glasgow. It 
 will be observed from the following minute that he was admitted qua litho- 
 tomist pure and simple, and that, though a trial is spoken of, no attempt 
 was apparently made to test by examination his qualifications for the 
 specialty: — "Octavo Augusti, 1656. Convenit in the new Kirk Johne Hall, 
 pnt Visitour w' Mr. James Hamiltone, Arch. Graham, Johne Low, Daniell 
 Broune, Tho. Lockhart, James Thomsone, and Ro'- Hareis, anent the tryeall 
 of Iver M'Neill, Chirurgiane, who hes been in use these ten yearis or therby 
 bygaine in cutting of the stone. They upon sight of several creditable 
 testificats did licentiat him allenerlie to exerce the cutting of the stone 
 w'in the boundis contenit in ther gift." From the treasurer's accounts of 
 that year, in which there is an item, " Ro'- Browne for charging Iver M'Neill," 
 it would appear that the connection of the latter with the Faculty was not 
 one of his seeking. To us in these days the transaction has a somewhat 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 55 
 
 discreditable look. It could reflect no credit on the body to license a 
 specialist whom they did not examine ; and all the more so, because what- 
 ever dexterity he may have shown in using the knife, Evir M'Neill, of all 
 whom the Faculty ever licensed, was the only man who had to make the 
 humiliating admission that he could not wield the pen. His signature in 
 the records is made by a notary, " because he cannot wryt." This leads 
 us to remark in passing that though in those days there was no test of 
 general education other than that afforded by an examination conducted 
 partly in writing, the Records conclusively prove that the members were, 
 as a rule, tolerably well educated men. A fair number of them — probably in 
 proportion as great as at the present time — were Masters of Arts, the names 
 of such being invariably distinguished by the prefix " Mr." Some at least 
 of the early surgeons were cadets of good country or city families. That 
 this circumstance was of advantage in elevating the general tone of the 
 body there cannot be a doubt. The social standing of not a few of the 
 members afforded the best guarantee at that time available for the exclusion 
 of ignorant and unlettered men. 
 
 While touching on the licensing function of the Faculty as performed 
 in early times, we cannot omit some notice of the position of the body 
 in respect to medicine. The charter, as we have seen, made a clear dis- 
 tinction between the relation of the Faculty to surgery and its attitude to 
 medicine. But the fathers of the Faculty did not always clearly apprehend 
 the distinction ; or, if they did, they often disregarded it. During the 
 first half of the seventeenth century they appear to have examined and 
 licensed almost as often in medicine as in surgery. They evidently 
 regarded the members of the Faculty rather as men who were to 
 exercise the functions of general practitioners than of surgeons only. It 
 sometimes happened that while the candidate was found incompetent to 
 practise surgery, he was qualified in medicine ; and he was licensed in strict 
 accordance with the results of the test. The explanation which may suggest 
 itself, that the word "medicine" in the Records is merely equivalent to 
 " pharm.acy " is inadmissible. The two terms are often used in the same 
 minute, the one in superaddition to the other. Thus of Mr. Arch. Graham 
 in 1654 it is noted " quha being examinat be ye said facultie is licentiate 
 to profes pharmacie and medicine w'in ye boundis . . . as is contcnit 
 wHn ye Ires of gift and obleiss him at no tyme heirafter to use nor exerce 
 any point of Chirurgerie." Here the candidate is not only licensed to 
 practise medicine as well as pharmacy, and prohibited from exercising 
 surgery, but this is alleged to be in consonance with the powers conferred 
 by the charter. 
 
 Almost from the first this lax mode of interpreting the charter was 
 indulged in. In 161 2 we find " Androe Mill fund qualifiet to practice the 
 airt of Chirurgerie and sic uthers of the airt of Medicine he has knolage 
 
56 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of." It is still more surprising to find this loose reading creeping into legal 
 documents and even an xAct of Parliament. In a General Decreet or Signet 
 Letters 1 obtained from the Lords of Council and Session in 1635 there occur 
 the words " chargeing all and sundrie the saidis persones qu'tsomever, pro- 
 fessing or using the saidis airtis of Chirurgianie or Medicine ... to 
 desist and cease frae all using or usurpeing of the saidis airtis of Chir- 
 urgeanrie or Medicine within the boundis foresaidis, . . . except they be 
 examinat be the said Mr. James Hamiltoun, present Visitour foresaid in 
 the said Airt or calling of Chirurgianie and Medicine, . . . and be his 
 brethrerin," etc. In the Parliamentary Ratification of the charter,^ obtained 
 in 1672, it was necessary to recite the original document, or to give a 
 fair summary of its contents. The clause respecting medicine is thus 
 misrecited, " and that it shall not be leisum to any maner of persons within 
 the foresaids bounds to exercise medicine, without ane testimoniell of ane 
 famous Universitie wher Medicine is taught, or at leist the persons above 
 mentioned or ther successours " [viz., the visitor, and his brethren]. The 
 clause as thus recited received the ratification of Parliament. It is therefore 
 quite possible that had the Faculty at a later date advanced the claim to 
 license in medicine as well as in surgery they might have made out a fair 
 case. It is beyond question that they could have pleaded and proved 
 ancient usage. 
 
 A few sentences will serve to describe the working constitution of the 
 Faculty during the first half of the seventeenth century. The office-bearers, 
 who were annually elected at Michaelmas, were these : a praeses, whose 
 correct designation was the " visitor," but who is often called the " deacon," 
 elected by the general body of members ; a varying number of " masters," 
 originally called " quartermasters," from the circumstance that one of their 
 functions was to collect the quarterly accounts, appointed, part of them, by 
 the visitor [visitors' masters], and part of them by the members [crafts' 
 masters]. These masters were the executive of the Faculty, and assisted the 
 visitor in examining, and all other matters of importance. There were also 
 two officials called " boxmasters," who were charged with the duty of 
 preserving all the important documents as well as the cash belonging to the 
 incorporation. They took their name from the repository of which they 
 were custodiers, which was " a box w' twa keis," ordered to be procured in 
 1612, "to keep the frie money that comes to the common affaires, w' the 
 bulks and other evidences." The non-existence of banks of deposit was 
 doubtless the cause of the procuring of this box, which was an institution 
 common to all corporate bodies of the period. A treasurer (called the 
 collector) was first appointed in 1636. A clerk (or law adviser and secretary) 
 and an officer, appointed from the outset, completed the early list of officials. 
 
 At first there was no fixed place of meeting. The Blackfriars Church, 
 ^See Appendix II. ^ See Appendix IV. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 57 
 
 in which the Faculty first met, the " New Kirk " (the first Tron Church), 
 the house of the visitor, "the Crafts Hospital," and, latterly, Hutchisons' 
 Hospital, were the most usual places in which the meetings were held during 
 the seventeenth century. The number of members resident in Glasgow 
 during the first sixty years of the century does not appear at any time to 
 have exceeded twenty-four, and this only shortly before the Restoration. 
 
 During the period from 1604 to 1677-78 the surgeons and barbers 
 were represented in the Trades' House by the visitor, the physicians as such 
 having no connection with the crafts. It is true that the name of Dr. 
 Robert Mayne appears to be enrolled as deacon in connection with the 
 Trades' House.^ But this was before the date of the Letter of Deaconry, 
 at a time when things had not yet taken the shape they eventually assumed. 
 From 1679 to 1709 there appears to have been no representative of the 
 corporation. This .was caused by the litigation with the Town Council in 
 connection with a case narrated in a subsequent chapter (ix.), when they 
 felt themselves obliged " to separate themselves from the rest of the incor- 
 porations." On the conclusion of that case in 1691, they appear to have 
 been in no haste to avail themselves again of the privilege of trades' 
 representation, and this was on one occasion made the ground of complaint 
 by the barbers. In 1709, the name of the visitor again appears as deacon 
 of the craft, and this continues to 17 19, when, as will afterwards appear, 
 the connection with the Trades' House was finally severed, as far as the 
 surgeons were concerned. 
 
 The name of the corporation is also a point to which we must briefly 
 advert. It has already been pointed out^ that, in strict accordance with 
 Scottish legal usage, the charter gave no distinctive appellation to the 
 body. For several years the want of a special name was probably never 
 felt. In the Records the assembled members are designated in various 
 ways: "the brethren of Chirurgerie," "the craft of Chirurgerie," and similar 
 titles. About the year 1629 "the Facultie " occurs in the minutes for the 
 first time ; but for several years thereafter the clerk appears to have used 
 this and other titles indifferently. About the middle of the century " the 
 Facultie of Chirurgerie" has nearly dispossessed the other titles. Shortly 
 thereafter, when two or three physicians were admitted to the membership as 
 such, " the Facultie of Chyrurgeons and Physitians " appears for the first time. 
 This was in 1654, and it was not till the end of the century or later that 
 the title finally crystallized into " The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 
 of Glasgow." There can be no doubt that it was the recollection of what 
 the Glasgow corporation owed to its venerable namesake in Paris, through 
 its founder. Dr. Peter Lowe, which prompted the early fathers of the Faculty 
 to the adoption of this particular title. 
 
 ' Cleland's Annals of G/as<((nv, I., 455. "P. 4°- 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (Continued) 
 
 It has already been stated that the charter of James VI. made no mention 
 of the barbers, although in Edinburgh, and the other divisions of the 
 kingdom, that craft was conjoined with that of the surgeons at this period 
 and for many years after ; and that after the inauguration of the Faculty, 
 the barbers were adopted as a " pendicle," without any defined rights in 
 the incorporation. There is no evidence, as far as we know, to show that, 
 previous to 1599, the barbers existed as a separate burgh guild in Glasgow, 
 though various dates of their alleged incorporation have been given. Had 
 this been the case, it is not probable that they would have quietly 
 acquiesced in the arrangement of 1602, under which they were liable to 
 corporate burdens without being admitted to proper corporate privileges. 
 To the accident of Dr. Peter Lowe's intimate acquaintance with the state 
 of matters in Paris was doubtless due the exaltation of the surgeon over 
 the barber in Glasgow. But there was no great gulf at this time between 
 the two callings in this country. Probably, it might rather be said the 
 one craft shaded into the other at the beginning of the century ; and the 
 result of the state of affairs established by Dr. Lowe would be to create a 
 sharp dividing line which must have been galling to the humbler craft. 
 Besides, the latter would be virtually unrepresented in the Trades' House except 
 by the surgeon-visitor, in whose election they had no voice. These were 
 probably the reasons which led to the application to the Town Council 
 for a " Letter of Deaconry," or " Seal of Cause." The instruction given in 
 the minute of 4th August, 1656, that the document was to be drawn "in 
 favouris of the facultie, but [without] prejudice of the old gift grantit to 
 them be the decest K. James, and this to be allenerlie [only] in favouris of 
 the Chyrurgeons and barbouris." 
 
 This municipal charter ^ is a document of some length. Besides em- 
 bodying a code of regulations, it is of some interest both in regard to 
 
 ^ See Appendix III. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 59 
 
 what it includes and what it omits.i Amongst other curious provisions, 
 it has one enacting that " no friemane presume to tack ane vther 
 freamanis cuir af his hand wntill he be honestHe satisfied and payit for 
 bygaine painis . . . vnder the paine of ane new vpsett," — an Utopian 
 measure the principle of which was adopted by one of the Glasgow Medical 
 Societies a number of years ago, but with little success. This provision was 
 qualified by another in virtue of which the visitor and quartermasters were 
 authorized " to tack patientis from ane friemane not fund qualified for 
 the cuiring of them, and to put them to ane more qualified personne as 
 sail be thought expedient after exact tryall." This, with the provision to 
 " poynd " absentees from meetings and burials, is illustrative of the notions 
 then prevalent in regard to what is now called " the liberty of the 
 subject." This obligation to attend funerals, by the way, was not intended, 
 as a cynical reader might possibly imagine, in the way of penance for 
 the result of the practitioner's treatment. Such a provision was common 
 to other incorporated callings, and had reference to the obsequies not 
 only of members of the craft, but also to those of distinguished burghers 
 and others. A similar obligation was enforced in the case of the Paris 
 Faculty of Medicine, which prescribed in detail the order in which the 
 physicians should march in the ceremony.^ It seems almost to have been 
 regarded as one of the regular duties of the visitor, and other office- 
 bearers, to attend officially, in some kind of state, the funerals of persons 
 of note.^ 
 
 Another noteworthy point in regard to this Letter of Deacon ry is that 
 the name " Faculty " does not occur from beginning to end of it. The 
 body incorporated is simply the " Chirurgians and Barbouris," or " the said 
 Crafts " or " Airts." The reason is this. The word " Faculty " was hence- 
 forth, either tacitly or by unrecorded arrangement, reserved to designate the 
 body acting under Royal Charter, as distinguished from it acting under 
 
 * It appears that in the inventory of writs belonging to the present Incorporation of 
 Barbers there is a copy of the Seal of Cause, in which there occurs a curious mistake in 
 regard to a date : " Sence ye patent grantit to us of the date ye penult day of November, 
 1559." The year should obviously be 1599, as James VI. was not born till 1566. This 
 error probably misled Crawford, the historian of the Trades' House, into giving 1559 as the 
 date of the incorporation of the Barbers. 
 
 '^ Ritus Usus ei laudabilis Facultatis Medicinae Parisiensis, Cap. 38, 133. 
 
 3 For such attendance the members were paid, though not for being present at the 
 obsequies of fellow freemen. Entries similar to the following are not uncommon in the 
 treasurer's accounts : — 
 
 I s. D. 
 
 1665. For those that went to burialls, be the deacons orders, - - 580 
 
 1669. For three hors hyres for Montross burial!, - - - - - 6 16 o 
 
 „ For four hors hyrs for Walkinshaws buriall, - - - 360 
 
 „ For four horses to my Lord Elphingstonis buriall, - - - 10 13 4 
 
6o FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Municipal Charter. Though this was the rule, the clerk appears on some 
 occasions to have forgotten it. 
 
 We look in vain through this " Seal of Cause " for any very clear reason 
 why the surgeons thought it necessary to apply for this kind of corporate 
 connection. We read, it is true, of " ane joint and harmonious correspondence 
 of brotherhood, as brother citizens willing to sympatheis with the rest of the 
 bodie of the citie." But it was doubtless a less sentimental reason which 
 was the motive power in this instance. It was not, at all events, that the 
 Corporation should be represented in the Trades' House. It had apparently 
 always been represented there by the visitor, and it had regularly contributed 
 to the Crafts' Hospital, in which the meetings of the body were often held. 
 It might therefore be supposed that the surgeons had a good deal to lose 
 in the matter of dignity, and not much in the way of compensating gain 
 by a formal union with the barbers. The Minutes, however, dimly suggest 
 a reason which may have swayed the surgeons. To obtain a Letter of 
 Deaconry was to draw closer their connection with the Town Council. The 
 latter body were charged by the charter with the duty, which they had 
 come under obligation to discharge, of giving executive effect to the lawful 
 acts of the Faculty under the Royal Charter. But the surgeoris had lately 
 been grievously troubled by illegal practitioners. In was only in March of 
 this very year that they had appointed a deputation " to speak to the 
 magistrates anent the execune of the Ires [letters] of captioune," more 
 especially with reference to two notorious offenders who were particularly 
 complained of. To draw closer the municipal connection would therefore 
 be a politic step on the part of the surgeons ; and it is probable that the 
 magistrates would insist on the recognition of the hitherto dependent craft 
 of barbers. All the other crafts had their Magna Charta in the " Letter of 
 Guildry" of 1605, and the barbers were, no doubt, desirous of emancipating 
 themselves from their parasitic condition, and of being placed on some kind 
 of parity with the other crafts. After all, however, neither party can be 
 said to have profited much at first, at all events, by the union. The most 
 ambitious barber could never hope to rise to the Visitor's Chair, which 
 could only be filled by a surgeon. Nor can it be said that the latter 
 obtained an equivalent for consenting to pocket what little of professional 
 dignity he possessed. The alliance, as will shortly appear, became a source of 
 embarrassment to the surgeons during their negotiations with the physicians; 
 while at a later period, the complication arising from two charters granting 
 jurisdictions not coterminate — the one extending over a wide district, includ- 
 ing the burgh of Glasgow, the other limited by the bounds of that city, and 
 granted to them only in virtue of their being burgesses of it — led to such 
 hopeless entanglement that a severance of the union was the only way out 
 of the difficulty. From the position taken up by Dr. Peter Lowe, this 
 corporate alliance with the barbers was a retrograde step, retarding, as it 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 6 1 
 
 did, the progress of the body, and turning its energies into a wrong 
 channel. 
 
 In 1672 the Faculty obtained from the Scottish Parliament a Ratification 
 of the charter.^ This document, though intended to be a ratification of 
 the Royal Charter only, is drawn, curiously enough, in favour of the 
 surgeons, apothecaries, and barbers. The most noticeable point in it is 
 that, as already stated, in giving a precis of its provisions, it so far mis- 
 quotes the original charter, as to credit the Faculty apparently with the power 
 to examine and license in medicine as well as surgery. The error was doubt- 
 less one of inadvertence, and the circumstance shows the perfunctory manner 
 in which such documents were drawn in the seventeenth century. Whether the 
 blunder had any legal significance may be a moot point. On the one hand, 
 it may be held that where an Act of Parliament extends the powers previously 
 conferred by Royal Charter, the statute, and not the charter, must be held 
 to be the authoritative rule ; while, on the other, it might be contended 
 that the powers conferred by a Parliamentary Ratification cannot exceed those 
 bestowed by the charter so ratified.'^ 
 
 Immediately after receiving the parliamentary confirmation of their charter 
 the Faculty engaged in negotiations for the admission of a class who, unlike 
 the barbers, had a claim under the gift of James VI. The charter was 
 originally granted to a surgeon and a physician ; and the powers conferred 
 by it had reference to medicine as well as surgery. The original conception 
 of the Faculty was in fact that of a College of Physicians and Surgeons ; 
 the latter to be admitted by examination, the former as possessing a University 
 degree. But in the first half of the century there were evidently very few 
 physicians resident in Glasgow. In 1645, Mr. Robert Mayne, the first 
 titular professor of medicine in the University of Glasgow, and Mr. James 
 Dwining, both doctors of physic, were admitted members, and without 
 examination. As showing that this was done under the provisions of the 
 charter these admissions are expressly stated to be " conforme to the patent." 
 Of Dr. Rattray's admission subsequently no record was kept. Dr. John 
 Crichton, of Glasgow, and Dr. Wm. Wallace, of Paisley, were admitted soon 
 after the last named, and one or two others followed. In regard to the 
 business of the corporation, all these physicians appear to have been on the 
 same footing as the surgeons. Thus Professor Mayne, when visitor, acted 
 as the Faculty's delegate in the Trades' House. But the municipal alliance 
 with the barbers appears to have had the effect for several years of preventing 
 the physicians from entering. The latter naturally stood on their dignity, 
 and would have no association with a craft the members of which they 
 regarded as tradesmen. 
 
 'See Appendix IV. The cost of the Ratification was 500 merks Scots (^27 15s. 6^d.), 
 certainly a modest sum when contrasted with the expenses of an unopposed private bill 
 at the present day. 
 
 " See Case in 1 louse of Lords, College of Glasgow v. Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, 20. 
 
62 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Both physicians and surgeons appear at last to have felt that they 
 were losers by the estrangement. The former were in want of a bond of 
 professional union ; whilst the surgeons lost in dignity, and, as a body 
 corporate, in effective working power, in being unable to carry out one of 
 the objects of the charter. It is also evident from the Records that an 
 important question had come to the surface. Had doctors of medicine 
 resident within the bounds, as such, a right to demand admission to the 
 Faculty? It was probably on this point that some earlier negotiations had 
 been wrecked. This was in 1 671, when Dr. John Colquhoun, Dr. Matthew 
 Brisbane, and Dr. Thomas Hamilton, all physicians in Glasgow, were desirous 
 of admission to the membership. At the meeting held on 7th February 
 of that year, it was carried by a majority that the fact of being a doctor of 
 medicine, resident in Glasgow, did not carry with it the right of admission. 
 By a second vote it was carried by a majority that these three physicians 
 should be admitted, a day being fixed for receiving them as freemen. 
 
 But the physicians, it would seem, would rather remain out than enter 
 on any other terms than those implying a right of admission in virtue of 
 possessing a degree. At the end of 1672 the negotiations were renewed, 
 the Faculty on this occasion making the first approaches. The surgeons 
 were evidently eager to bring the matter to a successful issue. The 
 negotiations are reported in the Records in great detail. Each party first 
 formulated the conditions on which they were willing to consummate a 
 union. The surgeons, on their part, thought it right to put on record, in 
 the preamble of their stipulations, their reasons for desiring the admission 
 of the physicians. In the phraseology of the period these were " that the 
 concurrence of some physitians residing w'in the bounds specifit thereintil 
 \i.e. in the charter], is injoined and necessaire (if it can be had) ffor the 
 richt and legall exercise of the power of visita°ne." They were, in fact, 
 of opinion that the concurrence of some physicians would enable the 
 Faculty the better to perform the functions and obligations imposed 
 by the charter. They admit that the spread of quackery and kindred 
 evils may be partly due to the defect in their existing constitution. They 
 therefore think it right and expedient to revert to what they considered 
 to be the conception of the constitution of the Faculty, as sketched in the 
 charter. That conception, to their minds, was that of a body presided 
 over by two heads of co-ordinate authority, the one representing the 
 physicians and the other the surgeons. They therefore request Dr. John 
 Colquhoun to take upon him and exercise " the office of Visitor conjunct 
 with the pnt Visitor of the Chirurgians and pharmatians as fully, frielie, and 
 honollie [honourably] in all points as Mr. Robert Hamiltone did, or might 
 have done, with Mr. Peter Low, according to the first intention, and at the 
 procuring of the sd. gift." The committee appointed to negotiate with Dr. 
 Colquhoun were invested with large discretionary powers, subject to two 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 63 
 
 reservations, which they evidently regarded as their inner citadel, to be 
 maintained at all hazards. One of the conditions was general, the other 
 special. The first was that they should accept no terms which might tend 
 to the destruction of the incorporation, or opposed to the parliamentary 
 ratification of the charter then recently obtained. Separation from the 
 barbers was therefore not to be entertained. The special reservation was 
 that the possession of a University degree was not to be acknowledged as 
 giving its holder, though resident in Glasgow, or elsewhere within the bounds, 
 any right of admission to the Faculty. With these exceptions, everything 
 else could be yielded in the way of " securing his [Dr. Colquhoun's] honour 
 and reputation from aspersions, or for easing of his burding in the sd 
 charge." The reference to " aspersions " pointed to the barbers, and the 
 possible contamination of the physicians from being associated with them. 
 
 At the next meeting Dr. Colquhoun, as representing the physicians, also 
 submitted a number of stipulations to be accepted as fundamental. The 
 first and most important of these touched upon the delicate point of the 
 conditions of the admission of a physician. This, it will be remembered, 
 was probably the rock on which last year's negotiations had been wrecked. 
 But the physicians had now abated their demands. They no longer 
 insisted on admission in right of their degree. But they made the proviso 
 that it should be put on record that the entry of the physicians into the 
 Faculty was in accordance with the express tenor of the charter, and 
 " not precarious or depending on the bare call of the Chirurgianes." This 
 was a compromise. Though not admitted as a matter of right, they were 
 not to enter as a mere matter of grace. It was to be minuted that their 
 presence was provided for in the charter, and that they were therefore a 
 necessary element of the body-corporate. The other stipulations were : 
 That the number of physicians to be admitted was not less than two ; that 
 one of these was to be resident in Glasgow, while the other might live in 
 the country ; and that to the latter " some poynts of the power of 
 visitation may be committed." That in all matters depending upon the 
 charter, physicians and surgeons were to sit and decide communi consilio, 
 and any resolution against which the former unanimously protested as 
 derogatory to their degree, was to be void and null. That the physicians 
 were to be exempted from taking part in crafts' or trades' house business ; 
 that the physicians were in all matters to take precedence of the surgeons ; 
 that the surgeon-visitor was to take oath that he would seek the honour 
 and advantage of the physicians, " especially those incorporat," while recip- 
 rocally the physician-visitor was to swear that he would seek the good and 
 welfare of the surgeons. That, as regards the business of the Faculty arising 
 out of the charter, only a selected number of the surgeons were to sit 
 and vote with the physicians ; and, lastly, that the two visitors should 
 have equal power to convene meetings. 
 
64 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGFONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Everything was at last satisfactorily adjusted. The ratification of the 
 convention between the two high contracting parties is thus described in 
 the Records : 
 
 " The said Doctor Johne Colquhoun did condescend and imediatlie 
 yreft did accept in and upon him the office of Physician-Visitor conjoint 
 w' the Chirurgian-Visitor ; and he and members of the sd facultie 
 abowyne [above] did hinc inde give y"^ grit and solem oathes, viz., The sd 
 doctor to maintain the just ryts and priviledges of the sd incorporatione w' 
 ther weelfare, and the sd members to maintain the honour and advantadg of 
 the sd Physician-Visitor, and did tak uther by the hand in furder testimonie 
 of ther unanimous assent to the premiss." 
 
 The minute then proceeds to record the election and admission of two 
 other physicians — Dr. Thomas Hamilton, of Glasgow, and Dr. Michael 
 Wallace, of Ayr. Thereafter eighteen surgeons were selected from the 
 whole list by the two visitors, and these were to have the power of voting 
 at meetings. All persons who had been licensed to practise only a part of 
 the profession, and the whole of the barbers, were left out in the cold. 
 The physicians took no part in any business arising out of the Letter of 
 Deaconry. That appertained to the surgeons, apothecaries, and barbers. But 
 all matters originating from the Royal Charter, such as those connected 
 with examinations, inhibiting unlicensed practitioners, reporting in medico- 
 legal cases, and several others, became the functions of the physicians and 
 surgeons acting conjointly. 
 
 That the admission of the physicians constituted an important era in the 
 history of the Faculty, there cannot be a doubt. The advantages accruing 
 from it are obvious. It provided a greatly needed counterpoise to the crafts- 
 man element in the body, which had been recently reinforced. The care 
 with which the physicians guarded themselves from contamination from this 
 source is almost amusing in its eagerness. With the surgeons, as acting 
 under the Seal of Cause, they would have nothing to do. It was only with 
 these surgeons as the successors of Dr. Peter Lowe in the charter of 
 James VI. that they would form any alliance. In the negotiations it is 
 pretty obvious that they very nearly got everything their own way. If 
 unanimous, the physicians could veto any resolution of the body. Though 
 at first a numerically small element in the Faculty, they could exert a 
 preponderating influence on its deliberations. Their accession, however, had 
 the effect of complicating the constitution of a body already sufficiently 
 involved. It must now be regarded as having a kind of dual constitution. 
 On the one side it was a college of physicians and surgeons, with the 
 medical and surgical members admitted on different conditions, having two 
 presidents of nominally co-ordinate authority, with powers of examining 
 and licensing, and inhibiting from practice, extending over the western 
 counties. On the other hand it was a city guild, composed of two separate 
 
 \ 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 65 
 
 crafts, the members of each being admitted freemen of their own calling 
 only, having for its head a " deacon," who was the surgeon-visitor, and 
 attending to the ordinary business of such an incorporation. On the one 
 side the surgeon joined hands with the physician, on the other with the 
 barber ; but between the two extremes of this trio thus strangely linked 
 there was no relation whatever. It was not in the nature of things that such 
 a complicated constitution could work well. The elements which composed 
 the body in its different aspects had little cohesion at best, and some of 
 them mutually repelled ; while its several functions were in reality incom- 
 patible. The only wonder is that such discordant elements could exist 
 together for something more than half a century. 
 
 With the accession of a few physicians and surgeons from the larger 
 towns in the West of Scotland — from Ayr, Kilmarnock, and Paisley — which 
 took place about the middle of the seventeenth century, or a little after, the 
 Faculty began to obtain a grip over the larger part of their allotted district 
 outside Glasgow. During the first half of the century their numbers were 
 too small,^ and the success of their operations within the town of Glasgow 
 too doubtful to allow of their working the country districts effectively. They 
 appear first to have begun with Paisley, which was rising into some importance, 
 if we may judge from the number of practitioners examined and licensed. 
 Only one or two in that century came from Greenock, the rise and prosperity 
 of which are of more modern date. It was evidently with great reluctance that 
 the medical men in the country districts came up for examination, and often 
 only to escape prosecution. They were frequently found sadly awanting at 
 the examination, and not a few of them obtained only very qualified and 
 restricted freedom to practise. In the latter half of the century the Faculty 
 tried the experiment of delegating part of their power to a few physicians 
 of their number resident in Ayr and Kilmarnock. The first appointed was 
 Dr. Michael Wallace, of Ayr, on 21st March, 1673. The minute bears 
 that " they offred him a commissione w' certain instructions for the sd shire 
 and a list of all persons allready licentiat within that bounds, Reserving to 
 themselfs and y"" successors liberty to call and convein persons w'in the sd 
 shyre before them not formerly licentiat, and to call him to ane accompt for 
 his actions and intromissions." Three months later, iith July, 1673, "The 
 qlk day the facultie taking to ther serious consideratioune the grit burding 
 lying on doctor Wallace by the late Commission grantit to him ffor the 
 power of visitatioun in the West, they judgit it convenient he should have 
 an assessor or helper," and for this purpose they appointed Dr. Bryce Bell, 
 of Kilmarnock. It is not quite clear whether they were to examine 
 applicants, the Faculty reserving the power to re-examine ; or whether they 
 were simply to utilize their local knowledge for seeking out unlicensed 
 practitioners, and sending them to be tested in Glasgow. Though provided 
 with two letters of horning, they do not appear to have been very successful, 
 and the plan was soon abandoned. 
 
 ' For another possible reason, as regards the burghs, see p. 41. 
 
 E 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (Continued) 
 
 In perusincT the early Records of the Faculty, we have seldom the advantage 
 of seeing "the old surgeons in any but their official dress. Occasionally 
 however we do catch glimpses of them as they lived and acted their parts. 
 Interspersed amongst the driest minutes we come upon " touches of nature 
 which make the whole world kin " : the human passions of the men, some- 
 times their vanities, their jealousies, occasionally their turbulence, and not 
 seldom their genuine kindness of heart, peer out from the time-stamed pages. 
 Throu-h the Records also we sometimes, but not often, get glances at what 
 is passincT in the greater world outside, and can read with more or less 
 distinctness a few of the incidents or characteristics of the age. It is 
 proposed in the present chapter to present a very few illustrations of this 
 
 aspect of these Records. ^ . i , 
 
 One cannot read any length into these old Minutes, in some places, indeed, 
 can hardly open them, without being struck with the frequency with which 
 a crime known as "blaspheming" prevailed in the early Faculty. A cursory 
 modern reader finding this word ever and again cropping up m the pages, 
 mi-ht imagine these old surgeons as amongst the most irreverent of men 
 But the term "blaspheme" is an example of a word once used m a general 
 sense and now confined to a particular case of the idea it represented. 
 It was not the Deity of whom the members of the Faculty spoke evil ; 
 it was of one another, and especially of the visitor. If the frequency of the 
 offence is at all indicated by the number of times in which laws were made 
 and renewed against it, these early surgeons could have placed remarkably 
 little restraint on the "unruly member." As early as 1612 (22nd Sept.) 
 we come upon an " Act against any brother to abuse ane other. Give 
 
 any member of the said calling," runs this statute, "blaspheme any brother 
 of his craft ether publickly or privately or utherwise, or misuses any of 
 them in word or deed, in yt caise tryall takein and provin against him 
 be witnesse, shall pay 4 lbs. to the calling, and give his brother scandalized 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 67 
 
 satisfaction at the deacons sight and masters, otherwise to be dischargit to 
 use his calling toties quoties." The position of the visitor rendered 
 him peculiarly obnoxious to the shafts of calumny, and at the same 
 time rendered the offence exceptionally heinous. It was accordingly found 
 necessary to hedge this official round with a cordon of prohibitive statutes, 
 which were constantly renewed, and probably as often broken. Here is one 
 of these of date 1654 (28th April): "yt at no t3^m heir efter any 
 person qtsoever being a member of the facultie shall tak upon him to 
 speik scandalously of the Visitor, ether before his face or behind his 
 back, for qtsoever cause or occasion, but upon the contrair shall indevior 
 to carry themselfs respectfully to him, and give him his deu respect in 
 everything relating to the calling & yt under the paine of i 5 lbs. unforgiven, 
 and the Act to be put to dew execution be the last deacon, the present 
 deacon complaining to him," etc. It appears also that this fine was often 
 exacted with relentless rigour, a peremptory order being made in a former 
 minute that " the culprit remaine in fast ward till it be payd." But it would 
 have required a surgical operation to stop the unlicensed wagging of the 
 tongues of some of the members. Minutes similar to the following occur so 
 often as soon to blunt all sense of the unusual or exceptional : " The qlk day 
 ther being a complaint given be the Visitor aganes John Liddell for his 
 misbehaviour towards the Visitor and abusing at severall myr [more] members 
 of the ffaculty by his toung, the ffaculty present taking the same to ther 
 considera°ne wt his confession yrof, They heirby discharg him of that trust 
 as a box-master. . . . also they discharg him to compeir at any of ther 
 meetings untill they see his future good behavior, and this to continue 
 during ther plesur."^ Suspension, such as in this case, and even expulsion, 
 were not unusual sequels to this class of offences. On adequate expression 
 of contrition the blasphemer was generally readmitted, but even then he 
 was invariably mulcted in " ane new upsett " [admission fine, and perhaps 
 " denner "]. But all the terrors of fines, imprisonment, suspension, and even 
 corporate excommunication, were unavailing to prevent this crime of vilipend- 
 ing, even on the most public occasions. 
 
 In 1667 (24th Sept.) it is recorded that "a complaint is givene in by the 
 sd Arch Bogle [the Visitor for the year] and Wm. Currie, makand mentione 
 that q' Wm. Cliddesdaill upon the 19th day of the sd monethe in presence 
 of the haill brethrenc upon reciding of the sd Wm. Currie " [a new entrant 
 examined at the previous meeting] his supplica°ne ancnt his admissione to 
 cxercc such points of chirurgie or apothecaric as he sould be fund qualified 
 unto. Trew it is the sd Wm did in ane most uncivill maner w'out any 
 offence given upraid the .sd visitour by uttering ane number of vyll ex- 
 pressions, as particularlic yt he was ane mere fool and ane ass not worthie to 
 carry office in his place, and did call the sd Wm Currie ane warlock and 
 
 ' 26th June, 1680. 
 
68 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 runniegait going fra door to door, as the sd complaint more fully com- 
 portes." The accused admitted the offence as regards Currie, but denied 
 it as respected the visitor. The charge thereupon was put to proof, the 
 evidence of the visitor and other members present being taken, with the 
 result that the accused was found guilty as libelled. " Thereupon the sd 
 facultie all in one voyce did fyne the sd Wm. Cliddesdail in Twenty 
 merks moneye for the use of the poor and yt the sd Wm sould never 
 Carrie office nor have a vott in all tyme coming, except the Visitour 
 present and to com and the facultie see his good behavior in the futur." ^ 
 
 In 1672 John Fleming, for the crime of " reflecting on the Visitor," was 
 amerced in a fine of six pounds, compelled to crave the Visitor's pardon, 
 and then expelled. These are a few out of a considerable number of 
 instances which could be given to illustrate the want of restraint in the 
 matter of expressing their opinions of each other, which appears to have 
 characterized not a few members of the Faculty. But no one acquainted 
 with the habits of the different classes of society of the period will make the 
 mistake of supposing that an undisciplined tongue was limited to the members 
 of the medical profession. This was, in truth, a feature of an age characterized 
 by rudeness and turbulence in Scotland, and not of any particular class or 
 calling. All through the published Minutes of the Town Council cases are 
 continually turning up of " speaking scandalously," or misuse of speech 
 under some such term. Running one's eye down the rubric of the Burgh 
 Records, published by the Maitland Club, it is arrested (at page 7) by 
 the pithy summary of an Act, " gif they flyte to be brankit." The same 
 failing was chargeable to the members of the legal profession in Glasgow. 
 They were " boisterous and talkative, besides indulging too much in strong 
 imagery." In 1668 a code of "Injunctions for the Procurators" was drawn 
 up by the Commissary ; and these contain a graduated tariff of fines for the 
 various kinds and degrees of offences of this kind.^ 
 
 ^Clyddesdail was afterwards rehabilitated on his own application, and his fine remitted. 
 But he appears to have had a knack of getting into scrapes. In 1669 the widow of one 
 John Risk laid a complaint against him before the Faculty for malpraxis, which she alleged 
 had resulted in the death of her husband. The complaint is set down with a quaint 
 minuteness which almost borders on the ludicrous ; how " that the sd umquhill John 
 Risk having ane paine in his briest" consulted Clyddesdail, paying him a fee in advance, 
 wherupon the latter gave to the " defunct in two cockell shells ane potione of antimonie," 
 with instructions as to the taking of it. The result is thus stated : " The sd defunct made 
 use yrof upon the morrow, being a Sabaath day . . . that it did no wayes in the least 
 work with the sd defunct until Monday at aight, at which time that it wroght the defunct 
 to death." Clyddesdail denied the charge iii toto ; but his admission that he had ad- 
 ministered to the patient "some oyles and some pills" was enough to seal his fate. He 
 had treated a medical case, which was " altogether contrair to his act of admission." He 
 was therefore heavily fined, and a representation of the facts was ordered to be made to 
 the Town Council, with what object does not appear. 
 
 'Memoir of George Bat Hie, 17. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 69 
 
 In view of the troublous times in which the Faculty was cradled, one 
 would naturally expect to light in the Records on incidental references to 
 passing events. Such allusions do occur, but rarely. Thus the accession of 
 a new monarch necessitated the taking out of fresh letters of horning in his 
 name. Occasionally their connection with the municipality saddled the 
 members of Faculty with duties which would somewhat surprise their modern 
 successors. In 1665 the Visitor reported to the Faculty "that his Majestic 
 and Estates had imposed ane greater taxatione of monye upon the countrie 
 nor formerlie, and that the magistrates of the brughe had ordered him to 
 desyr the calling to meet to the effect they might know how the sayme should 
 be payit, whether by a common stent, or augmentatioune of the excyse of 
 malt, who all in one voyce agreed that five shillings, Scots moneye, myr of 
 augmenta°ne sould be laid upon the mask of malt nor is presentlie exactit." 
 A certain sum was in these days required to be raised by every burgh in 
 proportion to its resources, the magistrates in each case being left to exact 
 it in the way they thought best for the locality. It is evident from the above 
 quotation that the surgeons had a wholesome dislike of direct taxation. In 
 1653 we learn incidentally that some time previous the treasurer had lost 
 " much of the crafts guids at the incoming of the Englesh to the toune." 
 Cromwell had evidently given the Faculty some cause to remember his visit 
 to Glasgow three years previously. 
 
 As to ecclesiastical politics, though a few of the Faculty were red-hot 
 Covenanters ^ the major part of them appear to have tempered piety with 
 prudence. In 1677, when the crusade against the Covenanters was hot the 
 Faculty had the misfortune to have a Treasurer who attended conventicles. 
 Great was the anxiety of his brethren for the safety of the corporate purse. 
 Accordingly a meeting was convened, and the members " taking to ther 
 serious considera°ne the hesart of loss they may sustein through Mr. Thomas 
 Smith, the present collector, being denuncit or convenit before the Lords 
 of Secret Councill for attending conventicles," they thought it wise summarily 
 to eject him from office, and appoint a successor ad interivi. The latter was 
 peremptorily enjoined to call his covenanting brother to book forthwith, and 
 take over all his papers and money. 
 
 In 1656 an attempt was made by the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, to 
 institute in Edinburgh a College of Physicians for Scotland. The surgeons of 
 that city appear to have taken the alarm at once, and communicated with 
 the Faculty with a view to the scheme being opposed. The Faculty met, 
 "Octavo Junii 1657. Conveint . . . concerning ane letter direct to them be 
 the chirurgianes and apothecaries of Edg"" anent the letteirs of patent granted 
 be the protectour for erecting ane College of physitiancs ther, They did 
 all in one voice Comissionat and Impower Johne Hall and Mr, Arch. Grahame 
 to goe to Edg"" to advocat and oppose the sam before the Counsall of Stait." 
 'See Roll of Members, "John Spreull," entered 1661. 
 
70 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 The Commissioners were to take with them the Charter, Letters of Horning, 
 and forms of summons. On the twelfth of the same month they reported 
 that they had presented a memorial to the Council of State, and secured 
 the services of two agents ; and the Faculty " ordered each on of ther 
 number to think upon the phisitianes patent and upon objectiones ther 
 against." What was the result of their cogitations does not appear from 
 their Minutes, but elsewhere we learn that there being strong opposition, not 
 only on the part of the surgeons of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but of the 
 Universities and other bodies, the scheme was eventually dropped in 1657.^ 
 That the surgeons had good ground for their dislike of the project is evident 
 from the fact that under the proposed foundation their practice would have 
 been greatly circumscribed, and their professional position generally lowered. 
 They were to be allowed to treat only cutaneous and external diseases 
 " so long as these remained simply such and did not recur," in which 
 latter case a physician was to be consulted. The patent which was actually 
 made out and is still extant gave the college the power to practise surgery 
 as a branch of medicine, " forasmuch as the Science of Physick doth com- 
 prehend, include, and contain in it the knowledge of chirurgery, being a 
 special part of the same and member thereof." ^ The opposition of the 
 Faculty is, therefore, intelligible ; but what is not so clear is the ground of 
 the suspicion apparently implied in the following Minute of Glasgow Town 
 Council, that the Faculty might come to terms with the physicians, and the 
 interest that Council took in a question which was not a matter of much 
 concern to them. "5th Sept., 1657. James Thomson, deacone of chirurgianes 
 compeired in the counsall being sent for, and was discharged publictly that 
 nether he nor his bretherine of calling should mack any kind of agriement 
 with the doctors of physick anent the colledge of phisitianes craved to be 
 erected be them, whill he did first aquant the counsall, quha promised it should 
 be so." The visitor reported the interview to the Faculty and " did demand of 
 them whither they would adher to ther old gift or joyne w' the prfit calling 
 of Physitianes. They did all in on voyce adher to ther old gift." Clearly 
 some overtures for union had been made to them. 
 
 In 1660, the year of the Restoration, we come upon a little bit of 
 mystery, which it is impossible to clear up from the Minutes themselves. 
 In that year the annual meeting at Michaelmas took place as usual, but 
 under unusual circumstances. In the first place the meeting is said to be 
 convened " be lawfull authoritie and be virtue of ane warrand from ye 
 magistrats and Counsell," — an authorization apparently as unnecessary as 
 it was unprecedented. Then the presiding surgeon-visitor is not the one 
 whose election had been recorded at the last annual meeting, a year 
 previously, there being no intimation of any change made. Further, the 
 
 ^ Gairdner, Sketch of the Early History of the Medical Profession in Edinburgh^ 1864, 20. 
 "^Historical Sketch, etc., of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1882, 20. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY yi 
 
 officer " gave his aith that he had warned the haill members, except ye 
 secluded members^' — the last words being added by way of correction in 
 the margin. The mystery was cleared up by the publication of the Town 
 Council Records in i88i.^ From these we gather that exception had been 
 taken under the Seal of Cause to the election of Thomas Lockhart as 
 visitor, he being not a surgeon-freeman, as the municipal charter provided 
 for, but an apothecary. On the matter being reported to the Town Council 
 they, after a good many meetings and not a little forbearance, ordered 
 the election to be rescinded. It will be seen from the minute of the Town 
 Council, to be quoted, that it was alleged and admitted that the Faculty 
 minute book had been tampered with, for the purpose no doubt of proving 
 the election to have been valid. , The original record of Lockhart's admission 
 and the alterations effected thereupon may be seen from the following extract : 
 "Die the 1 3 of decemb. 1649. The qlk day Thomas Lockard is admittit 
 apothecarie and chyrurgian to wse phlebotomie w' putting in of potentiall 
 cauters a^id other prse of chi7'ui'gerie, who hes given his oath," etc. The words in 
 italics have been interpolated to legalize Lockhart's election as visitor. There 
 is little wonder that the Town Council were indignant. Their minute bears : 
 
 2 March, 1660. — " Forsuameikle as Baillie Colquhoune and the deane of 
 gild did mak report that they now and divers tymes of befor had spokine 
 with Thomas Lockart, apothecar, and wthers of the chirurgianes, anent 
 the electing of the said Thomas deacon of their calling, contrair the tenour 
 of the litter of deaconheid laitlie grantit be the toune to that calling, and 
 that conforme to the counselles ordour given be them thairanent, and 
 that so far as the said baillie and deane of gild could gather of them, the 
 said Thomas Lockhart and theis adhearand with him seimes altogither to 
 slight and viliefie the forsaid gift grantit be the toune to that calling, and 
 to adheare to their old right ; and now the said magistrats and counsell, 
 taking to their consideratioune the great regrait made be sundrie of the 
 chirurgianes in this burgh that the said Thomas Lockheart, now pretendit 
 deacon of that calling, was not lawfullie choysen, he being ane apothecar 
 but not ane chirurgiane, and so contrair to that lait letter of deaconheid 
 grantit be the toune to that calling, and how that some of them, for 
 better effectuating of their sinistruous ends, had vitiat and interlyned their 
 books most vnjustlie, and how that the said Thomas, after warning, 
 compeared in counsell, and, being interrogat anent the vitiating of their 
 said book, he grantit the same, quherwpon he was requyred to produce 
 ane act sett doune by the calling warranding the vitiating and interlyning 
 of the said book before the samyne was done, with certificatioune if he 
 failyied, the magistrats and counsel wold declair his place to be vacking." 
 
 The minute details at length their unsuccessful dealing with Lockhart, 
 and then records his deposition : they " doe heirby declair the aforsaid 
 Thomas Lockhart, as pretendit deacon of the said calling, to be vacant, 
 
 1 Pp. 430, 432, 433, 437. 
 
72 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 in respect he was not laufulHe choysen conforme to the said letter of 
 cleaconheid grantit be the toune to that calHng, and does heirby Hberat 
 and mak frie the bretherin of that calHng fra giving to him any obedience 
 as becometh ane deacon in tyme coming, and appoynts the baillies and deane 
 of gild to intemat the samye to him." 
 
 From the allusion to " ye secluded members," it is probably not far 
 wrong to infer that there had been a quarrel in the body, ending, in these 
 days of intolerant majorities, in the suspension of the minority from 
 corporate privileges. The dispute blazed up again in February, 1661, when 
 one of the leading members, Mr. David Sharp, refused to keep court with 
 the others in auditing the Treasurer's accounts, " except y' ye haill brethren 
 wer present, and yron took instruts [instruments] and imediatlie left ye 
 court, and upon ye qlk carriadge of ye sd. Mr. david Scharps, James 
 Frank, Visitor, asked instruts, and protested for remeid of Law ag' him. 
 Unto qlk the Visitor declared ther wer a prit [part] of ye number secludded 
 from ye court, and notwithstanding Mr. david said he would have yem to 
 be yr befoir he would acknowledge ye court." The dispute is not again 
 referred to. 
 
 If these early surgeons did not always prove their piety by being 
 lovers of peace, or by restraining their tongues, and were even worldly-wise 
 enough to look with disfavour on an official attending conventicles, they 
 compounded for these shortcomings by religious ardour in another direction. 
 Of Sunday shaving they had the most pious horror. Again and again 
 they had to put down the foot on impious barbers, who were inclined to 
 please their patrons by indulging in the proscribed practice. Here is a 
 minute of January, 1676: — "The sd day, upon informa°ne given to the 
 facultie that severall harbors, who are members yrof within the burgh, are 
 prophaners of the Sabath by barborizing of persons yt day, They taking it 
 to ther considera°ne, and finding the same to be so gross a sin, and viola°ne 
 and breach of the Sabath day, contrair to the word of God, and to all 
 lawes both humane and divyne. That any sould tak upon them who are 
 members of the Incorpora°ne, and does sitt and vott wt them to comitt 
 the same, being in itself most scandelous, as it is a hiely provoking sin. 
 They all w' on consent doe heirby enact that qtever person, ether at pnt 
 incorporat wt them, or who sail heireft be admitted as a member of the 
 facultie, sail presume to barborize any person qtsever upon ane Sabboth day, 
 and he be convict yrof in presence of the facultie, sail for each of the 
 first and second faultes, pay in to the Collector of the upsett ffburtie 
 punds Scots, and upon refusal to pay the same, to be declarit no member 
 of the facultie, and his act of admissione cancellit and delet. Lykeas if 
 any sail happen to be so gross as be convict a third tyme of the foresd 
 sin, they do heirby declare him no member of ye sd facultie fra yt tyme 
 furth as if he had never been admittit, and incapable at any tyme yreft 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 73 
 
 to be readmittit, and his act of admission cancellit, scorit, and expungit 
 furth of ther records as a prson unworthie of being incorporat in any 
 societie, and much less to be a member of the facultie." This last 
 sentence reveals a depth and virulence of detestation of unsanctified shaving 
 to which the Faculty Clerk of the day was fortunately able to give 
 adequately pungent expression.^ 
 
 If the members of the Faculty were thus not lacking in what they 
 considered their duty to God, neither were they neglectful of what was 
 due to themselves. Laws to regulate points of medical etiquette and 
 ethics were frequently made and renewed. In the very first meeting held 
 in 1602 the subject crops up, and a few days later "it is statute 
 and ordanit that non of ye brethren tak ane patient out of ane uthers 
 hand untill the tyme y' the sd brother be fully satisfiet for his paines 
 and y' at the visitouris sight and qtermasters, under the paine of paying 
 to the box 40 lbs. unforgiven." In the Letter of Deaconry there are 
 some odd provisions on this matter, such as that under which " no 
 freeman presume to tak any other freeman's case out of his hands, till 
 he be honestly paid for his bygone pains, and that at the sight of ye 
 bailiffs, with the advice of the Visitor, in case the patient find himself 
 grieved by the chirurgeon, under the paine of a new upsett, excepting always 
 libertie to the Visitor and quartermasters to take patients from ane freeman, 
 not fund qualified for the cureing of y'em, and to put them to ane more 
 qualified person, as shall be thought expedient after an exact tryall," 
 Complaints as to breach of etiquette are not uncommon. On one occasion 
 the complainer himself received an equal castigation with the respondent. 
 In 1678 William Kelso, • a surgeon in Ayr, lodged a complaint against 
 James Stevenson, also residing in that town, " for taking ane patient of his 
 hand in swa far as being employit to the cuir of ane broken leg, and efter 
 he had reparit and dressit the same according to method, . . . the sd 
 Mr. James did (as it appears at the desyre of the patient) untie the fractur, 
 and dressit the same himself." The denofiement must have been galling to 
 the complainer, though he might have foreseen it. On looking into the 
 record of their examination and conditions of admission, the Faculty 
 found that neither the one nor the other had been found qualified and 
 licensed to practise surgery. Their finding, therefore, was that as regarded 
 the complaint, it was " not convenient to meddel yrwith," but both parties 
 were strictly enjoined to desist from the practice of surgery till they had again 
 been examined and found competent in it. 
 
 This brings us to the subject of prosecutions. In these modern days, 
 as every one is aware, the matter of prohibiting and prosecuting quacks is 
 
 * Sabbatarian zeal took the same form much about the same time in the Edinburgh 
 College of Surgeons. See GairdneHs Sketch of the Early History of the Medical Profession 
 in Edinburgh. Edin. 1864, p. 10. 
 
74 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 one of considerable difficulty and delicacy. We are troubled with new- 
 fangled notions regarding what is called "the liberty of the subject." We 
 draw fine distinctions. It is not unqualified practice that is illegal ; it is 
 the dishonest assumption of professional titles. The meshes of the law are 
 thus wide enough to allow a pretty big offender to escape. But in the 
 seventeenth century they were not troubled with such nice scruples. The 
 Faculty had not only the power to prosecute, but the charter, having as 
 its handmaid a despotic law, put into their hands an instrument by which 
 they could do so in a manner equally summary and effective. The original 
 provision of the charter was that " in case they be contumax being 
 lauchifully citat, every ane to be unlawit in the soume of fortie pundis toties 
 quoties" And in enforcement of this penalty the Faculty were to receive 
 " our letters of horning, . . . chargeing them to poind thairfor within 
 twenty-four houris under the paine of horning ; and the partie not haveand 
 gear poindable, the magistrate under the same paine, to incarcerate thame 
 quhill caution responsall be fund that the contumax personne sail compir 
 at sic day and place as the saidis Visitouris sail appoynt, gevan tryall of 
 ther qualifications." Such a provision in modern times would be justly 
 reckoned most arbitrary and tyrannical. In the most summary way the 
 delinquent could be tried by the Faculty and fined, and on a magistrate's 
 order (failing goods to be distrained), committed to prison till the pay- 
 ment of the fine ; or, if a more lenient view were taken of the case, 
 till he came under obligation to desist from practising, and found adequate 
 " caution " that the promise would be fulfilled. These " general letters of 
 horning " might possibly be of advantage to the community in a certain 
 stage of social progress, but they were obviously subversive of the elementary 
 principles of liberty, as the term is now understood. But to the credit of 
 the Faculty, they appear to have generally tempered rigour with mercy. 
 As far as there is evidence, they cannot be said to have recklessly used 
 the powerful instrument which the law put into their hands. If they were 
 severe, it was only intermittently, and not for long periods at a time. From 
 about the year 1665 onwards, for twenty years, a mania for prosecuting 
 appears to have seized them. The Records for that period are filled with 
 cases of unqualified persons brought up before the body in their judicial 
 capacity. The accused sometimes appeared in answer to summons, but 
 occasionally they were brought up " under caption," or " apprehended wi' 
 caption." Letters of horning come up in some shape in almost every 
 minute. Nor was it the City only that they tried in this way to clear of 
 quacks. The crusade was pursued to the furthest border of their territory. 
 On 24th April, 1673, we read that "they ordain a pair of Ires of horning 
 to be sent west to Dr. Wallace " — a country physician admitted in terms of 
 the convention with Dr. Colquhoun, and to whom was to be committed 
 " some points of the power of visitation," ^ " to be mad use of in that part 
 
 1 P. 64. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 75 
 
 committed to his visitation." It does not appear what execution the 
 formidable " pair " effected. Let us hope that the quality of mercy was not 
 strained in the use made of them. Occasionally men were found bold 
 enough to defy the Faculty, despising all the terrors of letters of horning, 
 caption, and imprisonment. In such cases the contumacious quack usually 
 raised in the Court of Session an action of suspension directed against the 
 authority of the Faculty, but usually without much success. 
 
 Though some of these proceedings in these prosecutions may appear to 
 us high-handed, there can be no doubt that many of them were clamorously 
 called for. Some of the cases of malpraxis related in the minutes would 
 in these days be treated as culpable homicide, if not murder. Female 
 practitioners were occasionally made subject of complaint ; and on two 
 or three occasions the Faculty thought it consistent with their dignity to 
 prosecute the offenders. The essential portion of one of these cases, as 
 stated in the Minutes at length, may be given : 
 
 "28th Aug'- 1657. The sd day anent the complaint of Jannet Andersoune, relict 
 of the deceasit James Rodger, Merchant of this borough, against Margaret Granfield, 
 spous to David Farrell, making mention that upon the sixth day of this instant 
 monethe the sd Janet, her deceasit husband being heavily diseased with ane mortall 
 diseas qrof he departed this lyf, and hear tell that the sd Margaret had geven out 
 herself as ane most expert physitian, he caused her goe for her, wha came to visit 
 him, and after shoe had gruped his pulsis shoe told him that his diseas was curable, 
 and promised to cuir him yrof w'in fyfteen days ; and he, being thus persuadit be 
 her, did in end agrie wt her for three pound ten shillings sterling money, for the qlk 
 soume shoe promised to cuir him perfectlie, and qlk soume shoe recavit in hand 
 according to her own desyre ; and true it is she sent him some jewly [jelly] in ane 
 can with other two things, qlkes are almost extant to the fore to be seen." The 
 minute then records his taking of the medicine, and his death, and proceeds: "and, 
 being present w'in three or four moments of tyme before his departure, shoe told 
 him that ther was no deathe working with him." The complaint then resolves itself 
 into a demand that the female practitioner be declared incapable of practising 
 medicine or surgery, and that she be ordained to return the fee. The case went to 
 proof, the accused denying "the whole expressiones conteint in the narrative aforsd, 
 but acknawledgit receipt of the forsd monye, and that she did give the defunct the 
 particular medicamentes conteint in a papper given in be her, to wit, two pyntes 
 of [ * ], two pyntes of claret wine, two loaves of sugar, threee ounces of syrup 
 of [ * ], three ounces of maidenhair, wt some syrup of gillet flowers, and 
 declarit he died of ane hydropsie, be reason of his legis were all swalit downward, 
 and ane hard coche and ane draught and [ * ] in his bellie." After some 
 interrogation, she said that she was "content to soccombe and undergoe the censur 
 of the facultie, and pay back all the forsd three punds ten shillings, stg., to the 
 
 ♦Blank in the M.S. 
 
ye FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 pursuer; and being demandit if shoe had any warrand to exerce Medicine or 
 testimonial! from any in authoritie to pas through the natur whereby her honestie 
 and well carriage might be knawne, shoe denyit the having thereof. Qlk being 
 considerit the facultie all in one voyce did unlaw, amerciat, and decerne the sd 
 Marg'- and her sd husband for his interest to pay to Arch'^- Bogle, the CoUecter, 
 fourtie pound Scots for her bygane transgressione, for the use of the poor, to be 
 disposed upon by the baillie and facultie." On her plea of poverty, the fine was 
 remitted at the next meeting. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE FACULTY AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The last meeting of the Faculty in the seventeenth century, of which 
 the record has been preserved, was held on 28th June, 1688 : the earliest 
 extant minute of the eighteenth century bears date 8th November, 1733. 
 For a period little short of half a century we have no official record of 
 the proceedings. But the want of the minutes is to some extent made up 
 by other available sources of information. In the interest of historical 
 continuity it fortunately happened that during the larger part of this period 
 the transactions of the Faculty were more than ordinarily matters of public 
 concern. Notices of them accordingly survive in recorded judicial proceed- 
 ings, and in the Municipal Records.^ From these sources we can gather 
 with accuracy and tolerable fulness the movements and principal matters of 
 interest which concerned the body during this half century. That everything 
 has thus been preserved which one would like to know we cannot assert. 
 The continuity of the roll of members cannot now be recovered, and many 
 matters of detail are irrecoverably lost. Yet enough has been preserved to 
 console us for what is lost. 
 
 For the Faculty the whole period was one strongly marked by feud and 
 struggle. The contest which falls to be recorded in this chapter was one 
 between the Faculty and their Corporate Superior under the " Seal of Cause " 
 — the Town Council of Glasgow. This relation to the municipal authority 
 was one which had been voluntarily assumed by the Faculty. The charter 
 of James VI. in favour of Peter Lowe enjoined the magistrates to give 
 executive effect to the decisions of the Corporation ; yet the latter was not 
 by it placed in any relation of burghal subjection to the municipal authority. 
 But what the charter did not apparently do was effected by the " Letter of 
 Deaconry," applied for and obtained from the magistrates in 1656. By 
 
 ' For access to the Municipal Records we have to express indebtedness to the courtesy 
 of Dr. (now Sir) James Marwick, the Town-Clerk. 
 
y8 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 this charter the surgeons and the barbers were constituted a city incorporation. 
 We have already pointed out the effect of this act on the position of the 
 body. It gave to it a new constitution without abrogating the one already 
 existing. This dual aspect of the Faculty — with one charter from the State, 
 and another from the City ; the former giving jurisdiction over four counties, 
 the latter limited to Glasgow — though it often perplexed the surgeons, was 
 never entirely lost sight of by them ; but the distinction was too fine to be 
 always apprehended by others, even by the Town Council. That body 
 regarded the incorporation of surgeons and barbers as exactly on a footing 
 of equality with that of the baxters or maltsters. They looked for the same 
 allegiance and obedience from them in all things pertaining to the crafts 
 as from any other of the city guilds. This the Faculty were not always 
 disposed to yield.^ Unless by mutual forbearance, therefore, a conflict of 
 jurisdiction was inevitable. It first took place in this way. The Faculty, 
 in 1679, in their corporate wisdom, passed the following Act (25th March): 
 " The qlk day the members of the said ffaculty present, taking to ther serious 
 considerationes the prejudice that may arise through their promiscuous admission 
 of strangers to practise chirurgerie and pharmacie within the city of Glasgow; 
 and that be their gift from King James of blessed memorie, and Ratification 
 thereof, they are empowered to mak statutes for the common weil of the 
 leidges anent the sds arts ; Have for preventing yreof for the future statuted 
 and ordanit, likeas they theirby unanimously statute and ordain that no 
 person or persons qtsevir shall in any tyme coming be admitted to practise 
 ether of the saidis airts of chirurgerie and pharmacie w'in the citie of Glasgow, 
 but such as either have served their prentisehip with any frieman or member 
 of the ffacultie for the tyme, for the space of fyve years, conforme to 
 indentors in communi forma ; And have conforme thereto receivit from his 
 master meat and drink and bedding within his house, the said space ; or 
 otherways be ane frieman's son or maried to ane frieman's dochter, with 
 the qualificationes allwayes sutable and necessar for aither of the saids arts, 
 with this provision allways. That it shall be in the power of the Magistrats 
 of Glasgow for the tyme (in caice of deficiencie of qualified persons 
 chyrurgianes in the place) to call ane or more weel experienced in the 
 saids airts to reside in the city : the intrants in that caice being allways 
 subject to the tryall of the facultie for their qualifications, and paying their 
 friedome fyne for the maintenance of ther poor, according to ther Acts 
 and Statuts." 
 
 In the next chapter we shall find that the snug family arrangement 
 referred to above was one fraught with consequences for which the surgeons 
 
 nt must, however, be kept in mind that though we have used the word "Faculty" to 
 denote the body in either of its aspects, it was generally used to designate it as consti- 
 tuted by Royal Charter. As a municipal craft it was the " Incorporation of Chirurgeons and 
 Barbers." 
 
THE FACULTY AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 79 
 
 had not bargained. But the immediate effect of the new rule was to bring 
 the Faculty into collision with the Town Council. Hardly had it come 
 into operation before what they considered a suitable case for its enforcement 
 occurred. Indeed there is a strong presumption, in view of the dates and 
 what subsequently occurred, that the law was made to exclude this particular 
 applicant. This was Mr. Henry Marshall, a surgeon who had about this 
 time come to Glasgow from Kilsyth. At all events, on his applying for 
 admission, he was at once confronted with the new law. Being neither the 
 son, son-in-law, nor apprentice of a member, he was declared inadmissible. 
 Marshall at once appealed to the Town Council, and that body called on 
 the Faculty to show cause why he should not be admitted to trial as a 
 surgeon. The Faculty declined to assign any reason, but persisted in their 
 refusal. The Town Council appear thereupon to have consulted the Trades' 
 Hou.se, and, fortified by the opinion of a majority of that body, proceeded 
 at once, without further ado, on their own authority to admit Marshall to 
 practise surgery within the burgh, "alse amplie in all respects as if he were 
 admitted freeman with the said calling of chyrurgeons." The " said calling," 
 it need hardly be said, were equally astonished and indignant. At once they 
 began to look to their arms. It was clear that if the magistrates could 
 legally do this thing, the Faculty's occupation was gone. For an upstart 
 unfreeman to be authorized to " practise their arts over their bellies," as they 
 indignantly put it, was a thing not to be borne. How far the magistrates 
 acted within their powers under the Letter of Deaconry need not be here 
 discussed. They had probably ample power to reinstate a craftsman who 
 had been wrongously excluded from his guild ; and this much may be said 
 for the municipal authorities, that though this was the first time they had 
 admitted a man to practise in the town on their own authority, they appear 
 to have on several occasions invited surgeons to Glasgow, or offered them 
 inducements to settle there, apparently without consulting the Faculty, and 
 without remonstrance on their part. Thus in 1636 they remitted the freedom 
 fyne of George Michelsoune,^ who proposed to come to Glasgow, and who 
 actually entered the Faculty next year. In 1648 Arthur Tempill was invited 
 more than once by the Council to settle in Glasgow.^ He did not come, 
 however, but settled as a surgeon in Edinburgh, which city he subsequently 
 represented in the Scottish Parliament. In that case the Council "granted 
 and enacted themselfs to entre him frie with the calling of Chirurgeounes " — 
 certainly a stretch of authority. In 1656 the Council offered William Souter 
 inducements to settle as city stone-cutter.^ In their action in Marshall's 
 case, the magistrates went a step further. They failed, however, to realize 
 that the Faculty, though in one respect a city incorporation, was some- 
 thing more ; and that the admission of a surgeon as a member was a power 
 
 ^ Extracts fr 07)1 the Records of the Towtt Council of Glasgow^ 1881, 42. 
 "^Op. cit.y 152, 169. ^Op. cit., 327, 420. 
 
8o FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 which they owed primarily to royal and parliamentary, and not to muni- 
 cipal grant. The ire of the members of the Faculty did not prevent them 
 from making sure of their ground before launching on a sea of litigation. In 
 the five years subsequent to 1679, when the Records of the century cease, 
 we have now and again notices of what was being done. At one time the 
 visitor would be dispatched " east " to Edinburgh " anent Marshall's case " ; 
 opinions of Counsel are referred to in the case, and the Treasurer's accounts 
 show that the funds are being drawn upon to a considerable extent for 
 the preliminary procedure. At last they raised an " Action of Declarator " 
 against the Magistrates and Town Council, and for several years this litiga- 
 tion appears to have been depending before the Court of Session. The most 
 eminent Counsel at the Scottish bar were engaged on both sides : for the 
 Faculty, Mr. Hugh Dalrymple, afterwards Lord President ; and for the 
 Magistrates, Mr. James Stewart, sen., afterwards Sir James Stewart of Good- 
 trees. The latter contended that the Faculty might any day do essential 
 injury to the City by so reducing the number of persons eligible for admission 
 as freemen that there would not be a sufficient number of surgeons for the 
 public wants. Their object he declared to be, by means of the reduction 
 of competition, to enhance the value of their own professional services. 
 Under shelter of the royal charter they ought not to be allowed to miake 
 statutes inimical to the common weal of the burgh. The reply of the 
 Faculty was that the very statute complained of provided for the hypothetical 
 case of a scarcity of qualified practitioners ; and that the power to make such 
 laws was necessarily limited to such as were not prejudicial to the public 
 welfare. In the present instance it was not contended that there was any 
 paucity of qualified surgeons in the burgh ; and the power arrogated by 
 the Magistrates to veto proceedings authorized by royal charter would 
 involve the subordination of royal and parliamentary to municipal authority. 
 A large part of the pleadings was too technical to be here summarized ; 
 but this is perhaps a fair outline of the arguments on both sides. 
 
 The decision was given on 9th July, 1691, and was in every point in 
 favour of the Faculty. Three months prior to this date, however, the 
 Town Council, finding their position legally untenable, had surrendered at 
 discretion. In a minute, of date 9th May, they unconditionally revoked 
 their former grant in favour of Marshall. But in thus turning him adrift 
 they thought it right " to refer and recommend him to the Facultie, and 
 earnestly desire them to use him civillie and discreetlie." The latter could 
 well afford to be magnanimous in the hour of victory. At great cost 
 they had vindicated their right to exclude him, and they could now admit 
 him with better grace. How they arranged to get over the difficulty 
 raised by the law of 1679 does not appear. But in a short time afterwards 
 Marshall's name appears in the list of members ; and for a considerable period 
 he was one of the leading practitioners in Glasgow.^ 
 
 ^ See Roll of Members in Appendix. 
 
THE FACULTY AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 8 1 
 
 Though eventually victorious in this contest, the Faculty suffered much 
 by it in its progress. In the Act of the Town Council already referred to, 
 of date 9th May, 1 691, it is admitted that the illegal admission of Marshall 
 " has ruined the whole incorporation of Chirurgians to this day." From 
 the same source we also learn that the surgeons had been " necessitat ever 
 since to separatt themselves from the rest of the incorporation of trades, so 
 that the said haill incorporation of trades has found the prejudice and loss 
 of having a particular calling disjoined from them, and has sustained a 
 considerable loss in the maintenance of their wholl poor." This is con- 
 firmed by an examination of the list of the deacons of incorporations and 
 of the Trades' House, none being given of the surgeons and barbers in the 
 lists from 1679, when the case went to court, till 1709.^ 
 
 Of the propriety of the "Act" of 1679 any opinion from the standpoint 
 of over two centuries later would be of little value. Of its legality the 
 judges of the Court of Session appear to have entertained no doubt ; 
 and they were equally clear " that the Magistrates and Counsell of Glasgow 
 have no right nor power to warrand or authorize any person to exercise 
 Chirurgerie or Pharmacie within the city of Glasgow except such as are duly 
 approven of by the Visitors." But that such a regulation was ever workable, 
 in view of the fact that the number of apprentices was small — probably not 
 more than one to each surgeon at one time^ — proves clearly enough that 
 Glasgow was, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, not only a 
 town of no great size, but that its yearly rate of increase must have been 
 small. With a limited number of apprentices, a rapidly growing community 
 would soon have outstripped in its demand the supply of medical practitioners 
 available under such a rule. 
 
 One important step in the progress of the Faculty falls here to be 
 recorded. For nearly a century they had been without a local habitation, 
 holding their meetings in various places, but latterly most frequently in the 
 Crafts' Hospital and Hutchesons' Hospital. From a memorial presented to 
 the Town Council in 1697 by Mr. James Weir, then visitor of the Faculty, 
 we gather that the Faculty had lately acquired a property contiguous to 
 the Tron Church, on the west side, which they proposed to take down 
 and rebuild on a plan (which is described), " not only for the publik 
 decoration of the street, but also foV anc publik Hall to the faculty for y"" 
 publik meetings, and more particularly for y"" meetings the first Munday of 
 ilk moneth of the y\ for communicating to the necessity of the poor gratis, 
 conform to their gift and charter." The object of the memorial was to 
 obtain a right to a certain " throwgang," and in this they succeeded. The 
 hall which the Faculty erected was a one-storey building which, with the 
 tenement of which it formed part, projected into the street, and had six or 
 eight windows looking towards the north. The whole of this tenement 
 
 ^Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, Vol. i. 455. ^See Letter of Deaconry, Appendix III. 
 
 F 
 
82 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 was subsequently acquired by the City, and it was taken down and the 
 site rebuilt on so lately as 1858. 
 
 This hall adjoining the Tron Church remained their home till 1791, 
 when they migrated to St. Enoch's Square. Coincident with their entering 
 on the possession of this hall in 1698 was the commencement of the formation 
 of a medical library, as more particularly adverted to in a subsequent 
 chapter [xxii]. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE SURGEONS AND BARBERS, 1 700-1722 
 
 The action against the Town Council, recorded in the last chapter, had 
 scarcely been fought and won when the Faculty found themselves in an 
 intestine war, which lasted, with periods of intermission, for upwards of 
 twenty years. It originated in the ill-starred union of surgeons and barbers, 
 effected by the Letter of Deaconry of 1656. Up to this period we have 
 heard very little of the barbers. All through the minutes, up to 1684, 
 when the Records cease for nearly half a century, this reticence about the 
 barbers is very marked.^ Now and again, at considerable intervals, the 
 admission of a person " to barbourize " is indeed recorded, with the usual 
 caution that he is to " meddle with no points of Chirurgie," under pain of 
 the statutory penalties. Occasionally, at the end of the sederunt of members, 
 occurs the name of a solitary barber distinguished as such. But the name 
 thus included is often that of the acting officer. It seems very doubtful 
 whether the barbers in any numbers were ever present in the seventeenth 
 century as members of the Corporation. There are no proceedings recorded 
 with which the barbers, as such, could have any special concern, unless such 
 prohibitive statutes as those against " barbourizing " on Sunday.- We are 
 therefore probably justified in saying that up to the end of the seventeenth 
 century the barber element in the incorporation was inconsiderable and 
 of small influence. That in being thus quietly ignored these craftsmen 
 sustained substantial injustice is more than probable. By the Letter of 
 Deaconry they were in all respects placed on a corporate equality with the 
 surgeons, except that they were not eligible for the office of visitor. But 
 
 ' In the printed pleadings in Calder's Case (chap, xii., p. 102), it is mentioned that two 
 sets of minute books were kept, one for the body acting under Royal Charter, and the 
 other for the surgeons and barbers acting under the Letter of Deaconry. If this be correct 
 it would account for the rarity with which the barbers are mentioned in the existing 
 minutes. There is, however, no other evidence of this averment, which is quite improbable. 
 
 ■■'Chap. vni. 72. 
 
84 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 they appear to have been systematically excluded from all offices. Up to 
 the end of the seventeenth century the barbers, as far as appears, bore the 
 burden of exclusion with uncomplaining meekness. But scarcely had the 
 eighteenth century dawned than they showed symptoms of restiveness under 
 the yoke. In 1701 they appear to have laid their grievances before the 
 Trades' House, but as far as has been traced no particular result followed. 
 In 1703^ the barbers appealed directly to the Council. Their petition set 
 forth that " the Chirurgions hes committed many unwarrantable encroachments 
 upon the interest of the barbers contrary to the letter of Deaconry." They 
 proceed to supplicate for inquiry and redress, or, alternatively, that " they 
 fall about some method of disjoyning the barbers from the Chirurgeons." 
 This is the earliest suggestion we have of a possible separation, and it will 
 be noted that it came from the barbers. The Town Council remitted the 
 matter to a committee, who did not present their report till 8th May, 1704. 
 From their own account the work of the committee during these six months 
 was anything but a sinecure. They had sent a copy of the barbers' petition 
 to the visitor of the Faculty (who, by the way, was Mr. Henry Marshall, 
 whose admission to practise by the Town Council had given occasion to the 
 litigation of 1680-91), with instruction to him to summon a meeting of the 
 surgeons to prepare answers to the complaints in the petition ; answers were 
 given in at a meeting with representatives of both parties ; and it had 
 turned out on inquiry that these answers were those of Marshall himself, and 
 not of the whole surgeons, whom he had never taken the trouble to consult. 
 They state that the meeting was adjourned to have the answers adopted by 
 the surgeons, and that these were again answered by the barbers. The 
 proceedings of next meeting were invalidated by an omission similar to 
 that which had formerly occurred. Mr. Marshall admitted that he had 
 forgotten to summon a meeting of the surgeons to homologate the report, and 
 craved a further adjournment. This was granted, though from their tone 
 the reporters now evidently suspected that the surgeons were playing fast 
 and loose with them. At the next meeting Mr. Marshall stated that he 
 was not commissioned to give any reply to the charges regarding the violation 
 of the Letter of Deaconry ; that that document was one which now required 
 revision, some of its provisions being distasteful to the surgeons, and that 
 obedience to these was incompatible with the carrying out of the provisions 
 of the grant of James VI. 
 
 This very long report, of part of which the above is a condensed sum- 
 mary, was adopted by the Council. The surgeons were peremptorily enjoined 
 to conform to the Letter of Deaconry, and plainly told that their plea that 
 the gift of King James was to over-ride that Letter was wholly inadmissible. 
 
 The barbers had so far gained. their point ; but the surgeons had evidently 
 no intention of discontinuing their habit of lording it over them, although the 
 1 Minutes of Town Council, 30th October, 1703. 
 
THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE SURGEONS AND BARBERS 85 
 
 latter were naturally less disposed than ever to submit to the yoke. In 
 1706 we find them again knocking at the door of the Council. The usual 
 procedure of appointing a committee, who called for written statements on 
 both sides, was gone through, and on i6th September, 1707, the Council 
 gave their decision. This was again favourable to the barbers. From the 
 terms of this award, it appears that the principal grievances of the barbers 
 were these : That the surgeons restricted to a small number the barbers 
 whom they admitted, excluding many who were qualified for membership ; 
 that they usurped all, or nearly all, the corporate offices ; that the barbers 
 were not summoned to attend meetings ; and that when differences arose 
 between surgeons and barbers, the former paid the law expenses from the 
 corporate purse, leaving the barbers to meet theirs from their own pockets. 
 The judgment of the Town Council made provision for redressing all these 
 grievances, at the sarhe time protecting the surgeons from any interference 
 of the barbers in matters purely surgical. The Council intimated that their 
 award was given not only in the " capacity of arbitrators, but also as their 
 Superior, having power to determine all such differences," and that they 
 expected that it would " be inviolably obeyed, and observed by them in all 
 tyme hereafter." 
 
 The Town Council must have been very sanguine indeed if they enter- 
 tained any such visionary hope. The decision, however, was followed by 
 one effect, which disturbed the numerical balance of parties. There at once 
 took place such an influx of barbers that in the next year they appear to 
 have considerably outnumbered the surgeons. In that year both parties 
 evidently contemplated a disruption as an impending possibility, for which 
 immediate provision ought to be made. They had accordingly to face the 
 very delicate question of how to make an equitable apportionment of the 
 corporate property. This was a more complicated matter than might at 
 first sight appear. Part of the goods had accresced to the body under the 
 Royal Charter, and part under the Letter of Deaconry. The former belonged 
 exclusively to the physicians and surgeons, and the latter to the surgeons 
 and barbers. The arrangement eventually come to and subscribed by both 
 parties was to this effect : That the library, anatomical preparations, and 
 " rarities " were to be regarded as the property of the Faculty, acting under 
 Royal Charter. The Faculty Hall in Trongate, with pictures and furniture, 
 was to be regarded as the common property of the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons, and of the Incorporation of Chirurgeons and Barbers. The 
 whole remaining property, heritable and movable, was to be allocated in the 
 following proportion, — three-fifths to the Faculty, and two-fifths to the incor- 
 porated joint trade of surgeons and barbers. The deed of agreement, which 
 is very elaborate and detailed with painful minuteness, further contains a 
 number of stipulations respecting the rights of parties, evidently drawn on 
 the lines laid down by the Magistrates in the previous year. It is subscribed 
 
86 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 by both parties, and, for the sake of preservation, a copy is ordered to be 
 entered in the Records of the Town Council, and another, oddly enough, in 
 the Minutes of the Kirk-Session of Glasgow. 
 
 For the next four years the Town Council appear to have enjoyed a 
 well-earned and no doubt welcome respite from the appeals and complaints 
 of surgeons and barbers. But in 1 7 1 2 the war broke out afresh, and with 
 increased virulence. In that year application for admission as a surgeon was 
 made by Mr. William Stirling, a member of an old Glasgow family, and 
 father of the founder of Stirling's Library in Glasgow. Mr. Stirling had 
 apparently not entered the profession by the door of apprenticeship in 
 Glasgow, but had probably climbed up by way of attendance at a foreign 
 school. Under the law of 1679, he was clearly not admissible as a freeman. 
 But the surgeons desired to admit him, and resolved to do so in face of that 
 law. In consideration of his want of apprenticeship, he was to pay a freedom 
 fine or entrance fee of 1000 merks, which, it is presumed, was the estimated 
 aggregate of the fines and other expenses of which, as an apprentice, he 
 would have been mulcted. But here the barbers stepped in with an 
 unheard-of demand. They appear to have claimed that that part of the fee 
 which was in excess of the ordinary freedom fine should be credited to their 
 side of the dual corporation. The rationale of this demand is not quite 
 apparent from the extant statements on the subject. Apparently the barbers 
 thought, if there was to result any pecuniary gain from an infraction of the 
 rules, that they should be sharers of it. On this occasion we gather that 
 the first appeal was made to the Trades' House. That body gave their 
 decision on ist July, 1712 ; but it seems to have been so unintelligible that 
 they had to issue another " interloquitor " to explain it. The judgment, as 
 explained by the new reading, was in favour of the barbers, and the 
 surgeons appealed to the Town Council. The final award gave to the 
 barbers even more than they appear to have asked for. It was decided that 
 in the particular case which led to the quarrel, the entire fee was to be 
 applied to the common stock of surgeons and barbers. Up to this time the 
 Town Council had listened to the interminable quarrels of the two parties 
 with the utmost patience and forbearance, and in sifting the complaints 
 brought before them had spared neither time nor labour. But now it is 
 evident that municipal patience was nearly exhausted, and something like 
 a groan for the first time escapes them in giving this last verdict. " Much 
 trouble," say the arbiters, " hes been given to ye Town Councill." They 
 now resolve to apply a drag to the quarrelsome pace of the parties by 
 enacting " that if either of the sd parties, chirurgians or barbers, shall 
 quarrel, impugn, or controvert any part of the above sentence, or shall by 
 any process reclaime or pretend to exemption therefrom, that the partie, 
 quarrelling or reclaiming by any process, shall have no access to the 
 common stock for defraying any part of the expenses y''anent." 
 
THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE SURGEONS AND BARBERS 87 
 
 For four years again the surgeons and barbers appear to have ceased 
 from troubling the Town Council. At the end of that period the war 
 broke out afresh, and in 1 7 1 9 it reached a crisis. The casus belli on this 
 occasion was the scope and meaning to be assigned to the oft-mentioned 
 law of 1679, by which the membership was restricted to the sons, sons-in- 
 law, and apprentices of members : in the words of the law itself, to " such 
 as ether hev served their prentisship with ane freeman or member of the 
 facultie, ... or otheways be ane freeman's son, or maried to ane free- 
 man's dochter." Up to this time it had been assumed, apparently without 
 any dispute or discussion, that as an entrant on admission was made free 
 only of his own calling, so the apprentices, sons, and sons-in-law were qualified 
 or eligible for admission as freemen only of their respective arts. This was 
 beyond doubt the sense in which the framers of the Act interpreted it, for 
 at the time it was passed the barber element was relatively insignificant. 
 But things were now greatly altered ; the barbers felt themselves a power in 
 the body corporate. They were also flushed with victory, having been 
 found in the right in every contest in which they had been engaged with 
 the surgeons. The immediate occasion of the question being now raised 
 cannot be gathered from the Records. It may possibly have occurred to 
 some aspiring barber, with a mind as keen as one of his own razors, that 
 the law of 1679 was susceptible of a wider interpretation than that which 
 custom had assigned to it. Was not the barber, equally with the surgeon, 
 a freeman of the corporation ? If so, why should not his son, son-in-law, 
 and apprentice, equally with those of the surgeon, be admissible as surgeons. 
 provided on trial they were found qualified ? All at once a tempting vista 
 of ambition was opened up to the barbers. The younger generation of 
 them would be able to throw aside the razor and shaving-brush, and, by a 
 rapid metamorphosis, emerge as fully-fledged surgeons. In vain the surgeons 
 represented, on the claim being first advanced, that the barbers were incor- 
 porated with them qua barbers ; that the very object of the law of 1679 was 
 to ensure that the surgeon-entrant had obtained a proper training in the art 
 of chirurgerie ; and that it would be simply monstrous to hold men qualified 
 to be taken on trial as surgeons who had only been trained to " barbourize." 
 The barbers determined to test the question by appeal. On the matter 
 coming in the first instance before the Trades' House, the decision was 
 entirely in favour of the barbers. The surgeons thereupon appealed to the 
 Town Council, who appointed a committee, with the Provost as convener, 
 to consider the question. On that committee reporting, the Council gave 
 their decision on 7th November, 17 19: "They are of opinion, that, seeing 
 by the letter of Deaconrie, the surgeons and barbers arc incorporat into 
 one body and incorporation without distinction, upon the joynt application 
 of surgeons and barbers, and that there is no difference thereby made ancnt 
 the soum to be paid for the admission of a member to any of the said 
 
88 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 professions ; . . . and that all the acts made, either by the surgeons or 
 barbers, from excluding persons from those employments, are only against 
 unfreemen ; , . . and that seeing every surgeon and barber is a freeman of 
 the incorporation, and that thereby their sons, sons-in-law, and prentices have 
 an equal priviledge to be admitted members of the incorporation according to 
 what, upon tryall, they shall be found qualified to practise, and that the 
 surgeons cannot be thereby prejudiced, as if strangers craving to be admitted 
 with the barbers," ^ — for these and other reasons of a like nature the Town 
 Council dismiss the surgeons' appeal, and affirm the decision of the Trades' 
 House. 
 
 It is with curious interest that, having read this decision, one turns over 
 .he leaves of the Records of the Town Council to ascertain what the surgeons 
 would do in the face of it. Perfectly just and legal it may have been under 
 the Letter of Deaconry ; but surely there could not have been a more com- 
 plete reductio ad absurduin of the position of the surgeons as corporate 
 partners with the barbers. But the surgeons at last rose to the occasion. 
 On 19th December, 17 19, they formally gave in to the Town Council a 
 " Demission and Renunciation of the Letter of Deaconry." This document 
 is couched in language firm and dignified, yet temperate. Beginning with 
 a historical preamble, they advert to the ground of dispute, and point out 
 that the adverse decision deprives them of any advantage which the fact of 
 their incorporation by the Council could yield. They admit that their 
 difficulties have largely arisen from the complications inseparable from their 
 dual constitution, or, as they put it, " by ane mixed state, which has been 
 so intricating and perplexing to us, and the neighbourhood," — by this last 
 phrase probably meaning the Town Council and Trades' House. They 
 request the Town Council to make an equitable division of the common 
 stock, promising to yield obedience to their award. Finally, to show that 
 the state of chronic warfare in which they had spent the last twenty years 
 was alien to their natural disposition, they conclude ; " We being most 
 firmly resolved to follow our own affairs, and duly and faithfully to execute 
 the trust given to us by the foresaid charter, for the good of all his Majesties 
 lieges, and to cultivate peace and good understanding with all our neigh- 
 bours, which the misunderstanding of our several interests by the foresaid 
 letter of deaconry has so long and much hindered." This renunciation is 
 subscribed by fourteen surgeons, being probably the whole, or nearly the 
 whole, of those resident in Glasgow. It is engrossed in the Records of 
 the Town Council, of date 22nd September, 1722, on which day the Magis- 
 trates and Town Council formally accepted the Demission and Renunciation, 
 and declared the Letter of Deaconry " to be in all tyme coming null and 
 
 Mn a law suit which took place in 1816, it was stated in the pleadings that in Glasgow, 
 though the crafts of dyers and bonnet-makers are joined in one incorporation, a member of 
 the one craft could not exercise the other without serving an apprenticeship to it. 
 
THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE SURGEONS AND BARBERS 89 
 
 void." Why it happened that a period of three years intervened between 
 the Renunciation and its acceptance is not apparent from the Records of 
 the Council. There is no notice of any further negotiations having been 
 carried on in the meantime, or of any unexpected difficulties having arisen. 
 But it is apparent that this interval was a period of anarchy in the disrupted 
 body. On the 27th June, 1720, the barbers lodged a complaint that they 
 had now no representative in the Trades' House. The visitor had evidently 
 acted on the Letter of Renunciation, and treated the disruption as an 
 accomplished fact. Commiserating their desolate condition, the Town 
 Council appointed the Deacon Convener to act ad interim as " Deacon of 
 the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers," and this appointment was 
 repeated in the subsequent year. In apportioning the corporate stock, the 
 Magistrates adhered closely to the agreement of 1708,^ assigning three-fifths 
 to the Faculty and two-fifths to the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers. 
 Of the latter portion the barbers received one-half, or one-fifth of the entire 
 stock. In this way they hived off with £2116 5s. lod. Scots, and were 
 immediately re-incorporated by a new Letter of Deaconry. The record of 
 the Town Council concerning the award enters with great minuteness into 
 the financial part of the arrangement. The barbers were paid out in money, 
 the Faculty having taken over the hall and other real property at a 
 valuation. 
 
 Thus terminated the connection between surgeons and barbers in Glasgow. 
 In Edinburgh the union between them came to an end, as already stated, in 
 1 7 1 9, the year in which the surgeons in Glasgow renounced the Letter of 
 Deaconry. In the former city the separation does not appear to have been 
 so thorough and absolute. The barbers in Edinburgh were still obliged to 
 enter their apprentices in the register kept by the surgeons, whilst the latter 
 burdened themselves to pay in perpetuity to the barbers an annual sum of ten 
 pounds sterling, which item accordingly figures in their accounts till this day. 
 In London, as already stated, the separation did not take place till 174S, while 
 in Dublin the connection lingered on nominally till about 1840, but probably 
 practically ceased in 1784. In regard to Glasgow, the wonder is that with 
 tastes and tempers so obviously incompatible, the separation did not take 
 place some years earlier. It is impossible, however, to avoid seeing that it 
 was no sense of incongruity on the part of the surgeons that brought the 
 union to an end. In all these later negotiations we find no murmur from 
 the surgeons that their professional position was in any way compromised. 
 The union broke down because it latterly became unworkable. That it did 
 not come to an end earlier was simply because the barbers did not earlier 
 realize their own power. As soon as they thoroughly rose to the sense of 
 their corporate equality, the separation became inevitable.'-' 
 
 'P. 85. 
 
 ^The barbers appear to have cast some "longing, lingering looks behind," if we may 
 
90 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 It would have interrupted the continuity of the narrative of the quarrels 
 between surgeons and barbers to mention in its chronological position 
 another dispute which the Faculty had with the Town Council in the early 
 part of the century. In 1704 the Faculty made application to the municipal 
 authorities for exemption from watching, warding, and wappenschawing, with 
 other kindred services obligatory on the lieges at that time. The desired 
 immunity was refused on the ground that, in common with the other incor- 
 porated crafts, the surgeons were legally liable to such offices under the 
 Letter of Deaconry. Some years later the Faculty applied to the Circuit 
 Justiciary Court, and were successful in making good their claim under the 
 Royal Charter for complete exemption, not only from the services referred 
 to, but also from attendance as jurymen at Courts of Assize. The " Act of 
 Adjournal" recording the exemption is dated 12th October, 1709. 
 
 judge from the fact that for the next thirty or forty years individual members of the craft 
 were often brought up and fined for practising some parts of surgery. But the rank and 
 file of the craft could hardly be expected to keep out of the forbidden preserve when it was 
 boldly poached on by the very deacon of the order. Thus in 1742 Deacon William King 
 was fined in the statutory sum, though the fine was subsequently remitted on his pleading 
 " straightened circumstances " ; while Deacon Alexander Edwards was more than once 
 punished for the same offence. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 For the materials of the last two chapters we were obliged to draw upon 
 sources of information outside the Faculty Records. From judicial reports 
 which have been preserved we have been able to present the progress and 
 result of the litigation with the Town Council ; whilst the Minutes of the 
 latter body, eked out by information from other sources, have been laid 
 under contribution in respect of the narrative of the war in its successive 
 campaigns between surgeons and barbers. That contest ended, the Town 
 Council Minutes afford us no further assistance. With the renunciation of 
 the Letter of Deaconry, the saying and doings of the surgeons ceased to be 
 matters of municipal concern. To fill up the blank in the history of the 
 next twelve years no vicarious record has been found. The first extant 
 Minute of the eighteenth century accounts for the wide gap of nearly fifty 
 years in the official records of the body. For this reason, notwithstanding 
 the length of the Minute, it is given entire. 
 
 " At, and within the Physicians and Surgeons Hall in Glasgow, the Eighth day 
 of November, One thousand seven hundred and thirty-three years. 
 
 "Convened in faculty, Mr. Peter Paton, Mr. George Thomson, Mr. Thomas 
 Brisbane, Mr. John Johnstoun, Mr. John Wodrow, and Mr. David Paton, all Physicians 
 and members of faculty ; and Ale.xander Porterfield, Thomas Hamilton, James Calder, 
 senior, Mr. William Stirling, John Gordon, Robert Wallace, Thomas Buchanan, 
 Alexander Horseburgh, James Hamilton, John Paisley, and James Calder, junior, all 
 Surgeons in Glasgow and Members of Faculty. 
 "Actanent "The which day, the foresaid persons being the whole members alive 
 
 the faculty's • ,. . , , , r , 
 
 loss by fire." residmg m the place (except Thomas Dougald, Surgeon, absent for the 
 day). Considering That their late Sederunt-Book containing their Elections, 
 Acts, Proceedings, Rules, Regulations, and others was burnt in the house 
 of John Colquhoun, Writer in Glasgow, Clerk of faculty, by ane accidental 
 
92 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 fire, which began in a neighbouring house, and seized upon his house the 
 twenty-ninth of October last, seen by many of these persons, members of 
 the faculty, and further made appear in faculty by some remains of the 
 said book now produced not altogether consumed by the said fire, and 
 that upon the first Monday of October last the sd Mr. George Thomson 
 was elected Praeses ; the said James Hamilton, Visitor ; the saids Mr. David 
 Paton, and Boxmasters ; the said Robert Wallace, Collector \ 
 
 the said John Colquhoun, continued Clerk, and Alexander Colquhoun, 
 Messenger, continued Officer, all of them to the said Faculty unto the 
 first Monday of October next, being the next ordinar time of electing their 
 officers, and that the saids persons office-bearers had accordingly accepted 
 their several offices, and given their oaths de fidele. Towards the supplying 
 of which loss by fire, and again constituting the members officebearers in 
 faculty conform to their former elections and rules made in consequence of 
 the Royal Charter granted them. They, the forenamed whole members of 
 faculty present, Doe now Ratifie, approve of, and confirm the sd severall office- 
 bearers in the said severall offices, with all the powers and priveleges belonging 
 thereto as formerly used and practised. And, further, towards supplying the 
 said loss, the faculty being as aforesaid again constituted appoint and ordain 
 their sd Praeses and Visitor, Doctor Paton, elder; Doctor Wodrow, 
 Alexander Horsburgh, and John Paisley, or any three of them, the 
 Praeses or Visitor being always one. To meet, advise, consider, and report 
 from time to time with their conveniency the most proper methods to be 
 used, and steps to be followed towards farder supplying the loss foresaid 
 of the sd faculty Book, and also appoint them the next diet of the 
 faculty's meeting to give in ane account of charge of the poor's or faculty's 
 money, as the same ought to be charged upon the present Collector. 
 
 "Said day the subscribing physicians and surgeons being all of them 
 much inclined to encourage and promote the good design of maintaining 
 the poor in a workhouse already built at Glasgow,^ for that purpose, Do 
 hereby in full faculty voluntarily condescend and agree among themselves 
 That each of the six physicians subscribing will, according to their seniority 
 as physicians admitted (Mr. Peter Paton beginning as eldest), attend and 
 visit for the space of a year from the time of the poors' being first put in 
 sd workhouse the poor people to be kept in the Infirmary there and give 
 their advice and prescriptions as to the sick and infirm from time to time 
 as needfuU ; and that each of the eleven surgeons subscribing, according to 
 their seniority as members of the Faculty (Alexander Porterfield as eldest 
 beginning), will for the space of half ane year commencing from the time 
 ♦ of the poor being first put in the sd workhouse, visit and as surgeon 
 
 attend the sd House and do all the necessary business of a Surgeon to 
 the poor in the Infirmary there, and furnish to them upon his own charge 
 all drugs and medicaments necessary, or to be prescribed by the physicians " 
 
 'P. 136. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 93 
 
 Octr I, 1739, Alex"^- Porterfield. P. Patoun, M.D. 
 
 Robert Bogle, agrees. Thomas Hamilton. Geo. Thomson, M.D. 
 
 H. M'Lean, at^rees. James Calder, Senior. J. Brisbane, M.D. 
 
 Dav. Corbett, agrees. William Stirling. Jo. Johnstoun, M.D. 
 
 J. Gordon. John Wodrow, M.D. 
 
 Robert Wallace. Dav: Patoun, M.D. 
 
 T. Buchanan. j , . 
 
 Alex. Horsburgh. ■' ^ ^' " 
 
 James Hamilton. Geo. Montgomery, M.D. 
 
 John Paisley. 
 
 James Calder, Jun'- 
 
 Unfortunately no artist of the time had the opportunity of transferring 
 to canvass the faces of these ancient fathers of medicine and surgery in 
 Glasgow, in solemn conclave assembled, with rueful faces contemplating the 
 charred remains of the book " containing their Elections, Acts, Proceedings, 
 Rules, Regulations and others." The picture must therefore be left to the 
 imagination, and all that can be done is to present the reader with a 
 facsimile of their signatures. The loss was indeed irreparable, but their 
 modern successors need not on that account be inconsolable. A good many 
 curious incidents and details which one would like to know must have 
 perished with the book. But the loss scarcely involves any solution of 
 historical continuity, as the main drift of events is manifest from documents 
 still preserved. In dismissing the subject of the burnt volume we may 
 mention that the committee appointed under the foregoing Minute met 
 from time to time, and one or two members were even added to it in 
 subsequent years. But they incubated on their report so long that it 
 never saw the light. 
 
 Cut adrift from its municipal connection, the constitution of the Faculty 
 at once reverted to its original simplicity. The body now consisted of 
 physicians admitted on election in virtue of the possession of a University 
 degree, and of surgeons admitted after examination. Each class of members 
 had its own official head. The " praeses " was the chief of the physicians, 
 while the " visitor " occupied a corresponding relation to the surgeons. 
 These dignitaries were invested with co-ordinate authority, each of them 
 having the power of convening a meeting of the Faculty without the 
 consent of the other. During the whole period in which this dual presidency 
 existed there is no evidence of the slightest jar or want of harmony between 
 the two parties. When the praeses (or physician-visitor as he was often 
 called) was present, he presided at the meetings; in his absence, the surgeon- 
 visitor. This arrangement continued till the year 1820, about which period, 
 as we shall afterwards see, the possession of a University degree by not a 
 few of the surgeons began somewhat to blur the formerly clear-cut line of 
 demarcation between that class and the physicians. It was some years 
 after that date that the visitor, while retaining the old name, fell back into 
 
94 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the position of Vice-President, which in substance, though not in name, he 
 has ever since retained, while physicians and surgeons became alike eligible 
 for both offices. 
 
 The mode of electing the praeses and the visitor in the eighteenth 
 century may be here described. It will have been gathered from what 
 we have said that the physicians alone elected the praeses, while the visitor 
 was in like manner chosen by the votes of the surgeons. The physicians 
 were divided into two " lites " or sections, and one man chosen by ballot 
 from each. The two thus selected were then by a second vote pitted 
 against each other, the one having the highest number of votes being 
 declared praeses. The visitor was elected in a similar manner by the 
 surgeons ; but in their case there were three initial sections or leets, and 
 consequently three votes, before the matter was finally determined. The 
 other office-bearers were elected by the whole Faculty, and directly by 
 ballot. The " Collector " at first joined to his proper duties of treasurer 
 that of librarian, but a separate " Bibliothecarius " was appointed shortly after 
 the middle of the century. The office of " craftsmaster " had disappeared with 
 the barbers and Letter of Deaconry. But the " box-masters " were still elected 
 as of yore, and about the middle of the century a new functionary called 
 the " seal keeper " was added with duties sufficiently indicated by the title. 
 
 From 1733 onwards the continuity of the Records is unbroken, and 
 by their aid one can easily realize what a meeting of the Faculty was like 
 in the first half of last century. The day of meeting was then, as it is 
 now, the first Monday of every month — this arrangement dating from the 
 beginning of the century. If we may judge from its position in the 
 Minutes, the visitation of the poor was the first thing which required atten- 
 tion. Occasionally it happened that no poor attended for advice, and the 
 fact was duly noted in the Records.^ The one condition exacted of appli- 
 cants, that they should 'be recommended by a minister, elder, or some person 
 in public office, must have served in some measure to make their charity 
 discriminating. As far as appears from the Minutes, the whole Faculty 
 present originally took part in the work ; but eventually a contingent was told 
 off for the duty. The work of charity ended, the admission of new members 
 came next in order. If admitted as a physician after being balloted for, the 
 member-elect produced for inspection his diploma of doctor of medicine of 
 " ane famous university where medicine is taught." As a doctor of medicine 
 did not in these days practise as a general practitioner, but as a " pure " 
 physician, eschewing surgery, the admission of a member of this class was 
 much less common than the entrance of a surgeon. If the doctor of 
 medicine attempted general or surgical practice, as on one or two occasions 
 did happen, he was at once treated by the Faculty as a surgeon, and 
 subjected to examination as such. Thus, in 1745, Dr. Andrew Morris, a 
 ^See in Appendix V, Notanda on Glasgow Poor. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 95 
 
 graduate of the University of Rheims, insisted on his claim, in virtue of his 
 possessing a university degree, to open a surgery in Glasgow and practising 
 as a general practitioner. His right to do so was challenged by the Faculty, 
 and he was held liable to be mulcted in the statutory penalty of ^^40 Scots. 
 Instead of paying it, he raised an action of Suspension against the Faculty, 
 the litigation extending over several years. At last, however, he surrendered 
 at discretion, submitted himself to examination, paid the dues, and was 
 admitted as a surgeon. The possession of the doctorate had in these days 
 its disadvantages, and was not in all cases an object of ambition. The 
 young practitioner could not generally afford to graduate till he had gained 
 an established position. It was for this reason that men like Dr. John 
 Gordon and Dr. John Moore, names well known in Glasgow in the last 
 century, declined to take the doctorate, the latter till middle age, and the 
 former till he was well advanced in life.^ 
 
 Surgeons were admitted only after examination, the qualification of 
 admission being proof of an apprenticeship for five years. In the early 
 part of the century it was still insisted that the apprenticeship should be 
 limited to a member of the Faculty, but this rule was departed from about 
 1 7 1 6. When the Medical School of Glasgow took practical form about the 
 middle of the century, attendance on lectures was recognized under certain 
 conditions as equivalent to a year of apprenticeship ; and, at a still later 
 period in the century, a rudimentary curriculum of medical study was formu- 
 lated by the Faculty. In this way the time-honoured law of apprenticeship 
 became first modified and eventually abrogated as a pre-requisite for admission 
 to examination. The nature of the examination in last century is a matter 
 of some interest. Though some considerable modifications were effected 
 in the latter half of the century, the following may be taken as descriptive 
 of its general plan. The test was divided into two parts — the first known 
 as the " private," and the last as the " public " trial. The private examination 
 was of the most importance. The candidate was tested on both the theory 
 and the practice of his profession. If he failed in this part he was not 
 allowed to " proceed to further trials," as the Records phrase it. If, however, 
 he was successful, he was ordered to reappear at the next meeting of the 
 Faculty, and then and there to dissect a previously prescribed part, to 
 discourse on a set surgical or medical theme, and, finally, to make up a 
 complex pharmaceutical preparation. The real test was doubtless the private 
 examination. The circumstance of the subjects of the public examination 
 
 ^ The universities of which the physician members of the Faculty were graduates in the 
 eighteenth century were mainly those of Glasgow, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Leyden, Utrecht, 
 Rheims. Aberdeen was perhaps not represented till the beginning of the next century. In 
 regard to St. Andrew's and Aberdeen, the question was subsequently raised whether either 
 answered the description of " Ane famous university where medicine is taught." The Court 
 of Session declined to say that it was not. 
 
96 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 being definitely prescribed beforehand, detracted from its value as a criterion 
 of knowledge. The private equally with the public examination was at first 
 conducted in presence of the assembled Faculty. About the year 1740, 
 this arrangement of the Faculty resolving itself into an Examining Board 
 was felt to be cumbrous and inconvenient. A committee was accordingly 
 appointed on each occasion to conduct the private examination and to 
 report. If the report were unfavourable, the candidate had the option 
 of appeal to the Faculty. Of this privilege the examinees were sometimes 
 not slow to avail themselves, but scarcely ever with the result of altering the 
 verdict. When the committee had examined the candidate its work was 
 done. For the testing of the next candidate another, and probably enough 
 a different committee, was appointed. In course of time this method also 
 was found to be practically inconvenient, and it was superseded by the 
 appointment annually of a standing committee charged with the duty of 
 examining applicants. Such was the mode of evolution of the Board 
 of Examiners. 
 
 The examination of candidates concluded, another piece of business 
 of frequent occurrence, — in the earlier part of the century perhaps more 
 common than any other, — was their dealing with unlicensed practitioners. 
 Not seldom did it happen that one or two, sometimes as many as five or 
 six, of such persons were in attendance, having been brought up on summons ; 
 not now, as in the previous century, on caption or letters of horning. The 
 delinquents were called in before the meeting, and interrogated as to their 
 alleged practising of medicine or surgery. They belonged to all ranks of life 
 and occupations — discharged soldiers, gardeners who had discovered salves of 
 miraculous virtue, schoolmasters, professional bone-setters, and even itinerant 
 mountebanks. One clergyman, the minister of Cumbernauld, is among the 
 list, though, from the not uncommon clerical itching to dabble in medicine, 
 one might have expected a larger representation of the cloth. If the delin- 
 quents admitted their fault, they were dismissed after signing an obligation, 
 or " bond of desistance " as it was called, by which they engaged no more 
 to poach in the forbidden preserves, on pain of the statutory penalty of 
 ;^40 Scots. If they declined to attend on summons, or proved contumacious 
 when they did so, other proceedings became necessary, and to these we will 
 advert in the next chapter. 
 
 The allocation of charity to casual applicants formed another almost 
 invariable piece of business at the monthly meetings. Probably in theory 
 every benefaction of this kind had for its object some person connected in 
 one way or another with the profession. But if this was the rule, certainly 
 the widest possible application was given to it. The connection with 
 medicine of many of the beneficiaries appears to have been of the most 
 distant character. Nor was their sympathy expended on merely casual acts 
 of charity. As we shall afterwards find they believed in systematic 
 
^J^ 
 
 yuz^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 edfxmJ K 
 
 '^JtH-^ 
 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 97 
 
 beneficence, and had a regular list of annual pensioners, who absorbed a 
 large portion of the revenue. It is stated incidentally, in a memorial which 
 the Faculty had occasion to draw up in the middle of the century, that their 
 benefactions exceeded those of any corporate body in the City. The voting 
 of funds for patriotic objects occasionally varied the monotony of charitable 
 doles. Thus, in 1778, they passed a resolution to contribute one hundred 
 guineas towards raising a battalion for His Majesty's Service, at the same 
 time pawkily accompanying the donation with a recommendation that " Mr. 
 Ninian Hill, a respectable member of their society," be appointed " Surgeon 
 to the regiment now raising by the City of Glasgow." 
 
 These were the stock matters of business at the meetings of the Faculty 
 during a large portion of last century. It need hardly be added that in 
 addition to these many special points came up for settlement, to a very 
 few of which reference will be made in next chapter. The difficulty of 
 forming a quorum was occasionally much felt, and eventually stringent 
 rules became necessary to meet the evil. Under a law, passed 4th February, 
 1765, every absentee was fined in sixpence, "except when in the country, 
 or detained by sickness." The fine was subsequently doubled, and by a later 
 enactment (June, 1768) even absence in the country did not secure exemption 
 from it. The only exception recognized was in the case of a person who 
 had been a mem.ber for forty years.' Even the clerk in those days appears 
 to have been touched with the prevailing infirmity of shirking the duty of 
 attending the meetings, for it was provided that when a defaulter, he should 
 be mulcted in the same sum as an absent member. The fines appear to 
 have been rigorously exacted for a considerable number of years. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY— Continued 
 
 Throughout the larger part of the last century, the fees, inclusive of the 
 *' freedom fines " exacted from entrants, were levied on the principle of 
 a differential rate. On the admission of a surgeon member the dues were 
 exigible in all cases. But it was originally different in the case of physicians; 
 as they were admitted without examination, so they entered without fee. 
 But in course of time this was felt to be unfair to the surgeons. Their 
 admission entitled them, equally with the surgeons, to all corporate privileges, 
 including the benefits of prospective provision for their children should they 
 eventually fall into poverty. At first the fee exacted from the physicians 
 was not large, being two guineas in the early part of the century. But 
 in 1736 it was doubled, and a few years later raised to six guineas, which 
 was afterwards increased. In the latter part of the seventeenth century 
 all surgeon members, whether in town or country, were mulcted in forty 
 pounds Scots (i^3 6s. 8d.). As time wore on there was a gradual increase 
 of the freedom fine both of physicians and surgeons. Along with this 
 there was still a tendency to differentiate. Thus, in 1774, the following 
 was the tariff established, the money being sterling : 
 
 1. Physicians, having a Diploma of Doctor of Medicine from a 
 
 University, to pay ^15 15 o 
 
 2. Surgeons who have served a full {i.e. five years') apprenticeship 
 
 with a freeman within the city, to pay - - - - 
 
 3. Surgeons who have served four years, as above, to pay, 
 
 4. Surgeons who have served three years, as above, to pay, - 
 
 [The curtailed apprenticeship being supplemented by 
 attendance on Lectures at Medical School.] 
 
 5. Surgeons whose apprenticeship has not been served within 
 
 the city, to pay 2100 
 
 6. Sons and sons-in-law of members, to pay - - - - 330 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 99 
 
 The placing of sons-iQ.-la\v in the same category as sons of members, and 
 thus securing their admission on a modified fee, was a survival. Originally 
 it might possibly be intended by the crafts — for the practice was universal 
 — to have the effect of enhancing, in the eyes of enamoured apprentices, 
 the charms of their masters' daughters. These fees were exclusive of charges 
 for library and clerk, and a small periodical impost called quarter accounts. 
 All subsequent changes during the century were in the direction of at 
 once raising and equalizing the fees. Thus in 1783 the relative charges 
 were : for a surgeon, twenty-five guineas ; for a physician, twenty guineas ; 
 while the sons and sons-in-law of members were let off for fifteen guineas. 
 Three years later the fee was fixed to be the same for all classes, at twenty- 
 five guineas. In 1787 it was raised to ^^30, and finally, in 1789, to fifty 
 guineas. 
 
 There was one class of entrants upon whom this constant raising of the 
 admission fine bore with unfair severity. Country members were excluded 
 from any share of the government of the Faculty, which was then understood 
 to be inalienably vested in the members who were " indwellers in Glasgow." 
 The families of country members were, it is true, entitled to share in the 
 corporate benefactions equally with the children of their brethren in town. 
 But even of these it was perhaps inevitable that those on the spot should 
 get the lion's share. The privilege of being admitted to practise " within 
 oure- burgh and baronie of Glasgow, Renfrew, Dumbartane, and oure sheriff- 
 domes of Cliddisdale, Renfrew, Lanark, Kyle, Carrick, Air, and Cunninghame," 
 was practically the only one which the country member received for his 
 heavy " freedom fyne." And now that the fee was being gradually raised 
 out of all proportion to the right conferred, it became absolutely necessary 
 to make provision for the case of country practitioners. Hitherto every 
 physician and surgeon admitted was equally a " freeman," or member, whether 
 resident in town Or country. This was probably involved in the original 
 conception of the constitution of such a body. But such a provision was 
 no longer necessary. Why not admit country applicants, if they chose so 
 to enter, on the footing of giving them only a license to practise within the 
 bounds, and exacting a fee commensurate with the right conferred ? 
 
 Such were the considerations which led to the institution of the new 
 grade of " licentiate." An attempt had been made in this direction as early 
 as 1757, but, for some reason not very apparent, very few country surgeons 
 availed themselves of the option to enter as licentiates. It was not till 
 1785, when the .scheme of licensing was recast, and placed on a better 
 foundation, that a good beginning was really made. This was not done a 
 day too soon. The territory was being overrun with unqualified men. Not 
 a few surgeons were prepared to run the risk of practising without a diploma 
 rather than pay a fee which they doubtless considered exorbitant. As soon 
 as the new scheme was inaugurated a considerable number came forward 
 
lOO FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 and submitted themselves to examination. If successful, they had the option 
 of entering either as freemen or as licentiates, according as they paid the 
 fee for the one or the other. The majority entered as licentiates, though of 
 these a number afterwards became members. The experiment of licensing 
 began on ist June, 1785, and by the end of the year twenty-seven licentiates 
 had been admitted. 
 
 It does not lie within the scope of this Memoir to give a roll of the 
 licentiates, and the limits of space preclude any reference to even selected 
 names. It may, however, be permitted to say in a word that, on running 
 the eye down the list of licentiates since the institution of the grade in 1785, 
 it is arrested here and there by names which became more or less familiar 
 in various fields. Several of them are enrolled in the long list of Glasgow 
 worthies, some of them winning their spurs in other fields than medicine. 
 With the name of Mr. Samuel Hunter, who inscribes his name in the Faculty 
 Register of Licentiates of 1795 as "of the North Lowland Fencibles," a 
 regiment of which he was first surgeon and afterwards captain, every Glasgow 
 man is familiar. It was at first in association with a surgeon member of 
 the Faculty, Mr. William Dunlop, that he conducted the Glasgow Herald 
 and Advertiser, a paper he edited with conspicuous success for thirty-four 
 years. Separated by only a name in the list from the entry of the genial 
 editor is that of Duncan Macarthur, who was one of two surgeons on board 
 Nelson's flagship, the "Victory," at Trafalgar, and who on his return to 
 England was made a K.C.B., afterwards serving in various high positions in 
 the navy and on shore, and before his death being called in to consult at 
 the death-bed of another distinguished warrior, the Duke of Wellington. In 
 1 8 17 occurs, as a licentiate, the name of Thomas Lyle, a Glasgow surgeon, 
 devoted to the lyric muse, and best remembered as the author of the 
 beautiful song, " Let us haste to Kelvingrove, bonnie lassie O," first published 
 anonymously in the Harp of Renfrewshire} A generation ago no name 
 stood higher as a medical lexicographer than that of Robert G. Mayne, 
 whose Lexicon of Medical Terms has been taken as the groundwork of the 
 great lexicon in process of publication by the new Sydenham Society. 
 Dr. Mayne was admitted a licentiate in 1837. The inscription of the name 
 of David Livingstone, of Blantyre, bears date i6th November, 1840; and 
 the name was added to the list of Honorary Fellows in 1857 on his return 
 from Africa. These are only a very few of a considerable list of men who in 
 some way or other became notable after the enrolment of their names as 
 licentiates ; and the list might be lengthened were it permissible to include 
 the names of men still living. 
 
 It was however, at first, only in that part of their territory outside 
 of Glasgow that the early licentiates were allowed to practise. The 
 
 ^A copy of the Ancient Ballads and Songs (Lond. 1827), which he edited, is in the 
 Faculty Library. 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY loi 
 
 admission of this new order to practise within the City was not at first 
 contemplated, and only became necessary when the membership fee became 
 still further increased by the necessities of the Widows' Fund, which greatly 
 drained the resources of the Faculty at the beginning of the present century. 
 
 The Faculty had, however, a class of licentiates of earlier origin than 
 the surgeons. In 1740 they instituted an examination for midwives which 
 was continued throughout the century. The Minute of 4th August of that 
 year bears that " The faculty haveing considered the many dismall effects 
 of the Ignorance of midwives, and that it is incumbent on the faculty to 
 prevent these evills as much as they can, They Therefor Enact that, after 
 the first of January, 1741, any midwife who shall pretend as such to practise 
 within the Shyres of Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, and Dumbarton without a licence 
 from the faculty shall be fined in the sum of fourty pounds. . . . And 
 as the ffaculty have no other view than to prevent ignorant persons from 
 practising midwifery. They appoint that such as shall voluntarly submit to 
 ane Examination towards their being Licensed shall pay no freedome fyne 
 nor be at any furder charge than two shillings sixpence sterling, to be payed 
 the Clerk for each of their Licenses." The number of applicants was 
 considerable, but not a few were found to be ignorant, and were debarred 
 from practice. In Glasgow, midwifery was still to a considerable extent in 
 the hands of women, so that this class of practitioners was perhaps more 
 numerous than the surgeons. This fact must be allowed for in any calculations 
 in reference to the numerical proportion of medical practitioners to the popu- 
 lation in the eighteenth century as well as that which preceded it. The 
 extent of unlicensed medical practice during that period would be another 
 important factor in the calculation. 
 
 This brings us back to the subject of prosecutions. We have already 
 seen in what a summary fashion the Faculty could deal with delinquents 
 in the seventeenth century.^ But popular ideas regarding constitutional 
 freedom had now greatly advanced, " General letters of horning " were 
 now practically as antiquated as thumb-screws or " the boot." People 
 had got to realize something of " the liberty of the subject." No man 
 could be sent to prison unless in sequence to a more guarded legal 
 procedure. And just in proportion to the growth of these new ideas, 
 prosecutions by the Faculty became more troublesome and expensive. The 
 difficulty was also greatly aggravated by the dilatoriness of the law. Legal 
 machinery appears to have been much slower then than even in our day. 
 Some of the Faculty cases dragged on a tedious course for a good number of 
 years. Probably, however, this tardiness of the pace of justice operated to 
 some extent in favour of as well as against the P^aculty. Persons charged 
 might be less willing to resist, in view of a suit to which they could not 
 see the end. But some of the unlicensed proved provokingly contumacious, 
 
 ' Chap. VIII. 74. 
 
102 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 even when they did not resist to the last extremity. In 1740 a certain 
 Thomas Lewis, described generally as a merchant in Glasgow, but who 
 was evidently a prescribing druggist in large practice, gave them infinite 
 trouble. Summoned to a meeting Lewis, acting at every step on legal 
 advice, attended. Interrogated by the Praeses he declined to answer, but 
 handed in the following protest. " I, Thomas Lewis, Jun''", in Glasgow, 
 being summoned to appear before the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 
 of Glasgow, by what authority I know not, nor for what reason or cause, 
 and being now before them in Court, doe crave that a libel be put in my 
 hands, and a sufficient time given me to make answers or defences, and 
 on the Court's refusing to do so, I protest against any sentence they shall 
 pass against me as null and void," — with more to the same effect. In 
 several subsequent meetings he was dealt with, but without making him 
 resile an inch from his original line of defence. At last the corporate 
 patience got exhausted, and the usual sentence was given. This appears 
 to have been of no avail, as there is no evidence that the fine was 
 ever paid. The treasurer in those days had a habit of entering unpaid 
 fines in his accounts for several years, and then was authorized to write 
 off these debts as " utterly desperate." The usual practice at this period 
 was not to exact the actual fine for the first offence, but only to take 
 the delinquent's bond for it, on the understanding that it would be enforced 
 only in case of iterated transgression. In two or three cases the defenders 
 fought the Faculty for every inch of ground, only yielding when the last 
 stronghold was carried. 
 
 The case of James Calder was in some respects noteworthy. This 
 man was originally a gardener, but set himself out to vend a secret remedy, 
 and also to dispense drugs. Summoned to attend a court of the Faculty 
 he obeyed, and on interrogation was found grossly ignorant, and admittedly 
 practising medicine. In defiance of the inhibition of the Faculty he con- 
 tinued his practice, and on a second summons, in 1/59, openly defied the 
 members to their faces, refusing to sign any bond of desistance, or to submit 
 to examination. The case being a flagrant one, they had no alternative 
 but to enforce payment of the fine by legal procedure. Calder at once 
 raised an action of Suspension, and the case was appealed from court to 
 court, till it was finally decided against him in 1763. But the interest 
 of the case arises from the character of the pleas in defence. Calder's 
 Counsel adopted a line of argument substantially identical in some respects 
 with that ingeniously used in the next century by the University of Glasgow 
 in the famous law-suit between that body and the Faculty. The argu- 
 ment was one which struck at the existence and the position of the Faculty 
 as a corporate body. In discussing the case of the University, it will be 
 necessary to define the ground assumed more fully ; here we may describe 
 it in a sentence. The charter, it was contended, was granted to Lowe and 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 103 
 
 Hamilton in their official capacities as king's surgeon and professor of 
 medicine ; that as many of the heirs of these men as occupied the same 
 offices, and no others, were their corporate successors ; that the Faculty- 
 had therefore no claim to be regarded as successors of the original grantees, 
 and had therefore no corporate existence at all. Stated thus briefly and 
 baldly the argument may look paradoxical and even absurd ; but it was 
 buttressed by a curious array of special pleading. The result of Calder's 
 case appears to have acted in diminishing quackery in the district for some 
 years. But it soon again reared its hydra-head in another form. 
 
 The action of the Faculty in the case to be next mentioned may now 
 appear undignified ; but of this the actors themselves appear to have had 
 no appreciation. "21st Nov""', 1789. The Praeses informed the meeting 
 that Baillie Maclehose of Glasgow had applied to him as Praeses of the 
 Faculty to Examine Mr. Pitcairn and Mrs. Douglas, two travelling practi- 
 tioners in physic and Surgery on their qualifications — that in consequence of 
 the application the Committee for Examining practitioners went to the Council 
 Chambers, and having examined these persons found them to be grossly 
 ignorant both of surgery and pharmacy." The Minute winds up with the 
 usual formula of inhibition, and an advertisement was ordered to be inserted, 
 of which the following is a copy, taken from a Glasgow newspaper of 
 November, 1789. 
 
 1789 — November 24. — By order of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in 
 Glasgow, assembled at Glasgow, the 21st of November, 1789. 
 
 The committee appointed by the Faculty for examining all those who practise 
 physic and surgery within the bounds afterwards mentioned, reported to the Faculty 
 that they had been ordered by the Magistrates of Glasgow to examine two people 
 who call themselves Mr. Pitcairn and Mrs. Douglas, who, in consequence of pompous 
 handbills, have distributed various medicines at an enormous price; that upon 
 examination, the committee had found them grossly ignorant of anatomy, of surgery, 
 and of everything connected with the practice of physic; and that their medicines 
 were of the strongest and most dangerous kinds — all of which particulars the committee 
 had reported to the Magistrates. 
 
 The Faculty having considered the report, unanimously resolved to prohibit the 
 foresaid Mr. Pitcairn and Mrs. Douglas, or any person connected with them, practising 
 physic or surgery within the Burgh or Barony of Glasgow, Renfrew, Dunbarton, 
 the Sheriffdom of Clydesdale, Renfrew, Lanark, Kyle, Carrick, Air, and Cunningham, 
 over all which places their jurisdiction is extended by a Royal Charter, confirmed 
 by Act of Parliament. If, after this prohibition, the foresaid Mr. Pitcairn or Mrs. 
 Douglas, or any persons connected with them, shall vend any medicines within the 
 bounds specified, they are liable to be fined ;^40 Scots each, toiies quoties, which 
 sum the Faculty has ordered their Prescs, Visitor, and Collector to levy with the 
 utmost rigour of the law. That the Faculty, by doing this, may be enabled to protect 
 
104 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the unwary from imposition, the Justices of the Peace in the counties aforesaid 
 mentioned, the Magistrates of the different burghs, the clergy, and those practitioners 
 who are members of Faculty, are required to give information to Dr. Cleghorn, Praeses 
 of the Faculty, if these practitioners should appear to prey on the people in Lanarkshire, 
 Airshire, Renfrewshire, or Dunbartonshire, as the Faculty is resolved to prosecute 
 them with rigour. To put the people on their guard, the Faculty ordered this account 
 of their proceedings to be published in all the Glasgow newspapers, and to be signed 
 by their Preses, Visitor, and Collector. 
 
 Robert Cleghorn, Preses. 
 
 John Jamieson, Visitor. 
 
 Robert Simson, Collector. 
 
 The spectacle of the Examining Board of the Faculty, at the behest of 
 a magistrate, wending their way to the Municipal Council Chamber, there to 
 examine two itinerant mountebank quacks, strikes one at the present day 
 as somewhat odd. In most of the prosecutions mentioned in the Records there 
 is a strong family resemblance ; but some of the cases occasionally presented 
 novel features. 
 
 In those days old soldiers, and especially old sailors, were privileged 
 persons. An Act passed in 1784 conferred on them certain rights to 
 practise their callings even within the jurisdiction of corporate bodies. In 
 1 79 1 a surgeon, named Alexander Dunlop, who had served some time in 
 the army subsequent to the date of the Act referred to, settled in Glasgow 
 and began to practise. Summoned by the Faculty to show cause why he 
 should not be subjected to examination, he pleaded that he had already 
 been examined by "the Master Governors and Commonality of Surgeons in 
 London," and by them authorized to serve in the navy as surgeon's mate. 
 The Faculty doubted the validity of the tests to which he had been subjected. 
 Possibly enough they knew no more of the London examination than could 
 be gathered from the veracious account of it in the case of Mr. Roderick 
 Random, written by the mercurial apprentice of Dr. John Gordon, a late 
 President of the Faculty. Smollett's racy description could hardly impress 
 them favourably as to the fairness or adequacy of the tests. They 
 insisted on examining him ; Dunlop was equally determined that he should 
 not be examined. The case was fought in the Edinburgh courts for several 
 years. It was decided against Dunlop, on the ground that the Act of 1784, 
 on which he founded, was purely retrospective, and did not cover the case of 
 those who entered the service after it was passed. 
 
 It will have been observed that in the last century the Faculty were 
 never long without " a guid ganging law-plea," which was wont to be 
 considered a kind of patent of gentility in the family of a well-to-do Scots 
 laird. They were generally very successful, having up to this period scarcely 
 ever lost a suit. But with Dunlop's case fortune appeared for a time to 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 105 
 
 turn her back upon them. For a considerable time they had been greatly 
 exercised by a grievance, or rather a whole group of grievances, for which 
 they had by gentle means sought redress in vain. Their sore point was 
 that they were taxed very much like other people. They paid king's cess 
 and poor rates, and, above all, soldiers were quartered on them as well as 
 on their neighbours. This, they held, was not fair. Their charter gave them 
 " immunite and exemptioune from all wappinshawingis, raidis, oistis, beiring 
 of armour, watching, weirding, stenting taxationis," and a number of other 
 services. They approached the magistrates on the subject ; but the latter 
 were obstinate, and declined to grant relief The Faculty accordingly resolved 
 in 1 79 1 to test the legality of the exactions of which they complained. 
 The form of process enabled them to include in the test action several other 
 questions on which less doubt could exist. These had reference to their 
 general rights as a corporate body instituted by charter, and especially to 
 their power to inhibit unqualified persons from practising. These latter 
 claims were not disputed by the magistrates, and the decision on them by 
 Lord Eskgrave was quite satisfactory. But on the chief points the Town 
 Council contended that the provisions of the charter were many of them 
 antiquated and others in desuetude ; that, for example, " rattan poyson " no 
 longer represented the whole department of toxicology ; that most of the 
 services from which the charter gave exemption were no longer exacted ; 
 and that, in particular, it could not exempt from the quartering of soldiers, 
 for the sufficient reason that there was no standing army when the charter 
 was granted. These arguments had weight with the judges. In regard to 
 the obnoxious billeting of soldiers, they were found not wholly entitled to 
 exemption, nor altogether liable like other burgesses. On special occasions, 
 when the ordinary accommodation was inadequate, the militar)^ might be 
 quartered on them. In regard to taxation, local and imperial, they failed 
 to persuade the judges that their case was good. This partially adverse 
 decision brought upon them a large part of the costs of the process. At 
 the amount of the expenses they stood aghast. To the Town Council they 
 made a humble representation that the latter ought not to insist upon their 
 expenses. They urged that the suit had not been conceived in any hostile 
 spirit, but had been simply a friendly action of declarator for the laudable 
 purpose of defining the rights of both parties. The municipal authorities, 
 however were so obtuse or wrongheaded as not to see the matter in 
 exactly the same light. The payment of these expenses, to the tune of 
 ;^I5 8 6s. 7d. sterling, appears to have had the effect of damping their 
 litigious ardour for a good many years. 
 
 In the winter of 1794-95 the Faculty had another dispute with the 
 magistrates, in which the former were more unequivocally in the right. It 
 arose in this way. The Praeses, Dr. James Jeffray, Professor of Anatomy in 
 the University, had received a warrant or order from the Town Clerk, 
 
Io6 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 instructing him to inspect the body of a man who had been found dead 
 in the streets, and to make a report on the case to the proper authorities. 
 Dr. Jeffray delayed some time in obeying the order, and in the meantime 
 took occasion to address to the magistrates a pithy letter on the subject. 
 He complained that he had often been harassed by being required to perform 
 this duty when he could ill spare the time, and that he found the surgeons 
 averse from making such examinations under the existing arrangement. This 
 elicited a strong rejoinder from Mr. Orr, the Town Clerk. He pointed out 
 the necessity of these examinations in the interest of society and of public 
 justice. He took up the position that the performance of such duties 
 constituted one of the conditions on which the Faculty held their charter. 
 Independently of this consideration, he urged that in common law the 
 magistrates of boroughs and the sheriffs of counties had a right to require 
 the nearest physician or surgeon to perform such duties. On the part of 
 the magistrates, he requested the Faculty to decide what they intended to 
 do in the matter, as it might be necessary to bring the question before the 
 High Court of Justiciary. In their reply the Faculty declined to discuss 
 such an unheard-of claim as that involved in the latter part of Mr. Orr's 
 letter. They admitted to the full the necessity of the duty being performed 
 by competent medical men, but they denied their liability as members of the 
 Faculty to perform such work without remuneration, or that they held their 
 charter under any condition of gratuitous public service. They pointed out 
 the practice of Government in remunerating every other person employed 
 by the Crown in criminal prosecutions. They indicated their perfect willing- 
 ness to perform the duty as heretofore, but they would look to the magistrates 
 for payment. In the meantime, till an understanding was come to, the 
 warrants would be executed by the office-bearers in rotation. After some 
 delay, it was eventually arranged that such services should be acknowledged 
 by a fixed fee. 
 
 This subject of professional fees is one of which it would be wrong to 
 take no notice, as it crops up now and again in the Records. Up to the 
 middle of the century, there appears to have been no rule in regard to 
 the fees of physicians in the town ; but under date ist November, 1756, 
 the Minutes bear that " as patients are uncertain how to pay physitians, 
 and the surgeons have no rule to direct them, the physitians of Glasgow, 
 members of the Faculty, agree to give advice and attendance to all poor 
 people, gratis. When called to people in good circumstances in town or 
 country, they expect to being feed at being called or consulted ; and in 
 acute cases where attendance is once a day or oftener, they expect to being 
 feed every eight or ten days ; and in chronical cases, where attendance is 
 not so frequent, once in two or three weeks. Agreed to by John Gordon, 
 John Wodrow, Alex. Stevenson, John Johnston, Robert Dick, David Paton." 
 The Glasgow physician of those days, be it remembered, not only acted as 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 107 
 
 a consultant with the general practitioner, and saw patients at his own house 
 or consulting room, but he also visited patients at their own homes on his 
 own behoof in medical cases.^ The following advertisement was first inserted 
 in the local newspapers in 1785, and it appeared at intervals till near the 
 end of the century: — 
 
 " The physicians and surgeons of Glasgow have long experienced much 
 inconveniency and loss of payment of their charges and accounts, in some 
 measure from their own inattention. To remedy this as far as depends upon 
 themselves the surgeons have come to the unanimous resolution to give in 
 their accounts once a year ; and the physicians expect, when there is no 
 other agreement for attendance through the year, to be paid for their 
 trouble and advice upon their visits becoming no longer necessary. It will 
 likewise be obliging the gentlemen of the Faculty if, on account of the 
 extent of the town, those patients who desire to be visited before dinner 
 would send their messages to them before ten o'clock in the morning, and 
 if in the evening, before three o'clock in the afternoon." 
 
 In several parts of the Records of the eighteenth century there are 
 allusions to a " Book of Fees," but not till the end of the century, when 
 the tariff of charges was subjected to revision, do we ascertain what the 
 rate of fees at that period was. The consulting fee of the physician was 
 a guinea. Midwifery fees varied from one to three guineas. For the 
 different surgical operations there was much discriminative nicety in the 
 tariff, from phlebotomy at five shillings up to the higher operations at five 
 guineas. For surgeons' visits the rate was one to three shillings in the 
 town during the day, and five shillings to one guinea during the night. 
 The mileage rate of charges for the country was conformable to the scale 
 we have indicated. But in this revised book of fees of 1794, there is found 
 one curious anachronism, which would surely have been more appropriate in 
 a tariff of a century earlier : — 
 
 Preparing and applying cerecloth to the corpse of an adult, - ^10 10 o" 
 „ „ „ of a child, - 5 5° 
 
 ^ It is curious, by the way, to find as one of the signatories of this Minute Dr. Robert 
 Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University, as it would appear to imply that 
 he was a practising physician. 
 
 -From time immemorial the supplying of the "Cerecloth" had, in Scotland, been the 
 duty of the surgeon, or general practitioner. The preparation of the cerecloth was one of 
 the mysteries into which apprentices were initiated. The practice of using them was a kind 
 of modified embalming ; and the price charged placed them beyond the reach of all but the 
 families of the well-to-do. The price had nearly doubled since the beginning of the century, 
 if we may judge from an account of Dr. Campbell, of Paisley, given in the Second Series of 
 Hector's ytidicial Records of Renfrewshire (p. 58). The price which he charges to the 
 Walkinshaw family for "ane large cerecloth in 1720 was ^66 13s. 4d." Scots, (about £s us. 
 
I08 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Of other memorabilia of the century we have only space to mention 
 the removal of the Faculty from their hall in Trongate, which they had 
 occupied since 1697, to a more commodious building which they erected 
 in St. Enoch Square. This took place in 1791. The old hall was sold ; 
 but it was fortunate for the corporate purse that some other property 
 belonging to them adjoining the Trongate premises at that period proved 
 unsaleable. Three-quarters of a century later, it had increased in value tenfold, 
 and through it the Faculty were partly recouped for the very large grants 
 which, as will afterwards be mentioned, they made to a Widows' Fund 
 they originated immediately on entering the St Enoch's Square hall. This 
 hall, of which a sketch is given on the other side, was situated on the 
 east side of the square, and was taken down at the time of the erection of 
 St. Enoch's Station. In 1791 a minority of the Faculty were of opinion 
 that the site of the new premises in St. Enoch's Square was too far west ; 
 but so rapid was the subsequent growth of the city in that direction that 
 
 stg.). In the First Series of the same Records (p. 102) there is given a copy of a summons 
 by Andrew How, surgeon in Kilbarchan, a member of the Faculty, against half a dozen 
 of his patients, which may be quoted in this place as an illustration of the very moderate 
 fees of a country surgeon in Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century. The date 
 is 1721. 
 
 " I, Andrew How of Pannell, asks and claims of ye persons underwren the debts and 
 soumes of money following owing by you to me in maner and for ye causes afters- 
 presd, viz. : 
 
 " I. James Gibb, in Barlogan, three pounds Scots, pairtly for ane cordial to his daughter, 
 
 and pairtly for my paines in going to his house with it to see his daughter, being 
 
 two miles of way distant from my house. 
 "2. John Williams, in Bruntlabor, Six pounds Scots, as being for svall tymes letting 
 
 blood of his wyfe, and givving physick to her, and my paines in going thro' svall 
 
 tymes to his house, being four myles distant from myne. 
 "3. William Naismith, in Logiehole, a Guinzie, as being a moderate and rasonable 
 
 satisfaction for my paines and expenses in making up plaisters and oyr medica- 
 ments to, and performing a cure upon, his nose, when the same was almost cut 
 
 off by James Bartholomew, as was alledged, deducting two shills sterg pd. 
 "4. John Aiken, in Corsehills, three pounds Scots, as being pairtly for my paynes and 
 
 pairtly for my expenses in furnishing and making up two bottles of syrop to his 
 
 daughter by his ordours. 
 " 5. James Mather, at Bishopton, Six pound, which was dew to me by George Grant, 
 
 late Cook to Craigends, and for which the sd James Mather became debtor and 
 
 promised me payment. 
 "6. John Lang, in Hilltown, Eleven pounds, Scots, as being for my paines in going 
 
 svU tymes to his house, and using of drugs and svU medicaments to him when 
 
 he was under a consumptione, and whereof I cured him. 
 
 "All which cures were performed and oyr advising used to the sevll persons specifit 
 within these seven or eight years yrby, and all of you promised me satisfactione, and yrfor 
 should be decernit." 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 109 
 
 in less than twenty years there was an agitation to remove considerably 
 further to the west. The next exodus, however, did not take place till 
 i860, when they acquired their present premises in St. Vincent Street. 
 
 Several interesting movements which the Faculty either originated, or 
 in which they took a prominent part during the century, will be more 
 conveniently noticed in other than their chronological connection. In this 
 way the origin of the Widows' Fund and of the Library, and the part 
 which the Faculty took in the origination of such institutions as the Royal 
 Infirmary and the Humane Society, will be adverted to in subsequent chapters. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES i 
 
 In the rapid sketch contained in the preceding chapters of the origin and 
 progress of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, little note 
 has been taken of the men who carried on the work of the Corporation 
 during the first two centuries of its existence. When there has been occasion 
 to mention names of members it has been in their connection with the 
 corporation, and hence they have appeared only in their official garb. As 
 complementary to this sketch it may be of some interest to glance at some 
 of the men, whether in connection with or apart from their relation to 
 the Faculty, as has already been done in the case of Dr. Peter Lowe, 
 the founder. The limits of our space preclude anything but a hasty glance 
 over the two centuries, omitting all reference to the founders of the Glasgow 
 Medical School, the origin and early progress of which will form the 
 subject of succeeding chapters. 
 
 In regard to the seventeenth century, it must be admitted at the outset 
 that the outstanding names are few, and that in regard to most of these 
 their reputation was only local. For a century after the death of Dr. 
 Peter Lowe Glasgow produced no name in medicine or surgery worthy to 
 rank with that of the founder. The intellectual barrenness of Scotland 
 generally during the seventeenth century has often been made the subject 
 of remark. The chief causes of this mental sterility are indeed not far 
 to seek. The whole country was ablaze with religious and theological zeal. 
 In the fierce heat of ecclesiastical polemics, and the political convulsions 
 which added fuel to the flame, the seeds of literature and science were 
 scorched and withered. Add to this general consideration the special plea 
 
 ^This chapter was written before the idea of publishing a Roll of Members in the 
 Appendix, with a few biographical notes, had suggested itself It might, therefore, have 
 been omitted ; but its retention may possibly be justified by the fact of its presenting in a 
 sketchy form some facts not given under the "Roll." 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY m 
 
 as regards Glasgow, that during the whole of the century it was, as already 
 pointed out, a town of no great size or importance. It therefore presented 
 no great attractions to ambitious professional men. In several instances, 
 indeed, medical practitioners had to be tempted to settle or to remain in 
 Glasgow, or to return to the burgh after having left it, by the offer of a salary 
 or " pension," or a free burgess ticket ; and even such inducements were not 
 always sufficient to make the invitation effective. 
 
 After the death of Dr. Peter Lowe in or shortly after 1612, the leading 
 medical man in Glasgow must have been Dr. Robert Hamilton, who had 
 been associated with the former in the charter. Though a physician he 
 seems to have represented the Faculty in the Trades' House, but nothing 
 noteworthy has been preserved of him. Before his death, which was not 
 before 1628, his son, James Hamilton, had been admitted apparently both 
 as a surgeon and a physician ; and he practised to at least the middle of 
 the century. In Dr. Robert Mayne we obtain for the first time a 
 link between the University in High Street and the Faculty. He appears, 
 judging at all events from his epitaph, to have been a man of learning 
 and varied accomplishments. At first he filled the position of Regens 
 Paedagogii, or Arts Master, teaching the third class in the College. From 
 that post he was, in 1637, transferred to the Chair of Medicine. Whether 
 this office, the creation of which involved the first recognition of any depart- 
 ment of medicine by the University, was called into existence to accommodate 
 an incumbent at hand to fill it, or for some better reason, there is no evidence 
 to show. The sequel at all events proves that the experiment was pre- 
 mature. There can have been no clamant need for it at the time in view 
 of the universal system of crafts' apprenticeship in vogue for surgery, and 
 the small demand for physicians. Besides, judged by modern notions, the 
 chair could not long survive unsupported by a professorship of Anatomy. 
 Dr. Mayne's commission as a professor bore that he was " to teache ane 
 publict lecture of Medicine in the said Colledge, once or twyse ewerie weik 
 except in the ordincr tyme of vacance," and the remuneration was fixed 
 at 400 merks yearly. In those days, however, the University was largely 
 under the domination of the Kirk, which had power to raise up and cast 
 down. In 1642 the General As.sembly, which met at St. Andrews, saw fit to 
 appoint a " Visitation " or Commission of twenty-three members for Glasgow 
 Universitj/, consisting of about an equal number of ministers and ruling 
 elders, amongst the latter being persons of title and position. The powers 
 with which the ' Visitation ' were invested were sufficiently ample and 
 inquisitorial. They could not only inquire as to the character of the 
 teaching, its efficiency, and its conformity to the Confession of Faith and 
 Acts of the Kirk, but could remove superfluous or incompetent teachers. A 
 professor of medicine this ^Ecclesiastical Commission decided to be super- 
 fluous.' They reported, " Anent the Professione of Medicine the Visitatione 
 
 '^ Munimenta, in. 380, 
 
112 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 finds that Profession is not necessar for the Colledge in all tyme comming, 
 and withal finds it just that Mr. Robert Mayne, who is already in that 
 Professione, continue in the same during his time," which was not destined 
 to be long, for he died prematurely in 1646, aged forty-two, whilst the 
 plague which had entered the city some time before was still decimating 
 the townsmen, though there is no evidence that he was its victim. The 
 only physician now left in the town appears to have been Mr. James 
 Hamilton, mentioned formerly ; and the Town Council ineffectually tried to 
 induce a " Dr. Rae " to come to Glasgow, though they succeeded in the 
 case of a Dr. M'Cluir who was not a member of the Faculty, and about 
 whom nothing is known except that he was paid for services rendered 
 during the great attack of plague in 1647-49.^ 
 
 A few years later Dr. Sylvester Rattray settled in the place, and there 
 wrote his two books ^ in Latin, the one on Sympathy and AntipatJiy and the 
 other on Medical Prognosis, being the only Glasgow works on medicine 
 published during the century. Dr. Rattray, as will appear in a later 
 chapter, became known on the continent in virtue of the former of these 
 works; but we have no record to show whether he reduced to practice on 
 his Glasgow patients, one of whom was the son of Principal Baillie, the 
 preposterous theory of medicine which he expounds in that treatise. Of 
 three other physicians who flourished in Glasgow in that century, Dr. John 
 Crichton, Dr. John Colquhoun, and Dr. Thomas Hamilton, nothing note- 
 worthy has been preserved, apart from their relation to the Faculty,^ and 
 they left no literary remains. In the latter half of the century the name 
 of Dr. Matthew Brisbane stands out prominently as a Glasgow physician 
 of note. He belonged to an ecclesiastical family, both his father and 
 grandfather having been parsons of the parish of Erskine. He received his 
 classical education at the College of Glasgow, and graduated in medicine 
 at the University of Utrecht in 1661 ; and a few years later we find him 
 settled in practice in Glasgow as a physician. That he was a man of 
 influence and standing is evident from his honourable connection with his 
 Alma Mater. In two successive years (1675-76) he filled the office of 
 Dean of Faculty, and on several occasions (1677-81) he was elected to 
 the office of Rector, being apparently the only medical man in that century 
 who attained the distinction. But neither his learning nor his science had 
 the effect of wholly emancipating him from the superstition of his age. 
 So late as 1696 we find him cherishing a kind of sneaking faith in 
 witchcraft, or, at all events, admitting that he was unable to account on 
 natural principles for the phenomena presented in the case on which he was 
 consulted. It occurred in his native parish of Erskine. The subject or 
 victim of the supposed malignant influence was a girl named Christian Shaw, 
 daughter of the laird of Bargarran. A perusal of the evidence in this 
 ^P. 12. -See Chap. xxi. ^V.b2,et seq. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 113 
 
 melancholy case would probably suggest to a physician of the present day 
 that it was one of those, common enough at all periods, in which self-deceit, 
 and conscious imposture, all dominated by a strong belief in the black art, 
 contributed in various degrees to the tragical result. The report of Dr. 
 Brisbane is a very learned document, showing much painstaking, and evidenc- 
 ing clearly the struggle in his mind between science and superstition. " He 
 was confident she had no visible correspondent to subminister hair, straw, 
 coal, cinders, and such like trash to her ; all which upon severall occasions 
 he saw her put out of her mouth without being wet ; nay, rather, as they 
 had been dried with artifice, and actually hot above the natural warmth of 
 the body." This excretion of " trash " was too much for the learned reporter's 
 science, and he concluded by admitting that were it not for this " he would 
 not despair to reduce the other symptoms to their proper classes in the 
 catalogue of human diseases." For the alleged crime of bewitching this 
 wretched girl four persons were burned at Paisley, whilst a fifth only escaped 
 the same fate by suicide in Paisley prison. 
 
 The Glasgow surgeons of the seventeenth century, after Dr, Lowe, need 
 not detain us long. Probably the most notable family of surgeons was 
 that of the Halls, of whom there were four generations, the last of them 
 living on to the next century. They were all apparently men of good 
 standing ; the third of them was a member of the Town Council and a 
 bailie, and it would appear from the Records of the Council somewhat 
 aggressive and turbulent. The burgh accounts also show that at the visi- 
 tation of the great plague of 1646-49 he was paid for "sichting and visiteing 
 suche as deceasit of the pestilence " — a suggestive entry as regards the 
 mortality of the scourge at that period. It is somewhat curious to find 
 that one of the best known surgeons in Glasgow in the latter half of the 
 seventeenth century was an Englishman. James Frank was admitted a 
 member of the Faculty in 165O) the Records containing no information 
 where he had been apprenticed. M'Ure, the historian of Glasgow, says that he 
 was the son of a Leicestershire squire. After eight years' residence in Glasgow 
 he appears to have left the town and gone to Ireland, but was tempted back 
 by the offer of a pension from the Town Council. He had a son a surgeon 
 in the town, and his daughter became the mother of Dr. David Patoun, a 
 Glasgow physician, whom we will have occasion to mention shortly. Several 
 surgeons of the century, as has been stated, are invariably distinguished as 
 " Mr.," implying that they were possessors of Arts degrees, of whom Mr. 
 Charles Mouat and Mr. David Sharp were the most noteworthy. Towards the 
 end of the century the two most prominent surgeons in Glasgow were Mr. 
 Henry Marshall and Mr. Robert Houston, younger. The former was the son 
 of a medical practitioner in Kilsyth, from whom he had probably learned his 
 craft. It has already been narrated ^ how the attempt of the Town 
 
 1 Chap. IX. 
 
 H 
 
114 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Council to accredit him as a surgeon in Glasgow in the face of the 
 opposition of the Faculty led to a long law-suit with the Town Council, in 
 which the former were successful. On his admission to the Faculty he took 
 a leading position ; and his somewhat despotic conduct while visitor, and 
 especially his apparently contemptuous attitude to the Council and Trades' 
 House during the progress of the disputes between the surgeons and 
 barbers,^ mark him as a man of some vigour of character. Like Dr. 
 Matthew Brisbane he was consulted in the Bargarran witchcraft case, 
 and his report is even less guarded than that of the physician in its 
 implication of supernatural influences. He instances, with details, several 
 of the girl's conversations with invisible interlocutors. From another of 
 the documents we find that the medical report was wanted by the Presbytery 
 in order to facilitate the obtaining a commission of judges to try the case. 
 Henry Marshall had a good social standing in the West of Scotland, being 
 connected by marriage with the Earl of Wigton's family. 
 
 Contemporary with Mr. Marshall was Mr. Robert Houston, who is 
 honourably associated with the operation of ovariotomy, being indeed the 
 first surgeon who performed it. He was the son of a surgeon member of 
 the Faculty of the same name, had been apprenticed to his father, and 
 was a graduate in Arts of the University. The operation by which his 
 name has been perpetuated was performed in 1701, being more than a 
 century before Dr. Ephraim M'Dowell of Kentucky, who is generally credited 
 with being the earliest ovariotomist, performed his first operation. As prob- 
 ably only a few specialists who have looked into the history of their specialty, 
 and others interested in medical archaeology, are acquainted with Houston's 
 interesting narrative, his description of the operation is here reproduced from 
 the thirty-third volume of the Philosophical Transactions, London, 1733, in 
 which the case was recorded thirty-two years after it occurred : 
 
 "August 1701 I was in the Country, with a Patient, the Lady Anne Houstoun, 
 Wife to Sir John Houstoun, Baronet ; in the Shire of Renfreiu, ten miles from Glasgow, 
 North Britain. This charitable lady pressed me with great Earnestness to visit a 
 Tenant's Wife, who lay bedridden, of an uncommon Disease, which no Physician, or 
 Surgeon, who had seen her, could give any Name to, or account for. She inform'd 
 me, the ablest of that Country had forsaken her, and declared her incurable, so that 
 I could lose no Reputation by the Result of my Endeavours. 
 
 " In order to oblige this worthy lady, and in Compassion to the Distress of a 
 poor Woman in so deplorable Condition, deserted and given over on all sides, I 
 went, determined to do everything in my Power for her Relief. She was in the 58th 
 Year of her Age, her name was Margaret Millar. 
 
 " She informed me that her Midwife, in her last lying-in at 45 Years old, having 
 violently puU'd away the Burthen, she was so very sensibly affected by a Pain, which 
 then seiz'd her in the left Side, between the Umbilicus and Groin, that she scarce 
 
 ^Chap. X. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 115 
 
 ever had been free from it after, but that it had troubled her more, or less, during 
 13 Years together; that for two Years past she had been extremely uneasy, her 
 Belly grew very large, and a Difficulty of breathing increased continually upon her : 
 insomuch that for the last six Months, she had scarce breath'd at all but with the 
 utmost Difficulty. That in all that Space of Time, having quite lost her Appetite, she 
 had scarce eat so much as would nourish a sucking Child; and that for three Months 
 together she had now been forc'd to lie constantly on her Back, not daring to move 
 at all, to one side or other. 
 
 " This Tumour was grown to so monstrous a Bulk, that it engross'd the whole 
 left Side, from the Umbilicus to the Fiibes, and stretch'd the Abdominal Muscles, 
 to so unequal a Degree, that I don't remember ever to have seen the like in the 
 whole Course of my Practice. It drew towards a Point. Her being so long confined 
 to lie continually on her Back, having grievously excoriated her, added much to her 
 Sufferings, which, with want of Rest and xYppetite, had wasted her to Skin and Bone, 
 as the poor Woman herself expressed it. Indeed she needed not to have told me 
 so, my Eyes were too faithful Witnesses of her low and wretched Condition. 
 
 " Scarce able to speak out, she told me, that having heard much of my Success, 
 she had strong Hopes of Relief provided I would try at least, and do something in 
 pity to her Affliction. 
 
 " I answer'd her that I was willing, but afraid, in her low State, she would not 
 have Strength to undergo a large incision ; that in order effectually to relieve her, I 
 must be oblig'd to lay open a great Part of her Belly, and remove the Cause of all 
 that Swelling : she seem'd not frightened, but heard me without Disorder, and, as if 
 inspir'd with sudden Courage, press'd, and urg'd me to the Operation. 
 
 " I drew (I must confess) almost all my Confidence from her unexpected 
 Resolution, so that without loss of Time, I prepared what the Place would allow, 
 and with an Imposthume Lancet, laid open about an Inch, but finding nothing issue, 
 I enlarged it to two Inches and even then nothing came forth but a little thin 
 yellowish Serum, so I ventured to lay it open about two Inches more. I was not 
 a little startled, after so large an Aperture, to find only a glutinous Substance bung 
 up the Orifice. All my Difficulty was to remove it ; I try'd my Probe, I endeavour'd 
 with my Fingers, but all was in vain ; it was so slippery that it eluded every Touch, 
 and the strongest hold I could take. 
 
 " I wanted, in this place, almost everything necessary, but bethought myself of 
 a very odd Instrument, yet as good as the best in its Consequence, because it 
 answer'd the end propos'd. I took a strong Firr-Splinter, such as the Poor in that 
 Country ordinarily use to burn instead of Candles ; I wrapt about the End of this 
 Splinter some loose Lint, and thrust it into the Wound, and by turning and winding 
 it, I drew out some two Yards in Length, of a Substance thicker than any Gellie, or 
 rather like Glue that's fresh made and hung out to dry; the Breadth of it was above 
 ten Inches ; this was followed by nine full Quarts of such Matter, as I have met with 
 in Steatomatous and Atheromatous Tumours, with several Hydatides of various Sizes, 
 containing a yellowish Serum, the least of 'em bigger than an Orange, with several 
 large Pieces of Membranes, which seem'd to be parts of the distended Ovary. Then 
 
Il6 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 I squeez'd out all I could, and stitch'd up the Wound in three Places, almost equi- 
 distant ; I was oblig'd to make use of Liicatellus's Balsam, which was made by her 
 Lady for the Use of the Poor ; with this Balsam I cover'd a Pledget, the whole Length 
 of the Wound, and over that laid several Compresses, dipp'd in warm French Brandy, 
 and because that I judg'd that the parts might have lost their Spring by so vast and 
 so long a Distention, I dipt in the same Brandy a large Napkin four times folded, 
 and applied it over all the Dressings, and with a couple of strong Towels, which 
 were also dipt, I swathed her round the Body, and then gave her about four Ounces 
 of the following Mixture which I had from her Lady. 
 
 ^- Aq. MenthcB, ibfs. Aq. Cinnavwjni fort., Bbifs. 
 Syr. Diacodii, 5vi. trt. 
 
 " The Cinnamon Water was drawn off from Canary and the best Cinnamon 5 
 indeed it was the finest and most fragrant Cinnamon-Water I ever tasted ; of this 
 Mixture I ordered her 2 or 3 Spoonfuls 4 times a Day. 
 
 " Next morning I found her in a breathing Sweat, and she informed me, with 
 great Tokens of Joy, that she had not slept so much, nor found herself so well 
 refresh'd, at any Time for three Months past. I carefully attended her once every 
 Day, and as constantly dressed her Wound in the same Manner as above, for about 
 eight Days Together; I kept in the lower Part of the Wound a small Tent, which 
 discharged some Serosities at every Dressing for 4 or 5 Days. But Business calling 
 me elsewhere, I left her, having first instructed her two Daughters (both Women, who 
 carefully attended her) how to dress her Wound, and told 'em what Diet I thought 
 most proper, enjoining 'em strictly to observe what I order'd. 
 
 " Her chief Food was strong Broth made of an old Cock, in each Porringer of 
 which was one Spoonful of the Lady's Cinnamon Water ; this was repeated 4 times 
 a day, and gave her new Life and Spirits. 
 
 " After three Weeks Absence, I called at her House, and finding it shut up, was 
 a little surpriz'd, but had not gone far before I was much more surpriz'd, when I 
 found her sitting wrapt up in Blankets, giving Directions to some Labourers who were 
 cutting down her Corn, 
 
 " She amended apace to the Admiration of everybody thereabouts, recovered 
 surprisingly, and lived in perfect Health from that time, which was in August 1701 
 till October 17 14, when she died in ten Days sickness." 
 
 Some pathological observations follow, and the paper finishes with a 
 Bibliography of Ovarian Tumours. 
 
 Houston's case of ovariotomy is notable, not only as being the first 
 recorded, but for being performed in the absence of proper instruments, and 
 under apparently ludicrously unfavourable conditions ; yet with a success 
 which could not have been surpassed by a Keith or a Spencer Wells, with 
 all modern appliances and means, aseptic and antiseptic to boot. 
 
 The success of Houston as a surgeon in Glasgow and neighbourhood in 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century was so great that in 1 7 1 1 he took 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 117 
 
 a step which may be interpreted as showing an intention to retire from 
 general practice, and betake himself to the then more dignified practice 
 of a physician. In that year he applied to the University to be examined 
 for a medical degree. At the time there was no Medical Faculty, or even 
 a single professor, no attempt having been made to resuscitate the Chair of 
 Medicine, which had fallen into abeyance in 1646 on the death of Dr. Mayne. 
 A Board of Examiners had accordingly to be improvised for the occasion, 
 consisting of Dr. Sinclare, the Professor of Mathematics, who happened to 
 be an M.D., and Drs. Montgomery and Johnstoun, two physicians practising 
 in the city, with lay senatorial assessors. So far as can be gathered from 
 the Muniinenta, Houston appears to have been the third medical graduate 
 of the University, and the second admitted by examination. How long he 
 practised in Glasgow after receiving his degree does not appear. On his 
 removal to London, he seems to have practised in Westminster or its 
 neighbourhood ; and it may be inferred from another paper he published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions on a case of ectopic pregnancy, and from 
 some little treatises published by him on surgical subjects, that he reverted 
 to the practice of a general practitioner. 
 
 Before casting a glance over the medical practitioners of Glasgow during 
 the eighteenth century, a word may be said regarding a remarkable family 
 of old standing in the country. The Hows of Damton and Pennold,^ in 
 the parish of Kilbarchan, were entitled to the distinction of being emphatically 
 a medical family. Not only did they practise in their native place, but 
 some of them appear besides to have betaken themselves for the purpose to 
 other localities, and one became a London physician. Occupying a county 
 position as landowners, the young Hows, or at all events certain members 
 in successive generations, appear to have been trained to look to medicine as 
 their inheritance as much as, or even more than, to their paternal acres. 
 It is doubtful whether a longer medical pedigree existed anywhere in Scot- 
 land than that of the John How, surgeon, of Damton, who died in 18 16. 
 Semple, who edited the work of Crawfurd, the historian of Renfrewshire, 
 writing in 1782, when this How was in active practice, states that he was 
 the twelfth John in direct descent, and the eighth that had been a prac- 
 titioner of medicine. This John had a son, also a surgeon, who predeceased 
 his father ; and a daughter, who became the wife of Mr. William Couper, a 
 Glasgow surgeon. The first of the family in the Faculty Roll was admitted 
 in 1654, but there were certainly others of the name practising as mediciners 
 earlier than this date. Though practising well within the limits of the 
 Faculty's jurisdiction, the Hows were not always willing candidates for the 
 privilege of admission as country members, and some of them were apparently 
 
 • Damton lies immediately west of the little town of Kilbarchan ; and with the lands 
 of Law, Pennold, Wester Whitelands, and Over Johnstone, in Kilbarchan parish, and Syde, 
 in the parish of Kilmalcolm, were long in the possession of the How family. 
 
Il8 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 passed over altogether. In 165 i the John How of that day was brought up 
 before the Faculty under the process known as " horning." His medical 
 requirements were evidently scarcely commensurate with the length of his 
 pedigree. On submitting himself to examination, and, according to custom, 
 giving a list of the points he " professed," it was limited to " simple woundis, 
 phlebotomie, dislocationes, fracters, and sic oyr parts of chirurgie as he suld 
 be fund qualifit ; and also to be authorisit be them to give purgatives by 
 senna, rubarb, and sic lyk." After examination, the limits of his qualification 
 were found to be even narrower than his own modest estimate of them ; he 
 was licensed to " cuir simple woundis, and to practise phlebotomie be the 
 advys of physitians, fracters where there is no complicatioun, but no oyr 
 part of chirurgie;" the unobtrusive request regarding purgatives being appar- 
 ently tacitly ignored. 
 
 With the dawn of the eighteenth century there arose in Scotland a 
 freer spirit of inquiry, bringing with it the promise of progress in the healing 
 art and brighter days for its practitioners. In the early years there was 
 still much stagnation and lethargy, and it was not till towards the middle of 
 the century that the profession in Glasgow became fully alive to the warm 
 breath of this new spirit. Leaving to the succeeding chapter a brief sketch 
 of the results of this intellectual awakening, as shown in the foundation of 
 a Medical School, we have here space for the mention of only a few out- 
 standing names of men not directly connected with that movement. Two 
 physicians, father and son, belonging to an old Glasgow family, had names 
 long familiar in the city, and they lived to such an age as between them 
 almost to span a considerable part of a century. These were Dr. Peter 
 Patoun and Dr. David Patoun — the former the grandson of Mr. James Frank, 
 a Glasgow surgeon in the seventeenth century, already referred to ; and the 
 latter the father of Archibald, the "Captain Patoun" familiar to old Glaswegians 
 by his oft-recorded old-fashioned oddities, and as the hero of Lockhart's 
 " Lament." Another Glasgow physician of good position was Dr. John 
 Wodrow, brother of the gossiping author of the Analecta and historian of the 
 Kirk, whose father was Professor of Divinity in the University. He was 
 especially devoted to medical botany, a pursuit which was as common among 
 medical men of the last century as it is rare among those of the present 
 day. In this department Wodrow appears, however, to have been facile 
 princeps, and for a number of years he received an annual grant from the 
 Faculty to enable him to cultivate his physic garden. He also collected 
 a Natural History Museum ; but what became of it does not appear, though 
 the Faculty purchased the human anatomical specimens. As an example 
 of a man of a good family who practised surgery, may be mentioned 
 Alexander Porterfield, a scion of the house of Porterfield of that ilk, who 
 was admitted as freeman in the last decade of the seventeenth century, and in 
 1733 was the senior surgical member of the Faculty. Mr. William Stirling, 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ng 
 
 whose admission to the Faculty in 1 7 1 2 was the occasion of setting surgeons 
 and barbers by the ears, was a surgeon of repute during the first half of the 
 century. Even more than to his professional skill, his fellow citizens were 
 probably indebted to his public spirit and enterprise. In association with 
 his partner. Dr. John Gordon, and of two other citizens named Loudon, he 
 introduced into Glasgow the manufacture of linen ; whilst his son Walter 
 gave the citizens further cause of gratitude by a public benefaction which he 
 bequeathed in the shape of the library that has perpetuated the name. 
 
 Not less favourably known as surgeon and general practitioner was Mr. 
 John Paisley, a man of varied erudition, who collected what appears to have 
 been a good medical library. When his old apprentice and friend, Dr. William 
 Cullen, began to show his mettle by giving public lectures on medicine, 
 chemistry, materia medica, and botany, the library of Mr. Paisley was 
 generously thrown' open to his students. The only literary remains of 
 Paisley are some papers in the Edinburgh Medical Essays. Both before 
 and after the middle of the century, John Gordon, the partner of Mr. 
 William Stirling, held a good professional and social position. His career 
 as a practitioner well illustrates the unwritten rules affecting medical practice 
 in his day. After practising more than thirty years as a surgeon and 
 general practitioner, he resolved to limit himself to medical practice only. 
 For this purpose he qualified himself in 1754 by taking the Doctorate of 
 Medicine of the University of Glasgow. This involved the necessity of his 
 entry as a surgeon-freeman of the Faculty being cancelled, and his formal 
 admission as a physician. In the year following he was elected praeses, 
 an office to which as a surgeon he would have been ineligible. This little 
 episode bears testimony to the punctilious recognition by the profession in 
 these days of the dividing line between the physician and the general prac- 
 titioner. For the work of the latter the degree was not only not required, 
 but was, though not an absolute disqualification, certainly a drawback. Its 
 possession raised the presumption that the graduate practised as a pure 
 physician ; and if this presumption were negatived by the known facts, he 
 was promptly inhibited from practice till he had qualified as a surgeon 
 member. This actually happened in the case of Dr. Andrew Morris, a 
 Rheims graduate, who contested the point at law ; but ultimately yielded, 
 and having been apprenticed to his father, a member of Faculty, he was 
 examined and admitted as a surgeon.^ Accordingly the doctorate was an 
 honour to which very few, and scarcely any young practitioner, could afford 
 to aspire. It was not till some time after the commencement of the present 
 century, when, as the sequel will show, the supply of University graduates 
 had increased at a rate out of all proportion to the demand for " pure " 
 
 ' Dr. Morris does not appear to have made his mark in practice in Giasf^ow, and was 
 chiefly remembered for his eccentric character and his physical infirmity, being for many 
 years paralyzed in his lower limbs. 
 
120 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 physicians that doctors of medicine in Glasgow betook themselves to general 
 practice. 
 
 To return, however, to Dr. John Gordon. No better tribute to his 
 worth could be given than the eulogistic words which his old apprentice, 
 Tobias Smollett, puts into the mouth of Mr. Bramble : " I was introduced 
 to Mr. Gordon, a patriot of a truly noble spirit, who is father of the linen 
 manufactory of that place, and was the great promoter of the city work- 
 house, infirmary, and other works of public utility. Had he lived in ancient 
 Rome, he would have been honoured with a statue at the public expense." 
 Of this apprentice we have nothing to add to what is already known. The 
 fact of his apprenticeship to " Mr. W. Stirling and John Gordon " was duly 
 "booked" in the Faculty Records of 30th May, 1736. "The which Day 
 Tobias Smollett, son of the deceased Mr. Archd. Smollett in Dumbarton, is 
 booked apprentice with Mr. William Stirling and John Gordon, freeman, 
 for five years from the date of the Indenture produced, dated the Sixteenth 
 and Nineteenth days of Aprill last, and he payed the Collector ten shillings 
 ster. of Booking money with the Clerk and Officer their dues." According 
 to all accounts he was a wild and restless youth, and must occasionally 
 have sorely tried the patience of his masters. His youthful pranks have 
 been noticed by his biographers, and need not be here repeated. The 
 mercurial surgeon's apprentice appears to have been popular in the section 
 of Glasgow society he affected, though he had a habit of indulging in lampoons 
 and squibs, which cannot always have been pleasant to his acquaintances. 
 On completing his apprenticeship, he left Glasgow without becoming a free- 
 man of the Faculty, as he had no intention of practising in the West of 
 Scotland. His subsequent career is well known, and does not belong to our 
 subject. He was the friend of Dr. William Smellie, the obstetrician, a 
 member of the Faculty ; and Dr. John Glaister, in his biography of the 
 latter,^ has proved that the work on Midwifery by Smellie underwent Smollett's 
 literary revision before publication, 
 
 Tobias Smollett was essentially, as regards his lifework, a man of letters ; 
 and though he practised a little at one time, and wrote an essay on the 
 " Medicinal Use of Tar Water," it may be said that he was connected with 
 the medical profession by little more than the accident of his training. 
 It was otherwise with Dr. John Moore, another literary apprentice of Messrs. 
 Stirling and Gordon. In the case of the author of Zeluco^ it was rather 
 the literary character which was the accident. For many years of his life 
 his professional work, first as a general practitioner in Glasgow, and for 
 two years as a physician there, and some years subsequently as a prac- 
 titioner in London, absorbed the larger share of his energies. The son of 
 a Stirling clergyman, Moore received his education at the University of 
 Glasgow, and was apprenticed to the two surgeons named on 3rd December, 
 "^ Dr. William Smellie and his Contemporaries. Glasgow, 1894. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 121 
 
 1744. On the completion of his pupilage, he served for some years as 
 a surgeon in the army, and subsequently carefully prepared himself by 
 two years' study and observation in Paris and London. Thus equipped, 
 he returned to Glasgow in 1 7 5 1 on the invitation of his old master, John 
 Gordon, who made him his partner. On Gordon, a year or two later, 
 taking his degree, and establishing himself as a physician, Mr. Moore assumed 
 as a partner Mr. Thomas Hamilton, the brother and afterwards the successor 
 of the Professor of Anatomy in the University. In 1770, when about forty 
 years of age, he followed the example of his former master and partner, John 
 Gordon, and took his degree at the University, " having declined it sooner," 
 says his biographer, " as imposing a limit to the range of his extensive 
 practice." A wit and humorist, and something also of a bon vivant, Moore 
 was wont to relieve the dulness of the life of a hard-working surgeon in the 
 modes of social relaxation universal in Glasgow in the middle and latter 
 part of last century. The soul of the Hodge Podge Club and kindred 
 gatherings, the favourite of Glasgow society, Moore never forgot, even in 
 moments of social abandon, what was due to his professional position. His 
 wit and raillery were seldom or never ill-natured ; and if his satirical sketches 
 of his fellow-clubmen want something of the point and more of the polish 
 of Goldsmith in Retaliation, they were at least informed with the same kindly 
 spirit of friendly appreciation and humour. In 1772 he accepted an offer to 
 go to the continent as travelling companion and medical attendant to the 
 Duke of Hamilton. It is from this epoch that his literary career began. 
 On returning from abroad he did not resume practice in Glasgow, but settled 
 to work in London. His only medical work, Medical Sketches, was published 
 in 1785, though in his Vieiv of Society arid Manners in Italy there is included 
 an essay on " Pulmonary Consumption." Moore lived to see the present 
 century, his death occurring in 1802, .seven years before that of his heroic 
 son. Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Craig, a Glasgow surgeon in the second half of the 
 eighteenth century, has had the fate — probably about the last he himself 
 would have coveted — to have his name perpetuated, not in virtue of his 
 own modest worth, but as the father of a daughter who figures somewhat 
 questionably as one of the many " flames " of Robert Burns, the Scottish 
 poet. Agnes Craig was the " Clarinda " of the bard ; and her name 
 frequently occurs in the Records of the Faculty. She was married early 
 to a Glasgow lawyer of the name of James Maclehose ; but the union 
 was unhappy. Her husband left her and went to the West Indies, whence 
 he eventually returned with a fortune. The abandoned wife went back 
 to her father's house, and remained there with her children till his death 
 in 1782. On this happening she applied to the Faculty to be placed on 
 their list of pensioners. This was done, and her name figures in the 
 accounts as receiving ;^8 yearly up to 1787-88, the year, by the wa)''. 
 
122 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 in which she met Burns. The pension was then discontinued, the reason 
 stated being that she had a stronger claim on the Faculty of Procurators, 
 of which her husband had been a member, and also that she had a private 
 income of her own. Though an application was made for the renewal 
 of the pension, it was not granted. By this time she had removed to 
 Edinburgh, where she met the poet. Another Glasgow surgeon, whose 
 professional career spanned the latter half of the last and a dozen years 
 of the present century, was Robert Wallace. His father, of the same name, 
 had been admitted in the second decade of the century, so thus their 
 united professional lives all but cover a hundred years. Dr. William 
 Thomson, in his Life of Cidlen^ gives an interesting letter from the 
 second Wallace, dated 1812, giving his reminiscences of the origin 
 of the Glasgow Medical School, to which we will advert in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 To mention other surgeons whose names, now forgotten, were once 
 familiar in the mouths of old Glasgow burghers, is forbidden by the limits 
 of our space. For these the reader is referred to the Roll of Members in 
 the Appendix. To recall the chief physicians after 1750 is a lighter task. 
 Not only were they fewer in number than the surgeons, but the most 
 prominent of them were in some way connected with the nascent Medical 
 School, and will accordingly fall to be noticed in connection therewith. 
 It is somewhat curious to find amongst the physician members of the 
 Faculty the name of Dr. Robert Dick, professor of Natural Philosophy 
 in the University. Whether or not he was engaged in practice there is 
 no evidence on which to decide ; but his name, as we have stated, appears 
 at the bottom of a manifesto of the physicians with reference to their fees. 
 Dr. Colin Douglas had been in the army before settling to practise in 
 Glasgow, and appears to have been cut off prematurely, only " the dregs of 
 his vigour," as Dr. John Moore puts it, being left to him in his Glasgow 
 practice. That he was a man of a straightforward amiable character, may 
 be inferred not only from Moore's stanza ^ but also from the appreciative 
 epitaph of Mr. John Dunlop, the elegiac poet of the Hodge Podge Club.^ 
 Dr. Peter Wright, who became first President of the Andersonian University, 
 a familiar figure in old Glasgow, belongs partly to the last and partly to 
 the present century, having lived to 1819. The circumstance mentioned by 
 a historian of the city that, attired in cocked hat and bedecked with a 
 sword, he attended the accouchement of the Duchess of Montrose, in the 
 Drygate^ at the end of the century, shows that by that time not only 
 surgeons but doctors of medicine in Glasgow had betaken themselves to 
 the practice of obstetrics. He lived indeed to see the day when, as will 
 appear from the sequel, they were forced by necessity to practice all 
 departments of medicine and surgery. A contemporary of Dr. Wright in 
 ^Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 43. '^ lb., 46. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 123 
 
 Glasgow, Dr. Robert Marshall, a man of scholarly attainments, also lived 
 into the present century. 
 
 One peculiarity in regard to the practice of the surgeons in Glasgow 
 during the eighteenth century may be here adverted to. This was the 
 custom of surgical partnerships, which was then very common. The firms 
 of Cullen and Hamilton, of Stirling and Gordon, Gordon and Moore, Moore 
 and Hamilton, Hamilton and Towers, Maxwell and Parlane, Hill and 
 Monteith, Monteith and Couper, and others, could be cited as showing 
 the prevalence of the practice. In the present day such partnerships are, 
 if not all but unknown, very uncommon in Glasgow and, indeed, in Scotland 
 generally, unless perhaps occasionally in the case of near relatives. In 
 England, on the other hand, judging from the advertisements, medical 
 partnerships are still in vogue. The change in Scotland must have some 
 foundation in national trend and tendencies. There must be some factor 
 at work now which was less operative in the last century. In Glasgow, 
 during that century, as in England now, the office of the medical 
 man counted for much. Now-a-days Scots are critical of the personal 
 qualities of the man who fills it. Whatever may be the true explanation, 
 it must be sufficient to cover a whole group of co-related facts. The rarity 
 of medical partnerships, the comparative infrequency of medical assistantships, 
 the difficulty till recent years in obtaining any great money equivalent 
 for a practice in Scotland, are all doubtless due to the same cause. 
 
 Of two country practitioners we have only space to say a word. 
 Dr. John Campbell, of Paisley, made a reputation for himself in the first 
 half of the century, not only in that town, but over a wide area of 
 surrounding district. Wodrow ^ even mentions that a scheme was talked 
 of in the University of Glasgow of having him made professor of anatomy. 
 Dr. William Smellie, of Lanark, was a freeman of the Faculty, admitted 
 apparently in 1732 or 1733, though he had begun practice in his 
 native town in 1720. The fact, that for about a dozen years he had 
 practised within the Faculty's jurisdiction without licence, would appear to 
 show that the pressure put on country practitioners was not severe. In 
 1739 he removed to London ; but his Faculty quarter-accounts were 
 paid through his friend Dr. John Gordon, to whom he acknowledged his 
 professional obligations in his well-known treatise on Midwifery. As the 
 most notable part of his career was spent in the metropolis, it lies beyond 
 the scope of this sketch ; and it is the less necessary to dwell upon it, 
 as an admirable Memoir of him has lately come from the pen of Dr. 
 John Glaister.^ 
 
 ^ Analecta, Vol. iv., 28. 
 
 ^ Dr. William SjiicIHc and his Contcviporarics. Glasgow, 1894. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 To the present generation it may at first sight seem a Httle surprising that 
 medicine was not systematically taught in Glasgow till the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. With a University dating back to the middle of the 
 fifteenth, and a medical incorporation founded at the end of the sixteenth 
 century, with the whole of the West of Scotland as their district, one might 
 be apt to assume that the burgh possessed at an early period the necessary 
 elements of a medical school. But the case was otherwise. The constitu- 
 tion of the Faculty possessed no proper elements for the outgrowth of a 
 teaching body. In the seventeenth century, it is true, one of the recognized 
 functions of the visitor was to give lectures, or at least some kind of col- 
 lective teaching to apprentices. But the object of this instruction was 
 obviously to make up for the defects incident to the system of the isolated 
 training by apprenticeship. This instruction by the visitor would probably 
 be fitful and intermittent, depending for its efficiency on the personal char- 
 acter of the office-bearer. Eventually the practice seems to have fallen 
 into desuetude even before it was superseded by a better system. The Uni- 
 versity was differently situated. Founded by a Papal Bull, it was authorized 
 to grant degrees in theology, canon and civil law, " et quavis alia licita facul- 
 tate" and the right of the College to teach was apparently as extensive as 
 that of the University to examine. Medicine was not specifically mentioned 
 in the Bull, as it was in some of the foundation charters of St. Andrews 
 and Aberdeen ; but the general powers conferred were sufficiently extensive 
 to cover a medical faculty, which existed in the Italian University of which 
 that of Glasgow was understood to be the counterpart. That the University 
 of Glasgow did not earlier rise to a true conception of its duty towards 
 medicine was less the fault of its early members than that of the time and 
 country. Before the Reformation there seems to have been only what 
 was deemed a complete Faculty of Arts, and a less regularly constituted 
 Faculty of Canon Law. For some time after that epoch the Arts subjects 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 125 
 
 and those connected with theology seem to have been regarded in Glasgow 
 as the most proper for academic study, though the Nova Erectio of 
 James VI. in 1577 provided for the teaching of "physiology" in connection 
 with geography, chronology, and astrology. From that time also University 
 teaching in Glasgow was to a considerable extent dominated by the Kirk, 
 whose wants were too many to leave much room for the supply of those of 
 other interests. The teaching of science was mostly limited to physics, which 
 is doubtless what was denoted by the term " physiologia " of the new charter ; 
 and so it was long before it was recognized that medicine should find a place 
 in the University course. The want of resources was another large factor 
 in the case ; and, in addition, there was no effective demand for University 
 medical teaching. Physicians in Scotland were few, and the practice of their 
 betaking themselves to the continent for their education eventually placed 
 a factitious value on such a training. It was some time before a home-made 
 physician took rank with the graduates of Italy and France. Then, as 
 regards the ordinary surgeon-apothecary, the system of apprenticeship seems 
 to have been deemed adequate. Before the end of the seventeenth century 
 there existed the rudiments of a medical school in Edinburgh, formed even 
 before the Town's College had properly developed into a University. But 
 this example failed to stimulate their western neighbours. Except for 
 the nominal tribute paid to medicine by the appointment of Dr. Robert 
 Mayne as professor^ of the subject (1637-46), nothing was heard of this 
 department in the seventeenth century. The eighteenth century brought 
 with it better promise for the recognition of science ; but as regards medicine 
 the acknowledgment was still tardy. The examining and degree-granting 
 function was exercised for nearly half a century before the College used 
 effectively its power to teach. From 1703, when Samuel Benion — an Eng- 
 lishman who, if not the first medical graduate, appears to be the earliest 
 of that century whose name is published in the Munimenta ^ — was admitted to 
 graduation, down to the middle of the century, a few candidates, amongst whom 
 was Mr. Robert Houston, the first ovariotomist,^ requested to be examined 
 with a view to graduation. On these occasions a Board, consisting partly of 
 physicians practising in the town, was improvised for each examination. 
 There are also in the MmitJiienta one or two entries recording that the 
 degree had been bestowed on persons who were not examined ; but such 
 
 1 There is evidence that Dr. Mayne actually prelected. Thus Principal Baillie, writing 
 in 1643, says: "Dr. Maine on the Fridays Afternoon and other dyetts hath very elegant 
 discourses on the choycest Physick questions." {Bui/lie's Letters and Journals, edited by 
 David Laing, 11. 72. Edin., 1842.) 
 
 2 II. 376. One medical graduate was apparently admitted as early as 2nd August, 1469. 
 " Receptus ad gremium universitatis et privilegia et libertates Magister Andreas de Garleis 
 doctor in medicinis." (^Munimenta, 11. 74.) 
 
 3 Chap. XIII. 117. 
 
126 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 cases were apparently rare, and it is to the honour of the University of 
 Glasgow that this traffic in medical degrees, which is a blot on the escutcheon 
 of two of the Scottish Universities, was not chargeable against her. Some 
 funds being at last forthcoming for the purpose from the appropriation of 
 certain Crown grants, a beginning of a medical faculty was made in 17 14, 
 when the Chair of Medicine, which had been in abeyance since the death 
 of Dr. Mayne, in 1646, was resuscitated. The first incumbent was Dr. John 
 Johnstoun, a young physician practising in the town, who had graduated 
 in medicine in Utrecht five years previously. The next professorship to be 
 instituted was that of Anatomy (with which was conjoined Botany) in 1720, 
 Dr. Thomas Brisbane being the first to hold it. He was the son of the 
 Dr. Matthew Brisbane who has been mentioned in the last chapter as having 
 filled the offices of Dean of Faculty and Rector. But these professorial 
 appointments probably were little more than titular. Thus Wodrow, himself 
 the son of a Glasgow professor, and living close to the town, and who must, it 
 is presumed, have known the facts in regard to medical teaching in the 
 College in his day, speaking of a royal visitation of the University in 1726 
 says : " Dr. Brisbane, I believe, might have been scored off, but in examina- 
 tion they found his patent did not oblidge him to teach. In short. Dr. 
 Johnstoun teaches us little, and praelects none." ^ Wodrow, by the way, is 
 here scarcely accurate in regard to the commission of Dr. Brisbane. His 
 patent did oblige him to teach comparative anatomy ; and by an Act of the 
 Visitors in 1727 he was ordered to teach botany if five scholars entered, and 
 anatomy if ten students were enrolled, and in any case he was still under 
 obligation to " praelect " on anatomy once a week.^ If additional evidence 
 of the sinecure nature of the appointment as regards medicine were necessary, 
 it is supplied by Mr. Robert Wallace, a Glasgow surgeon, who studied under 
 Cullen. He says, " Dr. Johnstone was at that time {i.e. on Cullen's advent 
 in Glasgow) Professor of Medicine, but did not give lectures . . . Dr. 
 Brisbane . . . never gave lectures."^ In 1742 Dr. Brisbane was succeeded 
 in the Chair of Anatomy and Botany by Dr. Robert Hamilton, and the new 
 incumbent began to teach the former subject. Dr. Hamilton, who belonged 
 to an old county family, had been educated in Glasgow, and had obtained a 
 degree from the University. His beginning must have been on a small scale; 
 but to him appears to be due the credit of clearing the ground on which 
 could be laid the foundation of a medical school. His prospects must have 
 been at first very discouraging. It was long before the day of the Anatomy 
 Act, and there was no recognized legal machinery for obtaining sufficient 
 material for dissection. Some of the students, or those purveying for them, 
 appear to have betaken themselves thus early to illicit modes of supplying 
 this want, or rumours to this effect may have gone abroad. Something of 
 the kind may at all events be inferred from the following manifesto which 
 ^ Analectu, ill. 332. '^ Muniuicnta, li. 580. ^Thomson's Life of Cullen., I. 24. 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 127 
 
 the Faculty thought it necessary to record on 5th June, 1744: "The said 
 day the ffaculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow being in full ffaculty 
 assembled, They in abhorrence and detestation of the crime of violating the 
 dead do hereby revive and confirm their former Acts against it, particularly 
 an Act declaring all members of the ffaculty guilty thereof to be incapable 
 of being any longer members of said Faculty, and to forfeit all privileges 
 they or theirs may claim by their having been members thereof; and that 
 apprentices guilty shall for ever be excluded to be members of sd. ffaculty 
 tho' otherways Intitled by their services." The rule above referred to 
 appears never to have been put in force, no occasion for doing so having 
 arisen. It does not appear whether publicity was given to the Minute. If 
 it was published, the object may have been to allay apprehension ; or, if 
 not, it would serve as a renewed admonition to members and their appren- 
 tices to eschew the- crime of being found out. 
 
 With the professorship of medicine still a sinecure, there was little that 
 could be effected. An acting and capable teacher of medicine was now 
 the most urgent want. For some time back the eyes of a few discerning 
 men had been turned to a medical practitioner in Hamilton as one likely 
 to achieve much, opportunity being favourable. William Cullen was born 
 in Hamilton in 17 10, and apprenticed, when about fifteen years of age, to 
 John Paisley, a member of the Faculty in Glasgow. He also attended some 
 of the Arts' classes at the University. After finishing his apprenticeship he 
 made a voyage to the West Indies as surgeon to a merchantman. On his 
 return he practised as a surgeon in Auchinlee, parish of Shotts. Leaving 
 that village he studied for two years at the Edinburgh Medical School, then 
 fast rising into great importance, and then settled to practice in Hamilton 
 in 1736. This being within the jurisdiction of the Faculty, he applied that 
 year to be examined for the membership. The date for his examination 
 was appointed, and the subjects in which he was to be publicly tested, as 
 was usual in these days, duly minuted. When the time arrived, it is recorded 
 that the examination was postponed, and it appears never to have taken 
 place ; and when he was admitted eight years later it was as a physician, 
 in virtue of his degree obtained from the University of Glasgow in 1740. 
 The reason of this mischance probably was that Cullen had almost, from 
 his first start in Hamilton, resolved to abandon the practice of surgery, 
 which he disliked, and qualify himself as a physician. He virtually handed 
 over his surgical work in the first instance to his friend William Hunter, 
 afterwards so celebrated, whom he had taken as a pupil, and on the removal 
 of Mr. Hunter to London, to a partner whom he assumed, Mr. Thomas 
 Hamilton, a member of the Faculty. In 1744 Dr. Cullen found himself 
 free to gratify an inclination he had for some time cherished, and to which 
 he was pressed by many friends, to settle in Glasgow with a view, not only 
 to practise, but to teach medicine. His first course of lectures was delivered 
 
128 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 outside the University in the winter of that year ; whether the teaching was 
 continued in the troublous year of the '45 has not been ascertained. In 
 1746, by an arrangement with Dr. Johnstoun, the titular Professor of Medicine, 
 he was enabled to deliver his course of lectures on medicine under the 
 wing of the University. It was his great object to found in Glasgow a 
 medical school like that of Edinburgh,^ and, except the teaching of anatomy, 
 he had everything to do himself Having stirred up the University to fit up 
 a chemical laboratory in 1747, he embarked, with the aid of Mr. John Carrick, 
 assistant to Dr. Hamilton, the Professor of Anatomy, on the teaching of that 
 subject. In the summer of 1748 he added materia medica and botany to the 
 subjects which he taught. Like the great Haller, he was, in fact, a medical 
 faculty in himself The amazing versatility and richness of resource which 
 he now displayed is the best proof of the care with which he had prepared 
 himself during his leisure hours in Hamilton and elsewhere for the career on 
 which he had embarked. In 1750 Dr. Johnstoun resigned his chair; and 
 after some delay on the part of the Crown, Dr. Cullen was appointed his 
 successor, entering on the office on 2nd January, 175 i. 
 
 Such was the small beginning of the Glasgow Medical School, with only 
 a regular teacher of anatomy, and another on medicine, and a class of students 
 perhaps not above twenty. Cullen's lectures on " Medicine " were not read ; he 
 merely spoke from notes. This was probably in itself a departure from recog- 
 nized academic usage, but there was still a greater. He lectured in English at 
 a time when it was still the fashion for University lectures to be delivered in 
 Latin. All the characteristic doctrines of the system of medicine, as subse- 
 quently elaborated by him in Edinburgh, were first taught by him in Glasgow. 
 As regards chemistry, Cullen was among the first in this country to expound 
 the subject in its scientific aspects as apart from its connection with phar- 
 macy or medicine. To jts industrial applications he made some contributions ; 
 and if want of leisure and opportunity prevented him from setting his seal 
 mark on that subject, he had the merit of training and inspiring one who 
 did. It was as the pupil of Cullen that Joseph Black was fired with that 
 enthusiasm for chemistry which enabled him to make the two great dis- 
 coveries with which his name will ever be associated. 
 
 Amidst all these multifarious academic labours, lecturing on medicine 
 (theory as well as practice), on materia medica, on botany, and on chemistry, 
 
 ^ In 1765, some ten years after Cullen had been settled in Edinburgh, William Hunter wrote 
 to him suggesting their uniting with Dr. Black to found a great School in Glasgow. "Could 
 you," he writes, " make a sacrifice of the few more guineas you could receive from practice at 
 Edinburgh, and join with me to raise a School of Physic upon a noble plan at Glasgow ? I 
 would propose to give all my Museum and Library, and build a Theatre at my own expense, 
 and I should ask nothing for teaching but the credit of doing it with reputation. You and 
 Black, and with those we could chuse, I think could not fail of making our neighbours stare. 
 We should at once draw all the English, and I presume most of the Scotch students." 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 129 
 
 varied by continuous experimenting in his laboratory, Cullen was all the 
 time a busy physician in the town, with a practice large though not very 
 remunerative, and involving long drives into the country. Little wonder 
 that he began to turn his eyes towards Edinburgh, as affording a field for 
 work where more time could be devoted to elaborating his system and to 
 fresh research. In November, 1755, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry 
 in the University of that city, and entered on duty in January of the year 
 following. This brought about two changes in Glasgow University. Dr. 
 Robert Hamilton, the Professor of Anatomy, was transferred to the Chair 
 of Medicine ; and Dr. Joseph Black, Cullen's pupil and friend, obtained 
 the appointment of Professor of Anatomy, a subject for the exposition of 
 which he had no particular aptitude, and as little liking. In the field of 
 chemical research he had already highly distinguished himself. In 1746 
 he had been sent . from Bordeaux, where his parents, who were both of 
 Scottish extraction, resided, to be educated in Glasgow. Cullen, whose student 
 he was, perceived the devotion of Black to physical science, and made him 
 his laboratory assistant. In 175 1 he went to Edinburgh to complete his 
 medical education, and while thus engaged he accomplished the brilliant feat 
 of isolating carbonic acid, which inaugurated a new era in chemistry. When 
 he returned to Glasgow as Professor of Anatomy, it was not in that subject 
 that any advancement of science was looked for at his hands. As Cullen's 
 successor in the lectureship on chemistry, he was in his true element. He 
 soon embarked with renewed zest in a series of laboratory experiments, which 
 eventuated in the second discovery which made him famous. This was the 
 evolving of the doctrine of latent heat, probably the most important advance 
 ever made in the realm of chemical physics. Black occupied the Chair of 
 Anatomy only one year, the death of Dr. Robert Hamilton in 1657 opening 
 up to him the appointment to the Chair of Medicine. Like Cullen, he 
 added the exacting duties of a physician to those connected with his labours 
 as a teacher of medicine and chemistry, and as an investigator. His some- 
 what feeble constitution would probably soon have broken down under the 
 strain of labours so many and harassing, had he not in 1766 followed Cullen 
 to Edinburgh as his successor in the Chair of Chemistry, on the latter being 
 transferred to that of Physic. 
 
 Cullen and Black were the actual founders of the Glasgow School of 
 Medicine. It was fortunate that its originators were men who were able 
 to shed lustre upon it, for its early progress was slow and uphill. Especially 
 was it handicapped for want of an hospital. The burgh was slowly growing 
 in population and rapidly in wealth, but it had not attained to a size which, 
 at that time, made a general infirmary a clamant need. The diseased poor 
 were still treated by the members of the Faculty in the Town's Hospital. 
 Whether this institution was ever used to any extent for clinical teaching of 
 any kind is doubtful. There was nothing in the printed rules of the infirmary 
 
 I 
 
I30 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the institution which would warrant us to infer such a use of the wards, 
 though Dr. Cleghorn is stated to have latterly utilized them for the purpose.^ 
 This, however, could only have been for the half-dozen years immediately 
 preceding the opening of the Royal Infirmary in 1794. 
 
 In the Chair of Anatomy, Dr. Black was succeeded by Mr. Thomas 
 Hamilton, brother of Dr. Robert Hamilton, the predecessor of Black. He 
 had the reputation of being superior in talent to his brother ; but though 
 quite a competent, he was not a brilliant teacher or anatomist. There is 
 evidence that he had a large practice as a surgeon and reputation as 
 an operator, and that he was a genial member of Glasgow society, a 
 frequenter of the Hodge Podge Club, and, as was the custom in Glasgow 
 in those days, a lover of good fellowship, and possessed of the gifts of wit 
 and humour. He was on terms of friendship with both William and John 
 Hunter, who both esteemed him. On account of ill-health he resigned in 
 1780, and he died in January, 1782, at the age of fifty-three, having filled 
 the Chair of Anatomy for twenty-four years. His son William succeeded 
 him as professor in 178 i. Of the three Hamiltons the youngest was the ablest 
 and most accomplished. Though only twenty-three at his father's death, 
 he was a young man of undoubted promise. After studying and graduating 
 in the Arts classes in Glasgow, and attending the class of medicine in 
 Glasgow and Edinburgh, he was sent to London to complete his education 
 under Dr. William Hunter. By the great anatomist he was treated with 
 almost paternal fondness ; and so greatly did he gain his confidence that 
 he invited him to live in his house, and in the course of a year he entrusted 
 him with the entire charge of the dissecting room of his school. When, 
 on the resignation of his father, young Hamilton made application for the 
 Chair, the duties of which he had discharged for a session. Dr. Hunter 
 wrote to the Duke of Montrose " that it was the interest of Glasgow to 
 give him rather than his to solicit the appointment." The number of 
 anatomy students had now considerably increased, and young Hamilton 
 entered on his work with high hopes and aims. His industry was great ; 
 not only did he lecture on both the subjects of his commission, anatomy 
 and botany; but to those he voluntarily added midwifery, in which he 
 had a large practice, being called, according to his colleague. Dr. Cleghorn, 
 to every difficult case near Glasgow.^ As if this were not enough to task 
 his energies, he had a large surgical practice and collected materials for 
 a system of surgery, to be illustrated with cases which, however, he did 
 not live to complete. " His constitution," writes Dr. Cleghorn, " somewhat 
 enfeebled by early and intense application to study, was worn out with the 
 toil of business and thought, in which he was continually engaged." He 
 died in 1790, in his 32nd year, leaving two sons, one of whom. Sir William 
 
 ^ University of Glasgow, Old and New, 108. 
 
 ^ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, iv. 39. 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 131 
 
 Hamilton, acquired renown in another sphere of academic study; and the 
 younger was Captain Thomas Hamilton, the accomplished author of Cyril 
 Thornton. 
 
 On the removal of Dr. Black to Edinburgh, in 1766, the Chair of 
 Medicine was filled by Dr. Alexander Stevenson. He was the son of a 
 physician of standing in Edinburgh, and had graduated in medicine at the 
 University of Glasgow in 1749. He began practice as a physician in 
 Glasgow in 1756, and at the time of his appointment to the Chair was 
 a man in good position in the city. It was a difficult task to follow two 
 such r. en as Cullen and Black ; and it was thus his misfortune to be some- 
 what eclipsed by the high reputation of his predecessors. He was a man 
 of solid talents and great amiability of character. Dr. Stevenson threw himself 
 with earnestness into the movement which resulted in the erection of the 
 Royal Infirmary. He did not however live to see the hospital built. He fell 
 into delicate health, and in 1789 his nephew, Dr. Thomas Charles Hope, 
 was associated with him in the Chair of Medicine, and discharged all the 
 duties. Dr. Stevenson's death took place in 1 791. Both Cullen and Black 
 had, as has been stated, conjoined with the duties of the Chair of Medicine 
 those of lecturer on chemistry ; but the rapid strides which were being 
 made by the latter science made it fitting that a separate lecturer should 
 be appointed for it. On demitting office Black strongly recommended as 
 his successor in the chemical lectureship Mr. John Robison, son of a Glasgow 
 merchant, born in 1739. He had been for some time attached to the Royal 
 Navy, to which he had rendered valuable scientific service. His appointment 
 in the College seems to have been looked on as only tentative, being renewed 
 from year to year; but he taught the subject in a satisfactory manner, though it 
 was known that his inclinations were rather to the mechanical side of physical 
 science. In 1769 he accepted an appointment connected with the con- 
 struction of the Russian navy, and in a few years thereafter obtained the 
 Professorship of Physics in the University of Edinburgh. Robison's appoint- 
 ment to the Glasgow lectureship was a merited tribute to his great talents, 
 but it was not made for want of a well-qualified medical candidate for 
 the office. Dr. William Irvine, like Robison, was the son of a Glasgow 
 merchant, and had been educated at the University, where he took his 
 medical degree. Under the tuition of Black, whom he assisted in his first 
 experiments on the latent heat of steam, he developed a strong liking for 
 chemistry. When Robison's more powerful interest succeeded in procuring 
 for himself the chemical lectureship, Irvine, in his disappointment, resolved 
 to leave the City. Some of the members of the Universit}-, however, 
 notably Dr. Thomas Reid, the venerable Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
 were loath to lose the services to the University of a man whose worth they 
 knew, and they had interest to obtain the foundation of a lectureship on 
 materia medica, into which Dr. Irvine was installed. Pupils were, however, 
 
132 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 still comparatively few ; and on Robison's resignation of the lectureship on 
 chemistry, Irvine was appointed to conduct the courses on both subjects, 
 which he did with the best results. His private practice was small, a fact 
 which Dr. Cleghorn attributes to the native honesty and straightforwardness 
 of his character — an explanation which carries with it unpleasant implica- 
 tions as to the conditions of success in medical practice, and may be there- 
 fore thought to reflect on the prosperous physician who suggested it. The 
 same authority describes his lectures as remarkable for erudition, sagacity, 
 and explanatory power, A considerable portion of his time and re- 
 searches were devoted to the industrial applications of science in reference 
 to his native city. But in the midst of his labours he was cut off by 
 fever in 1787.^ 
 
 In both the lectureships of chemistry and materia medica Dr. Irvine 
 was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Charles Hope, son of Dr. John Hope, 
 Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and nephew of Dr. 
 Stevenson, Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow. It has 
 already been stated that on Dr. Stevenson falling into ill-health about 
 two years after his nephew came to Glasgow the latter was appointed 
 colleague and successor to his uncle in the Chair of Medicine. As a 
 lecturer on chemistry and materia medica in Glasgow Dr. Hope had 
 therefore scarcely time to make his mark. In the course of a year he 
 resigned the lectureship on materia medica, retaining the other till 1790. 
 But even after his official connection with the teaching of chemistry in 
 Glasgow had terminated he continued his laboratory experiments with great 
 ardour, and acquired that neatness of lecture-demonstration which so 
 eminently characterized him when he resumed the teaching of the subject. 
 His reputation as a chemist suggested to Dr. Black the idea of having 
 his old pupil associated with him as his assistant and successor in the 
 Edinburgh Chair of Chemistry. The offer was made and accepted in 
 1795, after he had filled the Chair of Medicine in Glasgow for about six 
 years. 
 
 To the lectureship on materia medica, vacated by Dr. Hope, succeeded 
 Dr. Robert Cleghorn, who was transferred to be teacher of chemistry in 
 1 79 1 when Dr. Hope demitted that office. His reputation in Glasgow as 
 a practical physician, endowed with great sagacity and a finely balanced 
 mind, stood high ; but neither in the subject of materia medica nor chemistry 
 did he make any original investigations. As a neat and lucid teacher of 
 chemistry he was appreciated by a fairly large class of students. The 
 appointment in materia medica was given to Dr. Richard Millar, a man of 
 extensive erudition, whose well-known contributions to the history of ancient 
 
 ' In the Town Council Minutes of 1776 there is an entry ordering the treasurer to pay 
 Dr. Irvine eight guineas for his " trouble in searching round Glasgow for water to be 
 brought to the city." 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 ^31 
 
 medicine are still appreciated as valuable. It was a well-earned tribute to 
 his scholarship and teaching ability when the lectureship he held was elevated 
 to a professorship in 1831. Dr. Robert Freer succeeded Dr. Hope in the 
 Chair of Medicine, while Dr. James Jeffray secured the Professorship of 
 Anatomy in succession to the last of the Hamiltons. These men belong, 
 however, rather to the nineteenth than to the eighteenth century ; and, as 
 we shall see in a subsequent chapter, during their tenure of office the Glasgow 
 Medical School underwent a great expansion. 
 
 The end of the century is a convenient date at which to take stock. 
 There was still no proper medical school outside the University, though, 
 as will subsequently appear, provision had been made on paper for such 
 teaching, and that too on a scale to dwarf the defective University courses. 
 Within the College a complete medical school, such as was even then under- 
 stood by the term, was far from being an accomplished fact. The subjects 
 regularly taught were four — anatomy, chemistry, medicine, and materia medica. 
 Botany was conjoined with anatomy, and was only fitfully taught. For the 
 great departments of surgery and midwifery there was no regular provision at 
 all, though the latter had been taught as an extra subject by the youngest of 
 the Hamiltons, as was the former in connection with anatomy by his successor, 
 Dr. Jeffray. With two such yawning gaps as these, such minor defects 
 as the absence of provision for teaching zoology and medical jurisprudence 
 need not be named. Physiology and pathology w^ere still in their embryo 
 stage of the theory of medicine, the teaching of which lay within the domain 
 of the Professor of Medicine. But the concluding half-dozen years of the 
 century had added to the medical school what might well cover a multitude 
 of defects — a good general hospital. 
 
 The Glasgow Medical School was fortunate at its start in having two 
 successive teachers of such enthusiasm and accomplishments as Cullen and 
 Black. Several of their successors, notably Irvine, Hope, the youngest of 
 the Hamiltons, and Robison, were men of conspicuous ability, and prob- 
 ably none of them fell below mediocrity. That several of the best of the 
 Glasgow teachers — Cullen, Black, Robison, and Hope — were transferred to 
 other spheres of labour almost as soon as they had made their mark in 
 Glasgow, was undeniably a calamity to the younger school. There was 
 some slight compensating advantage, however, in the stimulated ambition of 
 younger men who arose to take the place of those removed. Youthful ardour 
 was indeed needed to make up for the lack of the enthusiasm begotten by 
 numbers of students. We have no data as to the size of the classes in those 
 days, but it is certain that towards the end of the century there was a steady 
 increase. It need hardly be added that all the teachers, including those on 
 anatomy and chemistry, had not only their College duties to discharge, but 
 were immersed in the cares of ordinary practice. 
 
 It has been said that at the end of the eighteenth century there was no 
 
134 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 extra-academic teaching. It would not be strictly accurate to have said 
 that there had never been any such teaching up to the end of that century. 
 We have seen that Dr. Cullen's first course was extra-mural. There had 
 also occasionally been other classes outside the College, such as one on 
 botany by Dr. William Irvine, before his appointment as University lecturer 
 on materia medica. Courses of instruction on midwifery seem also to have 
 been held in the town. In the Glasgow Journal^ October 15th, 1759, Mr. 
 James Muir advertised such a course: "James Muir, Surgeon, will begin a 
 Course of lectures on Midwifery upon Monday, i 2th November. No woman 
 will be admitted to these lectures unless her character for sobriety and 
 prudence is attested by some person of reputation in the place she lives in. 
 Mr. Muir continues as usual to deliver gratis all such women as apply in 
 that way for his assistance. He intends to begin a Course of Midwifery 
 for students about the end of December or beginning of January." A similar 
 advertisement, by Mr. James Monteith, appeared on 19th March, 1778 : 
 ' Midwifery : James Monteith, Surgeon (having provided the necessary 
 apparatus), proposes, on Thursday the 26th of March, to begin a course 
 of lectures on the theory and practice of Midwifery, to which will be 
 added a set of lectures on the diseases of women and children, 
 observations on Inoculation, &c. Inquire at his shop, middle of Stockwell 
 Street, or at his lodgings. Miss Semple's, New Street. At a separate 
 hour attendance will be given for the instruction of women in the practice 
 of midwifery." 
 
 Muir and Monteith were thus the pioneers of obstetric teaching in 
 Glasgow, and, as we have seen, this work was also carried on by Dr. 
 William Hamilton, Professor of Anatomy. It will be gathered from these 
 advertisements that the schemes of Muir and Monteith were on the lines of 
 that which had been carried out by Dr. William Smellie in London, and 
 even earlier by Gregoire in Paris.^ In the absence of any institution in 
 Glasgow for the delivery of poor lying-in-women, a field of some kind for 
 clinical practice had to be sought for. It was obtained by the teacher 
 arranging a scheme by which the students should, under the supervision of 
 the instructor, have facilities afforded them of attending women at their own 
 homes. The two classes of students — medical students and midwives — were 
 taught separately ; and it is instructive to note that while in the earlier 
 advertisement the more important class was that of the midwives, the relative 
 order as to priority was reversed in the later notice. This would seem to 
 indicate that in Glasgow, as in London, " man-midwifery " was steadily gaining 
 ground with the advance of time. Towards the end of the century obstetrics 
 in Glasgow, especially amongst the better classes, was largely in the hands of 
 the surgeons or general practitioners. Even the physician with sword and 
 
 ^ Glaister's Dr. William Smellie and his Contemporaries. Glasgow, 1894. 
 
THE RISE OF THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 135 
 
 cocked hat did not disdain to act as accoucheur to wealthy or titled patients. 
 It was not, however, till 1 8 1 5 that a Chair on the subject was established 
 in the University. 
 
 In 1764, Dr. Andrew Morris, editor of Celsus, obtained the use of the 
 Faculty Hall for reading " Medicall Lectures." It is not known what success 
 he had ; but with Joseph Black lecturing on medicine in the College in High 
 Street, it is not likely that Dr. Morris's lectures in the Trongate would prove 
 a strong counter-attraction. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 
 
 Throughout the whole of the troublous period of the seventeenth century 
 there appears to have existed in Glasgow no institution for the medical 
 treatment of the sick poor. The Faculty, it is true, in accordance with 
 their charter, gave gratuitous advice at their ordinary monthly meetings ; 
 but the infrequency of these meetings rendered the service increasingly 
 inadequate to the wants of a growing community. In 1654 they submitted 
 a long memorial " unto the Reverend Moderator, remanent Ministers, Elders, 
 and Decons of the Session of Glasgow," offering " such of our number as 
 may contribute their best skill for the weel of the poore diseased without 
 any payment or reward for ther pains " ; but it does not appear from 
 the Records that anything came of this offer. An attempt was early 
 made b}^ the civic authorities to meet the want in their own way. This 
 was, as has been stated, by subsidizing a physician or surgeon (occa- 
 sionally both), an apothecary, and a " stone-cutter." But even this mode 
 of aid was abandoned in 1684, the reason assigned being, as already 
 stated, the lowness of the municipal exchequer at the time. In the 
 early part of the next century the want became more clamant, and the 
 feeling aroused by the inadequate provision for the destitute poor took 
 practical shape in 1733 in the erection of the Town's Hospital by public 
 subscription. The site was in the Old Green, near the Clyde, a little west 
 from the Stockwell. It was an imposing structure, " resembling," says 
 M'Ure, " more like a palace than a habitation for necessitous old people 
 and children," This institution, in some of its features, anticipated the 
 modern workhouse, though in others it differed from it. Its maintenance 
 was undertaken by the Town Council, the Merchants' House, the Trades' 
 House, and the general Kirk Session, these bodies contributing in definite 
 proportions. Aid was also given to it by a small tax on the citizens, and 
 by benefactions both from individuals and corporations. For many years 
 the Faculty regularly contributed, but they rendered better aid than that 
 
 / 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 137 
 
 represented by pecuniary subsidy. The members came under obligation 
 to take charge of the infirmary attached to the hospital in rotation, 
 each physician for a year, and each surgeon for half a year — not only the 
 attendance and advice, but the medicines to be supplied gratuitously. This 
 arrangement was fully carried out for many years, and it was all the more 
 honourable to the members in that these services had no reward of a kind 
 which, in more modern times, in some measure compensates the physician 
 or surgeon for unpaid, or inadequately paid, hospital labours. There was, 
 as far as can be gathered, no systematic attempt to utilize the infirmary of 
 the institution for teaching purposes. In 1766, on the occasion of their 
 being solicited for a donation to extend the infirmary, the Faculty thought 
 it right to make some stipulations in regard to its management. These 
 were that at least " 20 beds were to be fitted up in a clean and decent 
 manner, 1 2 of them for the sick poor from the hospital or town that are 
 entitled to the charity, the other 8 to be occupied by the sick poor put in 
 by the physician or surgeon, without any restriction to persons who belonged 
 to the town, or have resided in it for any particular time ; — the physician 
 and surgeon in attendance to judge of the propriety of the patients for the 
 whole sick beds, and to dismiss them from the hospital when cured or judged 
 incurable";^ that a proper number of nurses be appointed, and that the 
 diet be entirely in the power of the medical attendant. To prevent any 
 alarm as to possible extravagance, it was added that " a proper diet will in 
 most cases turn out cheaper than the common allowance of the hospital." 
 The conditions were accepted by the Directors.^ 
 
 This system of relief, in its medical aspects, was unsatisfactory and 
 inadequate. It made no proper provision for clinical teaching ; and the 
 want of that indispensable adjunct to a medical school, a general hospital, 
 was therefore keenly felt. A movement, begun in 1787, to supply the 
 want, took shape, and in December, 1794, the Royal Infirmary was formally 
 opened for the reception of patients. To Mr. George Jardine, Professor of 
 Logic in the University, zealously supported by Dr. Alexander Stevenson, 
 Professor of Medicine, was due the credit of initiating the steps which 
 happily led to this result. It is needless to say that the Faculty also 
 
 'This stipulation would appear to point to the intended use of these beds for clinical 
 instruction; and elsewhere we hear of intended "Lectures" in the infirmary. But we have 
 come on no articulate statement that such instruction was actually given, except by Dr. 
 Cleghorn about 1789-90. 
 
 -The aversion of the Scottish poor to such institutions was strongly marked. In an 
 account of the Hospital, published in 1737, complaint is made of the prejudice against it 
 entertained even by persons otherwise dependent on charity. Among other things the 
 " confinement " was much disrelished, and pains were taken to show that there were no just 
 grounds for this adverse feeling. It was pointed out that the poor, " besides their going to 
 church every Lord's day, to which they arc obliged by the Rules, have liberty and encour- 
 agement to attend the several week-day sermons." 
 
138 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 took from the first a keen and active interest in the movement. From 
 an exchequer drained almost to dryness, by the combined effects of the 
 estabhshment of a Widows' fund and the erection of a new hall, they 
 contributed to the building fund the sum of one hundred pounds, being the 
 first of a series of three benefactions of that amount to the institution. To 
 the Board of Managers they were empowered to send four members, three 
 by election, and the President, in virtue of his office. The presence of the 
 Professors of Anatomy and Medicine, and one elected member, secured for 
 the University adequate representation. In this way provision was made for 
 about a fourth of the entire body of Managers being connected with the 
 medical profession. 
 
 The history of such an institution as the Royal Infirmary, as regards 
 those aspects of its management which bear on the medical profession, 
 cannot be devoid of interest to the members of that profession, and to others 
 interested in hospital management. Probably few of the present generation 
 know much, if indeed anything, of the controversies which have arisen in 
 connection with the medical affairs of the hospital. Battles have been fought 
 and lost or won which they wot not of. These struggles have occasionally 
 been so violent as to threaten the very existence of the hospital as a clinical 
 school. The parties to these forgotten feuds were as various as were the 
 casus belli. Sometimes it was lay against medical directors ; at other times 
 University against Faculty members of the Board ; and occasionally it took 
 the shape of an intestine feud among the last-named themselves. The 
 generation which witnessed these early struggles having now departed, a 
 brief sketch of some of these forgotten contests may be found of some 
 interest and profit to their successors. They will sometimes recognize in 
 the narrative old phases or forms of questions, with the more modern aspects 
 of which they are already familiar, and they will be in a position to compare 
 the new solution with the old. 
 
 Scarcely had the hospital been inaugurated when the Managers had to 
 face the question of its autonomy in reference to the medical and surgical 
 staff It was inevitable, though not provided by the charter, that the 
 medical officers should be drafted from the Faculty. But were the 
 Faculty to interfere in questions regarding the tenure of office and similar 
 matters connected with the staff? The majority of the Faculty — for there 
 was decided division of opinion among the members — appeared to have 
 no doubt as to their powers. As soon as the Infirmary was opened, 
 they at once, and apparently all unasked, set themselves to frame rules 
 for its medical management. The physicians and surgeons of the Faculty 
 were to act, each class in the rotation of its members — each physician for 
 six months, and each surgeon for two months. Failure to pay the Faculty 
 impost, called " quarter accounts," was to disqualify a surgeon for hospital 
 duty. The duties of assistant surgeons, clerks, etc., down to the apothecary. 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 139 
 
 the rules for consultations, were all laid down, cut and dry, for the officers 
 of the new institution. 
 
 Some things may be said in extenuation of this attitude of meddle- 
 some presumption on the part of the majority of the Faculty. All the 
 available medical officers were their own members. They had long been 
 accustomed to this autocratic procedure in the Town's Hospital Infirmary. 
 In the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh — the hospital nearest to them — some- 
 thing of this kind of rapid rotation prevailed. The members of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons attended by turns for two months at a time. 
 One of the results, we are not surprised to learn, was that the hospital 
 had practically fallen into the hands of the junior members. The senior 
 surgeons declined to avail themselves of the barren privilege of such a 
 brief tenure of office. It was against this system that Dr. James Gregory, 
 in his well-known ''' Memorial," ^ protested with such eloquence and incisive 
 vigour. Another consideration also will make more intelligible the attitude 
 of the Faculty at that period. In those first days the lay members were 
 much inclined to lean in most matters of medical management on the advice 
 of the medical members of the Board. But when all this has been said, 
 it must still be suspected that some rather unworthy feelings of professional 
 jealousy underlay their action ; that at the root of the desire for rapid 
 rotation of surgical attendance lay the fear that, with longer opportunities 
 of acquiring skill and dexterity, one or two surgeons would be sure to 
 outstrip the others. In the Faculty Records, indeed, this feeling is naively 
 given expression to with more or less articulateness. As regards their 
 opportunities, they held that all medical officers should be equal. In a 
 "Remonstrance," which, in 1795, they addressed to the Managers, they 
 tell the Board plainly that every plan of medical attendance which " owns 
 the principle of Election for its basis has always proved to contain within 
 itself the principle of partiality " ; that " friendship, ambition, sometimes 
 avarice, have subdued the independent spirit of free election, and sub- 
 stituted in its place canvassing and cabal."' The doctrine is broadly 
 laid down that one of the chief functions of the hospital is that it should 
 be of the greatest use to the greatest possible number of practitioners 
 within the city, and that this could only happen if each of them got his 
 turn of service, with a good deal to the same purpose, but couched in less 
 respectful language. No wonder that the astonished Managers, in referring 
 the document to the Court of Contributors, took occasion to animadvert 
 upon its " spirit and tendency as advancing principles inconsistent with the 
 undoubted right which the General Court have by their charter to establish 
 such rules and arrangements as they shall judge proper without the interfer- 
 ence of any other person whatever." 
 
 On this point the Faculty were torn up into two parties. The minority, 
 '"Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Iiitirmary,'' Kdinbiirgh, 1800. 
 
I40 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 which, in point of influence, though not of numbers, outweighed the 
 dominant side, included Drs. Cleghorn and Hope, physicians ; and Messrs. 
 Robert Wallace (for some years the Nestor of the Faculty), Alexander 
 Dunlop, Robert Cowan, Charles Wilson, Archibald Young, William Couper, 
 and James Towers. In a counter memorial these members of the 
 minority called upon the Managers to vindicate their chartered right of 
 making their own arrangements for the house. 
 
 The plan adopted, and which in substance, though varied now and 
 again by alterations in detail, continued in operation for half a century, was 
 as follows : Four surgeons were elected by the Managers, to continue in 
 office for two years. One of these took charge of all the surgical cases for 
 three months during the first year, and for the same length of period during 
 the second year, after which he became ineligible for two years. At the end 
 of that period he was generally re-elected for other two years, when he 
 became absolutely ineligible. In his first biennium he was called a junior, 
 and in his second a senior, surgeon. In this way only one surgeon attended 
 at a time, the other three being called in for consultation on important 
 operations. In 1824 the increase of surgical cases rendered it necessary to 
 somewhat modify the plan. It was enacted that two of the four surgeons 
 should be on duty daily, and for six months in place of three. In 1829 
 the period of consecutive attendance was extended to twelve months. In 
 a few years afterwards the growth of the hospital required the appointment 
 of four surgeons, who held office for as many years, and did duty daily. 
 At the end of four years they were eligible for re-election, but having 
 completed eight years' service they became ineligible for one year. In 1870 
 a change was again effected in the tenure of office, mainly at the instigation 
 of Dr. J. G. Fleming, one of the Managers, in a pamphlet published in 
 that year,^ in which, among other reforms, he strongly urged the abrogation 
 of the rule requiring a year of ineligibility ; and .shortly thereafter the 
 Managers gave effect to this alteration. The tenure of office under a 
 regulation passed in 1879 was limited to fifteen years. Although the 
 changes subsequently made scarcely lie within the purview of this sketch, 
 it may be stated in a word, that in 1883 there was effected a reduction 
 in the period of continuous service of both physicians and surgeons to ten 
 years, and that this rule is still in force at the present time (1896), subject 
 to a proviso that the Managers may in special cases re-elect a medical officer 
 for a further quinquennium, and this they have done in several instances. 
 
 Turning now to the medical side of the Infirmary, the course of events 
 for many years shaped themselves very differently. The essential element 
 of difference was the limited number of physicians from whom to make a 
 selection. At the time the hospital was opened, and for about a dozen 
 
 ^ A Letter to the Managers of the Glasgow Royal Itifinnary on the Medical Organization 
 of the histitntion. 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 141 
 
 years thereafter, the doctors of medicine in Glasgow were what are known 
 as " pure " physicians. The possession of a degree, which, while adding 
 dignity to practice, limited its range, was not coveted by the members of the 
 profession generally. They could not afford to graduate. In the eighteenth 
 century we have seen that such men as John Gordon, John Moore, and 
 later, James Monteath, looked on the degree as the crown of comparative 
 leisure to a life of toil. It was an honour to be accepted only after many 
 years of hard work in general practice. Two or perhaps three physicians 
 were all that a community like Glasgow, or even the West of Scotland, was 
 able to maintain. But the nineteenth century was only a few years old 
 when there came a change. Doctors of medicine began to multiply in the 
 land. The surgeon or general practitioner became ambitious of having a 
 degree long before he could afford to dispense with the ordinary run of 
 practice. On the other hand, the medical schools of the Universities were 
 becoming better equipped and organized. Gradually, therefore, the taking 
 of the medical degree came to be regarded as the natural outcome and 
 termination of the College course.^ How far this natural movement gathered 
 force from the easy terms on which the honour could at some Universities 
 be obtained we need not inquire. Now, how were all these doctors of 
 medicine to gain a living ? Only a very few of them could hope to practise 
 as " pure " physicians. The bulk of them had no alternative but to break 
 through immemorial usage and betake themselves to general practice. 
 
 It has been stated that when the Royal Infirmary was opened only 
 " pure " physicians were appointed to the medical wards. Their number 
 being few it was inevitable that the same men should again and again be 
 re-appointed. It was indeed a case in which the Faculty's pet scheme of 
 rotation was almost compatible with permanency of tenure. About 1830, 
 however, opinion had been ripening for a change. The two hospital 
 physicians of that period, Dr. Richard Millar and Dr. John Balmanno, were 
 the only " pure " physician graduates who practised at all. Other doctors of 
 medicine there were who did not practise as surgeons, but neither did they 
 practise as physicians,^ In their dire extremity the Managers had appointed 
 as assistant physician Dr. Charles Badham, Professor of Medicine in the 
 
 ' Any one curious to note the progress of the movement towards medical graduation 
 may study it in a graphic form in the table or list of surgeons of the Royal Infirmary 
 from 1795 to 1832, given at page 26 of Buchanan's History of that institution. For several 
 years not a single surgeon has the " M.D." In 1804 a solitary one appears; while, as the 
 eye travels down the columns, it will be found that after 1820 it is the exception rather than 
 the rule to find a surgeon a non-graduate. The same fact is brought out even more 
 markedly by the lists of the members of the Faculty for the same period. 
 
 '^ Dr. Thomas Thomson was a chemist. Dr. William Couper had in a great measure 
 relinquished practice in his zeal for natural science. Tlie case of Dr. Badliam is referred to 
 in the text. » 
 
142 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGFONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 University. Though an erudite lecturer in physic, the learned professor was 
 well-known to eschew the practice of it, living as he did on the continent 
 for half the year. He is said to have accepted the office in the hospital 
 as physician on the stipulated condition of not being obliged to see cases 
 of fever. Public feeling in the ranks of the profession was now expressed 
 with freedom. Why should general practice disqualify a man who had a 
 medical degree from appointment as a hospital physician ? The Faculty 
 took the matter up and addressed to the Managers a memorial on the 
 subject. They pointed out that matters had almost come to a deadlock ; 
 that the great majority of doctors of medicine in the city were in general 
 practice ; and that the exclusion of these from the office of physician 
 limited the choice to two consulting physicians and one or two others 
 not engaged in practice at all. They therefore urged that the interests 
 of the hospital would be best served by now throwing the office of 
 physician open to doctors of medicine of standing, whether engaged in 
 general practice or not. As time went on, feeling in the profession 
 became more embittered. The term " pure " physician was used by way 
 of a sneer. The purity was denied altogether, and illustrative cases of 
 non-purity adduced. Stories again were put in circulation in which the 
 " purity " was admitted and ridiculed as quixotic.^ The " pures " themselves 
 came out with a strong manifesto in the shape of a long memorial to the 
 Managers, bristling with arguments, and edged with stinging sarcasm. They 
 refer to the recent multiplication of medical degrees : " Every surgeon almost 
 has been ambitious to purchase a diploma, and the Universities have for 
 many years back driven a very profitable trade in selling such distinctions." 
 But the difference between a physician and a surgeon cannot be abrogated 
 merely by giving the latter a degree. It is not the degree alone that 
 makes the physician. It is the purity of practice. A doctor-surgeon does 
 not get a physician's fee. The physician indeed cannot sue for his fee at 
 all, whereas the other can. Substitute surgeons with medical titles for 
 proper physicians, urge the " pures," and you will disqualify the Glasgow 
 school for recognition at the East India and other Boards. The condition 
 of a clinical school without a genuine physician is painted in darkest colours. 
 The " medico-chirurgico-obstetrico-practitioner " — by which sesquipedalian 
 appelative they suggest the new physician should be known — ought to receive 
 only a fraction of the physician's hospital honorarium, as he divests himself 
 for the nonce of his surgical and obstetrical functions. Then, again, as the 
 new system is inaugurated it will bring with it the vicious accompaniment 
 of rapid rotation of office. " The exhibition of surgeons in the Glasgow 
 Infirmary is a mere phantasmagoria — they are no sooner seen than they are 
 gone — flitting for ever away and disappearing from the scene like the spectre 
 kings of Macbeth." These are a few of the gems in a document drawn with 
 ■ Buchanan's History of the Glas^07u Rftyal In/innary, 34. 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 
 
 H3 
 
 considerable argumentative and satirical force ; but it concluded with what 
 was virtually the despairing admission that their cause was lost. In the 
 meeting of the Court of Contributors the proposal of Dr. Richard Millar to 
 continue on the old lines did not even find a seconder. The new regulation 
 enacted that any doctor of medicine of fifteen years' standing was eligible to 
 the office of physician. The subsequent changes in regard to the number, 
 rotation, and period of service of the physicians need not here be adverted 
 to. They proceeded for the most part pari passu with the corresponding 
 changes on the surgical side of the Infirmary. At the present time (1896) 
 the only condition of eligibility to the office of either physician or surgeon 
 is that he shall have been a registered medical practitioner for six years. 
 As contrasted with the provisions of some other great hospitals in this 
 country having reference to the qualifications of their staff, such a rule 
 may be regarded as almost the ne plus ultra of liberality as well as of 
 simplicity. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES AND OTHER 
 INSTITUTIONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 In 1809 occurred a collision, though not of much importance, between the 
 Faculty and the Royal Infirmary. That the former were legally in the right 
 regarding the point at issue was subsequently proved by the result of a lawsuit. 
 The Managers appointed as one of the surgeons a Dr. M'Dougall, nephew 
 of Dr. Jeffray, Professor of Anatomy in the University, whose only qualification 
 was the Doctorate of Medicine of the University. The President of the 
 Faculty protested on the spot against the appointment as involving a violation 
 of the chartered rights of the Faculty. In evidence of their contention they 
 submitted a legal opinion from Mr. Robert Davidson, Professor of Law in 
 the University ; and they further contended that the appointment was insulting 
 to them as being liable to the construction that no surgeon of sufficient 
 eminence could be found within the Faculty. As will be seen in the next 
 chapter, the question whether the degree of M.D. or any other University 
 degree could be held as qualifying its holder to practise as a surgeon within 
 the Faculty's territorial jurisdiction, was raised before the Courts a few years 
 later. If the action of the Faculty from our present standpoint should appear 
 unnecessarily assertive, it must be borne in mind that they saw the profession 
 beginning to be inundated with the new graduates, and the question of their 
 powers was therefore one of vital interest to them. They pointed out to 
 the Managers that their services to the hospital had been unstinted, and that 
 it was, to say the least, ungracious as well as inexpedient in the directors 
 of a public hospital to alienate the good-will of the men by whose public- 
 spirited services the institution had been chiefly upheld. The Managers, in 
 reply, acknowledged the services in the most cordial terms, but declined on 
 this question to come under obligation in the selection of their staff. But 
 they practically acknowledged the wrong step at the next vacancy by not 
 re-appointing Dr. M'Dougall. No case of the kind occurred again as long 
 as the rule of territorial jurisdiction lasted. 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 145 
 
 A question, involving deeper issues than any raised by this petty contest, 
 emerged for discussion in i 8 i 2. It was connected with the subject of clinical 
 teaching. The first clinical lectures in Glasgow seem to have been delivered 
 in the session 1797-98 by Mr. John Burns, then a very young man.^ In a 
 memorial to the Managers in 1797, he pointed out the advantages of this 
 method of teaching, and requested permission to give a course in the session 
 ensuing, which was readily granted. From that session clinical lectures 
 continued to be given in the hospital ; not always regularly — often, indeed, 
 fitfully and at intervals, and probably without much system or common 
 method. Sometimes a whole session, or even more, seems to have been 
 intermitted. There was no obligation on the medical officers to give clinical 
 lectures, and there was as little obligation on the students to attend them. 
 Fitful and methodless teaching of this kind could not but be unsatisfactory. 
 A reform was clearly called for ; the interests of the medical school, rapidly 
 rising in numbers ^ and importance, demanded it. In 18 10 the medical 
 students were even driven to the necessity of memorializing the directors to 
 provide regular clinical instruction. The medical officers, on their part, 
 represented that the students could not be counted on to attend a non- 
 compulsory course. This appeared to shift the omcs of putting matters right 
 on to the qualifying bodies. 
 
 The first to move when matters were in this condition was the Medical 
 Faculty of the University. In 1 8 1 2 they made a proposal to the Managers 
 that the University " should appoint annually in rotation two physicians 
 from the Medical Professors and Lecturers belonging to the College, one 
 of whom will be required to deliver clinical lectures during the first three 
 months, and the other during the last three months of the session." These 
 lecturers thus appointed were to be allowed to select patients from any 
 part of the hospital, and to treat them. In return the University would 
 make it obligatory on all their students to attend these lectures. To this 
 scheme the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons strongly objected, as estab- 
 lishing a monopoly of an odious kind, and being obviously liable to adverse 
 criticism on the score of hospital organization. They insisted that the 
 ordinary medical officers of the house for the time being were the only 
 persons fitted to give lectures. This opposition put an end at that time 
 to the proposal. At this period unfriendly relations subsisted between the 
 University and the Faculty, and probably the Managers delayed to take 
 action till a more amicable feeling was established between the two cor- 
 porations. But as years went on the relations between the two bodies 
 became more strained, while bitter lawsuits between them dragged on their 
 
 ' In Glasgow^ Ancient and Modern^ Vol. ll., 1249, this priority is assigned to Mr. 
 William Dunlop, afterwards one of the conductors of the Glasgow Herald. This statement 
 does not seem to be borne out by the Records of the Infirmary. 
 
 ^ For the progress of the school, see page 170, et seq. 
 
 K 
 
146 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 costly length. In 1824 the suggestion to organize clinical instruction was 
 again brought forward. It was fully time ; during the twelve years since 
 the former proposal matters in the hospital had gone from bad to worse, 
 and for several of these years clinical teaching seems to have entirely fallen 
 into desuetude. The University again revived the old scheme in a somewhat 
 modified form. The new proposal had reference only to surgery, and its 
 originator was Dr. John Burns, Professor of Surgery, who has been already 
 mentioned as the first clinical lecturer in Glasgow. The plan was that the 
 Professor of Surgery should be appointed ex officio to lecture on clinical 
 surgery, having the power to select suitable cases and to treat them, this 
 including the power to operate. The details of the scheme were elaborated 
 with much care. This proposal again brought the Faculty into the field 
 with their former objections against monopoly in clinical teaching. They 
 further pointed out that the scheme was subversive of proper notions of 
 hospital autonomy ; that the clinical lecturer, though not appointed by the 
 Managers, would be a permanent surgeon, with extraordinary powers and 
 privileges ; that in the exercise of these powers he would be brought into 
 frequent jarring collision with the ordinary surgeons ; and that no surgeon 
 of standing would accept office subject to the conditions of such an arrange- 
 ment. The matter was remitted to a committee of the Managers, who 
 reported against the scheme. When the report of this committee came up 
 for discussion a kind of coup d'etat was effected. The report was not 
 adopted ; a new committee was appointed, with pronounced leaning to the 
 side of the University, and composed entirely of laymen. This committee 
 reported in favour of a method which may be deemed a compromise, but 
 was in reality distinctly favourable to the claims of the University. It was 
 to the effect that two lecturers in clinical surgery should be appointed, one 
 by the University and the other by the Managers ; that the former should 
 lecture the first three months, and the latter during the last three months ; 
 and they further recommended that the same plan should be followed in 
 regard to clinical medicine, " unless the University consent in this to entrust 
 the directors with the appointment." This plan, they said, would meet the 
 difficulty " by dividing the patronage equally." The University at once 
 accepted the arrangement, and drafted a scheme for carrying it into effect, 
 promising at the same time to make the courses compulsory as regarded 
 their own students. The action of the Faculty at this important crisis was 
 as dignified as it was resolute. In the remonstrance which they sent to the 
 Board, they pointed out that men who could speak of the Managers " dividing 
 the patronage " of an institution, whose government was by charter entrusted 
 to them alone, and the selection of whose medical officers was theirs by 
 inalienable right, had never risen to a conception of their duties and 
 responsibilities. They answered the arguments of the University point by 
 point. The plea that the Senate must have control over the lecturer whom 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 147 
 
 they accredited was met by the reply that the Senate had even now no 
 control (as they formerly had) over the nomination of any professor, the 
 appointment being made by the Crown. The argument that a permanent 
 lecturer would alone think it worth while to prepare a course of lectures 
 was combated by a reference to the organic distinction between systematic 
 and clinical instruction, the latter being based on the cases in the wards at 
 the time. The plea of academic usage was met by pointing to the University 
 of Edinburgh, where the question of not recognizing non-professorial clinical 
 lecturers had not been even raised. They remind the Managers that the 
 Faculty had a clientele of students and a curriculum of study as well as the 
 University ; that the question whether the University had even the power 
 to grant degrees in surgery, and thus control the larger part of the field of 
 practice, was still .sub judice in the law courts ; and they suggested the 
 awkward nature of the consequences of the Faculty declining to make clinical 
 lectures compulsory, and of the pending lawsuit being decided in their 
 favour. Finally, they declare their resolution, as individually expressed in 
 Faculty assembled, to take no part whatever in the work of the hospital, 
 should the proposed obnoxious monopoly be established by the Managers. 
 
 It was to this determined stand made by the Faculty that the defeat 
 of the scheme to vest the patronage of the clinical lectureships, in whole 
 or in part, in other hands than those of the Managers, was due. The 
 University influence at the Board was deserv'edly powerful. Professor 
 Jardine, to whose initiative and great exertions the Infirmary in some 
 measure owed its existence, had been succeeded on the Board by Professor 
 Meikleham, and on the same side were Dr. Robert Freer and Dr. James 
 Jeffray. In point of reputation no surgeon in Glasgow could compare with 
 Professor John Burns, whose whole influence was thrown in on the same 
 side, though at the time he was not a member of the Board. The whole 
 contest, it should be remembered, took place under the baleful shadow of 
 the lawsuit which the parties were pursuing from court to court, of which 
 an account will be given in Chapter XVIII. 
 
 The contest was not yet ended, but space forbids us to pursue its course 
 further in detail. Suffice it to say that the scheme to vest in the Senate 
 of the University the power to appoint clinical lecturers in the Infirmary 
 was eventually abandoned in 1828. Next year, and apparently without any 
 prompting from either party, the Managers quietly solved the problem in 
 their own way. Neither the University nor the Faculty would make attend- 
 ance on clinical lectures obligator)- till they saw a plan for teaching which 
 met their approval. In view of this position, the Managers themselves 
 provided the necessary obligation to attend. They resolved that every 
 student of the hospital should take one course of clinical medicine and one 
 course of clinical surgery. These were to be given each session by one or 
 more of the physicians and surgeons of the hos|)ital appointed annualh' for 
 
148 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 that purpose by the Managers. The fee charged covered both the hospital 
 practice and the clinical course, a fixed proportion of it being allocated to 
 the lecturer. 
 
 The scheme was inaugurated in the session of 1829-30, and was found 
 to work well. Modifications of it were made from time to time till the 
 point was reached that every physician and surgeon of the hospital was 
 empowered to be a clinical lecturer in his own department. The Faculty 
 added clinical medicine and clinical surgery to their list of imperative 
 subjects as soon as the scheme came into operation. The University 
 declined to take this step for many years, till in fact the old wound began 
 to be healed over. But to the Infirmary this was now a matter of little 
 consequence, as the plan which they had adopted dispensed with the necessity 
 of the co-operation of either of the parties. 
 
 Going back a little in point of date, the Faculty in 1 8 1 7 made an 
 ineffectual resistance to a regulation of the Infirmary passed at the meeting 
 of the Court of Contributors held in January of that year. We have seen 
 that the Faculty have four representatives at the Board of Management, 
 three by direct election, and the President in virtue of his office. It some- 
 times happened that some of these representatives were also at the same 
 time medical officers of the house. It was inevitable that occasions should 
 arise in which such an arrangement would work badly, unless the holder of 
 the two offices was a man of discretion and good sense. In 18 16 there 
 occurred a violent dispute between two of the surgeons, Mr. Granville 
 Pattison and Mr. Hugh Miller, the latter accusing the former of unprofessional 
 conduct at a consultation in the hospital. Mr. Pattison demanded an inquiry, 
 which was granted by the Managers. Being found in the wrong, he was 
 called before the Board of Managers, and formally reprimanded. Indeed so 
 grave did they consider the case, that they omitted Mr. Pattison's name from 
 the annual vote of thanks at the meeting of contributors held in January, 
 1 8 17. Mr. Miller, the aggrieved party, who happened to be a Manager as 
 well as a surgeon, took an active part in the case in his capacity of Manager. 
 This exhibition of bad taste appears to have attracted the attention of 
 another of the Managers, Mr. Kirkman Finlay, M.P., who proposed at the 
 meeting of the Court of Contributors in 18 17, "That from and after the 
 first day of November next it shall not be competent for any person to be 
 at the same time a Manager of the institution and a medical officer of the 
 house," — the ex officio medical members of the Board being expressly excepted. 
 The motion was carried, and the Faculty, under a mistaken sense of wrong, 
 took up the matter rather warmly but unavailingly. The regulation, after it 
 had been in operation for half a century, seems for some time to have been 
 allowed to fall into desuetude, but about the year 1883 it was again revived 
 in a form which made no exception of ex officio Managers.^ 
 
 ' " No Manager shall be eligible for appointment ; and if any physician or surgeon shall 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 149 
 
 The connection of the Faculty and the other medical charities of the 
 city may be dismissed in fewer words, as " no burning questions " affecting 
 the profession appear to have emerged in their history. Taken in the 
 order of their institution, the Glasgow Humane Society can hardly be called 
 a medical charity in the ordinary sense of the term, though it is to the 
 results of the researches of the medical profession on the best means of 
 resuscitating the drowned that the usefulness of such societies is mainly due. 
 But the Glasgow Society has also a historical bond of connection with the 
 Faculty. In 1787 Mr. James Coulter, a Glasgow merchant, bequeathed the 
 sum of ^200, under trust of the Faculty, for the foundation of a fund for 
 instituting a society in Glasgow for the rescue and restoration of the 
 apparently drowned. The Faculty at once communicated with the Royal 
 Humane Society of London to ascertain the constitution and methods of 
 operation of such an association. The London Society met the request of 
 the Faculty in the most cordial manner, and generously presented a set 
 of their apparatus, drags, etc., and also a copy of all their reports, free 
 of expense. Thus was the Glasgow Humane Society inaugurated. A close 
 connection between the Faculty and the Society founded in Glasgow under 
 their auspices and partly by their exertions was kept up for many years. 
 The chairman and secretary were generally members of the Faculty, and 
 up to the present time the latter official has always been a Fellow ; while the 
 president, the visitor, and the treasurer of the Faculty are ex officio directors 
 of the society. 
 
 Up to the beginning of the present century there was no proper 
 provision in Glasgow for the guardianship and treatment of the insane. 
 A ward or two in the Town's Hospital were, it is true, devoted to the 
 reception of the insane poor. But the accommodation was wretched. The 
 " cells," as they were specially and aptly named, were horrible dens, cold, 
 and damp, and dreary. They were intended, and adapted to be, simply 
 places of restraint, all ideas of humane guardianship, far less of restoration 
 or treatment, being discarded. For the insane of the well-to-do classes 
 there was no local provision of any kind. The enlightened views and 
 practice introduced by such men as Pinel, in France, and Tuke and 
 Conolly, in England, had, however, obtained a hold of the intelligence and 
 feelings of the community. The first to make a movement for a separate 
 institution were the directors of the Town's Hospital, urged thereto by 
 one of their number, Mr. Robert M'Nair of Belvidere, whose soul had been 
 stirred within him by the sights he had witnessed in the " cells." 
 
 The condition of these " cells " was fast becoming the opprobrium of 
 the city. At the instigation of the directors the Lord Provost communicated 
 with the Faculty in 1805. He intimated their intention to move for the 
 
 accept the office of Manager, or any office in virtue whereof he shall ex officio be a Manager, 
 he shall cease to hold the appointment." {Riilcs^ etc., reinscd and reprinted in 1884.) 
 
I50 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 institution in Glasgow of an asylum for the insane, and earnestly requested 
 the co-operation and assistance of the Faculty to enable them to accomplish 
 their humane object. The Faculty at once appointed a committee for this 
 purpose, and a constitution was drawn up, by which the Faculty and the 
 other chief corporate bodies in the City sent their representatives to the 
 Directorate of the asylum. The Faculty proved their earnestness by 
 contributing i!"ioo to the funds. The first building, situated in what is 
 now Parliamentary Road, but at that time in the midst of green fields, was 
 begun in 1810 and finished in 18 14. By the year 1842 the house was 
 found to be too small, and the fine pile of Gartnavel was then begun, to 
 which, when completed, the asylum was transferred, the house in Parlia- 
 mentary Road being left to be utilized by the City Parish as a poorhouse, 
 with hospital and asylum. Dr. Cleghorn, and after him Dr. Balmanno, at 
 first acted as visiting physicians of the asylum. In the later years of the 
 life of Dr. Balmanno the establishment had so increased that it required 
 almost the whole of his attention ; and on his death in 1 840 the arrange- 
 ment to have a resident physician superintendent was made. 
 
 In 1805 ^n abortive attempt was made to found in Glasgow a Lying-in 
 hospital. The Faculty, when appealed to, declined to assist the undertaking 
 on the ground that it appeared to be promoted for private ends. The 
 plea was, no doubt, perfectly valid ; but it raised a large and difficult 
 question, no proper solution of which has been found in this country down 
 to the present time. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the later history of the special hospitals of 
 the City, they have all, with one or two undoubted exceptions, been 
 originated by medical men ; and it is not uncharitable to suppose that the 
 main motive in every case was to afford to their founders facilities for 
 the prosecution of their own specialties. This is, no doubt, a considerable 
 public evil. The power of originating any description of eleemosynary 
 institution, without any check, is indeed hardly compatible with the wellbeing 
 of society. In the absence of any power to apply a wholesome veto when 
 there exists no real want, special institutions may be multiplied indefinitely, 
 with the inevitable result of destroying the healthy sense of independence 
 of not a few of the community ; while the actual necessities as regards 
 these specialties could be effectively met by the ordinary general hospital. 
 In its subsequent dealings with these institutions the Faculty seems 
 uniformly to have acted on the principle of declining to co-operate with any 
 special hospital until it had attained to that period in its development 
 when it was governed by a responsible Board of Directors. In 1834 a 
 successful attempt to found a Maternity Institution was made, largely by 
 the exertions of Dr. James Wilson, who remained one of its medical officers 
 till his death. The Faculty contributed to its support till it became firmly 
 established. On the Directorate they had two representatives, one by election 
 
THE FACULTY AND THE MEDICAL CHARITIES OF GLASGOW 151 
 
 and the President in virtue of his office. In 1880, on their contributing 
 ^100 to the funds, they stipulated for another director being elected by them, 
 which was at once allowed. 
 
 Of other medical charities, such as the Eye Infirmary, founded mainly 
 by the exertions of Dr. William Mackenzie and Dr. G. C. Monteith in 
 1824, and some of modern date, we cannot now speak. In regard to the 
 Western Infirmary, opened in 1874, the institution of which was rendered 
 necessary, not primarily by the increase of the population so much as by 
 the migration of the University to its new home on Gilmorehill, it need 
 only be said that the Faculty's subscription of five hundred guineas, the 
 largest recorded in their annals, betokened their interest in the cause of 
 medical education, as it also indicated the healing of the wounds of the long 
 contest between the University and the Faculty. 
 
 Turning now from the medical charities of the city to institutions of 
 another class, the Royal Botanic Institution, to which the citizens were 
 indebted for the Botanic Garden, may be instanced as an institution with 
 which the Faculty were early identified, and in which they evinced a 
 practical interest. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they 
 encouraged the formation of what were called " physic gardens," by some 
 of their members ; and for many years they gave regular or occasional 
 subsidies to several of their members for this object. But it was eventually 
 found that for the purpose they had in view this method was inadequate. 
 The rapid expansion of the city also appeared to call for the formation of 
 a garden on a more extensive scale, in which might be cultivated not 
 merely plants connected with the materia medica, but representatives of the 
 vegetable world fitted to delight the senses and refine the taste. To the 
 formation and maintenance of such a garden the Faculty agreed to con- 
 tribute annually the sum of thirty guineas, in consideration of which every 
 member was to receive the privileges of a subscriber of one share. Further, 
 to secure their being represented on the Management, they purchased for 
 one hundred and twenty guineas twelve shares, to be put in the names of 
 any twelve members whom the Faculty might from time to time select. 
 Instead of paying the capital sum they agreed to pay annually interest 
 thereon at five per cent., which brought up the annual contribution to i^37 
 1 6s., which payment accordingly figures in the accounts till a few years ago, 
 when the garden passed into the hands of the City authorities. 
 
 With regard to some other public institutions of a non-medical character 
 with which the Faculty have been intimately associated, either as regards their 
 origin or management, it is only necessary to instance one. The founder 
 of Stirling's Library was Mr. Walter Stirling, a Glasgow merchant, the son 
 of that Mr. William Stirling whose admission to the Faculty in 17 14 was the 
 cause of one of the quarrels between the surgeons and the barbers.^ For the 
 
 ' Chap. X. 86. 
 
152 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 formation of the library Mr. Stirling bequeathed to trustees his collection 
 of books in his house in Miller Street, ;^iooo in money, and certain shares 
 in the Tontine Society. On the Board of Directors the Faculty have three 
 elected representatives. They have also one representative on the Direc- 
 torate of Baillie's Institution, the most recent in origin of the public libraries 
 of the City. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE FACULTY IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 *' The poor were visited gratis, and the Faculty adjourned," is the stereotyped 
 formula, so familiar to the Fellows, with which every Minute of the monthly 
 meeting concludes. To account for it we must go back for three centuries 
 to the origin of the Faculty in 1599. During all that time it has been the 
 duty of the corporation, enjoined by their charter, " to conveen every first 
 Mononday of ilk moneth at some conv-enient place to visit and give counsell 
 to puir diseasit folks gratis." When the practice of the Faculty regularly 
 meeting for their ordinary business on that day was fully established, the 
 matter of the giving of gratuitous advice was minuted as one of the agenda^ 
 and took precedence in the Minute of other business. During the two 
 centuries following their institution then, the Faculty strictly adhered to the 
 letter of the charter. At the end of that period they began to realize that 
 a better means might be devised to carry out the spirit of the injunction. 
 The interval between the monthly meetings was too great for the effective 
 discharge of useful medical charity ; to be of much value the advice must 
 be given oftener. The gratuitous attendance by rotation at the Town's 
 Hospital was not looked upon as exonerating the Faculty from the per- 
 formance of their prescribed duty. At the beginning of the present century 
 an excellent opportunity presented of converting a doubtful into a real boon 
 to the poor. Some two years before the end of the eighteenth century, the 
 profession in Glasgow had begun in a tentative way to utilize Jenner's great 
 discovery. William Nimmo is mentioned as the first surgeon in the city who 
 attempted vaccination, the subject of the operation being a relative of his own.^ 
 By the year 1801 it was generally admitted that the procedure was one 
 of great value. In May of that year the Faculty resolved, in view of the 
 difficulty experienced in a large community such as Glasgow now was in 
 popularizing such a measure, to advertise widely that they would vaccinate all 
 
 'Strang's Glasj^ow Clubs, 2nd ed., 248. This was in 1800; but an earlier case was 
 that of a child of Dr. T. Garnett, on 30th May, 1799. 
 
154 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 comers at their Hall in St, Enoch's Square, the operation to be performed 
 every Monday. To undertake the work two of the members were regularly 
 told off by rotation every month, the operators being held jointly responsible 
 in every case. For some time their procedure was evidently cautious and 
 tentative, and failures were not uncommon. But greater success followed in 
 the wake of experience, as is sufficiently evident from the first Vaccination 
 Register, which is still preserved. The method of appointing two surgeons 
 to act conjointly was followed for twenty years. In the course of a year or 
 two the vaccination station of the Faculty became popular and crowded 
 beyond all expectation. So much was this the case that the Faculty made 
 public intimation that they desired only the poor to avail themselves of the 
 charity. In less than five years the Faculty vaccinated gratuitously ten 
 thousand persons.^ The fact that about a fifth of the total number had not 
 returned after the operation pointed to an obvious abuse which required a 
 remedy. In spite of all attempts to select the cases from the class intended 
 to be benefited, the numbers went on increasing every year. At last the plan 
 was hit on of exacting a small deposit from every applicant, to be returned 
 if the case were shown on the proper day. This kept down the numbers to 
 some extent ; and this method, with trifling variations, was continued till the 
 passing of the Vaccination Act, when the necessity of obtaining a certificate 
 gave a sufficient guarantee for the child being brought back, and superseded 
 the need of a deposit. At an early period of its history the station was 
 placed in connection with the Royal Vaccine Institution in London. The 
 early reports of the Faculty to the latter afford interesting information of the 
 progress of vaccination in Glasgow. Thus, in 1812, we learn that the practice 
 of vaccination in Glasgow and neighbourhood was then almost universal, and 
 that though small-pox had been rather more prevalent in the year embraced 
 in the report, the Faculty knew of no case in which it had occurred in a 
 vaccinated person. In that year a sceptical surgeon in Glasgow attempted 
 the inoculation of variolous matter in vaccinated cases. The details are not 
 given ; but a report got abroad that the virus had taken effect, and the 
 Faculty thought it necessary to institute an investigation. The result was 
 reassuring, and an advertisement was inserted in the newspapers with a view 
 to quell any feelings of alarm. It stated that " the Faculty had considered 
 the report of cases of the children recently inoculated in this place with 
 
 ^ Cleland, the Glasgow Annalist, gives the following statistics of public vaccination in 
 Glasgow up to 1 83 1 :— 
 
 Station. When started. No. up to 1831, 
 
 Faculty, 1801 30,982 
 
 Cowpox Institution, - - - 1813 6,969 
 
 Faculty of Medicine, - - - 1828 1,446 
 
 39,397 
 {Ennm. 0/ the Inhabitants 0/ Glasgow, 1831, p. 22.) 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 155 
 
 small-pox matter after having some time ago been satisfactorily vaccinated." 
 They assured the public, both from their uniform experience, and from the 
 symptoms of the present cases, that " they remain as fully convinced as ever 
 of the inestimable benefit of the cow-pox, and of its affording as perfect 
 security against small-pox as the small-pox inoculation itself" As time wore 
 on, the Faculty climbed down from this commanding position ; but none the 
 less did they express their conviction of the utility of vaccination, if not 
 always as an absolute prophylactic, as an agent which powerfully modified 
 the dreaded disease. In 1 8 1 3 the Faculty reported that the practice of 
 variolous inoculation had been totally abandoned^ in Glasgow and the West 
 of Scotland, and that the deaths from small-pox were showing a diminution. 
 The vaccine station of the Faculty is still in operation [1896], but, from 
 the great decrease in its numbers, owing to causes to which we need not 
 advert, it gives indications of approaching the natural term of its existence. 
 As far as we are aware, it is the oldest — certainly one of the oldest — vaccine 
 stations in the three kingdoms. 
 
 But from the charity of the Faculty we must turn to its internal affairs. 
 With the advent of the century the defects of the old charter became more 
 apparent. Their frequent failures in prosecuting unqualified practitioners 
 brought home to the members their need of extended powers. Their existing 
 powers were neither ample enough, nor defined with adequate precision, and 
 they were besides adapted to a state of affairs not now existing. In 1805 
 a committee was appointed to report on the subject. Their inquiries brought 
 out that the points in which their powers were inadequate were chiefly these : 
 The judicial procedure for prosecution was too elaborate and expensive, and 
 the penalty exigible on conviction was ridiculously insufficient. Forty pounds 
 Scots, especially as enhanced by the " toties quoties," might act as a deterrent 
 to delinquents in the seventeenth century; but in the nineteenth, with the 
 great depreciation in the value of money, such a fine had no terrors for the 
 well-feed quack. What thej^ perhaps would have liked was their old power 
 of mulcting unqualified practitioners in a considerable sum after a summary 
 procedure. But the times were now changed, and, on inquiry, they learned 
 that a new royal charter with enlarged powers in accordance with their wishes 
 was a mere chimera: the royal prerogative could not do in the nineteenth 
 century what it did in the sixteenth. It was only by authority of Parliament 
 that such powers could be obtained : and even then the difficulties in their way 
 would be great. The legislature, they were advised, would probably now 
 regard the prosecution of unqualified practitioners rather as a matter of public 
 police than of corporate duty : that, while Parliament would not interfere 
 with rights already existing, they would be chary in extending them. With 
 
 ' Several of the older medical men of Glasgow who have deceased within the last twenty 
 years, such as the late Dr. Andrew Buchanan, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, were 
 inoculated. 
 
156 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 this advice from eminent Counsel before them, the Faculty dropped the 
 agitation for extended powers. But in i 8 1 7 it was again revived in another 
 form. In the House of Commons the Faculty had a warm friend in Mr. 
 Kirkman Finlay, the City member. To that astute politician it occurred, or 
 was suggested, that there is, after all, something in a name. If the corporation 
 were legally christened " the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of 
 Glasgow," a point would be gained. The members, without any apparent 
 compunction, resolved to endeavour to effect the alteration of name. The 
 time-honoured title of " Faculty," suggestive at once of age, of associations 
 of various kinds with learned bodies throughout the continent, and especially 
 with its celebrated Parisian namesake, seems to have on this occasion evoked 
 no sentiment of tenderness in the corporate bosom. With the new name 
 they agreed to seek no new power of any importance, but simply a definition 
 and consolidation of powers already possessed. But if by these tactics they 
 intended to disarm opposition, they soon learned their mistake. Their petition 
 was duly presented, and without any delay the Prince Regent's warrant was 
 issued thereon, ordaining it to be laid before the Lord Advocate. Here it 
 at once got into troubled waters. A caveat was lodged against the granting 
 of the application by the University of Glasgow. Trenching on no right 
 of the University, the charter might have been supposed secure from opposition 
 in that quarter. But the moment was inopportune. Extreme irritation at 
 this time existed between the two bodies. Two years previously the Faculty 
 had, as will be duly narrated in a subsequent chapter, instituted an action- 
 at-law to test the question whether University graduates had the right to 
 practise surgery. A decision had been given in the Lower Court against 
 the graduates, and the question was still sub jiidice on appeal. To make 
 matters worse, the University had only recently made a new move with a 
 view to checkmate the Faculty on this question, by instituting a new degree 
 in surgery. With soreness on both sides, there was therefore little hope 
 of an amicable understanding in the matter of the new charter. Committees 
 were appointed by both parties to meet and discuss the matter. After many 
 meetings, the points in dispute were practically narrowed to one. The 
 University insisted on their medical graduates being allowed to practise 
 surgery without further examination within the bounds of the Faculty. The 
 latter body replied that they had no power to grant exemption, and that 
 if it were accorded to one University it must be allowed to all. At that 
 time the country was being inundated with University graduates, some of 
 whom had obtained their degrees without any examination at all. On this 
 point, then — their inability to delegate their examining and licensing powers 
 to other bodies — the Faculty took their stand. It was on this rock that the 
 scheme for a new charter and name suffered shipwreck. 
 
 The institution of the grade of country licentiate in the last century 
 has already been noticed, and it was shown that the step was rendered 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 157 
 
 necessary by the gradual increase of the fees for membership. The nine- 
 teenth century had not long begun when a similar necessity arose, and from 
 the same cause, for permitting licentiates to practise in the city. Up to the 
 year i 8 1 1 Glasgow had, at least in theory, been held sacred to the members. 
 But the membership had now become an expensive qualification. A widows' 
 fund, as we shall afterwards see, had now been engrafted on the original 
 foundation. This was an expensive scheme, and necessitated a large addition 
 to the entrance fee. At the period in question the fee had reached one hundred 
 guineas, a large portion of which went into the devouring maw of the widows' 
 fund. To exact such a fee from every person who entered on general practice 
 in the city was impossible. The attempt to do so had been tried for years, 
 and with the result which might have been foreseen. Not a few preferred 
 to run the risk of practising without any qualification rather than pay such 
 an exorbitant exaction. It was to remedy this state of matters that the 
 institution was made of the grade of town licentiate. For all grades of 
 qualification — members, town or country licentiate — the examination was the 
 same. The fee was the differential condition of admission, and it was 
 assumed to be graduated roughly according to the privilege conferred. The 
 fee for country licentiate was five, and that for town licentiate twenty 
 guineas, the addition of fifteen guineas being in name of " Freedom Fine." 
 This fee was certainly too large, being at that time probably equal to more 
 than twice the amount now represented by the figures, in view of the com- 
 parative value of money. To avoid misconception, it was expressly stated 
 in the body of the diploma that the licentiate had no standing as a member 
 of corporation, or claim to the corporate property. Within a period of three 
 years he could, however, qualify as a member by paying the balance of fee. 
 The new grade was not popular. The fee was out of proportion to the 
 right conferred. Up to 1820 only forty practitioners had been admitted 
 town licentiates, and these were far from being satisfied with their position. 
 In 1 8 19 they presented a memorial to the Faculty setting forth their 
 grievances. They had been under the impression, they said, that by their 
 admission they had been virtually placed on the footing of members, except 
 as regards the corporate property. They found, however, that they possessed 
 none of the privileges conferred by the original charter, which the members 
 enjoyed from immemorial usage. They were subject to public burdens from 
 which the members were exempt. They accordingly asked that their position 
 should be accurately defined. The reply to the memorialists was conciliatory 
 in tone, but in their view could hardly have been satisfactory. The Glasgow 
 Medical Examiner gave strong, epigrammatic expression to the dissatisfaction 
 of the town licentiates. " Licentiates are described as a species of members 
 who have nothing to do with the Faculty laws but to obey them, nor with 
 the funds but to pay the fees which may be demanded from them — a species 
 of serfs who, upon payment of a certain tribute, arc permitted to exist," and 
 
158 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 more to the same effect. That they had good cause, at all events, to 
 grumble is beyond doubt. We shall see presently that the high exactions 
 made as fees were required to recoup the exchequer, drained nearly dry by 
 the omnivorous widows' fund. This scheme, indeed, cast its shadow upon 
 most of the actings of the Faculty about this period. 
 
 Of the Faculty widows' fund the little that can here be said has mainly 
 reference to the scheme in its bearings and reflex influence on the corporation. 
 In reference to its origin it may be regarded, if not as the orderly development, 
 as at least an outgrowth of the system of charity in vogue for nearly two 
 centuries, to which occasional references have already been made. All through 
 the Records for that period there is very frequent mention of aid being given 
 to " the poor of the calling," to " decayed members," or their widows, children, 
 grandchildren, or collateral relations. In the eighteenth century there was 
 a regular pension list revised annually, which, before the institution of the 
 widows' fund, amounted to about ^roo, besides sums expended in frequent 
 casual doles. Various plans were discussed from 1779 to 1792 for placing 
 their charity on a better footing, all pointing in the direction of a regular 
 fund for widows and children. At last in 1792 a scheme was sanctioned, 
 and came into operation on 8th June of that year. It scarcely lies within 
 the scope of this sketch to advert to the widows' fund in its aspects as an 
 insurance society. As such it was successful ; but its success cannot be 
 quoted as lending much countenance to the institution of self-sustaining 
 Medical Widows' Fund Associations conducted on the mutual principle, such 
 as have been repeatedly proposed during the present century. The initial 
 capital to start the Faculty's scheme was taken from the corporate purse 
 and never repaid. The sums thus appropriated during the first twenty-eight 
 years of the fund amounted to -^^3494 ; and the amount paid annually by 
 the Faculty as a sort of capitation tax during the first fifty-eight years of 
 the fund would probably amount to a sum as large. In addition to this, at 
 first four-fifths, and latterly two-thirds, of the entire freedom fines of entrants 
 to the Faculty were placed to the credit of the widows' fund. What portion 
 of the Faculty revenue, sequestrated by these grants, was contributed by 
 the freedom fines of licentiates has not been determined. But there is little 
 wonder that there existed much dissatisfaction amongst this class in view 
 of the possible destination of their fees. From an insurance point of view 
 the widows' fund had the disadvantage of not providing for the selection 
 of lives, as it was obligatory on all members to join the fund. This disad- 
 vantage was, howe\'er, more than compensated by a class of incidents 
 against which selection of lives could scarcely have provided, even had it 
 been politic to do so. This was the heavy mortality prevalent almost up 
 to the present generation among the younger members of the Faculty, as 
 well as of the medical profession generally, in Glasgow and the other towns 
 in the West of Scotland. The number of members cut down before their 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 159 
 
 prime, generally by typhus, remittent, or other fevers would now be regarded 
 as phenomenal. It generally happened that these men left no claimants on 
 the fund to which they had contributed their full quota. 
 
 As the nineteenth century advanced the entrance fee to the Faculty 
 gradually increased. In 1850 it stood at ^^^150 even for the lowest grade 
 of entry to the widows' fund. The obligation to join the fund began to be 
 looked on as an intolerable burden, and operated in greatly diminishing 
 the number of candidates for the membership. Allegations were even made 
 that on one or two occasions men, otherwise eligible as members of the 
 Faculty, were denied admission at the ballot box, because they were bad 
 lives. This may have been untrue, but it was freely admitted that the 
 attempt to graft an insurance scheme on an institution existing chiefly for 
 other purposes was a mistake. In 1850 an Act of Parliament was obtained 
 mainly for the purpose of disjoining the widows' fund as compulsory on all 
 entrants from the Faculty as a corporate body. Advantage was taken of 
 the Act to include in it a provision for altering the name of " Member " to 
 " Fellow " ; and another, in virtue of which Fellows and Members of other 
 Colleges, entitled to grant Diplomas in Surgery, were allowed to practise within 
 the jurisdiction of the Faculty.^ 
 
 Towards the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century a move- 
 ment took shape in the Faculty, with a view to stem the tide of illegal 
 practice which had begun to overflow their territory. A standing " Com- 
 mittee of Privileges " was formed to keep due guard over corporate rights 
 from whatever quarter threatened or assailed. The first task of the committee 
 was to look through the armoury and furbish up the old weapons. Some 
 of these, they reported, were rusty enough, and probably had never been 
 trusty blades. To test the legal strength of their position, they applied to 
 Mr. Robert Davidson, Professor of Law, who advised them on several doubtful 
 points. This was in 1 809, and two years thereafter they commenced the 
 campaign. First they sent a strong representation to the City magistrates, 
 giving the reasons which had induced them for some time to decline the 
 task of prosecuting the unqualified. But the object was a public one, and 
 therefore the duty should be undertaken by the public prosecutor. It was 
 the community that was chiefly interested, and should therefore bear the 
 expense. They promised to co-operate cordially with the magistrates in the 
 event of the latter authorizing the Procurator-Fiscal to prosecute. The 
 magistrates were courteous, even cordial in their reply, but they declined to 
 order the Fiscal to take up the cases, on the ground that there was no 
 precedent for such a step. At this very period it happened that the circuit 
 judges had their attention repeatedly called to the prevalence of unlicensed 
 practice in Glasgow. Men appeared before them as practitioners of physic 
 and surgery in cases of the highest importance, whose lamentable ignorance 
 
 ' See Appendix \'I. 
 
l6o FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the arts they professed was manifest. The judges inquired into the 
 matter, and found the reason to He in the difficulties which nineteenth 
 century modes of judicial procedure interposed to the effective carrying out 
 of powers granted in the sixteenth century. The Faculty submitted to the 
 judges their powers, chartered and parliamentary ; and their Lordships, by 
 an "Act of Adjournal," of date 24th March, 1812, "recommend to the 
 Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons to persevere in the exercise of the 
 powers conferred by the said Royal Charter and Parliamentary Ratification ; 
 and at the same time the Court did and do enjoin and require all Sheriffs 
 and other Magistrates, with their respective prosecutors-fiscal within the 
 limits mentioned in the foresaid Charter and Act of Parliament, to be aiding 
 and assisting to the Memorialists in the proper execution of the duty herein 
 pointed out, and on due information to prosecute all persons illegally 
 practising medicine or surgery within their respective jurisdictions in time 
 coming." 
 
 The " Act of Adjournal " acted at once as a stimulus to the Faculty 
 to resume the prosecution of unqualified practitioners. The second Tuesday 
 of every month was appointed for the examination of candidates, and every 
 man in the district who was known to be practising illicitly was summoned 
 before the board. Those of them who satisfied the requirements were 
 licensed, the others, being the majority, were formally inhibited from 
 practice. Several, however, did not appear in answer to the summons, and 
 decree passed against them in absence. One or two lodged defences, but 
 these are devoid of any element of historic interest. 
 
 Before this series of prosecutions were ended the Faculty had become 
 entangled in the meshes of a number of lawsuits, involving the question of 
 their legal rights, which dragged on their slow length for a quarter of a 
 century. At one stage of this litigation it looked as if their very corporate 
 existence was threatened ; but the narrative of this struggle we must defer 
 to another chapter. The remainder of the present chapter will be devoted 
 to a matter of internal policy. 
 
 During the whole of the seventeenth century the official designation of 
 the principal office-bearer seems to have been " Visitor," the term used in 
 the charter. Physicians and surgeons were equally eligible to the office, and 
 we find that during the first seventy-nine years of their history it was held 
 in all, seventeen years by physicians and sixty-two years by surgeons. In 
 the latter half of the century there were generally two visitors with co-ordinate 
 powers, one the head of the physicians and the other the chief of the surgeons. 
 About the beginning of the eighteenth century it was found expedient, in 
 order to prevent confusion, to give the physician-visitor the title of " Praeses," 
 the simple term " Visitor " being from that time reserved for the official head 
 of the surgeons. Gradually, also, the idea of co-ordinate authority was lost 
 sight of The praeses, in effect, became the chief of the corporation, whilst 
 
THE FACULTY IN THE FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY i6l 
 
 the visitor, by this process, took rank as vice-president. This arrangement 
 prevailed up to 1820, in which year the growing paucity of the grade of 
 pure physicians rendered it inconvenient. In that year a resolution, which 
 had been defeated eight years previously, was passed, with only one dis- 
 sentient voice, throwing open the higher office to the surgeon equally with 
 the physician, provided he had the University degree of M.D. ; and a few 
 years later surgeons without the degree were equally with physicians made 
 eligible to the office, a rule which has remained to the present day. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A LONG LAWSUIT 
 
 With the commencement of the century the Medical School of Glasgow 
 may be said to have emerged from its state of infancy. Up to that period 
 medical graduates in Glasgow and the West of Scotland were very few. 
 In the City itself there were always two or three, or more, practising 
 physicians ; whilst the considerable towns of Ayr, Kilmarnock, and Paisley 
 generally attracted the services of a doctor of medicine, either of home or 
 foreign education. But the practice of these men was limited by tradition 
 and ancient usage. The possession of a University degree was usually held 
 to disqualify from general practice, and to elevate its holder to the serener 
 sphere of a pure physician. Not that the physician of the last century or 
 that preceding it was held disqualified from family practice, or limited to 
 the duties of a consultant. Had this been the case, their number would 
 have been smaller than it actually was. He was only disqualified in 
 Glasgow from the practice of surgery, and, till near the end of the last 
 or the beginning of the present century, of midwifery. But the century 
 was not well begun when this state of matters rapidly changed. Doctors 
 of medicine began to multiply at a rate which far outstripped the necessities 
 of purely medical practice. It was therefore inevitable that most of them 
 should betake themselves to the ordinary work of the general practitioner. 
 The attainments and requirements connoted by the degrees granted in 
 Scotland varied greatly, from a definite course of study and a fair examina- 
 tion, on the one hand, to a very nebulous curriculum, or even none at all, 
 and the payment of a fee, on the other. Under conditions often so 
 unexacting, there is little wonder that doctors of medicine rapidly increased. 
 Several of them settled in Glasgow, and began general practice without 
 any disguise. They believed and held that the possession of a University 
 degree superseded the necessity of entering as members of the Faculty. 
 If this position were good in law, it was clear to the members that their 
 corporate occupation was gone. No one would take the trouble to 
 
A LONG LAWSUIT 163 
 
 subject himself to their more exacting conditions as to examination and 
 subsequent supervision, when he could gain admission to the profession 
 in a way at once easier, more dignified, and untrammelled by conditions 
 of practice. 
 
 After much deliberation and, apparently, also in face of the opposition 
 of a small minority, it was resolved to test the question of the legality of 
 doctors of medicine practising surgery within the jurisdiction of the Faculty. 
 The action was raised before the Court of Session in 181 5. Of the whole 
 number whom they could have summoned, four were selected, apparently 
 on the ground that they practised within the City, and held their diplomas 
 from different Universities in Scotland. In the pleas lodged for the Faculty 
 a distinction was made between the different defenders. Those of them 
 holding degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow were 
 recognized as possessing valid qualifications to practise in medicine only ; 
 while, as regarded the graduates of Aberdeen and St. Andrews, it was 
 denied not only that they were entitled to practise surgery, but even to act 
 as physicians within the Faculty's bounds. The Faculty averred (and this 
 was apparently not denied) that neither of the two defenders who held the 
 degree of Aberdeen or St. Andrews, had ever been examined by the 
 respective Universities ; and further, that medicine was not even taught at 
 St. Andrews at the date at which the diploma in question was issued. The 
 Faculty therefore declined to recognize these institutions as answering the 
 conditions for the recognition of medical degrees laid down in the charter. 
 Neither of them was " ane famous University where Medicine is taught." 
 The other two defenders stood in a different position. Their diplomas were 
 admitted to be unexceptionable : the Universities which granted them were 
 the seats of medical schools, and the degrees had been obtained after 
 examination. The right of these men to practise as physicians in Glasgow, 
 after their diplomas had been inspected by the Faculty, was therefore admitted, 
 but it was denied that they were accredited, in virtue of these diplomas, to 
 practise surgery. This, indeed, was the crux of the whole matter : Docs a 
 degree in medicine confer a right to practise surgery ? The defenders con- 
 tended that surgery is simply one of the departments of medicine, and that 
 therefore the degree in medicine covered the entire field of the practice of 
 the healing art. Medicine really consisted of two great branches — physic 
 and surgery. It was true that during the Middle Ages circumstances 
 had occurred which gave rise to a temporary separation between the practi- 
 tioners of these two departments. Surgery, during a part of that period, 
 had been degraded to the position of a handicraft, and on that account 
 physicians had refused to make themselves conversant with it. But the 
 division was now healed ; surgery had taken its legitimate place in the 
 science and art of medicine. The physician had resumed his inalienable 
 right to practise the whole round of medicine. Especially in Glasgow had 
 
l64 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the distinction between the practice of surgery and that of medicine been 
 obliterated. The military surgeon of the district was Dr. Freer, Professor 
 of Medicine in the University. Further, the powers conferred by the degree, 
 as expressed on the face of the diploma attesting it, were ample, and 
 limited neither by territorial nor any other bounds. The degree licensed 
 to practise every branch of medicine everywhere, " omnes tain theoriae inedi- 
 cinae quam praxeos achis iiblque terrarum exercendi" 
 
 Neither this plea, nor that impugning the right of the Faculty to plead 
 owing to an alleged defect in their constitution, was put in so forcible and 
 masterly a way as it was presented later in the case of the University 
 versus the Faculty, and it will be more convenient to state this part of the 
 argument and the Faculty's reply thereto when we come to that case. In 
 this place it will suffice to say that the Faculty urged that it was useless 
 to appeal to scientific definitions of medicine, in view of the fact that in 
 ancient charters the term was not used in a general, but in a specific sense. 
 In these documents, " medicine " and " surgery " were obviously used as 
 distinctive terms excluding each other, and the same distinction occurred 
 in every country in which medical degrees were granted. Besides, the 
 examination for a medical degree was not adapted to be a test of surgical 
 knowledge and skill. There was not a University in Scotland in which a 
 single question was put at the degree examination on any part of surgery. 
 And, further, the Faculty's commission under their charter, " to examine all 
 persons professing or using the said art of Chirurgery," was absolute, 
 recognizing no exceptions. 
 
 On this last point the legal decision hinged. In November, 1815, the 
 Lord Ordinary decided that the Faculty had a legal title to sue ; that the 
 defenders were all entitled to practise as physicians within the bounds of the 
 Faculty, but no person could therein practise surgery or carry on the 
 business of an apothecary without submitting to the Faculty's examination. 
 The case was appealed by the defenders, but, after a litigation of four years, 
 the decision appealed against was confirmed. The Faculty's special objec- 
 tions to either Aberdeen or St. Andrews being considered as " famous 
 Universities where medicine is taught " were brushed aside almost without 
 remark. The power of granting medical degrees, said the judges, was 
 committed to all the Universities, and they declined to inquire under what 
 conditions the power was exercised. But a minority of the judges was 
 in favour of the claim of the graduates. The decision did not cover the 
 whole ground taken in by the pleadings. It did not settle the question 
 whether a doctor's degree entitled to practise surgery. What the case did 
 decide was that the degrees in question did not so qualify within the bounds 
 of the Faculty. But in giving their decision some of the judges incidentally 
 enunciated opinions adverse to the claim that a degree in medicine gave a 
 right to practise surgery. 
 
A LONG LAWSUIT 1 65 
 
 Soon after a provisional decision in the case had been given by the 
 Lord Ordinary, and several years before the question was finally settled on 
 appeal, a step was taken by the University of Glasgow which introduced a 
 new feature into the struggle. Hitherto that body had not been a party 
 in the litigation. The graduates alone had borne the brunt of the battle. 
 But it was evidently a struggle in the issue of which the University was 
 deeply interested. It bore directly on the success of the institution both 
 as a teaching and an examining body. Its resources to meet the turn affairs 
 appeared to be taking in the law courts were ample. It seemed to be 
 good law that a doctor of medicine could only practise physic. If to 
 practise surgery required a special qualification, why should not the Uni- 
 versity institute a surgical degree? It is said that the credit for this adroit 
 proposal was due to Dr. John Burns, recently appointed the first Professor 
 of Surgery in the University. There was no precedent for such a degree in 
 any of the British Universities ; but an academic Testanmr in surgery was 
 not unknown in some of the continental Universities. Surgery had now 
 emerged from its position as a handicraft and ranged itself side by side 
 with medicine as a science as well as an art. There was therefore nothing 
 incongruous in placing upon it the University imprimatur. Accordingly, 
 in the year 1 8 1 6, it was officially announced that the University of 
 Glasgow had resolved to add to its list of degrees that of Chirurgiae 
 Magister (C.M.).^ The new degree was never very popular, and no very 
 large numbers of men were attracted by it. The title appeared new-fangled 
 and odd ; the thing was an innovation ; and, more than all, doubts must 
 probably have existed of its legal validity for practice, especially in the West 
 of Scotland. The Faculty appear to have been in no haste to test this 
 question. Though some kind of action appears to have been taken in 
 1 8 1 9, it was not till the degree had been granted for ten years that they 
 resolved to challenge it. At that time there were practising in Glasgow 
 and the four Western Counties twenty-three persons in virtue of their hold- 
 ing the " CM." of Glasgow. Against the whole of these the Faculty in 
 1826 raised an action of suspension and interdict, first before the Lord 
 Ordinary and, on his reference, in the Second Division of the Court of 
 Session. They claimed that these persons be prohibited from practice 
 till they had been examined by the Faculty. The case was ripe for 
 decision when the University came into Court by an action of Declarator 
 against the Faculty, asking the Court to find that persons holding the degree 
 of CM. were entitled to practise surgery within the Faculty's territorial 
 bounds. The two cases were conjoined, it being arranged for convenience 
 that the University should be called the " Pursuers." Briefly put, their 
 contention was this : That as a University they were entitled to teach 
 
 * The degree of Bachelor of Surgery was also instituted, but it did not make good its 
 footing, and in a year or two was discontinued. 
 
l66 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 any branch or subject of human knowledge ; and that co-extensive with 
 the faculty of teaching was the co-relative power of examining and granting 
 degrees, and further, that these degrees qualified for practising all that in 
 practice was connected with the subject taught. But irrespective of this 
 power inherent in the University simply as such, they had ample powers 
 articulately expressed from their incorporating charters. The Bull of 
 Nicholas V. empowered them to grant degrees in theology, canon and civil 
 law, " et qudvis alia licitd facultatel' — a commission wide enough to cover 
 surgery. True, there was no "Faculty" of Surgery, but this was included in 
 the Faculty of Medicine. A degree did not require to cover the whole field 
 occupied by a Faculty. For example, there were degrees of canon law, 
 of civil law, of music, grammar, etc. A degree was simply a testimonial 
 that the person to whom it was granted was sufficiently versed in the 
 department of learning to which it referred. The surgical degree was in 
 conformity with academic usage. The dissociation of surgery from the 
 University Schools of Medicine in the Middle Ages had been only partial. 
 Through all that period there had been gown-surgeons (medico-chirurgici) 
 who studied at the Universities, as distinguished from the barber-surgeons 
 who did not. In France it was admitted the Universities had handed over 
 surgery entirely to the latter class. But in Italy it was different ; gown- 
 surgeons were there the rule, and the degree of Chincrgiae Magister was 
 not uncommon. This precedent from the Italian Universities was especially 
 important as regarded Glasgow, because it was on the model of the 
 Uuiversity of Bologna that the Bull of Nicholas V. founded the University 
 of Glasgow. A University degree was exempt from any limitation of 
 territorial bounds, and as far as it gave a right to practise that right was 
 good anywhere. A University was an institution Juris gejttiuvi^ and by the 
 courtesy of nations respected all over the world. The University of Glasgow 
 was founded one hundred and fifty years before the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons of that City. From the first it possessed the power of granting 
 a degree in surgery whenever it chose to exercise that power. It could 
 not have been the intention of James VI., in granting the charter of the 
 Faculty, to derogate from the privilege of the University by constituting 
 the Faculty with a superior exclusive jurisdiction entitling them to debar 
 University graduates from practice. If the University Testamur in medicine 
 was valid for the practice of physic, there was no reason to deny the 
 validity of the corresponding certificate in surgery. 
 
 The question of the power of the Faculty to sue, as being a legally 
 constituted corporation, had been raised by the graduates before the Faculty 
 came into the field. This point was now practically departed from, whether 
 from the belief that it would be futile to insist on it, or from reliance on 
 the strength of their case independent of it, does not appear. Later on, 
 as we shall presently find, the question again came to the forefront of the case. 
 
A LONG LAWSUIT 167 
 
 The main line of the defence of the Faculty was historical, and centred 
 round the facts of their origin and constitution. They pointed out that 
 at the period of the charter, surgery, having long before suffered disruption 
 from medicine, was regarded as a trade, and the surgeon as merely a manual 
 operator, this being indeed etymologically implied by the name. Even to 
 this day, it was urged, the practitioners of the two arts stood in a different 
 position in the eye of the law. The physician could receive an honorarium, 
 but could not sue for a fee ; the surgeon, on the contrary, could bring an 
 action for his bill in a court of law. The terms of the Faculty charter 
 were in themselves sufficiently conclusive as to the technical distinction 
 between medicine and surgery at the time it was granted. The conditions 
 for practising the two arts vere different. To qualify in medicine, the 
 testimonial of a University was required ; whereas to practise surgery within 
 the territory allotted to them, an examination and license by the defenders 
 were necessary. Their commission to examine everyone practising surgery 
 within these bounds was absolute, there being no exceptions. Graduates of 
 surgery of a University — assuming the academical validity of the degree — 
 were equally excluded from this practice as graduates in medicine. This 
 privilege had been confirmed by unbroken usage from 1602 downwards, and 
 had been vindicated times out of number against defaulters. Turning to the 
 claims of the University, they adverted to their sweeping character. If these 
 were found to be valid in Glasgow, they would be equally good everywhere. 
 They would override the privileges from charters or statutes of every medical 
 corporation in the kingdom. Coming to closer quarters, they argued that 
 University degrees were not at all of the nature of licenses to practise. 
 They were honorary titles, academic distinctions, conferring on those who bore 
 them a certain character ; but carrying with them no professional privilege in 
 the way of practice. They might confer reputation, or even heraldic pre- 
 cedence, but they invested their possessor with no civil right. In view of the 
 purely honorary character of degrees, could it be pretended that graduates 
 had the right to practise co-ordinately with the members of the chartered cor- 
 poration within a jurisdiction defined by charter? The recognition of such a 
 right would extinguish every corporate body in the kingdom. On the same 
 principle a doctor of divinity might mount any pulpit in the kingdom without 
 license or ordination ; or a doctor of law might, without " call," practise at 
 any bar. The attempts made by University graduates in England to trench 
 on the chartered privileges of the College of Physicians of London had been 
 repeatedly repelled by the English courts. Coming down from the arguments 
 centring round legal right to those dealing with expediency, it was urged 
 that surgery was largely a practical art. It was therefore more becoming 
 that the door of admission to exercise it should be guarded by those engaged 
 in the practice of the art, rather than that door should be thrown open by 
 the degree of a literary body. 
 
l68 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Such was the main line of argument ; but there were side arguments, 
 much less effective, to which we need not allude. On both sides there was 
 a copious appeal to authorities, and the literature of medical history had 
 evidently boen ransacked to furnish or furbish weapons. When the case 
 was reported for decision, the Court, in view of its great importance, and as 
 involving new questions of law, directed the case to be laid before the 
 Lords of the First Division and the Lords Ordinary, with a view to their 
 joint opinion being obtained on the main question involved. The decision, 
 given after full debate and long delay, was entirely in favour of the defenders, 
 i.e. the Faculty. They were found to be a legal corporation ; to have 
 power to debar from the practice of surgery in their district persons whom 
 they had not examined and found qualified ; and neither the degree of 
 doctor of medicine nor master of surgery gave any title to exemption 
 from the operation of the Faculty's charter. Among the consulted judges 
 there was only one dissentient. Lord Moncrieff had exalted notions of the 
 powers of an University. He was of opinion that paramount authority was 
 invested in an University, in virtue of which graduates had co-ordinate, if not 
 superior, privileges to that of the members of a medical corporation. On 
 the opinions of the consulted judges being reported, the Second Division 
 found in favour of the Faculty, and judgment was accordingly pronounced, 
 by which masters in surgery were laid under perpetual interdict from 
 practising within the bounds. The Faculty were found entitled to expenses, 
 both from the University and the masters in surgery implicated in the case. 
 
 But there was still a final court of appeal, and to the House of Lords 
 the case was now carried. When it came before that tribunal at Westminster 
 a change was effected in the mode of attack. In the lower courts the 
 University had declined to insist on a plea which the graduates had urged 
 before the University appeared in the case. That plea was now revived. 
 It was contended that the Faculty was not a corporation, and therefore 
 could not maintain this or any similar action. Though this point had been 
 disposed of in the decision of the Court of Session, and that decision had 
 been acquiesced in by the University, it was urged that it had not there 
 received adequate attention in the pleading. The Counsel for the University 
 laid great stress on this preliminary argument, and made a strong impression 
 on the mind of Lord-Chancellor Brougham. To the volatile and versatile 
 chancellor, the charter of the Faculty appeared an amorphous and incom- 
 prehensible document. He could find in it no reproductive organs, no 
 method of election or of adding to the original founders, so as to continue 
 the body-corporate. It was a mystery to him who were the successors of 
 the original grantees, Lowe and Hamilton. " What do you mean," said 
 the bewildered Chancellor, " by the successors of Sir Henry Halford or 
 Dr. Baillie ? " [physicians to the King]. Further, the provisions of a charter 
 granted by a Scottish monarch in the sixteenth century appeared to him 
 
A LONG LAWSUIT 169 
 
 an astounding stretch of prerogative. " Here is a letter," said he, " from 
 King James VI., under the Privy Seal, which you choose to construe a 
 charter, which is a letter agreed on all hands to have been written to the 
 Privy Seal, and in which King James VI. assumes to himself the power 
 which I never heard any king had before, of making his Surgeon and a 
 Doctor of Physic a Corporation ; and it speaks to their ' successors,' and 
 in another part to their ' brethren ' without telling you who they are, and it 
 gives them large and extensive powers . . . extending over Renfrewshire, 
 Lanarkshire, and about half Scotland, and giving them power which they 
 have no more right to confer upon others than I have to confer upon 
 Mr. Currie at the table." This was a novel point of view ; but the main 
 question raised being one pertaining to Scots law, the case was sent back to 
 the Second Division of the Court of Session. The opinion of the whole of 
 the judges was to be taken whether the Faculty were a corporation clothed 
 with the rights which they claimed in this action. 
 
 When this question was debated in the Edinburgh Parliament House, 
 it was contended by the University that one of the essentials for con- 
 stituting a body corporate was awanting in the charter — a special name or 
 title. Another alleged fatal omission was that of " incorporating words " in 
 the document. The power to enact bye-laws was alleged to be doubtful. 
 The provisions of the charter involved an illegal stretch of prerogative. 
 The taking out of a municipal charter — the "Seal of Cause" — in 1656 was 
 an acknowledgment that up to that date the members were unincorporated. 
 The renunciation of that civic charter in 1722 necessarily ended the cor- 
 poration. These and arguments of a more technical kind were urged, but 
 they made no impression on the consulted judges. The Court saw at once 
 that the Lord-Chancellor's doubts were caused by his looking at a Scottish 
 charter with the eye of an English lawyer. They held that the absence of 
 a special name and of incorporating words was of no moment. As to a 
 name, the christening of a corporation might be necessary in England : in 
 Scotland, nothing was requisite but a grant from a competent authority. 
 The judges pointed out what were the provisions for perpetuating the body, 
 and that these were expressed in the usual and appropriate style of the 
 period. After a review of the history of the Faculty from its origin, the 
 Court unanimously gave it as their opinion " that few cases have occurred, 
 if, indeed, any one, in which the possession of corporation privileges for 
 nearly two centuries and a half had been proved by such overwhelming 
 evidence": and decision was given in accordance with this opinion. The 
 judges further stated "that they felt somewhat astonished at this remit to 
 take the opinion of the whole Court on a point on which there then lay 
 on the table of the House of Lords an opinion already obtained from the 
 whole Court, of the most full, minute, and comprehensive character." 
 
 On being taken back to the House of Lords, endorsed with this decision. 
 
lyo FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 expressed in a way as if meant for a slap on the face to the Chancellor, 
 the preliminary ground was completely cleared, and the case was debated 
 at great length on its merits in 1838; but it was not till the 7th August, 
 1840, that the final decision was given. It was in these words: "It is 
 ordered and adjudged by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament 
 assembled that the said Petition and Appeal be, and is hereby dismissed 
 the House; and that the said Interlocutors therein complained of be, and 
 the same are hereby affirmed." The costs followed the decision. 
 
 So ended this cause celebre, after dragging on its weary length through 
 the law courts for fourteen years. Though the Faculty gained the suit, the 
 real loss was not all on the other side. The contest, indeed, was one which 
 both parties had good reason to deplore. We have traced its origin almost 
 to the first decade of the present century. The immediate result, on the 
 one side, was the exclusion of University professors from the higher offices 
 of the Faculty ; while, on the other, reprisals were made in several ways, 
 such as in wrecking Mr. Kirkman Finlay's well-meant efforts for the 
 welfare of the Faculty.^ For half a century, indeed, this lawsuit cast a 
 chilling blight on the relations of two neighbours under obligation to live 
 together in peace and harmony, as they were working separately for a 
 common end. " Tanta est discordia fraUnim !" " Tantaene aniniis coelestibus 
 irae ? " 
 
 ip. 156. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL (Continued) i 
 
 During the eighteenth century, in the middle of which it took its rise, we 
 have seen that the Glasgow Medical School was associated almost entirely 
 with the University. Cullen, it is true, inaugurated his brilliant career by 
 lecturing in his first year outside the University, and occasional courses were 
 given on special branches, such as those on midwifery, by Mr. James Muir 
 in 1759, and Mr. James Monteath in 1778. But these were intermittent 
 and exceptional ; the regular systematic teaching was intramural. With the 
 advent of the nineteenth century there began a great expansion of medical 
 teaching in Glasgow. All that had been wanting to give the necessary 
 stimulus was the institution of a good general hospital. The Royal Infir- 
 mary was opened for patients in 1794, and shortly after there was a 
 considerable increase in the number of medical students attending the 
 University. In the course of a decade the numbers went up by leaps and 
 bounds, and overflowed into the rooms of several private lecturers. It would, 
 however, be wrong to credit this enormous increase entirely, or even perhaps 
 mainly, to the enchanced reputation of the Glasgow School or its improved 
 facilities for medical teaching. The Medical School of the University was 
 still very incomplete. During the first fourteen years of the century, when 
 the number of students was increasing at an astonishing rate, it had no 
 professor of surgery or of midwifery, not to mention subjects of less im- 
 portance. Students who wished to attend regular classes on these subjects 
 had to seek for them outside the College. To a very considerable extent 
 the prosperity of the School was due to the great demand for army surgeons, 
 created by the long-continued continental wars in which the forces of Britain 
 took so prominent a share. This demand appears to have tasked to the 
 full the resources of the whole of the medical schools of the country. Add 
 to this that Glasgow had already begun the era in which her population has 
 increased at a phenomenal rate ; that the West of Scotland was also becoming 
 
 ' From Chapter xiv. 
 
172 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 rapidly more populous, and that the want of facilities for medical education 
 in Ulster brought over to Glasgow a large number of Irish students. The 
 following table shows the number of students enrolled in the anatomy class 
 of the University from 1790 to 1861 : 
 
 University Students of Anatomy, 1790-1861. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students. 
 
 1790 
 
 54 
 
 1808 
 
 199 
 
 1826 
 
 244 
 
 1844 
 
 74 
 
 1791 
 
 60 
 
 1809 
 
 208 
 
 1827 
 
 245 
 
 1845 
 
 59 
 
 1792 
 
 70 
 
 1810 
 
 232 
 
 1828 
 
 242 
 
 1846 
 
 71 
 
 1793 
 
 64 
 
 181I 
 
 259 
 
 1829 
 
 212 
 
 1847 
 
 67 
 
 1794 
 
 66 
 
 1812 
 
 280 
 
 1830 
 
 167 
 
 1848 
 
 117 
 
 1795 
 
 82 
 
 1813 
 
 352 
 
 1831 
 
 1S7 
 
 1849 
 
 133 
 
 1796 
 
 96 
 
 1814 
 
 254 
 
 1832 
 
 187 
 
 1850 
 
 130 
 
 1797 
 
 85 
 
 1815 
 
 166 
 
 1833 
 
 187 
 
 1851 
 
 130 
 
 1798 
 
 no 
 
 1816 
 
 140 
 
 1834 
 
 115 
 
 1852 
 
 134 
 
 1799 
 
 115 
 
 1817 
 
 164 
 
 1835 
 
 119 
 
 1853 
 
 142 
 
 1800 
 
 113 
 
 t8i8 
 
 200 
 
 1S36 
 
 97 
 
 1854 
 
 132 
 
 1801 
 
 102 
 
 1819 
 
 215 
 
 1837 
 
 87 
 
 1855 
 
 174 
 
 1802 
 
 98 
 
 1820 
 
 162 
 
 1838 
 
 76 
 
 1856 
 
 198 
 
 1803 
 
 91 
 
 1821 
 
 204 
 
 1839 
 
 80 
 
 1857 
 
 195 
 
 1804 
 
 lOI 
 
 1822 
 
 186 
 
 1840 
 
 61 
 
 1858 
 
 205 
 
 1805 
 
 144 
 
 1823 
 
 199 
 
 184I 
 
 70 
 
 1859 
 
 240 
 
 1806 
 
 177 
 
 1824 
 
 265 
 
 1842 
 
 49 
 
 i860 
 
 256 
 
 1807 
 
 170 
 
 1825 
 
 277 
 
 1843 
 
 65 
 
 1861 
 
 166 
 
 These statistics were made up by the late Professor Allen Thomson from the books of his 
 predecessor and his own. We are indebted to Professor George Buchanan for a copy of them. 
 (See Address by him, Glasgow Medical Journal, Nov. 1 87 1.) 
 
 It is not difficult from these figures to trace the operation of outside causes 
 on the numerical progress of the school. They bring into strong relief the 
 enormous demand for medical men from 1804 to 18 14, the crucial period 
 of the great French war. The culminating point was reached in 181 3 — that 
 is, the session 18 13-14. After the battle of Waterloo there is a sudden 
 slackening of the demand. In the fifties there is a renewed increase, 
 probably to some extent influenced by the long agitation for medical reform 
 and the fear of more exacting regulations which marked that decade, eventu- 
 ating in the Medical Act of 1858. It must also be borne in mind in 
 reading these figures that from 1797 on to about 1828 there was an 
 unattached group of private lecturers under the general name of the College 
 Street School, some of whom, such as Allan Burns, and Granville Sharp 
 Pattison, attracted to their dissecting rooms large numbers of students ; that 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 1 73 
 
 from the beginning of the century onwards Anderson's University taught 
 anatomy with steadily increasing numbers of students till about the 'forties, 
 when its numbers almost doubled those of the old College, the University class 
 being temporarily on the wane; and that from 1830 to 1844 the Portland 
 Street School existed, with numbers less indeed than those of the Andersonian, 
 but still with a creditable clientele of students. The gradual decline of the 
 University students of anatomy from 1834 to 1847 was, no doubt, due to 
 the failing health and energies of the venerable professor of that subject, 
 and to its being handicapped in this respect by its two formidable rivals. 
 The advent of a new and brilliant professor of anatomy in the University 
 in 1848 is signalized by the sudden bound of the numbers upwards, the 
 increase being steadily maintained in future years. 
 
 Leaving the figures to speak for themselves, when read in view of 
 those considerations, a glance down the roll of teachers in Glasgow 
 University^ during the period under review will show that the school 
 was, on the whole, fortunate in attracting the services of several men 
 eminent as teachers or as investigators, and one or two in both fields. 
 The long incumbency of Dr. John Burns, of the Chair of Surgery 
 (1815-50), was of much advantage to the University. During his not 
 very extended career as a teacher of anatomy he had earned the reputa- 
 tion of being an able expounder of that science. This reputation went 
 with him to the Chair of Surgery, and added to that which he further 
 acquired, of being, through his works on the subject, the most popular 
 expounder of midwifery in his day, was the means of attracting students 
 from a distance. As a man who combined strength of character with 
 great suavity of manner, as much as for his lucidity as a teacher, he sur- 
 vives in the memory of a very few old pupils. The long tenure of office 
 of Dr. James Jeffray, the Professor of Anatomy (1790- 1848), was of less 
 advantage to the University School, owing to the failure of health and 
 physical energy which marked his later years.^ Than his successor. Dr. 
 Allen Thomson, probably no one did more for the prosperity of the 
 school, his services as a teacher being in keeping with his lustre as a 
 man of science. Chemistry is a subject in the investigation and ex- 
 pounding of which Glasgow has been exceptionally strong. As we shall 
 presently see, the extramural school was very fortunate in their teachers 
 of chemistry. Within the University the department was represented for 
 a generation by a man of profound knowledge of the subject and oi 
 European reputation as a chemist — Dr. Thomas Thomson. In the depart- 
 ment of Botany three successive teachers such as Dr. Robert Graham, 
 Sir William Joseph Hooker, and Dr. John Hutton Balfour are not often 
 
 'See p. 185. 
 
 2 Dr. Jeffray was ably assisted by Dr. Thomas Marshall, his nephew, who acted as 
 his demonstrator, and who gained considerable repute in Scotland as a lithotomist. 
 
174 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 met with. The mention of the names of tliis trio recalls the fact that 
 they were all translated to other spheres of labour — the first- and last- 
 named to Edinburgh, and Sir William Hooker to the gardens at Kew. 
 The tendency of good Glasgow men to gravitate to other centres has been 
 seen in operation as regards some of the founders of the Glasgow School 
 in the eighteenth century. It has been to some extent operative in the 
 present century, as shown in the translation to Edinburgh of Mr. (now 
 Sir Joseph) Lister, Dr. Alexander Dickson, and Dr. Bayley Balfour, in 
 addition to the three above-named. A counter-movement to this was to 
 have taken place in 1833, when Dr. Robert Lee, a London specialist of 
 some name, was appointed to the Chair of Midwifery. He seems, how- 
 ever, to have changed his mind, as, though formally inducted by the Senate, 
 he never entered on duty ; but his name occurs in the Calendar list of past 
 professors. 
 
 Did space permit, something might be said as to the exercise of 
 patronage to the Crown Chairs in Glasgow during the first third of the 
 century. To a considerable extent it seems to have been either exercised 
 or influenced by the Duke of Montrose, Chancellor of the University. It 
 was occasionally subjected, and not without adequate reason, to the most 
 unsparing criticism. This was especially the case in the presentation to 
 the Chair of Medicine, in 1827, of Dr. Charles Badham, when what 
 may be described as quite an explosion of indignation occurred. The 
 event may be said to have justified to a considerable extent the com- 
 motion it caused. A man of classical erudition, and an elegant lecturer, 
 it was complained of him that his prelections were academic in the 
 secondary and questionable sense of having little relation to practice. It 
 was averred, indeed, that they were often devoted to subjects more 
 allied to the belles lettres than either the theory ^ or the practice of 
 physic. For a few years he taught, or was understood to teach, both 
 these departments ; but eventually, by some arrangement, the subject of 
 the theory or institutes of medicine was handed over to be taught by Dr. 
 Harry Rainy. This continued for seven years, and it was certainly 
 somewhat hard measure for the latter when, on the institution of the 
 Chair in that subject in 1839, such a competent teacher found himself 
 ousted from his position, though the appointment of Dr. Andrew Buchanan 
 to the post involved an important accession to the ranks of men of mark 
 in the professoriate. In the same year a Chair of Forensic Medicine was 
 founded, the first incumbent of which was Dr. Robert Cowan, a man of 
 great promise, who had already made his mark in the fields of vital 
 statistics and epidemiology. His premature death, after only two years 
 of office, left a vacancy, which was filled up by the appointment of Dr. 
 
 ^ The Theory of Medicine included the subjects now connoted by the terms Physiology, 
 Pathology, and Preventive Medicine. 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 175 
 
 Rainy, who was thus in some measure compensated for the loss of the 
 Chair of Physiology, and who worthily filled the position for upwards of 
 thirty years. 
 
 Our limits forbid us to notice other changes ; but, before turning from 
 the University to the extramural school, it may not be out of place to 
 advert for a moment to the policy adopted and persisted in by the Senate 
 of the University, down even to the present generation, of ignoring, for 
 graduation purposes, systematic medical instruction given in Glasgow outside 
 the College. That the policy was narrow, short-sighted, and detrimental 
 to the best interests of the University is now acknowledged on all hands. 
 Hence it resulted that the wholesome competition, which in the Edinburgh 
 school gave such a stimulus to individual professorial excellence, and permitted 
 to the student a proper alternative to his attending the prelections of a dull 
 or an indolent professor, was awanting in Glasgow. The oddity of a body 
 whose medical members had, individually, been mostly teachers in non- 
 University schools, and owed their position to that very fact, systematically 
 treating their old colleagues as virtually incompetent teachers, seems to have 
 struck the public more forcibly than it did the learned professors. The 
 wonder grew when it was seen that not even the promulgation of extremely 
 radical and liberal opinions on the subject, on the part of an outside lecturer, 
 failed to avert the inevitable metamorphosis of judgment which ensued as 
 soon as he had attained the coveted professorship. It is consolatory to 
 reflect that the mistake then made can never again recur ; and there is 
 now no danger that the feeling underlying it may find other modes of 
 manifestation. 
 
 To one momentous departure made by the University in 1 8 1 6 in regard 
 to the granting of degrees, reference has been made in another connection 
 in the immediately preceding chapter.^ This was the institution by the 
 University of a new degree, that of Chirurgiae Magister. At the time it 
 was only a single move in a game in which the University and the Faculty 
 of Physicians and Surgeons were the two players. Though the move did 
 not serve its immediate purpose, the Faculty having been able to checkmate 
 it by an appeal to law, and though the success of the scheme, as measured 
 by the number of those who availed themselves of the new degree, was 
 not great, it gave rise, or pointed the way, to a most important change 
 half a century later. It was the institution of this degree as an accomplished 
 fact which virtually enabled the Scottish University Commissioners, under 
 the Universities Act of 1858, to extend the degree and validate it in all 
 the Scottish Universities. It was natural that such a departure from the 
 established medical policy of this country should be strongly contested. The 
 medical corporations of Scotland joined with the Royal Collcgjes of Surgeons 
 of England and of Ireland in opposition, which they carried to the Privy 
 
 'P. 165. 
 
176 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Council.^ Round the step taken by the University of Glasgow in 1816 
 the controversy raged. The legal validity of that step ; the inherent power 
 of an University to grant such a degree ; the fitness of surgery to be hall- 
 marked by a separate academic testamur ; the history and evolution of 
 surgical degrees on the continent, especially in Italy, and their relation to 
 the masterships of the corporations of surgeons there : on these and kindred 
 topics the discussions of 1861 shed a fierce light. The movement initiated 
 in 1 8 16, though not successful in respect to its immediate object, must be 
 regarded in a very different light if we trace it as culminating in the 
 institution of a degree in surgery in all the Universities of Scotland. 
 
 To another matter we must also briefly refer in this place, as it equally 
 concerned the University school of which we have spoken and the extra- 
 mural schools of which we are about to speak. The question of the 
 mode in which the necessities of a large anatomical school, such as existed 
 in Glasgow for a quarter of a century before the passing of the Anatomy 
 Act, were supplied, is inevitably suggested by the statistics given above, and 
 those to be stated in connection with the outside schools. The number of 
 students studying anatomy in Glasgow about the year 1 8 1 4 has been 
 estimated as about 800." For the use of such a number almost the only 
 legalized means of obtaining subjects was by voluntary contract with 
 relatives, from which source there would probably be almost no supply ; 
 and by claiming the victims of the gallows, the supply from which source 
 was, as need not be said, wholly inadequate.^ This raises the question 
 whether there is any evidence that there existed a lack of materiel for the 
 supply of the Glasgow dissecting rooms in the first third of the century. 
 At a meeting of the medical profession held in London in 1826, in 
 reference to a reform of the College of Surgeons, Mr. (afterwards Sir) William 
 Lawrence said : " But, gentlemen, I have a more material objection to state, 
 and it is to the catalogue of the schools of instruction to which the 
 privilege of recognition has been conceded — Aberdeen, Glasgow ! We know, 
 gentlemen, that at least anatomy cannot be studied in these places with any 
 hope of success. We are all, I believe, aware, and no one is more ready 
 than myself to acknowledge the great talents and acquirements of the 
 gentlemen at the head of the anatomical schools in these places ; but we 
 are also aware that they are destitute of subjects!' This statement so 
 definitely made at once provoked a denial from persons in Glasgow who 
 had evidently an intimate knowledge of the facts. It was averred that 
 so far from Mr. Lawrence's assertion being true, the supply in Glasgow 
 
 ^Report of Proceedings before a Comtnittee of the Privy Council relative to the Ordinances 
 of the Scottish Universities Commissioners. Edinburgh, 1861. 
 "'Lancet^ ix. 839. 
 3 From 1765 to 1830 the total number executed in Glasgow was 89. 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 1 77 
 
 was better and very much cheaper than in Edinburgh, and even London 
 itself. One correspondent of the Lancet, taking a retrospect within his own 
 experience, stated that in 18 14, though the total number studying anatomy 
 was not less than 800, he never knew a student obliged to wait for longer 
 than three or four days before he could be provided for dissection, whereas 
 in London it was a common experience to wait a month. He also stated 
 from his own knowledge that in 18 16 and 18 17 Dr. Barclay's dissecting 
 room in Edinburgh was supplied in great measure from that of Mr. Granville 
 Sharp Pattison in Glasgow. These statements remained unchallenged, and 
 we may therefore assume that even at the period when the dissecting rooms 
 were most crowded, there existed in Glasgow no lack of anatomical material. 
 There is no doubt that a varying amount of this supply was afforded by an 
 irregular traffic with Ireland, ghastly glimpses into which, through misadventure 
 or inadvertence, occasionally shocked a portion of the public.^ 
 
 The remaining source of supply was the illegitimate one of clandestine 
 exhumation. It is verj^ difficult now to form any proper estimate of the 
 extent of " resurrectionism " in Glasgow and the surrounding district. Most, 
 if not all, of those who, as students, profited by or took part in it, have 
 departed, and few of them knew much beyond the doings of their own 
 coteries.- This method of supply never received any official sanction, nor, 
 indeed, in theory, anything but official reprobation. The system of allowing 
 the probably inconsiderable number of students who personally took part 
 in the work free tickets to the dissecting room was the nearest approach 
 to official cognizance. We have already given an extract from the Faculty 
 Records of the eighteenth century, in which the practice is very strongly 
 condemned,^ and similar Minutes of an earlier and later date could be quoted. 
 In reading these, the suspicion may, indeed, arise that the members protested 
 too much, and that the intensity of their abhorrence was not always in 
 direct ratio to the vigour of their fulminations. As early as 1749 there was 
 a riot in the town, arising from a mere suspicion that one of the City 
 graveyards had been violated. The military were called out, but not 
 before the most of the College windows had been smashed. A similar 
 ihneute occurred in 18 14, on which occasion some students were tried 
 and acquitted for want of evidence. As time went on, members of the 
 profession were at last driven into the position of appearing as a()ologists 
 of the practice. A licentiate of the Faculty, Dr. Mathie Hamilton, 
 in 1824 published, under the pseudonym " Aliquis," a pamphlet entitled. 
 Remarks on the Question, Are there any circumstances in which the lifting of 
 the dead is justifiable ? in which he vigorously advocated the affirmative. 
 
 ' Mackenzie's Reminiscences of Glasi^ow, ll. 473. 
 
 ^ For some information on the point, see an article by Dr. Geo. Buchanan in the 
 Glasgow Medical JouT^ial, January, 1855, 385 ; Mackenzie's Reminiscences of Glasgow, II. 
 476, et seq.; Lancet, X. 184. -'W 127. 
 
 M 
 
178 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 In the same year there also appeared in Glasgow, from the pen of Dr. 
 William Mackenzie, at that time teacher of anatomy and surgery in Anderson's 
 University, one of the ablest and most powerful presentations of the case 
 for providing by legal enactment for the wants of the medical schools.^ 
 He strongly insisted on the absolute dependence of the healing art on 
 anatomy, and pointed out that the only alternative to affording legalized 
 facilities for practising operations on the dead subject was practice on the 
 bodies of the living poor. " Would to God," he exclaimed, " that the eyes 
 of the public were opened to the consequences of their idolatry of the 
 dead ! They would then spurn with contempt the plans of those ignorant 
 men who have vapoured over the midnight bowl that they would put an 
 end to anatomy, blind to the widely disastrous effects which their plans, if 
 carried out, must speedily produce in the best and dearest interests of 
 humanity." He proceeded to sketch a scheme not essentially different from 
 that afterwards given effect to in Warburton's Anatomy Act. Dr. Mackenzie's 
 " Appeal " created some sensation at the time, and in subsequent discussions 
 on the subject it was often referred to. But it was not till the public were 
 thoroughly alarmed by the terrible Edinburgh disclosures a few years later 
 that the clamant necessity for legislative enactment was generally acquiesced in. 
 It is now time that we should turn to the origin and early history 
 of extra- University teaching in Glasgow. In 1796 Mr. John Burns, son 
 of the minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, was admitted to the member- 
 ship of the Faculty when he was little more than twenty-one years of age. 
 In 1797 he rented rooms at the north-west corner of the head of Virginia 
 Street for the teaching of anatomy, to which was afterwards added surgery, 
 and eventually midwifery, and other subjects. Though so young, he at once 
 proved himself an accomplished teacher, and his rooms were soon well 
 attended. In the course of a year his brother Allan, a youth not much 
 over sixteen, who had studied medicine for two years, joined him, and was 
 soon installed in charge of the dissecting room. The latter threw himself 
 into the work with such rare zest and enthusiasm that he soon made for 
 himself a reputation as a practical anatomist. In 1799 John Burns was 
 taken under the wing of an institution which had been founded in Glasgow 
 some three years earlier, and in which, by the will of Dr. John Anderson, 
 F.R.S., the founder, he had been designated as first Professor of Anatomy 
 and the Theory of Surgery. Dr. Anderson was himself Professor of Natural 
 Philosophy in the University, and the will, in virtue of which " Anderson's 
 University " took its origin, was in several respects a remarkable document. 
 Never probably was there an instance of wider disparity between the magni- 
 ficence of the intentions of the founder of an institution and the narrowness 
 of the means left to carry them into effect. The institution was to be a 
 
 ^ An Appeal to the Public and to the Legislature on the necessity of affording dead 
 bodies to the Schools of Anatomy by legislative enactment. Glasgow, 1824. 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 1 79 
 
 University, not in name only, but in fact, and of a type more advanced 
 than any then existing academic foundation. It was to be governed by 
 eighty-one Trustees, nine in each of the nine classes — tradesmen, agriculturists, 
 artists, manufacturers or merchants, mediciners, lawyers, divines, natural philo- 
 sophers, and kinsmen of the founder. It was to consist of four colleges 
 — arts, medicine, law, and theology — and each college was to contain nine 
 professors. In each of the colleges, or faculties, degrees were to be granted — 
 Bachelor and Master of Arts, Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine, Bachelor and 
 Doctor of Law, and Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity. As regards the validity 
 of the degrees, the testator avowedly went on the cynical principle that they 
 could be taken for what they were worth, " valeant quantum valere possunt." 
 The whole of the thirty-six first incumbents of the chairs were named in 
 the Will. The nine professorships in arts were physics, ethics, logic and 
 rhetoric, Greek, senior Latin, junior Latin, civil history, mathematics, and 
 chemistry ; the law chairs were Roman law, law of Scotland, English law, 
 law of nations and nature, Roman antiquities, Scottish antiquities, ecclesiastical 
 law, commercial law, and the practice of the Scottish Courts — a list which 
 involves a pretty comprehensive connotation of the term " law." The subjects 
 of the theological faculty were, systematic Divinity according to the Church 
 of Scotland, critical explanation of the Scriptures, Church history. Oriental 
 languages, the Burgher system of Divinity, the Anti-burgher system, the Relief 
 .system, the Gaelic language, and sacred music — a mode of solution of the 
 question of the theological chairs, the principle of which would probably not 
 commend itself to the present Scotti-sh Universities Commission. The medical 
 professorships, with the persons designated as the first incumbents, were — 
 (i) Dr. Peter Wright, Institutes of Medicine; (2) Mr. James Monteath, Practice 
 of Medicine ; (3) Mr. John Burns, Anatomy and the Theory of Surgery ; 
 (4) Mr. Peter Rolland, Practical Surgery ; (5) Mr. William Anderson, 
 Obstetrics ; (6) Dr. John Balmanno, Materia Medica ; (7) Mr. John Scruton, 
 " Professor of Clinical Cases " ; (8) Mr. Robert Cowan, Botany ; (9) Mr. David 
 Ure, preacher of the Gospel, Natural History. The last-named was the author 
 of the History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride, published in 1793. The 
 other eight were members of the Faculty, though in two cases their technical 
 qualifications for the particular offices to which they were designated might 
 be challenged from the stand-point of the present day. Thus, Mr. James 
 Monteath, appointed Professor of the Practice of Medicine, wa.s, at the date 
 of the Will, and a dozen years thereafter, a surgeon in general practice, though 
 he eventually took a degree in medicine ; while nearly the .same description 
 held good of Mr. John Scruton, designated to be "Professor of Clinical Ca.ses," 
 by which it is presumed " medical cases " were meant, there being another 
 professor named for practical surgery, who never possessed any qualification 
 but the surgical membership. 
 
 In judging of this scheme of a new Univcrsit)' apart from the men and 
 
i8o FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the means of carrying it into operation, one must not forget its ideal character. 
 Dr. Anderson had before him no counterpart in fact of a foundation on these 
 lines. Viewed thus, it cannot be denied that in some respects at least it 
 was in advance of anything then founded, and that it anticipated by several 
 years the foundation of chairs on certain special subjects, the scientific teach- 
 ing of women, and the popularization of science by lectures. The grouping 
 of the subjects betokens a kind of fantastic desire for symmetry, which also 
 oddly peeps out in his fixing his quarterly meetings on astronomical dates, 
 the summer and the winter solstice, and the vernal and the autumn equinox. 
 It would appear as if, having fixed the number of subjects in the Faculty 
 of Arts, the subjects of the other colleges were made to correspond by numerical 
 equipoise, though in some cases their connection with the department in 
 which they are placed is somewhat far-fetched. Some of the disciplinary 
 provisions of the will were so expressed as to serve the double purpose 
 of regulating his institution, and administering a kick to his old University 
 colleagues. Dr. Anderson was a good hater, and did not conceal his feelings. 
 Before the date of the will he had been greatly exasperated at the loss of a 
 lawsuit against the University concerning money matters. " The professors 
 of this University," so ran the will, " shall not be permitted, as in some other 
 colleges, to be drones or triflers, drunkards, or negligent of their duty in any 
 manner of way." The most minute provisions are made that no person 
 connected with the University of Glasgow, even in the position of a servant, 
 or an instrument-maker, was to be connected in any way with the new 
 institution. By this means he hoped that " the almost constant intrigues 
 which prevail in the Faculty of Glasgow College, about their revenue, and 
 the nomination of professors, and their acts of vanity or power, influenced 
 by a collegiate life, will be kept out of Anderson's University, and the 
 irregularities and neglect of duty in the professors of Glasgow College will 
 be corrected by a rival school of education." 
 
 Such were some of the leading provisions of the will of Dr. John 
 Anderson, which was not published in full for many years after his death, 
 the Managers, it was averred, acting in this way under legal advice, in case 
 an action at law might lie against them for the publication of some of its 
 pithy passages. 
 
 The only provision of this magnificent scheme, which the funds 
 available — about £1000 — allowed the Trustees to inaugurate forthwith, 
 was that having reference to the " Physical Lectures." The first lecturer 
 was Dr. Thomas Garnett, appointed in 1796. He was succeeded by Dr. G. 
 Birkbeck in 1799, who, in his turn, had as successor, in 1804, Dr. Andrew 
 Ure. Neither of the two first lecturers formed any part of the College 
 of Medicine contemplated in the will ; they were expounders of science 
 to popular audiences. Dr. Ure was in the same position during the first 
 years of his appointment, and even possibly throughout his tenure of 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL l8l 
 
 office. There is evidence to show that he lectured to medical students 
 both in chemistry and materia medica ; but whether in connection with 
 Anderson's institution has not been ascertained. In reference to Dr. 
 Anderson's will, Dr. John Burns occupied the singular position of being 
 the only professor, out of thirty-six in posse nominated by the testator, 
 who became a professor in esse of the institution. His connection with 
 the Andersonian College of Medicine was, however, little more than titular. 
 He occupied his own rooms, which were changed from Virginia Street to 
 a tenement on the north side of College Street, and later to rooms on the 
 west side of John Street. Unfortunately he compromised himself by some 
 alleged connection with a case of illegal exhumation, and a prosecution 
 commenced was averted by his undertaking to discontinue the teaching 
 of anatomy, limiting his courses to surgery and midwifery. But, in 1 806, 
 the anatomy demonstrations were resumed by his brother Allan, who had 
 returned from Russia, where he had filled a post offered to him by the 
 Empress Catherine. Unlike his brother, Allan did not excel as a lecturer, 
 but as a demonstrator and dissector he was facile princeps ; and there 
 gathered around him a little knot of young men whom he infected with 
 his own enthusiasm, and who assisted him in his work. His brief but 
 brilliant career was terminated by death in 181 3 — a severe blow to the 
 Glasgow Medical School, on which he had already shed lustre. His 
 work on the Anatomy of the Head and Neck is one of the most note- 
 worthy contributions to anatomy which the Glasgow School has yet made, 
 and his Observations on Diseases of the Heart was long a classic on the 
 subject. In the year 1 8 1 i the ranks of the extramural teachers were 
 reinforced by a lecturer on medicine. This was Dr. Robert Watt, after- 
 wards so celebrated in the field of bibliography. He continued to teach 
 the subject for several years, till his absorption in the compilation of his 
 Bibliotheca Britannica, and his uncertain health, compelled him to contract 
 his labours. Of the little coterie whom Allan Burns had gathered around 
 him, the teacher who took his place was Granville Sharp Pattison, who 
 afterwards became his biographer. In 18 18 Mr. Pattison was appointed 
 Profes.sor of Anatomy and Surgery in Anderson's University, still 
 occupying the premises in John Street. A man of brilliant abilities as 
 an expounder of anatomy, his life throughout was greatly marred by his 
 rare genius for getting himself into trouble. Flven during his brief career 
 in Glasgow he showed a taste of his quality in this respect,^ and his departure 
 from the City, which was made under a cloud, was perhaps on that account 
 the less to be regretted, though it was a distinct loss to the Glasgow Medical 
 School. 
 
 Of the group of teachers known as the College Street School, little 
 further requires to be added. Besides John and Allan Burns, there 
 
 '.See Chnp. xvi. 148. 
 
1 82 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 lectured in it at various times, on anatomy, Mr. Andrew Russell, who 
 had been tried and acquitted in connection with a " resurrectionist " charge 
 in 1 8 14; Dr. George C. Monteath, who eventually devoted himself to 
 ophthalmology, and whose place of teaching and dissecting room was latterly 
 in Gallowgate ; Dr. John Robertson, and, latterly, Mr. James Douglas, for a 
 short time, about 1835. Dr. Scouler lectured on botany in 1832 ; Dr. 
 William Thomson on anatomy, surgery, and pathology, 1828-32; Dr. John 
 Nimmo on medicine in 1835 ; and there were probably others. The exact 
 date at which the premises in College Street were closed as a medical school 
 has not been ascertained. 
 
 The medical school of Anderson's institution differed from the group of 
 teachers last-mentioned, and also from the Portland Street School, about to 
 be noticed, in so far that it was not a voluntary association of teachers, but 
 organized under a directorate, who appointed the teachers. The names of 
 the successive teachers up to the middle of the century, beyond which our 
 survey does not extend, will be found in the table at the end of this 
 chapter ; and although it is true that some of them had only a local reputa- 
 tion, others — such as Burns, Pattison, Mackenzie, Ure, Graham, and Penny — 
 attained to celebrity. In the domain of chemistry, as the last three of 
 these names will suggest, Anderson's College was exceptionally fortunate, 
 and the remark would be equally justified were the list of incumbents of 
 the Chair further down the century added to those of its early part. 
 
 One general remark in reference to the " Andersonian," as it is still 
 familiarly called, seems to be fully justified by the facts. It is this, that 
 the success and reputation early achieved by the Medical College of the 
 institution was in no sense owing to the fostering care of its governing 
 body. Of no school would it be less true to affirm that it was rocked 
 and dandled into prosperity. On the contrary, though conspicuously the 
 most successful of all the departments of John Anderson's ideal institution, 
 to the realization of which any attempt was made, yet it received the 
 least help of them all from the management. The teachers owed nothing 
 to the direction but a title and the tenancy of the rooms, for which latterly 
 they paid an adequate rent. Yet, in spite of the stepmotherly treatment, in 
 spite also of its being cold-shouldered by the University, the old Ander- 
 sonian Medical School grew and flourished, attracting students from far 
 and near, of whom a fair proportion gained good positions in various 
 departments of practice, and some attained to eminence. The following 
 table shows the numbers in the anatomy classes for twenty years. 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 183 
 
 The Andersonian Students of Anatomy.^ 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students 
 
 OF 
 
 Anatomy. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students 
 
 OF 
 
 Anatomy. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students 
 
 OF 
 
 Anatomy. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Students 
 
 of 
 Anatomy. 
 
 1841 
 
 120 
 
 1846 
 
 121 
 
 1851 
 
 115 
 
 1856 
 
 144 
 
 1842 
 
 116 
 
 1847 
 
 126 
 
 1852 
 
 98 
 
 1857 
 
 165 
 
 1843 
 
 loS 
 
 1848 
 
 122 
 
 1853 
 
 I 10 
 
 1858 
 
 176 
 
 1844 
 
 120 
 
 1849 
 
 145 
 
 1854 
 
 125 
 
 1859 
 
 161 
 
 1845 
 
 140 
 
 1850 
 
 153 
 
 185s 
 
 136 
 
 i860 
 
 160 
 
 The curious in such matters may compare these figures with the corre- 
 sponding statistics for the anatomy classes of the University of Glasgow during 
 the same period. 
 
 The precise date of the opening of the Portland Street School we 
 have been unable to ascertain, but it was before 1827.^ Dr. A. Hannay 
 taught medicine there, and Dr. James Armour midwifery and medical juris- 
 prudence, before their translation to Anderson's College. It is stated that 
 Thomas Graham lectured there on chemistry in 1828, but who his colleagues 
 ("if any) were does not appear. In 1830 it developed into a fairly-equipped 
 medical school, with Dr. William Weir as secretary. The list of teachers 
 from this date up to 1844, when the school may be said to have closed 
 (though one, and possibly two teachers continued to occupy the place till 
 about 1850), will be found in the table subjoined. Two of the lecturers, 
 in addition to the two just named, Dr. Moses S. Buchanan and Mr. Thomas 
 Graham, were transferred to Anderson's College, and one, Dr. John M. 
 Pagan, to the University ; and it will be noted that a considerable number 
 of the Andersonian professors were also translated to the University School. 
 Having given some statistics of the other medical schools, those of the 
 Portland Street School, as far as they have been ascertained, are here 
 tabulated : 
 
 'Extracted from the Anutoiny Class Roll-I)()ok, lent for the purpose by Dr. Gcor^'c 
 Buchanan. 
 
 '^ Lance ty xii. 343, 796. 
 
1 84 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Portland Street School. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Total 
 Attendance. 
 
 Anatomy 
 
 ONLY. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Total 
 Attendance. 
 
 Anatomy 
 
 ONLY. 
 
 1830 
 1831 
 1832 
 1836 
 
 143 
 178 
 108 
 166 
 
 50 
 
 77 
 61 
 
 55 
 
 1837 
 1838 
 
 1839 
 1840 
 
 183 
 188 
 186 
 109 
 
 64 
 80 
 90 
 72 
 
 These figures are taken from the School Roll-book, now in the Faculty Library. 
 
 We have been unable to ascertain any special causes operating to 
 weaken the school after 1840; but it appears to have gradually gone 
 down in a few years, one teacher dropping off after another, and no 
 lecturers being found sufficiently venturesome to step in and supply the 
 vacancy. The school thus died of inanition. In the session 1843-44 the 
 only teachers announced were those of anatomy, surgery, and practical 
 chemistry. Of the next, and presumably the last, session of the school, 
 as such, no announcement has been found ; but it appears that courses of 
 anatomy, physiology, and surgery were started, and probably also 
 chemistry, which was continued a {q\v years longer. In the anatomy 
 room that session there coruscated for something less than a month the 
 brilliant, but somewhat erratic genius of the unfortunate Dr. Robert 
 Knox. For the exile from Edinburgh the Portland Street class-room 
 was only a forlorn hope. But, in spite of his misfortunes, he seems to 
 have lost nothing of his old clearness of exposition, and facility and 
 aptness of illustration. The late Dr. William Weir, himself umquhill 
 teacher of medicine in the school, went to listen, and was fascinated 
 by the lecturer. But his class was small, and before the end of 
 November Knox had returned to the students their fees and taken his 
 departure.^ 
 
 ' Sketch of the Life and Writings of Robert Knox, the Anatomist, by Henry Lonsdale, M.D., 
 Lond., 1870. 
 
THE GLASGOW MEDICAL SCHOOL 
 
 185 
 
 Table showing the Teachers in the Medical Schools of Glasgow to 
 the passing of the Medical Act, 1858, and the subjects they 
 respectively taught. 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY. 
 
 ANDERSONIAN. 
 
 PORTLAND ST. SCHOOL. 
 
 SUBJECT. 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 
 1637-46 
 
 Robert Maine. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1714 
 
 John Johnstoun. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1751 
 
 Wm. CuUen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Medicine, i 
 
 1756 
 
 Robert Hamilton. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1757 
 
 Joseph Black. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1766 
 
 Ale.x. Stevenson. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1789 
 
 Thos. Chas. Hope. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1796 
 
 Robert Freer. 
 
 
 
 1826 
 
 Alexander Hannay. 
 
 
 1827 
 
 Charles Badhani. 
 
 1828 
 
 Alexander Hannay. 
 
 1830-42 
 
 William Weir. 
 
 
 1841-52 
 
 1720 
 1742 
 1756 
 ^7S7 
 1781 
 
 Wm. Thomson. 
 
 Thomas Brisbane. 
 Robert Hamilton. 
 Joseph Black. 
 Thomas Hamilton. 
 William Hamilton. 
 
 1846-63 
 
 Andrew Anderson. 
 
 
 
 Anatomy, - 
 
 1790 
 
 James Jeffray. 
 
 1799 
 
 John Burns. 
 
 
 
 1848-77 
 
 Allen Thomson. 
 
 1818 
 
 Granville S. Pattison. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1819 
 
 Wm. MacKenzic. 
 
 1826 
 
 Robert Hunter. 
 
 
 
 
 1828 
 
 Robert Hunter. 
 
 1830 
 1836 
 
 Peter Stirling. 
 Moses S. Buchanan. 
 
 
 
 
 1841-60 
 
 Moses S. Buchanan. 
 
 1841 
 
 James Douglas. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 Robert Knox. 
 
 
 
 
 1799 
 
 John Burns. 
 
 1826 
 
 Robert Hunter. 
 
 
 1815 
 
 John Burns. 
 
 1818 
 
 GranvilleS. Pattison. 
 
 1830 
 
 Wm. Auchencloss. 
 
 Surgery, 
 
 
 
 1819 
 1829 
 
 Wm. MacKenzie. 
 James A. Lawrie 
 
 
 
 
 1850-59 
 
 James A. Lawrie. 
 
 1850-60 
 
 Robert Hunter. 
 
 1840-44 
 
 William Lyon. 
 
 
 1815 
 
 James Towers. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1820 
 
 John Towers. 
 
 
 
 1826 
 
 James .Armour. 
 
 MiDVVIKEKY, ■ 
 
 1833 
 
 [Robert Lee.] 
 
 1828 
 
 James .Armour. 
 
 1830 
 
 James Wilson. 
 
 
 1834 
 
 Wni. Cummin. 
 
 1831 
 
 James Brown. 
 
 1838 
 
 Charles Ritchie. 
 
 
 1840-68 
 
 John M. Pagan. 
 
 Lecturers. 
 
 1841-63 
 
 James Paterson. 
 
 1840 
 
 Maxwell Adams. 
 
 
 1747 
 
 William C'ullcn. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1756 
 
 Joseph Black. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1766 
 
 John Robison. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1769 
 
 William Irvine. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chemistry, 7 
 
 1787 
 1791 
 
 Thomas C. Hope. 
 Robert Cleghorn. 
 
 Professor, 
 
 
 
 1828 
 
 Thomas Graham. 
 
 
 1818-52 
 
 Thomas Thomson. 
 
 1830 
 1837 
 
 Thomas Graham. 
 Wm. Gregory. 
 
 '833 
 
 James \PConechy. 
 
 
 
 
 1839-70 
 
 Frederick Penny. 
 
 1836-44 
 
 Robert M'Gregor. 
 
1 86 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 SUBJECT. 
 
 UNIVERSITY. 
 
 ANDERSONIAN. 
 
 PORTLAND ST. SCHOOL. 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Botany, 
 
 Materia 
 Medica, \ 
 
 Physiology, - 
 
 Medical ( 
 
 Juris- "j 
 
 prudence, (. 
 
 Natural ( 
 
 Hi. STORY, 
 
 1818 
 
 1821 
 
 1841 
 
 1845-68 
 
 1766 
 1787 
 1788 
 1791 
 
 1831 
 
 1834 
 
 1855-65 
 
 1839-76 
 
 1839 
 1841-72 
 
 1807 
 
 1829 
 
 1857-66 
 
 Robert Graham. 
 Sir Wm. Jos. Hookei- 
 John H. Balfour. 
 G.A.Walker-Arnott 
 
 Lecturers. 
 
 Wm. Irvine. 
 Thomas C. Hope. 
 Richard Cleghorn, 
 Richard Millar. 
 
 Professors. 
 
 Richard Millar. 
 John Couper. 
 John A. Easton. 
 
 Andrew Buchanan. 
 
 Robert Cowan. 
 Harry Rainy. 
 
 Lockhart Muirhead. 
 Wm. Couper. 
 Henry D. Rogers. 
 
 1819 
 1847-63 
 
 1828 
 
 1838 
 
 1840 
 
 1855-88 
 
 1840 
 
 1846 
 
 1850-76 
 
 1831 
 
 1842 
 
 1856-63 
 
 William Cummin. 
 Joseph Bell. 
 
 Andrew Buchanan. 
 
 Wm. Hooker. 
 John A. Easton. 
 James Morton. 
 
 Andrew Anderson. 
 Maxwell Adams. 
 Eben. Watson. 
 
 Geo. Watt. 
 John Crawford. 
 J. B. Cowan. 
 
 1840-42 
 
 1827 
 1830 
 
 1841-42 
 
 1830 
 
 1833 
 
 1836 
 
 1839-42 
 
 1826 
 
 1830 
 
 1841.42 
 
 1042.43 
 
 David Gibson. 
 
 Wm. MacKenzie. 
 Wm. Davidson. 
 
 J. D. Muter, 
 
 William Weir. 
 William Craig, 
 William Weir. 
 Wm. Macdonald, 
 
 James Armour, 
 I. M. Pagan. 
 H. Cleland, 
 John Jackson, 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 GLASGOW MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 
 
 As far as we can trace there existed no society in Glasgow for the discussion 
 of medical topics till the beginning of the present century. The earliest 
 in point of time seems to have been the Medico-Chirurgical of the University, 
 a students' society inaugurated in 1802, which still continues in vigorous 
 health. As regards societies for medical practitioners, the Glasgow Medical 
 Society usually gets the credit of being the parent association ; but a shade 
 of doubt is thrown on the point by a passage in its own first Minute book. 
 This occurs in the Minute of 5th October, 18 19, when a motion was sub- 
 mitted that the name of the society should be changed, on the ground " that 
 there exists in Glasgow another and older medical society of the same 
 name " ; but this motion was subsequently withdrawn. There was probably 
 no valid ground for the statement in the motion, as it is hardly conceivable 
 that the title of an elder existing society should have been assumed, or 
 that when the matter was challenged, the usurpation of title should have 
 been persisted in. The probability is that the association to which allusion 
 is made was the Glasgow Medical Club, to be afterwards referred to in 
 this chapter, and which may occasionally have been known as the Medical 
 Society. 
 
 The Glasgow Medical Society was founded in 18 14, the preparatory 
 meeting having been held on 27th October of that year. It was attended by 
 six medical men — Dr. Robert Watt, Dr. Robert Graham, Dr. John Robertson, 
 Mr. Granville Sharp Pattison, Mr. John Young, and Mr. George Macleod. 
 Dr. Watt was called to the chair, and a rudimentary constitution was agreed 
 on, which a committee was appointed to elaborate. At the next meeting 
 three new recruits were enrolled — Mr. James Alexander, Dr. George Monteath, 
 and Dr. Robert Perry, though the last-named does not appear to have 
 been present. These eight having sub.scribcd the " Laws," the society at 
 once set to its proper work, Dr. Watt being elected as first president. 
 
 Of the eight original members or founders of the society, at least half 
 
1 88 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 were well-known medical men in Glasgow, some of them destined to become 
 better known. Dr. Robert Watt had already repute as a lecturer on 
 medicine and the author of two works on medical subjects, and he was at 
 the time at work on his Bibliotheca Britannica, which was to form such a 
 wonderful monument to his skill and industry as a bibliographer. Dr. Robert 
 Graham had made his mark as a physician, and was an enthusiastic botanist, 
 destined to fill the Chairs of Botany successively in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 
 Dr. John Robertson was a lecturer on anatomy, and subsequently became a 
 physician at Bath. Mr. Granville Sharp Pattison was an accomplished teacher 
 of anatomy in the school founded by John and Allan Burns. Mr. George 
 Monteath had only lately established himself as a surgeon and lecturer, and 
 afterwards was an oculist in the city. Of the others, with the exception 
 of Dr. Robert Perry, to be mentioned presently, less is known. Mr. George 
 Macleod was a Highlander whose lofty appreciation of the character of the 
 Celtic race was somewhat oddly displayed in a paper he read on the case 
 of a " fasting woman." In discussing the bona fides of the patient, who, 
 he admits, was not properly watched so as to place the element of deception 
 beyond doubt, though somewhat guarded in his judgment, he still inclined 
 to the opinion that the abstinence from food was real ; and in favour of 
 this view he naively urges : " She was a very religious woman, to which may 
 be added the circumstance of her being a Highland woman, for I believe that 
 those of Celtic extraction are less apt to impose on the public than others." 
 There was some little difficulty in christening the infant society. The 
 name first adopted was " The Glasgow Medical and Chirurgical Society," 
 but at the second meeting it was agreed, on the motion of Drs, Graham 
 and Monteath, " that as the name, Glasgow Medical and Surgical Society, 
 was objectionable to some of the members, the resolution imposing that 
 appellation be further considered." Accordingly, at next meeting the name 
 was changed to " The Glasgow Medical Society." The conjecture is perhaps 
 not very far-fetched, that the objection taken to the double-barrelled name 
 had some reference to the legal point raised at that time in the case of the 
 University graduates against the Faculty, whether surgery was technically 
 included in medicine ; whether, in fact, a doctor of medicine was entitled as 
 such to practise surgery. The Faculty granted the new society accommoda- 
 tion in their premises in St. Enoch's Square. The constitution provided for 
 the compulsory reading of papers by members in rotation ; periodical dis- 
 cussions on prevalent diseases ; fines, not only for default in the matter of 
 providing and giving adequate notice of papers, but also for complete and 
 partial absence from meetings. Probably in a small society it was necessary 
 to make the contribution of papers obligatory ; it evidently proved an irksome 
 provision for a number of the members, and could not but react on the 
 quality of the contributions. This rule was not abolished till 1844. The 
 provision for fining absentees appears also to have produced some friction ; 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 189 
 
 there were constant applications for leave of absence, especially in the case 
 of those lecturers whose courses were delivered in the evening ; and the 
 frequent resignations were no doubt directly attributable to the same cause. 
 One member, whose frequent absence, from illness, had to be now and again 
 condoned, was the first president — Dr. Watt — who, besides suffering from a 
 delicate constitution, and giving some premonitions of the illness which cut him 
 off untimely in 18 19, was immersed in his bibliographical researches. 
 
 It does not lie within our plan to follow the fortunes of any of the 
 associations whose rise and origin are here briefly chronicled. The rules 
 of this society provided for the preservation in manuscript of the whole of 
 the papers read, and this plan was rigidly adhered to down to 1845, 
 when its continuance was thought unnecessary, now that the providing of 
 pabulum for each meeting was no longer a matter of individual obligation. 
 Thirty-one volumes of the " Essays " are on the shelves of the Faculty 
 library, and the contents of each volume have been inserted in the catalogue 
 of the library. Many of the subjects discussed are of perennial interest 
 to the medical profession, but in most instances the particular side or phase 
 of them presented in these " Essays " has ceased to be of interest to the 
 present generation. One mode of treatment for many diseases, phlebotomy, 
 is constantly cropping up, especially in the earlier papers. " Phlebotomy 
 in Intractable Cases of Syphilis " is a title which at once suggests how 
 great is the gulf that separates the therapeutics of the beginning and the end 
 of the century. Mr. James M'Conechy, subsequently a well-known Glasgow 
 journalist, gives a learned historical dissertation on the practice of blood- 
 letting in general, tracing this depleting treatment back to the land of 
 the Pharaohs, and following it through Greek and Roman civilization 
 down through the Middle Ages to modern times. A paper by Dr. Thomas 
 Brown of Lanfine, entitled " Cases of Sore Throat ending in Croup," was 
 published, with a prefatory note by Dr. James Finlayson, in 1881, as 
 being in some respects a contribution to the history of diphtheria in 
 Scotland. Papers on medical ethics and etiquette occur now and again, 
 and occasionally impromptu discussions on points connected with the one 
 or the other are raised. Embedded in a paper by Dr. James Wilson, 
 written in 1 840, on " Certain Medical Habits and Professional Points of 
 Etiquette," one comes on this passage, which will suggest to the younger 
 generation of medical men in Glasgow how modern an institution that of the 
 class of " consultants " in Glasgow really is : 
 
 " Many attempts," he says, " have been made by practitioners to establish 
 themselves in this place in consulting practice, but they have almost in 
 every instance failed. The fully engaged general practitioner could not 
 embark in it without the risk of great pecuniary sacrifices ; while the 
 stranger, or the practitioner to whom it might be an object, would neither 
 have the confidence of the public nor the profession." 
 
190 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 The consultant in Glasgow, as distinguished from the medical practi- 
 tioner called upon more or less frequently in consultation, really dates from 
 little more than a generation back. The physician of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries was essentially a family practitioner who limited himself 
 to the practice of medicine. 
 
 The subjects of Medical Reform and Medical Education crop up now 
 and again for discussion ; but these gropings towards improvements in 
 professional organization would not interest the present generation. A 
 paper by Mr. James Brown, on "Medical Education in 1824," was a smart 
 critique on the Faculty curriculum, which the writer found to be inade- 
 quate. It consisted then of two courses of anatomy and surgery, and one 
 course of chemistry, practice of medicine, midwifery, and materia medica 
 and botany. Mr. Brown strongly advocated a return to the discarded 
 apprenticeship system, the five years thus spent to be supplemented, should 
 the candidate see fit, by an entirely optional course of college study. There 
 is not a word in the paper on the utilization of the resources of the hospital 
 for practical instruction, an idea which developed later. 
 
 The occasional unauthorized publication of their discussions more than 
 once roused the ire of the society, for what reason does not appear from 
 the Minutes. Nothing, indeed, could be balder and generally more 
 meagre than the statement of matters of fact in the Minutes ; and it was not 
 till 1 846, on the appointment of Dr. James Adams as secretary, that the 
 bare skeleton of fact of the earlier Minutes gives place to the clothed form 
 of the record of full discussion. 
 
 The subject of fever in one form or other was never long absent from 
 the agenda of the society, as the thing itself was always with them, and 
 the severity of the various great epidemics, notably those of 18 18, 1843, 
 and 1847, can be gauged from the notices in these transactions. In 
 these days of the infancy of epidemiology the term typhus connoted two 
 fevers now long recognized as specifically distinct — typhus, and enteric or 
 typhoid, then known as " dothienenteritis." We gather from the Minute 
 of the Society, of May 19th, 1835, that Dr. Robert Perry, physician to 
 the Fever Hospital, had for some time been recognized as holding notions 
 at variance with those commonly adopted. " Dr. Perry having on various 
 occasions stated to the Medical Society a number of propositions on typhus 
 fever in the Fever Hospital of Glasgow, which were not considered to be 
 in accordance with the experience of the generality of the members of the 
 society, and at the same [time] their great importance if made out, being 
 fully admitted, on the motion of Mr. Watt, seconded by Dr. Macfarlane, 
 it was agreed that five members of the society should be appointed as 
 a commission to visit the wards of the Fever Hospital, along with Dr. 
 Perry, who readily undertook to point out the facts upon which his opinions 
 had been formed. The following gentlemen were appointed : Dr. Wm. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS igi 
 
 Weir, Dr. Young, Dr. John Pagan, Dr. John Macfarlane, and Mr. George 
 Watt." An ad interim report was read in the May of next year, which 
 was signed by the convener, Mr. Watt ; but, as each of the other members 
 had specific objections to certain points, it was agreed that it should be 
 given in as the convener's report, the assent of the other members being only 
 general and with reservations. The commission was renewed, with new 
 members added ; but no final report appears to have been made. Dr. 
 Perr}' submitted his views to the commission in the form of sixteen 
 formidable propositions ; and the convener's report, though guarded and 
 critical, was favourable to the most of Dr. Perry's theses, which covered 
 a large part of the ground of the natural history of typhus and dothien- 
 enteritis. That Dr. Perry, in some of these propositions, does state the 
 opinion that the two are specifically separate, cannot be gainsaid ; and 
 one or two of his old students have put on record their ineffaceable 
 impression that he taught them that they were etiologically as well as 
 pathologically distinct. But the clear statement of his convictions in one 
 proposition becomes a little clouded by limiting statements in others ; and 
 on one or two points his pathology was probably faulty. But for this 
 one flaw Dr. Perry would have stood forth, without challenge, as the man 
 who first clearly established the differentiation of typhus from enteric fever. 
 As it is, the credit due to him has only to be slightly qualified, that, 
 while he placed the diagnosis of the two fevers on a stable foundation, 
 he somewhat obscured the issue by one or two statements which the progress 
 of pathology has proved to be unsound.^ 
 
 While we are on the subject of typhus fever, we may advert to a 
 discussion in the Medical Society which took place in 1847, in which 
 Dr. Perry took part. One of the points at issue had reference to the 
 contagiousness of typhus, when that gentleman informed the meeting of 
 an experiment he had made, which appeared to settle the question. His 
 statement was that " he had succeeded, about six years ago, in inoculating 
 typhus, and had since repeated the experiment with success. He had 
 rubbed cotton upon the skin of a typhus patient at the time desquam- 
 ation was going on, and then introducing the cotton into the nostrils of 
 another person." One breathes more freely when he adds, " The experi- 
 ment was quite safe when tried on children." It must be remembered that 
 the inoculation of small-pox had, in view of the safer practice of vaccination, 
 been declared illegal by Act of Parliament ; and though it might be justifi- 
 able to try to modify typhus by inducing an attack in youth, the experiment 
 is one which perhaps few would care to repeat in our own day. 
 
 The various advances in the healing art and its armamentarium are 
 faithfully mirrored in the society's Minutes as the century grew older. 
 Ether-inhalation was discu.ssed in 1 847, and in the early part of 1 848 
 
 ^ Edin. Med. and Sitrx. Joiirii.^ xi.. 64; Du/>. Journ. Mdl. Sr/., x. 38 1 ; Med. Times and 
 Gaz., 1857, II. 537. 
 
192 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 chloroform comes on the boards. In both cases opinions varied, and as 
 regards chloroform anaesthesia, some appeared to think that the risks and 
 unpleasant effects outweighed its advantages. On the whole, the outcome 
 of the discussion emphasized the necessity for watchful caution. There 
 was a full dress debate on homoeopathy in 185 i initiated by the secretary. 
 Dr. Adams. We gather from the debate, which was all on one side, that 
 the occasion of the introduction of this discussion was the resignation of 
 Dr. James Wilson and Dr. Thomas Watson as medical referees of the 
 Caledonian Insurance Co., in consequence of a homoeopathic practitioner 
 having been associated with them as medical referees of the company. 
 The upshot of the matter was that the homoeopathic practitioner was 
 called upon to resign, and the two former referees reinstated in office. 
 The society had also on this occasion a fling at the members of another 
 profession. " Animadversions were made . . . upon the gullibility and 
 the officious meddling of clergymen, and the annoyance, of which they were 
 frequently the agents, between medical men and their patients." 
 
 We have not space to follow further the fortunes of the Glasgow Medical 
 Society, which in 1866^ amalgamated with its more vigorous rival, the Medico- 
 Chirurgical Society, to the history of which we have now briefly to advert. 
 
 The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow dates from 1 844. It was 
 constituted at a meeting held in the house of Dr. Jas. Lawrie, 1 5 Moore 
 Place, on the 27th of June of that year.^ Dr. Thomas Thomson, Professor 
 of Chemistry in the University, was called to the chair, and was elected 
 first president. From the first the members kept themselves free from the 
 trammels of compulsory papers and attendance with which the older society 
 had bound itself The members of the latter were invited to enter, and 
 the members of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society were to be 
 privileged visitors — a compliment which was at once reciprocated by the 
 eastern sister. In another respect the members resolved to place themselves 
 abreast of other associations. They agreed, " in conformity with the practice 
 followed by the various literary and scientific institutions of London and 
 Edinburgh," to have coffee served to them at the termination, and eventually 
 at the beginning, of the meeting. The older society, through their secretary, 
 wrote to say that they would " always rejoice in any good the newly-formed 
 association may be able to accomplish, either in the improvement of its own 
 members or the advancement of the Healing Art in its scientific or practical 
 departments." The fact that the new society was needed was abundantly 
 shown by large accessions to the roll. One of the earliest papers was one 
 by Dr. Adam Warden, F.R.C.S.Ed., " On the Employment of the totally 
 reflecting prism for illuminating the Open Cavities of the body with a view 
 
 1 The last Minute is dated March of that year. 
 
 2 Of twenty-six medical men present, the only survivor at the time of writing is Dr. 
 James Adams. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 
 
 193 
 
 to facilitate the Examination of Disease." A paper which attracted much 
 attention was read in 1851 by Dr. Andrew Buchanan on " Darlingism, 
 misnamed Electro-Biology." The whole phenomena exhibited by peripatetic 
 expounders of what is now known as hypnotism he set down as originating 
 in an excited imagination, a love of notoriety, or a positive desire to deceive 
 on the part of the subjects, or a combination in varied proportions of the 
 several causes. A lively discussion followed, but the opinions of Dr. Buchanan 
 were generally endorsed, and a resolution was adopted " that the society 
 deem it their duty to put down a system founded on delusion, and fraught 
 with immorality," and they further resolved, with a view to this end, to 
 publish the address. The paper, notwithstanding the cordiality of its reception, 
 can scarcely be said to be an important contribution to the subject, as it 
 virtually relegates the whole phenomena of what is now known as hypnotism 
 and hypnotic suggestion to the domain of fraud and delusion — an explanation 
 which doubtless applies to a good deal of what is exhibited to popular 
 audiences, but falls far short of the now admitted facts. In 1852 the 
 society appears to have been a good deal exercised about a case of alleged 
 plagiarism from Claude Bernard, by one of the members in a paper on " The 
 Origin of Sugar in the Animal Economy." After some discussion a motion by 
 Dr. Andrew Buchanan and Mr. John Reid was adopted, that it was no part 
 of the function of the society to exercise moral censorship over its members, 
 and they therefore resolved that it was inexpedient to proceed further in 
 the matter. Another paper of Dr. Andrew Buchanan's, bearing the title of 
 one which was read years before in the Medical Society, was also followed 
 by a practical resolution. This was " On the Stable Nuisance in Glasgow," 
 and the society agreed to make a strong representation to the Police 
 Committee of the Town Council on the practice of having permanent 
 repositories of filth, as disgusting and injurious to health, and that the 
 accumulations should be removed with greater frequency. In 1858 the two 
 societies held a joint meeting to examine the case of M. Groux, of Hamburg, 
 the then well-known subject of congenital deficiency of the sternum, which 
 enabled observations to be made on the sounds and motions of the heart. 
 Dr. Allen Thomson seems to have acted as demonstrator on the occasion, 
 and his remarks were subsequently published. The same year the society 
 warmly interested themselves in a case of wrong suffered by Mr. James 
 Henderson, parochial medical officer of the parish of Fordoun, in the 
 county of Kincardine. This gentleman had been summarily dismissed from 
 his office by the Parochial Board for making a post-viortem examination 
 to ascertain the cause of the sudden death of a poorhouse patient. An 
 additional offence was that he had declined to accept the testimony of 
 third parties as sufficient ground for signing a lunacy certificate in the case 
 of a person of whose insanity repeated examinations had wholly failed to 
 convince him. Mr. Henderson was eventually reinstated in his office, and 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 it is to be hoped that the strong representation of the society contributed 
 to the result. In 1859 the society guaranteed £2^ to Brown-Sequard in 
 respect of his giving a course of lectures in Glasgow on the anatomy, 
 physiology, and pathology of the cerebro-spinal axis. The course was duly 
 delivered, and was so successful that no call on the funds of the society 
 was necessary. Dr. Brown-Sequard was made an honorary member of the 
 society, and shortly afterwards the honorary fellowship of the Faculty was 
 conferred on him. In i860 the society contributed ten guineas to the John 
 Hunter statue in London, and voted also £2^ to assist the movement which 
 had been started for the amendment of the Death Registration Act. The 
 gravamen of the objection made to the Act was that it made the medical 
 man penally liable for the signing of the death certificate, and denied him 
 any fee for this professional act. The agitation continued for some time, 
 but was not successful. 
 
 Though it goes beyond the limit in time which we had fixed for this 
 sketch of the medical societies, viz., the middle of the century, we can hardly 
 omit reference to the great meeting of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, held 
 in the Faculty Hall on 17th April, 1868, when Professor (now Sir) Joseph 
 Lister " gave a lengthened exposition of the atmospheric germ theory of 
 putrefaction, and illustrated it by the exhibition of M. Pasteur's experiments 
 with flasks containing urine." The lecture — though no paper was read — 
 occupied nearly two hours, thus excluding the possibility of discussion ; but 
 next month Dr. Eben, Watson read " On the theory of Suppuration, and 
 the use of Carbolic Acid Dressings," in which he threw doubt on the germ 
 theory of putrefaction, and Lister's rationale of carbolic acid dressings, and 
 attributed the undoubted good effects of the acid in surgical dressings to 
 its effects in coagulating albumen, and rendering the surface firmer and 
 more impervious to air, and keeping in the fluid discharges. 
 
 The jubilee year (1894) of the society found it in a condition more 
 flourishing than at any former period of the society's existence, and with a 
 large membership roll. Under its new constitution, recast some years ago, 
 under which it meets in four groups — a medical, a surgical, a pathological, 
 and an obstetrical and gynaecological section, each with its own head and 
 executive — it has tried to adapt itself to the wants of the time. 
 
 Another medical association which took origin in the same year as the 
 Medico-Chirurgical Society is the Glasgow Southern Medical Society, which 
 is fortunate in possessing as its historiographer, Dr. John Dougall.^ To that 
 gentleman's sketch we are indebted for all that we know of this association. 
 He mentions — quoting the Minutes — that the first formal meeting was held 
 in the " Secretary's Chambers, Mrs. Thomson's Lodgings, 1 5 Oxford Street, 
 1 6th August (Friday), 1844, in full conclave." If the meeting was formal, 
 certainly the official record of it is not characterized by formality, and the 
 
 ^Historical Sketch of the Glasgow Southern Medical Society. Glasgow, 1888. 
 
GLASGOIV MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 195 
 
 same remark applies to most of the Minutes made by the first Secretary. 
 The original list of members were " James Stewart, Esq., President ; John 
 Goudie, Esq., Treasurer ; John Leech, Esq., Secretary ; David Campbell, Esq., 
 simple member." Dr. Leech, the Secretary, was something of a character, and 
 his eccentricities come out markedly in his Minutes, which are generally 
 written in a vein of pleasantry and banter occasionally running almost into 
 riotous fun. The quotations given by Dr. Dougall from these early Minutes 
 form racy reading, and to his pages the reader, who does not think the 
 record beneath the dignity of the historic muse, is referred for entertainment, 
 and information in regard to the progress of the society. One new feature 
 was the institution of a " Black Book," in which was kept a record of non- 
 paying patients ; but this does not appear to have been a success. The society 
 has, in addition to the usual office-bearers, a " Court Medical " for investigating 
 and giving judgment in cases of medical ethics and etiquette occurring amongst 
 the members. It has published a Code of Ethics, and a Tariff of Medical 
 Fees. The enormous expansion of Southern Glasgow within recent years has 
 opened up a wide field of usefulness for this society. 
 
 Originating earlier in point of time than the two last named societies, 
 the Glasgow Faculty of Medicine differs from all the associations of medical 
 men in Glasgow as regards originating motive, constitution and objects. It 
 started at a period when the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons was a body 
 far from popular amongst the rank and file of the general profession in 
 Glasgow. The territorial jurisdiction conferred by the charter was enforced 
 with as much rigour as the circumstances would allow. A town licentiate's 
 fee was high and that of a member much higher, while the former obtained 
 no privilege in return for the payment, except that of being allowed to 
 practice within the bounds. The fact that every member was obliged to 
 join the Widows' Fund, an expensive scheme, virtually excluded from the 
 corporation all but the well-to-do of the profession in Glasgow. In addition 
 to all this the position of University graduates, who had qualified at a 
 moderate cost, was doubtful in regard to their right to the practice of 
 surgery, or virtually to general practice. There is little wonder, there- 
 fore, that there was much irritation felt amongst a section of practitioners 
 at the domination of this exclusive corporation, and the Faculty of Medicine 
 was the earliest concrete expression of this feeling. This society, therefore, 
 to a large extent, originated in political antipathy to the chartered body in 
 St. Enoch Square ; and one odd expression of this feeling on the part of 
 the new society was the assumption of a name so nearly alike that of the 
 Faculty as to be certain in course of time to mislead and create confusion, 
 should the new venture succeed. The proem to the first published constitution 
 bears that, " A number of medical practitioners in Glasgow and the neigh- 
 bourhood convened within the Cowpock Institution Hall, ist October, 1825. 
 After mature deliberation they unanimously agreed to form themselves into 
 
196 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 an association under the designation of the Glasgow Faculty of Medicine." ^ 
 The meetings were to be held on the first Friday of every month. The 
 executive was to consist of a president, vice-president, treasurer, court of 
 eight directors, librarian, secretary, paid clerk, and box-masters. ^ The 
 annual payment by members was fixed at £2 12s., one pound of which was 
 to be devoted to purchasing books, one pound to a benevolent fund to assist 
 in forming an annuity for widows, and the balance of twelve shillings to 
 form an ordinary fund for granting occasional aid to decayed members and 
 defraying the expenses of management. It will thus be seen that the new 
 association was formed on different lines from those of an ordinary scientific 
 society of medical men. The idea of the founders was essentially that of a 
 medical library in association with a widows' fund. The monthly meeting 
 appears to have been intended for business purposes, no provision being 
 apparently made at first for the reading of papers on professional topics. 
 The entire constitution, however, it was expressly provided, might be changed, 
 with two reservations. One was that the body could not dissolve if two 
 members objected, and the other was that the name, " The Glasgow Faculty 
 of Medicine," was to remain " unchangeable and inviolate." This latter 
 stipulation seems to be based on an anticipation that the successors of the 
 founders might be visited with conscientious qualms as to the assumption of 
 a title fitted to confuse and annoy. The " wee faculty," as it came to be 
 popularly known, failed to realize the ambitious aims of its projectors. The 
 widows' fund scheme, for the working of which an elaborate set of tables 
 is appended to the original rules, never properly got under weigh at all. In 
 a few years it would appear that the members had somewhat assimilated 
 the functions of the body to those of an ordinary medical society. In the 
 Glasgow Medical Examiner of 1831-32 we find their discussions on papers 
 and medical topics reported : they started a vaccination dispensary in 1828, 
 which was carried on for a great many years. As their aims became less 
 ambitious, their members appear to have increased, till it fairly fulfilled the 
 function of a medical society for the central and eastern parts of the city. 
 As other societies came into existence, it began to decline, and the Faculty 
 of Medicine eventually fell back on the useful function of a small reading 
 club. It is presently housed in the Eye Infirmary, Charlotte Street. 
 
 The Glasgow Pathological Society commenced in 185 i, and met for several 
 years. It was intended to be associated, as its name implied, with specially 
 pathological work. Its meeting-place was therefore fittingly in the Royal 
 Infirmary, and it was inaugurated by a paper by Dr. Robert Perry entitled, 
 
 ^ The official notice in the Medical Directory gives the date as 1824. 
 
 ''The first office-bearers were Robert Hosie, president ; David Steel, R.N., vice-president ; 
 John Campbell, R.N., treasurer ; George Ferguson, librarian ; Archibald Ferguson, R.N., 
 secretary ; John Buchanan, sealkeeper, and eight directors. Five were ex-surgeons of the 
 Royal Navy, and one had been an Army surgeon. 
 
GLASGOW MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 197 
 
 " Remarks on the post-mortem appearances in the bladder and ureters in 
 Typhus cases," in which he drew attention to some appearances which 
 had not been previously observed, or at least recorded, and gave details of 
 twenty-six cases, showing specimens. The late Sir William Aitken, and 
 a few other enthusiasts in the field of pathology, threw themselves with energy 
 into the work of this society. The distance of the Infirmary from what may 
 be called the centre of medical activity of the City was probably the chief 
 reason of the comparatively short life of this society. 
 
 The Medical Societies of Glasgow of more recent origin : the Glasgow 
 Pathological and Clinical Society, founded in 1873, which has pubHshed 
 several volumes of transactions ; the Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch 
 of the British Medical Association, founded in 1875; the Obstetrical and 
 Gynaecological Society which originated in 1885, and the Eastern Medical 
 Society, in 1893, do not come within our purview, and we now pass on 
 merely to glance at two associations, with an aim and object purely social 
 and recreative. 
 
 The precise date of the establishment of the " Medical Club " has not 
 been ascertained, but it was before 1800, and probably about 1798. Its 
 Minute book, if any such book was kept, does not appear to have been pre- 
 served ; and nearly all that has come down to us in reference to it is 
 given in the very discursive sketch in Strang's Glasgow and its Clubs} 
 Probably Strang's information about the club which, when precipitated from 
 the combination of personal anecdote, descriptive sketching, and digressive 
 sallies, does not amount to much, was obtained from some of the members. 
 Membership of the Faculty was a necessary qualification, but it was not easy 
 to obtain the entree to this extremely select fraternity. The club met 
 monthly, at first in a well-known tavern in Princes Street, kept by Mrs. Pollok, 
 and afterwards in the " Prince of Wales " in Brunswick Street. It must be 
 remembered that these were still the days when it was the almost universal 
 practice for persons of the well-to-do classes, after the labours of the day were 
 over, to meet regularly in inns or taverns for the purposes of social relaxa- 
 tion. Many a jovial hour was thus spent by the members of the various 
 clubs of the city, some of which met every evening, and others weekly or 
 oftener. The Medical Club assembled every month at the hour of four 
 o'clock. If the members were not all clubbable jovial souls, it was not the 
 fault of the rules, under which a single black ball excluded. The story told 
 by Strang is said to be authentic, of an able but troublesome member of the 
 Faculty being proposed in a speech by a reluctant friend, and at the ballot all 
 the balls being found to be black ; and whether true or not, it shows that 
 it was well understood that only good fellows could run the gauntlet of the 
 brotherhood. One of the leading members was Dr. Freer, Professor of 
 Medicine in the University ; and the extreme contrast between the natural 
 ' See second edition 1857, p. 241, et seq. 
 
198 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 reserve and grave formality of his academic and professional every- day life and 
 mien, and his complete abandon in the presence of his ^sculapian fraternity 
 only added to the enjoyment. Other members named were Dr. James Jeffray, 
 Professor of Anatomy, the learned Dr. Richard Miller, Charles Wilsone, 
 William Dunlop, James Towers, John Macarthur, James Monteath, William 
 Couper, Robert Cowan, William Nimmo, etc. The club flourished till about 
 the year 18 14, when it came to a somewhat sudden termination, 
 
 A period of over thirty years elapsed before the inauguration of another 
 similar association for the promotion of social intercourse amongst the 
 members of the profession. The Western Medical Club took its origin at 
 a dinner held, by previous arrangement, at Bell's Inn, Bowling Bay, on 
 25th July, 1845, attended by the following members of the profession all 
 resident in Glasgow: Dr. A. D. Anderson, Dr. William Weir, Dr. John 
 Macfarlane, Dr. Robert Perry, Mr. George Watson, Dr. David Gibson, Dr. 
 J. G. Fleming, Dr. Alexander Maclaverty, Dr. A. M. Adams, and Dr. Andrew 
 Anderson.^ Dr. A. D. Anderson was appointed chairman, and Dr. Robert Perry, 
 vice-chairman. In the course of the evening, which, as the secretary, Dr. J. G. 
 Fleming, states, " was spent with great hilarity," " it was agreed to institute 
 a club with the object of providing friendly and social intercourse among 
 the members of the medical profession in Glasgow and the West of Scotland." 
 A committee was appointed to draw up a constitution and regulations. 
 These provided for a definitely limited number of town and country members, 
 a dinner in Glasgow in winter and in the country in summer. In 1849 
 the dinner which should have been held in Glasgow was intermitted, " in 
 consequence of the great prevalence of epidemic cholera in Glasgow and 
 the West of Scotland." In 1864-66 the meetings appear to have been 
 again intermitted, owing to the secretary (Dr. James Fraser) having left 
 town. With these exceptions, the social gatherings have been continuous 
 for half-a-century, the club celebrating its jubilee at Tarbet in June, 1895. 
 
 The " Town and Country Club," with objects similar to the last named, 
 founded in 1893, is too recent in its origin to come within our survey. 
 The exclusiveness of the older club is probably the raison d'etre of this 
 vigorous rival. 
 
 'The only survivor of the gathering (1896) is Dr. Maclaverty. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 
 
 On a hasty glance it might appear that a chapter on the early medical 
 bibliography of Glasgow need not greatly exceed in length the famous one 
 on snakes in Ireland. The theme is certainly not a large one. The town 
 being one of so great size and importance at the end of the nineteenth 
 century, it is apt to be forgotten that it was only at the beginning of it 
 that it entered on that career of rapid development which has raised it to 
 the rank of Second City of the Empire. The art of printing was not intro- 
 duced into Glasgow till 1638, the year in which the General Assembly of 
 the Kirk, which figures so prominently in Scottish history, sat in Glasgow. 
 George Anderson, our first printer, came from Edinburgh, and remained in 
 Glasgow till his death about 1648. He appears to have printed no medical 
 books. His son, Andrew Anderson, began business in the burgh in 1658, 
 having previously pursued his craft for a year or two in Edinburgh. Among 
 the first, if not indeed the earliest book he printed, was one written in 
 Latin by Dr. Sylvester Rattray, a physician who had settled in Glasgow 
 a year or two previously, concerning whom personally not much has been 
 ascertained. The following is the title of the book, which is in duodecimo : 
 
 " Aditus Novus | ad occultas | Sympathiae | et | Antipathiae | Causas in- 
 veniendas : | per | Principia Philosophias na | turalis, ex Fermentorum | 
 artificiosa Anatomia hausta | patefactus. | A Sylvestro Rattray, | Med. Doct. 
 Glasguensi Scoto. | Natura est arcanorum suorum interpres fidis- | sima, 
 nam quae in uno aliquo genere obscu- | rius exhibit, ea luculentius in alio 
 explicat. | Glasguae, Excudebat Andreas Anderson, | Anno Dom. 1658." 
 [12 pp., not numbered, pp. 135.] 
 
 There is a dedication, " lOANNi ScOTO, SCOTOTARVATIO, Nobili Musarum 
 Maecenati," ^ and also a preface, through which one looks in vain for auto- 
 
 ' Sir John Scott, of Scotstarbet, encouraged Timothy Pont in the preparation of the 
 Ailas of Scotland, published at Amsterdam in 1662, and for this and other reasons he was 
 
200 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 biographical details. The title fairly enough represents the character of the 
 contents. The book appears to be an attempt to find a philosophical basis 
 for a system of medicine, as well as of other things, in which the opposing 
 powers of sympathy and antipathy, especially the former, play the leading 
 part. The system itself was no new thing, and may be traced back to 
 Paracelsus. The famous Dutch physician. Van Helmont, adopted and 
 elaborated it, and his writings on the subject were translated into English 
 by Dr. Walter Charleton in 1650, under the title, A Ternary of Paradoxes : 
 the Magnetic Cure of Wounds, etc. A considerable literature had arisen 
 round the subject before Rattray wrote ; and in the same year as his treatise 
 appeared, a work on it in English, from the pen of Sir Kenelm Digby,^ 
 placed on the system the impress of fashion, though it is more than 
 doubtful whether Digby's own account of how he became possessed of the 
 secret is anything but pure fiction. The therapeutic application of the force 
 of sympathy took the form of the " weapon salve," or " powder of sym- 
 pathy," which had the remarkable virtue of effecting a cure, not when 
 applied directly to a wound, but at a distance, especially to a bandage or 
 other material which had come from the wound, or to the weapon which 
 had inflicted it. Many were the forms of composition of the various 
 sympathetic medicaments, and fantastic as they were varied. Green vitriol 
 prepared for 365 days by exposure to the sun, ointments made from 
 powdered mummies, human blood and fat, moss from a dead man's skull, 
 may be given as specimens of the ingredients. To find a philosophical 
 ground-work for a system teeming with absurdities of this kind may seem 
 a task of some difficulty,^ but Dr. Rattray was equal to it. He begins by 
 searching through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, up to man, 
 for examples of " amor " and " odium," sympathy and antipathy. Every- 
 where in these realms of nature he finds the operation of the two occult 
 forces. Mineral likes or dislikes mineral, vegetable has an attraction or the 
 opposite for vegetable, animals draw or repel each other, whilst the same 
 
 entitled to be called a Maecenas. That he evinced a friendly interest in the poor of Glas- 
 gow is shown by his having mortified certain lands named " Puckie and Puckie Mylne," 
 for the purpose of "putting prentises to craftes within the burgh," the benefaction being 
 limited to "poor boyes." {Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1630- 1662, 
 266, 328, etc.) 
 
 ^ A late discourse made in a solemn Assembly of nobles and learned men at Montpellier 
 . . . touching the cure of ivounds by the powder of sympathy. Rendered faithfully out of 
 French into English by R. White. 2nd ed., 12°, Lond. 1658. 
 
 2 Belief in sympathetic cures was widespread, and accepted by the best intelligence of 
 the day. On 26th June, 1660, Sir G. Talbot submitted a paper on the subject to the 
 newly-founded Royal Society, and the fact that a specimen of the powder was entered in 
 the journal to be procured shows that he made an impression. (Weld's History of the Royal 
 Society, \. iii, 112.) Bacon not only believed in witchcraft, but in heahng by sympathy, 
 and he related a cure of warts on himself by this method. (Weld, op. cit. 87, note.) 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 201 
 
 subtle forces govern the relationship of these three kingdoms in their mutual 
 interactions. It is a science of nature based on two antithetical forces, a 
 case of " pull baker, pull devil " extending through the whole of the kosmos, 
 and the theory all apparently founded on a wide induction of facts. Un- 
 fortunately, the facts are not of the order spoken of by Burns — 
 
 " But facts are chiels that winna ding, 
 And downa be disputed." 
 
 Their verification could hardly have entered as an element into the science 
 of the old physician. Here are a few taken at random: 
 
 " The smoking of the lung of an ass or a horse in a house kills worms, 
 serpents, and all poisonous things." ^ " Clothes which have been at a funeral 
 are never attacked by moths." ^ " If we often make use of the shorter lived 
 fruits, and the animals which feed upon them, they shorten life."^ " Should the 
 feathers of the tail of a peacock come into contact with a haemorrhage from 
 accident or blow, it cannot be stopped unless these are removed." * Starting 
 from a foundation such as this, he proceeds to elaborate his scheme. Thera- 
 peutics resolves itself into a science of sympathetic or antipathetic antidotes. 
 Nor is he in any way daunted by the task of explaining how medicines can 
 act at a distance from the point of lesion. His theory need not be repro- 
 duced here ; it is rather metaphysical, and not easily understood. Such as 
 it is, however, he makes a point of its being his own, and he criticizes 
 Van Helmont and others with considerable freedom. He discards any ex- 
 planation based on a supposed analogy of his forces to magnetic attraction 
 and repulsion. He will have none of Van Helmont's " magnale magnum," 
 invented apparently to simplify the rationale of the sympathetic process, and 
 puts it contemptuously aside. Rattray was evidently not extreme in his 
 views, and glimmerings of common-sense appear here and there in his fan- 
 tastical reasonings. He ought, he says, to have added a section on the 
 method of curation as elucidated by the theory of sympathy, but this had to 
 be deferred till another occasion, which seems never to have presented itself 
 
 Rattray's little book was republished in Tubingen (in 16°), by J. A. Reisius, 
 in 1660; and in 1662 at Nurnberg, in a quarto collection of pieces on the same 
 subject ; and here it occupies the place of honour at the beginning of the 
 volume.^ For a book published in a place so unimportant as Glasgow then 
 was, this seems no small honour to the author. This position was doubtless 
 due to the fact that his little treatise dealt with underlying principles suppo.sed 
 to constitute the groundwork of the system, and its place was thus properly 
 
 'P. 19. 'M\ 20. ^P. 16. ^P. 13. 
 
 ^Theatrum Sympatheticuni aucluin exhibens variores authores de Pulvere Sympathetico, 
 quidem : Digbaeum, Straussium, Papinium et Mohyum de Unguento vero Armario . . . 
 Praemittitur his Sylvestri Rattray, Aditus ad Sympathiam et Anti-pathiam. 4to, Nurnberg, 
 1662. 
 
202 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 introductory. It need hardly be added that the printing of the Glasgow 
 book is poor. 
 
 The next book in order is another by the same author — 
 
 " Prognosis Medica ad usum praxeos facili methodo digesta. A. Sylvestro 
 Rattrso, Med. Doct, Glasguensi Scoto. Nullum est praceptum adeo in- 
 violabile ut limitationem non admittat. Glasguae, Excudebat Robertus 
 Sanders, Typographus Urbis, MDCLXVi." [Pp. lo not numbered, 247.] 
 
 The dedication is to Sir John Wedderburn, one of the leading Scottish 
 physicians at the time.^ In his preface the author expatiates on the import- 
 ance of a knowledge of prognosis to the practitioner, averring that medicine 
 without it is simply hangman's work. Prognosis he therefore held to be 
 the noblest department of the healing art. The work is divided into forty-nine 
 chapters or sections. It is a digest from the work of Hippocrates and a few 
 more recent writers. After the prognosis in the different diseases has been 
 given, Chapter XLVIII. opens up some more general considerations. Rattray 
 relegated all diseases into three categories — (i) slight ailments, requiring no 
 treatment, as they may be left to nature ; (2) diseases which cannot be sub- 
 dued either by nature or art ; (3) diseases tending to a fatal issue, in some 
 cases amenable to successful treatment, and in others not. The first class, that 
 of trivial affections, he dismisses in a sentence. In regard to the second, 
 incurable ailments, he says that no prudent physician would attempt to tackle 
 them. In the long list of them he jumbles together diseases, medical and 
 surgical, injuries of vital organs, and congenital conditions. It includes blind- 
 ness and deaf mutism, obstruction of the bowels, premature baldness, phthisis, 
 large calculus, wounds of the heart, brain, stomach, and even the swallowing 
 of needles, etc. But in looking down Dr. Rattray's black list, it is pleasant to 
 note that modern medicine or surgery has successfully grappled with several 
 of them. It is, however, his third category of ills which affords the proper 
 scope for the therapeutic art ; and he carefully defines the conditions in each 
 of them which limits the possibility of cure. When the event is fatal, this is 
 due either to the Deity, maleficence, physical fate, the doctor, the druggist, the 
 patient, those around the patient, or, lastly, to outside influences. By the second 
 of these adverse factors, " maleficence," it need hardly be said that the old 
 Glasgow physician refers to witchcraft, the evil eye, and magic arts, in the power 
 and potency of which Rattray, with all his contemporaries, was a believer. The 
 sins of omission and commission of the physician in effecting or expediting a 
 fatal issue are unsparingly dwelt on. In this connection he adverts to the fact 
 that it is not the most learned physician who is necessarily the best in effecting 
 
 1 Wedderburn was a St. Andrews M.D., and was admitted graduate at Oxford. He 
 was Professor of Philosophy at St. Andrews, after which he seems to have travelled a good 
 deal ; and on his return he was knighted and made Physician-in-Ordinary to the king. 
 (Matthias, Conspectus Medicina, 635.) 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 203 
 
 cures. " Varia etiam sunt dona Dei, hie ad docendum ille ad practicandum," 
 is a shrewd observation which contains the germ of a truth recognized now as 
 then. Similarly he notes the effects of bad or badly prepared medicaments, 
 of the patient's peevishness and impatience, and of careless nursing. Finally 
 the things " exteriora," which make for a fatal end, are such as lightning, 
 earthquakes, the fall of the house, the barking of dogs, the noises made by 
 neighbours, bad tidings, and the like. 
 
 One question he raises and settles to his own satisfaction. Rattray, it must 
 be remembered, was a contemporary of Harvey, and lived in an age which 
 inaugurated a revolution in physiology and medicine. Must not recent dis- 
 courses, he asks, in regard to the circulation of the blood, the ducts, the 
 receptacle of the chyle, the doctrine of fever as resulting from the action 
 of ferments, necessarily affect and modify the old notions as to prognosis ? 
 Not in any way, he jauntily answers ; the good old Hippocratic landmarks 
 remain where they were. As regards prognosis he was perhaps not so far 
 wrong. 
 
 The printer, it will be observed, is Robert Sanders, who succeeded Andrew 
 Anderson as printer to the City, and lived to about 1696. The type is 
 scarcely better than that of Rattray's first book, and the proof-reading faulty, 
 being excused in a note as due to the absence of the author. 
 
 These books of Rattray's have been noticed at greater length than their 
 intrinsic importance might seem to warrant. To us their bibliographical 
 interest lies in the fact that with the exception of the second and subsequent 
 editions of Lowe's Chirurgerie, they form the only Glasgow contributions made 
 to medicine during the seventeenth century, the first books in any department 
 of medicine printed in Glasgow, and that they stand at a long distance in 
 point of time before the next on the list. Several of the other physicians, and 
 more of the surgeons, doubtless made a local reputation in the burgh and 
 beyond it ; but they have left no taste of their quality in the shape of literary 
 remains. Hence such physicians as Professor Robert Mayne, Dr. John 
 Colquhoun, Dr. Robert Hamilton and his son James, Dr. Thomas Hamilton, 
 and Dr. Michael Wallace ; and Glasgow surgeons, as the Halls, James Frank 
 (the Englishman), the elder Houstoun, Henry Marshall, and others, are 
 little more to us than names. But with Rattray it is different. We can 
 through these books make out his mode of regarding nature and man, his 
 fantastic theory of medicine, and his felt powerlessness in the presence of 
 affections induced by supernatural agency. 
 
 We have been unable to find in the library of the Faculty, or in the 
 lists of books printed in Glasgow given by Macvean^ or by Duncan,^ any 
 other medical work printed by Robert Sanders. It is well known that 
 
 •M'Ure's View of the City of Glasgow, 1830, 368 et seq. 
 
 ^Notices and Documents illustrati7<e of the Literary History of Glasf;oiv. Maitland 
 Club, 1 83 1. 
 
204 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 during the latter part of the seventeenth and the early part of the 
 eighteenth century the business of printing and book-production generally 
 in Glasgow instead of improving steadily deteriorated.^ Various efforts were 
 made by the University to place matters on a better footing ; but it was 
 not till Robert Urie and the brothers Foulis began to print about 1740 
 that really creditable printing was executed in Glasgow. As far as we have 
 ascertained, the first medical work of the Foulis' press was Hippocratis 
 Aphorisini. Gr. et Lat. 12". 1748. A reprint in duodecimo of Garth's 
 Dispensary was executed by the same printers in 1750. The next in order 
 appears to be 
 
 " Gulielmi Harveii, Doct. et Profess. Regii Exercitationes Anatomicae de 
 motu cordis et sanguinis circulatione. Glasguae : In Aedibus R. Urie, 
 Sumptibus D. Baxter, Bibliopilae. mdccli." [Pp. x. + 299. 8vo.] 
 
 The printing of this volume is admirably clear. Two years later we have 
 from the Foulis press : 
 
 " Sure Methods of attaining a long and healthful Life, with means of 
 correcting a bad constitution. Written originally in Italian by Lewis 
 Cornaro, a Noble Venetian, when he was near an Hundred Years of Age. 
 Glasgow. Printed and Sold by R. and A. Foulis. MDCCLin." [Pp. xviii. 
 2 pp. not numbered + pp. 120. 12°.] 
 
 The typography, it is needless to say, is admirable. In our bibliographical 
 record there is now an interval of thirteen years, and the next reprint is by 
 a Glasgow editor : 
 
 "A. Corn. Celsvs De Re Medica. Accessurus Index Vocabulorum omnium 
 et cujuscunque ad Rem pertinentes More Dictionarii. In usum Humanitatis 
 et Medicinae studiosorum.^ Glasguae. Excudebat Gulielmus Bell : veneunt 
 apud Foulis, Gilmour et Duncan. Edinburgh!, Kincaid et Bell : Balfour 
 Fleming, Drummond et Donaldson : Londini apud eundem Millar et Wilson. 
 2 Vols. MDCCLXVi." [Pp. 400. 8°.] 
 
 There is a magniloquent dedication to the members of the Faculty, " Viris 
 amplissimis et literatissimis civitatis nostrae Glasguensis, Medicis, Chirurgis, 
 et Pharmacopolis," in which the editor. Dr. Andrew Morris, complacently 
 takes credit for having supplied in the edition of Celsus a want long felt for 
 an accurate text. It is a pity that he delayed the publication of his 
 Vocabulary of Celsus^ which never appears to have seen the light. This 
 edition was the result of the enforced leisure of its eccentric editor, who 
 
 ' Wodrow {Analecta., iii. 249) mentions that in 1725 when a Committee prepared a 
 Vindication of the Magistrates as regards their conduct in the Shawfield Riots, they had to 
 have it printed in London, as the Magistrates of Edinburgh would not allow it to be printed 
 in that city. No wonder that the Secretary of State " wondered there was not a press in 
 Glasgow at the Magistrates' command." 
 
 ■■' In Vol. II. this is varied into " Medicinae et Chirurgiae Studiosorum." 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 205 
 
 was for many years paralyzed in his lower limbs, and a pensioner of the 
 Faculty. 
 
 From the publication of Morris's edition of Celsiis in 1766, we have 
 apparently no medical book brought out in Glasgow for upwards of twenty 
 years. Even then we can only unearth a pamphlet of thirty- six pages, 
 entitled 
 
 " Remarks on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of Continued Fever, by J. 
 Riddell, Member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. Glasgow. 
 Andrew Foulis. 1788. 8°." 
 
 We have excluded from our purview medical theses or inaugural dissertations, 
 as these form a kind of literature sui generis, wanting, as they do, one of 
 its true elements, spontaneity ; nor were they at that time, with a few notable 
 exceptions, of much value. The next Glasgow book of medical interest was 
 
 "A general view of the Natural Progress of Human Life, with Observations 
 on the preservation of health, and the prevention and cure of diseases in 
 the different Stages of Life : By William Henderson, M.D. Part I. 
 Glasgow, James Duncan. 1791." [Pp. xiv. + 52. 8°.] 
 
 Henderson had published a little work in Edinburgh, 1789 (misprinted in 
 the book 1689), on the History and Cure of the Plague. All that is known 
 of him is stated under his name in the Appendix Roll of Members. Nine 
 years later we come upon 
 
 " The Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus, with practical inferences relative to 
 pregnancy and Labour, By John Burns, Surgeon in Glasgow. At the 
 University Press. Printed by James Mundell for Mundell and Son, Edin- 
 burgh, &c. 1799." [Pp- xxi. + 248. 8°.] 
 
 The work is dedicated to Dr. Robert Cleghorn, physician to the Royal 
 Infirmary and lecturer in chemistry of the University of Glasgow, and James 
 Muir, surgeon, Glasgow, and dated from George Street. Next year the same 
 author published 
 
 " Preliminary Dissertations on some of the Laws of the Animal Economy. 
 Dissertations II. on the history, causes and consequences of Simple In- 
 flammation, by John Burns, Surgeon. Glasgow, by James Mundell, Aytoun 
 Court, for John Murdoch, Trongate, &c. 2 vols. 1800." [Pp. xiii., 479, 
 498. 8°.] 
 
 It was dedicated to Dr. Andrew Duncan of Edinburgh. The rest of the 
 works of Dr. John Burns were published in London. There seems to have 
 been no work on medicine published in Glasgow this (nineteenth) century 
 till there appeared Cases of the Excision of Carious foints, by H. Park 
 and P. F. Moreau, with observations by James Jcffray, M.D., Glasgow. 
 J. Scrymgeour. 1806. [210 pp. 12°.] 
 
 In 18 1 3 appeared a work which has long been a classic on the 
 
2o6 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 subject on which it treats, and the numerical tables of which have formed 
 a mine from which medical statisticians have frequently dug ; 
 
 "Treatise on the History, Nature and Treatment of Chin-cough, including 
 a variety of Cases and Dissections ; to which is subjoined an Inquiry 
 into the relative mortality of the Principal Diseases of Children, and the 
 numbers who have died under Ten years of age in Glasgow during the 
 last Thirty years, by Robert Watt, M.D., &c. 8°. Glasgow. John Smith 
 and Son. 1813. Printed by Wm. Lang." [Pp. xvi., 392.] 
 
 The dedication is to Sir Gilbert Blane, Physician-in-ordinary to the Prince 
 Regent. 
 
 Captain Laskey's General Accomit of the Hunterian Museum, published 
 by John Smith & Son, scarcely comes within our purview ; and the same 
 remark may possibly apply to the two books next to be mentioned, but 
 they are given on account of their local interest : 
 
 "Flora Glottiana, a Catalogue of the indigenous Plants on the banks of 
 the River Clyde, and in the neighbourhood of the City of Glasgow, by 
 Thomas Hopkirk, Fellow of the Linnaean Society and Member of the Wer- 
 nerian Society of Edinburgh. Glasgow. John Smith & Son. 8°. 18 13. 
 Printed by Wm. Lang." [Pp. 170.] 
 
 Another botanical work by the same pen is 
 
 " Floria Anomoia. A general View of the Anomalies in the Vegetable 
 Kingdom, By Thomas Hopkirk, younger of Dalbeth, F.L.S., M.W.S., &c. 
 Glasgow. John Smith & Son. mdcccxvii." [Pp. 198. 8°.] 
 
 Two years before the appearance of this last book there had been printed 
 in Glasgow a Bible which bears on the title-page to have some degree of 
 medical interest : 
 
 "A revised Translation and Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures after 
 the Eastern manner from the Concurrent Authorities of the Critics, Inter- 
 preters, and Commentators, copies and versions showing that the Inspired 
 Writings contain the seeds of the valuable Sciences, being the source 
 whence the ancient philosophers derived them ; also the most ancient His- 
 tories and greatest Antiquities ; with a Philosophical and Medical Com- 
 mentary ; the use of the Commentary is not to give the sense of the Text, 
 as that is done in the Interpretation, but to describe the work of Nature, 
 showing the connection of Natural Science with Revealed Religion. 
 Glasgow. Printed for and Sold by R. Hutchison & Co. [and a number 
 of other firms in Glasgow, Greenock, Kilmarnock, Port- Glasgow," &c.]. 
 [Pp. ix., 1 123. 4to.] 
 
 The preface is signed "J. M. Ray," and dated " Lond. 1802." In it, he 
 refers the reader to the commentary on the third chapter of Daniel for an 
 exposition of the " progressive plan of this work, which renders it copyright 
 till the Millennium." A reference to the chapter shows that the " plan " is 
 rather fantastical ; and Ray's Bible, both as regards its conception and execu- 
 tion, is one of the curiosities of biblical bibliography. 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 207 
 
 The next work bears the title 
 
 " An attempt to establish Physiognomy upon Scientific Principles, originally 
 delivered in a series of Lectures. By John Cross, M.D. Glasgow : Printed 
 at the University Press for Andrew and John M. Duncan, Glasgow," &c. 
 1817. [Pp. 270. 8°.] 
 
 The dedication is to Dr. Matthew Baillie. This is a meritorious work for 
 the time, by an observant and thoughtful writer. He was a graduate of 
 the University of Glasgow, and one of those referred to in a former chapter^ 
 as included as one of the defenders in a test case to decide whether an 
 M.D. as such could practise surgery. Another book by the same author 
 was published two years later — 
 
 " On the Mechanism and Motions of the human foot and leg ; By John 
 Cross, M.D. Glasgow. Young, Gallie & Co., for A. & J. M. Duncan, 
 1819." [Pp. 437. 8°.] 
 
 The author describes the work as " physico-theological," and its aim through- 
 out is teleological. 
 
 In the year intervening between these two books by Dr. Cross, Glasgow 
 suffered from a violent outbreak of typhus and other fevers, and this 
 called for several pamphlets, the most important of which was : 
 
 " Practical Observations on Continued Fevers, especially that form at 
 present existing as an Epidemic ; with some remarks on the most efficient 
 plans for its suppression by Robert Graham, M.D., Glasgow, Regius Pro- 
 fessor of Botany in the University of Glasgow, President of the Faculty of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, and one of the Physicians of the Royal Infirmary. 
 J. Smith & Son. 1818." [Pp. 84. 8°.] 
 
 Our space forbids the inclusion of the pamphlets on the same subject by 
 Dr. Richard Millar and others. We close this bibliographical sketch with 
 the title of a work on ophthalmology — 
 
 "Memoir of Diseases of the Human Eye, intended for Surgeons commencing 
 practice, from the best National and Foreign works, and in particular those 
 of Professor Beer, with the Observations of the Editor, Dr. Charles H. 
 Weller, and illustrated with cases and Observations. By George C. 
 Monteath, M.D., and Illustrated with plates. Glasgow : printed by R. Chap- 
 man, Trongate, for Reid and Anderson, Glasgow." 2 vols. 1821. [Pp. xiii., 
 280, 310. 8".] 
 
 The dedication, from 1 5 George Square, is to Dr. Matthew Baillie. The 
 illustrations are by Swan, the noted Glasgow engraver. 
 
 During the period under review, the number of books by Glasgow medical 
 men published outside of Glasgow was probably considerably in excess of 
 those brought out within the City. Still it must be said that during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the medical men of Glasgow were not 
 
 ' Chapter xviii. 163. 
 
208 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 as a rule, given to the " making of books." As regards the former century, 
 in view of its ceaseless political broils and ecclesiastical heat, this is not to 
 be wondered at. In the eighteenth century some of the Glasgow men who 
 took to writing books, such as Cullen and Moore, were drafted off elsewhere 
 before the period of their literary activity had began. 
 
 With a few words on the periodical medical literature of Glasgow we 
 conclude this survey. There was no medical periodical published in 
 Glasgow till February, 1828, when the first number of the Glasgow 
 Medical Journal appeared. Before that date the medical periodical press 
 of Edinburgh, and occasionally of London — The Medical and Philosophical 
 Commentaries, Medical Essays and Observations, The Edinburgh Medical 
 and Surgical Journal, and The Lancet — afforded outlets to the intellectual 
 activities of a few Glasgow men, such as John Paisley, James Calder, 
 Robert Watt, John Burns, and others. The Glasgow Medical Journal 
 was started as a quarterly, the editor being Dr. William Mackenzie, who 
 that year retired from the Chair of Anatomy and Surgery in Anderson's 
 College, and who subsequently acquired wide reputation as an oculist and 
 writer on ophthalmology. The first volume was published by David Allan 
 & Co., and the first published list of subscribers numbered nearly three 
 hundred, not a few of them necessarily being outside Glasgow. The 
 Glasgow Medical Journal was the pioneer of provincial medical periodicals, 
 being the first published of any in the three kingdoms ; but the example 
 set by its promoters was soon followed elsewhere. Thus the Midland 
 Medical Reporter was started for the central counties of England, while the 
 North of England Medical and Surgical Journal was begun to supply the 
 wants of the border counties ; and others followed in a few years. 
 
 The new venture had at first a chequered career. Both its editors and 
 its publishers were at first frequently changed. In the fifth volume from 
 the start the editor strongly animadverts on the obstacles placed in his 
 way, the petty personal interests and private animosities of those who 
 should have supported him. On the publication of every number, he says, 
 it was whispered that the journal was moribund. Several times it did die, but 
 had a knack of rising phoenix-like from its ashes in a form not very different. 
 These successive transmigrations constitute a difficulty for indexing and 
 cataloguing purposes. Every fresh redintegration is simply named a " New 
 Series," there being five such series in all, undistinguished numerically. 
 The successive editors of the first of these were Dr. William Mackenzie, 
 Drs. Andrew Buchanan and William Weir, and Dr. J. A. Lawrie. Series 
 the second consists of a single volume, edited jointly by the two last 
 named. The third series did not begin till twelve years later, under the 
 editorship of Dr. William Weir, assisted by Dr. James Steven and others, 
 continued by Dr. George Buchanan and Dr. J. B. Cowan (with whom later 
 Dr. James M'Ghie), Drs. Joseph Bell and William Leishman (the latter 
 
EARLY GLASGOW MEDICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND JOURNALISM 209 
 
 alone), and subsequently by Dr. P. A. Simpson. The fourth series of 
 two volumes inaugurated a change to a monthly issue under the redaction 
 of the last-named gentleman. The fifth and present series, which now 
 numbers forty-four volumes, came out, and has continued, under the 
 auspices of the " Glasgow and West of Scotland Medical Association," called 
 into existence solely to carry on the Journal. Under this regime the 
 Journal has continued to flourish, and has taken its place amongst the 
 accredited organs of medical opinion. This association, in 1889, published 
 a general index to the Journal, from its beginning to 1888, in which 
 the various series are distinguished in their sequence by numbers. This 
 index was very carefully compiled by Dr. Malcolm M'Murrich. 
 
 The Glasgow Medical Journal had only been three years in existence, 
 and had scarcely surmounted the perils of its infancy, when a rival 
 periodical was started in the City. This was The Glasgow Medical 
 Examiner, begun in April, 183 1, under the editorship of Mr. J. P. Glen, 
 a licentiate of the Faculty practising in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's 
 Square. More ambitious than the Journal, the Examiner was issued 
 monthly, the publisher being John Macleod, Argyle Street. Its origin 
 lay in the same political movement which had called the Faculty of 
 Medicine into existence half-a-dozen years earlier,^ and of this association it 
 was practically, though not officially, the mouthpiece. Its purpose was 
 avowedly to protest and agitate against what its promoters considered, and 
 not without reason, to be the unjust imposts exacted from licentiates in 
 Glasgow for liberty to practise, and the even more extortionate terms 
 insisted on in the case of members of the corporation. Every town 
 licentiate was charged fifteen guineas in the name of " freedom fine," while 
 the entry money for members had risen from ;^5o in 1792 to ^150 in 
 1 8 16, with compound interest on the sum for every year the member-*' 
 was above twenty-five. The obligation to enter the Widows' Fund was 
 the cause of this heavy exaction. The general tone of the Examiner 
 was accordingly declamatory, and its epithets strong. The contributions 
 of the editor were characterized by adequate knowledge and an incisive 
 vigour of style which marked him as a man of considerable abilit}-, but 
 some of his contributors were merely vulgarly vituperative. The magazine 
 came to an end with the eighteenth monthly issue, but not before the 
 editor was able to congratulate himself and its readers that it had not 
 lived in vain. The Faculty had abolished the obnoxious " freedom fine," 
 and for this reform the Examiner, probably with some justice, assumed all 
 the credit. 
 
 The Glasgow Medical Examiner of Mr. Glen extended to a volume and 
 a half, the last number appearing in September, 1832; and, oddly 
 enough, in April, 1869, appeared the first number of what the title-page 
 
 ' Chapter xx. 
 o 
 
2IO FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Styles " Vol. il." of the same periodical For this extraordinary Rip Van 
 Winkle feat in bibliography, the new editor, Mr. John Reid, who, like 
 his predecessor in office, Mr. Glen, was a licentiate of the Faculty, was 
 responsible. The singularity of the re-appearance of the Examiner was 
 in keeping with the latinity of its new motto, " Resiirgatur cum gloria." 
 It was continued in 1870, and expired in 1871, having been discontinued 
 in each year during the summer months. The publisher was James 
 Hadden, Sauchiehall Street, who, it is stated, lived in continual fear of 
 action for libel from his connection with the magazine. Though rather 
 an odd re-incarnation in a bibliographical point of view, there existed 
 between the volume of the Examiner of Mr. Glen and that of Mr. Reid, 
 thus separated by an interval of thirty-seven years, a certain congruity of 
 spirit and aim, which went some way to justify the continuity of title. 
 Both first and last the Examiner was essentially aggressive, combative, 
 running tilt against what the editors believed to be glaring professional 
 abuses. In the case of the old Examiner the mark at which the editorial 
 lance was hurled was irresponsible monopoly, especially as embodied in 
 the Faculty, and to a less extent in the University. But in the generation 
 intervening between the two volumes most of the old abuses had been 
 reformed or modified. Others had, in the view of the editor, taken their 
 place. Specialism in its hydra-headed forms was rampant, and, as a conse- 
 quence, special hospitals had arisen and were arising on all sides, to fill 
 the pockets of their originators, to beggar the general practitioner, and 
 demoralize the general community. Pluralities in hospital appointments 
 were not uncommon ; medical advertising in its subtler forms was rife ; 
 and, more deplorable than all in the eyes of the editor, the members of 
 the profession were rushing unthinkingly into belief in a preposterous 
 pathological doctrine unsupported by proof " Listerism," begotten in 
 Glasgow, with its spawn of " germs," of " spores," and " sporules," its 
 carbolic acid, its antiseptic crudities of all kinds, was now all the rage. 
 Against these and similar pernicious heresies the resuscitated Examiner 
 lifted up its voice. Than Mr. John Reid no one was more fearless in the 
 expression of opinions, which, if often narrow and one-sided, and not seldom 
 antiquated, were always honestly held.i 
 
 1 See Biographical Notice of Reid, by Ur. J. Lindsay Steven, in the Glasgow Medical 
 Journal May, 1895. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE FACULTY LIBRARY 
 
 The library was started in 1698, immediately after the erection of the 
 first Faculty Hall in Trongate. To provide the nucleus of a collection, the 
 members, both town and country, made donations, some of them of a 
 considerable number of volumes, many of which are still on the shelves ; 
 and they appear to have also solicited contributions from their lay friends 
 and patients, the names of a number of whom figure in the list of donors. 
 There is preserved in the library a manuscript volume in large folio, which 
 bears to be " Ex dono Joannis Bodie Chirurgorum Facultatis Glasguensis 
 Socii, Scptemb 26, M,DC,XC,VIII.," and contains " The names of such worthie 
 persons as have gifted books to the Chierurgions Librarie in Glasgow." 
 The list is appended to this chapter ; it includes, as will be seen, not only 
 the names of physician- and surgeon-members of the Faculty (with those 
 of two barbers), but also the names of then well-known Glasgow citizens, 
 such as Sir William Fleming of Farme ; " Mr. Hugh Blair, Min"^- of ye 
 Gospell " ; " Mr. Georg Skirban, Rector of the Grammar Schooll " ; and 
 others whom we may regard as the patients or friends of members, 
 who made friendly contributions, such as the Earl of Wigton, Lady 
 Barrowficld, elder ; James Campbell of Mains, etc. It is noteworthy 
 that as a rule the donations of " outsiders " are non-medical books, and 
 amongst the gifts of members it not unfrcquently happens that a book or 
 two of this class are included. It would, therefore, almost appear that the 
 Faculty originally contemplated the formation of a general library. At all 
 events, many of the donations belong to the departments of theology and 
 history, and this class of books must have subsequently been carefully 
 weeded out, none of them being now found on the shelves. Even the 
 " Biblia Sacra Latina," 1532, gifted by " the Mutch Honoured Master Charles 
 Maitland, Brother germane to the Earle of Lauderdale," though it surely 
 might well have been spared, appears to have succumbed to this relentless 
 process of elimination. Several authors of books in London, Edinburgh, 
 
212 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 etc., such as Dr. James Douglas, Dr. John Brisbane, Dr. Pitcairn, etc., 
 send contributions of their own works. 
 
 Such was the beginning of the Hbrary, this nucleus of donations 
 being supplemented by purchases, at first in a very modest scale. The 
 hiatus in the Records draws a veil over the fortunes of the library for 
 thirty years. When the curtain rises in November, 1733, there is no 
 librarian amongst the list of office-bearers, though this must have been 
 an inadvertent omission, as a librarian was probably appointed from the 
 first. At the next election, in 1734, John Paisley, .surgeon, was elected 
 " Collector and Bibliothecarius," a very suitable appointment as regards 
 the library, for it is on record that he was the possessor of a good collection 
 of books of his own, and presumably had a knowledge of medical literature. 
 The Minutes now and again are concerned about the library, and, on 
 7th December, 1741, "the Visitor produced ane exact catalogue of the 
 Faculty's books in their library," which was signed by the clerk, and, as 
 a rule and standard in time coming, is ordered to be laid up in the box. 
 On 6th October, 1746, Drs. Wodrow and Cullen are, with the Faculty's 
 money and for their use, allowed to purchase such books as they think 
 fit. At the election of office-bearers in 1755, the "Bibliothecarius" blossoms 
 out into a separate office-bearer, and a new catalogue is ordered to be made 
 out. In the record of the same meeting it is minuted that, " from the 
 respect to the memory of Doctor Peter Low, who procured their erection, 
 they appoint the collector to cause the Doctor's book, ' The Whole Art of 
 Chirurgery,' to be new bound, with proper ornaments, and discharge the 
 same from ever being afterwards lent out." This was the fourth edition, 
 a copy of which had been presented to . the Faculty by Mr. James Weir, 
 visitor at the time the library was commenced. The binding is a fairly 
 creditable specimen of ornate workmanship by single tool. 
 
 In 1762 ten pounds was voted for the formation of a separate 
 collection for the use of students and apprentices, and this was several 
 times referred to and increased in subsequent years, the last entry occurring 
 in 1774. The scheme does not appear to have been very successful. 
 
 A library committee was first appointed in 1768, and from that time the 
 library began to expand much more rapidly. Still, at the beginning of the 
 present century there were complaints that the collection was being starved, 
 and i^300 was voted in February, 1801, to be expended on books. A cata- 
 logue had been printed in 1778, and another was prepared in 18 17. In 1820 
 the number of volumes was estimated as 3,500, and the value of the books 
 is set down in the accounts with punctilious exactitude as i^2,i02 13s. 4d. 
 This was probably the amount which they had cost ; but, had they been 
 brought to the hammer, there would have doubtless been a very considerable 
 shrinkage in the figures. From 1733 to 1845, the sum expended on books, 
 as given in the accounts of 1846, was ;^5,626 4s. 7d. In 1842 another 
 
THE FA CULTY LIBRA RY 213 
 
 edition of the catalogue was prepared under the supervision of Dr. John M. 
 Pagan, which, with two supplements in 1861 and 1871, did duty till 1885, 
 when another catalogue, with a classified index of subjects, was printed. 
 During its progress through the press, the collection of books of the late 
 Dr. William Mackenzie, the eminent oculist, was presented to the Faculty. 
 It is much below the truth to say that under the superintendence of the 
 present Honorary Librarian, the accretions to the library, not only in the 
 way of new literature, but of older works which had been omitted or 
 overlooked, have been not only greater but more systematic, and selected 
 with greater judgment in reference to the efficiency of the collection than 
 at any former period of the same length. 
 
 The number of volumes in the collection at the present time approxi- 
 mates to 40,000. The great aim of the successive library committees of 
 the Faculty within the last generation has been to make it a good medical 
 library all round, not to pamper one department at the cost of the 
 atrophy of others. The library in this way reflects the composite character 
 of the body. A College of Physicians may naturally incline to give in the 
 selection of their books a distinctly medical colour, on the principle that a 
 full representation of surgical works lies more in the province of the library 
 of a College of Surgeons. From any such defect of lopsidedness, at all 
 events from this cause, the constitution of a Faculty of Physicians and 
 Surgeons happily exempts those who have charge of the library. It is 
 nevertheless true, that from accidental circumstances one or two specialities 
 are better represented than others. In the department of Ophthalmology 
 the library may be said to be exceptionally rich, owing in a great measure 
 to their possession of the Mackenzie collection. In the History of Medicine 
 it also stands well ; and when a chair on that branch is founded in the 
 City, the professor will, it is hoped, find an adequate equipment of literature 
 on his subject ready to his hand. As between the scientific or fundamental 
 branches of medicine, and those which are more concerned with practice, 
 the library is much better equipped in the latter than in the former, which 
 lie more within the domain of an academic library. There has been no 
 attempt to narrow the selection to works strictly medical ; on the contrary, 
 what may be called the accessory sciences of anthropology, biology, palae- 
 ontology, and others, have received recognition as far as has been deemed 
 fitting. General literature is necessarily excluded, though here and there on 
 the shelves is found a .straggling representative of this class. On a single point 
 the curators of the library have thought it right to depart systematically 
 from the guiding principle of making the collection distinctively medical. 
 As, historically, one of the city incorporations, the Faculty have considered 
 it befitting that works bearing on the history and progress of Glasgow 
 .should find a place on their shelves ; while, as a body to which was entrusted 
 by charter jurisdiction over the western counties of Scotland, works bearing 
 
214 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 on the history of " our burgh and baronie of . . . Renfrew, Dumbartane, 
 and our Sherriffdomes of Cliddisdale, Renfrew, Lanark, Kyle, Carrick, 
 Air, Cunninghame," are always welcome. 
 
 There has been no special attempt to make any collection of medical 
 incunabula, though a few fifteenth and early sixteenth century books are 
 found on the shelves. The earliest printed of these is the Liber Serapionis 
 aggrcgatus in Medicinis siniplicibus (Venice, 1479). There is also a copy 
 of the Opusculus ciii nonicn Claviis Sanitationis of Simon Januensis (Venice, 
 1488). In chronological order comes next a copy of the work of Bar- 
 tholomaeus Anglicus [de Glanvilla] Liber de proprietatibus rermn (Argentine, 
 1 491). There is also a fine copy of the Liliuiii Medicinae of Gordonius, 
 printed at Venice in 1496. Published in 1501 there is a copy of the 
 Claroficatoriuni of Johannes de Tornamira. Recently acquired there is a 
 copy of the first edition of Vesalius, De huniani corporis fabrica (Basil, 
 1543). The Rosa Gallica of Champerius is represented by the Paris 
 edition of 15 14 as well as by later editions; but there is awanting an 
 early edition of the Rosa Anglica of John of Gaddesden, which is repre- 
 sented by an edition published by Schopfius in 1595. A few of the books 
 in the library acquire a factitious value from their being very scarce, or 
 from circumstances having special reference to the authorship. A small work 
 whose value is enhanced on both these grounds is the Spanish Sicknes of 
 Peter Lowe, whose Chiriirgeric is represented in the library by copies of 
 all the editions except the first. As an example of a book published so 
 late as 1672, which is rarely met with, is Wiseman's Treatise of Wounds. 
 When Sir Thomas Longmore published his biography of him in 1891, 
 he could only ascertain the existence of two copies, one in the British 
 Museum, and the other in the Military Medical Library at Netley. Since 
 then two other copies have been obtained — one by the library of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons of England, and a fourth by the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons of Glasgow, the latter acquired by gift. 
 
 The manuscripts in the Library include among others 3 i volumes of the 
 Transactions of the Glasgow Medical Society, 1815-45; the Minute Books 
 of the same Society covering the entire period of its existence ; the first Minute 
 Book of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow, containing its records 
 from 1844 to 1892 ; the manuscripts of the published work of Dr. Robert 
 Watt on Chin-cough and of the Flora Glottiana of Thomas Hopkirk, younger, 
 of Dalbeth ; copies of volumes of the Lectures of John Hunter, Robert Whytt, 
 John Gregory, and others, presumably as taken down by students ; Diary of a 
 Tour and Residence in several Continental Countries, 18 16-18, by Dr. William 
 MacKenzie, the eminent writer on Ophthalmology ; a volume giving an 
 account of John Hunter's establishment at Pearl's Court, of Sir Everard Home's 
 troubles with his publishers, and money accounts of Hunter's estate, by 
 William Clift ; a folio volume by an unknown author, entitled Theoria Medicinae 
 
THE FACULTY LIBRAR Y 215 
 
 Naturalis, in Latin and German, illustrated by quaintly curious pen and ink 
 sketches ; and a collection of medical autographs, etc. 
 
 It remains only to be said that a Reading Room was added to the 
 library about 1840. 
 
 Repeated efforts made by the Faculty during the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries to form a museum have invariably resulted in failure. 
 The collection of " rarities " in natural history to which occasional refer- 
 ences are made in the Minutes of last century appears to have left no 
 trace in the present century. In 1823, and again ten years later, move- 
 ments towards the institution of a pathological museum resulted in the 
 formation of a considerable nucleus of such a collection. We read of a 
 vote (to be continued annually) of £so for the museum in the former of 
 these years, and in the latter of a scheme to erect an appropriate building 
 (behind the Faculty Hall) in St. Enoch's Square for the purpose of a 
 museum, with a salaried conservator and other officers, and some consider- 
 able progress seems to have been made in the obtaining of specimens, 
 wax models, etc. But the scheme eventually came to nothing, and in 
 1852, after various resolutions had from time to time been submitted in 
 regard to the " Museum," it was agreed, in the face of a protest by two 
 of the Fellows, to hand over the entire collection to the Pathological 
 Museum of the Royal Infirmary. A communication was accordingly re- 
 ceived, dated 3rd January, 1853, from the Pathological Committee of that 
 hospital, thanking the Faculty for the gift, and accepting it " as a sub- 
 stantial proof of the interest taken in the Museum by the Fellows of the 
 Faculty." 
 
2l6 
 
 The Names of such worthie persons as have Gifted Books to 
 THE Chierurgions Librarie in Glasgow. 
 
 Doctor Peter Patoune, Praeses To the faculty. 
 James Weir, present Visitor. 
 Mr. Henrie Marshall, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 Mr. Alexander Tran, Chirurgeon Apothecar. 
 Alexander Porterfield, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 Alexr. Porterfield of that Ilk. 
 David Hall, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 William Thomson, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 Robert Houstoune, Chirurgeon Apothecar. 
 Master Robert Houstoune, Chirurgeon 
 
 Apothecar. 
 John Boyd, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 James Robison, Mer[chant]. 
 Robert Graham of Gallengade, Chirurgeon 
 
 Apothecar. 
 Alexander Knox, Chyrurgeon Apothecar. 
 Thomas Hamilton, Chirurgeon Apothecar. 
 John Hamilton, Chirurgeon Apothecar. 
 James Calder, Chirurgeon Apothecar. 
 Robert Robertson, Wryter in Glasgow and 
 
 Clerk to the ffaculty. 
 Sir William Fleming of Farme. 
 Peter Bogill, Mer[chant]. 
 Mr. Hugh Blair, Min>"- of ye Gospell, by the 
 
 Influence of Mr. H. Marshall, bibliothe- 
 
 carius. 
 John Campbell, Chyr[urgeon] Apothecar. 
 The Lady Barowfeild, Elder, by the Influence 
 
 of Mr. H. Marshall, bibliothecarius. 
 Mrs. Marion Pender. 
 
 ^ Mr. Archibald Pitcairn, Doctor of Medicine. 
 Thomas Napier of Ballikinrain, Chyr[urgeon]. 
 John Moorhead of Brydisholme. 
 Mr. Alex""- Horsbrough, Chyr[urgeon]. 
 William Wallace, Barber. 
 James Bell, Barber. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Brisbane, Doctor of Medicine. 
 Mr. William Wright, Doctor of Medicine. 
 Mr. Thomas Kennedy, Doctor of Medicine. 
 
 Mr. James Baird, Doctor of Medicine. 
 
 John Melvin, Chyrurgion in DoUuay. 
 
 John Bogill, Chyr[urgeon]. 
 
 Adam Cuningham, Chirurgeon in Greenock. 
 
 Andrew Reid, Chyr[urgeon]. 
 
 William Robertson, Merchant in Glasgow. 
 
 Robert Boyd in Banheth. 
 
 Mr. Georg Skirban, Rector of the Grammar 
 
 Schooll. 
 Robert Baillie, Sone to Mr. Hendry Baillie, 
 
 Indweller in Glasgow. 
 John Marshall, Wryter in Glasgow and Clerk 
 
 to ye Facultie. 
 John Marshall, Chyrurgeon in Glasgow. 
 William Stirling, Bailzie of the Regallity of 
 
 Glassgow. 
 James Campbell of Mains. 
 John Naismith. 
 The Ryt- Honorable TheEarle of Wigton, At 
 
 the Intercession of Mr. Henrie Marshall. 
 The Mutch Honoured Master Charles 
 
 Maitland, Brother germane to the Earle 
 
 of Lauderdale. 
 Thomas ffalconer, Wryter and Clerk to the 
 
 Facultie. 
 John Semple of Dalmook. 
 Matthew Lamb of Rorkwood, ane member of 
 
 faculty. 
 The Reverend Mr. William Jameson. 
 ^ Doctor James Douglas, Doctor of Medicine 
 
 at London. 
 John Munro, Writer in Glasgow and Register 
 
 of Seasings. 
 John Wodrow, Doctor of Medicine. 
 Mr. John Gordon, Surgeon in Glasgow. 
 1 Doctor John Brisbane, Physician in London. 
 ' Doctor Andrew Morris. 
 College of Physicians, Edinburgh. 
 
 1 Author of the Works presented. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 CHARTER BY KING JAMES VI. TO THE FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND 
 SURGEONS OF GLASGOW.i 
 
 JAMES, be the Grace of God, King of Scottis, to all Provostis, baillies of burrowis, 
 scheriffs, stewartis, baillies of regalities, and otheris ministeris of justice within the 
 boLindis following, and their deputis, and all and sundrie otheris ouir leigis and subditis, 
 quhom it efferis, quhase knawledge thir our letteris sal cume, greiting, Wit ze we, with 
 auise o oure counsall, understanding the grit abuisis quhilk hes bene comitted in time 
 bigane, and zit daylie continuis be ignorant, unskillit and unlernit personis, quha, under 
 the coUour of Chirurgeanis, abuisis the people to their plesure, passing away but tryel 
 or punishment, and thairby destroyis infinite number of oure subjectis, quhairwith na 
 ordour hes bene tane in tyme bigane, specially within oure burgh and baronie of Glasgow, 
 Renfrew, Dumbartane, and oure Sheriffdomes of Cliddisdale, Renfrew, Lanark, Kyile, 
 Carrick, Air and Cunninghame ; For avoiding of sik inconvenientis, and for gude 
 ordoure to be tane in tyme cuming, to have made, constitutit and ordanit, and be the 
 tenoure of thir oure letteris, makis, constitutis, and ordinis Maister Peter Low, our 
 Chirurgiane and chief chirurgiane to oure dearest son the Prince, with the assistance 
 of Mr. Robert Hamiltone, professoure of medecine, and their successouris, indwelleris 
 of our Citie of Glasgow, Gevand and Grantand to thaime and thair successoures, full 
 power to call, sumonnd, and convene before thame, within the said burgh of Glasgow, 
 or onie otheris of ouir said burrowis, or publict places of the foirsaids'boundis, all personis 
 professing or using the said airt of Chirurgie, to examine thame upon thair literature, 
 knawledge and practize; gif they be fund wordie, to admit, allow, and approve thame, 
 give them testimonial according to the airt and knawledge that they sal be fund wordie 
 to exercise thareftir, resave thair aithis, and authorize thame as accordis, and to discharge 
 thame to use onic fardcr nor they have knawledge passing thair capacity, laist our 
 subjectis be abusit ; and that every ane citat report testimonial of the minister and eldris, 
 or magistratis of the parochin quhair they dwell, of thair life and convcrsatione ; and 
 in case they be contumax, being lauchfullie citat, everie ane to be unlawit in the 
 soume of fortie pundis, toties quoties, half to the judges, other half to be disponit at 
 the visitoures plesure ; and for payment thairof the said Mr. Peter and Mr. Robert, 
 or visitoures, to have oure uthere letteris of horning, on the partie or magistriates quhair 
 ' From a Notarial Copy in the Possession of the Faculty. 
 
2i8 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 the contemptuous personis duellis, chargeing thame to poind thairfoire, within twentie 
 four houris, under the pain of horning ; and the partie not haveand geir poindable, the 
 magistrate, under the same pain, to incarcerate thame, quhill cautioun responsall be fund, 
 that the contumax persone sail compir at sik day and place as the saidis visitouris sail 
 appoint, gevan trial of thair qualifications ; Ntxt, that the saidis visitouris sail visit everie 
 hurt, murtherit, poisonit, or onie other persoun tane awa extraordinarly, and to report 
 to the Magistrate of the fact as it is : Thirdlie, That it sail be leisum to the said visitouris, 
 with the advice of their bretheren, to mak statutis for the comoun weill of our subjectis, 
 anent the saidis artis, and using thairof faithfullie, and the braikeris thairof to be punshit 
 and unlawit be the visitoures according to their fait : Fordlie, It sail not be leisum to onie 
 mannir of personis within the foresaidis boundis to exercise medicine without ane 
 testimonial of ane famous universitie quhair medecine be taught, or at the leave of oure 
 and oure dearest spouse chief medicinarie ; and in case they failzie, it sal be lesum to 
 the saidis visitouris to challenge, perseu and inhibite thame throu using and exercing of 
 the said airt of medecine, under the pain of fourtie poundis, to be distributed, half to 
 the Judges, half to the pure, toties quoties they be fund in useing and exercing the same, 
 ay and quhill they bring sufficient testimonial as said is : Fythlie, That na manir of 
 personis sell onie droggis within the Citie of Glasgow, except the sam be sichtit be the 
 saidis visitouris, and be William Spang, apothecar, under the pane of confiscatioune of 
 the droggis : Sextlie, That nane sell retoun poison, asenick, or sublemate, under the 
 pane of ane hundred merkis, excep onlie the apothecaries quha sail be bund to tak 
 cautioun of the byaris, for coist, skaith, and damage : Seventlie, Yat the saidis visitouris, 
 with thair bretherene and successouris, sail convene every first Mononday of ilk moneth 
 at sum convenient place, to visite and give counsell to pure disaisit folkis gratis : and 
 last of all, Gevand and grantand to the saidis visitouris indwellers of Glasgow, professouris 
 of the saidis airtis, and thair bretherene, p"nt and to cum, imunite and exemptioune from 
 all wappin shawengis, raidis, oistis, beiring of armour, watching, weirding, stenting 
 taxationis, passing on assises, inquestis, justice courtis, scheriff or burrow courtis, in 
 actiounes criminal or cival, notwithstanding of oure actis, lawis, and constitutionis 
 thairoff, except in geving yairr counsall in raateris appertaining to the saidis airtis : 
 ORDAINING you, all the foresaidis provestes baillies of burrowis, sheriffis, stewartis, baillies 
 of regalities, and otheris ministeris of justice, within the saidis boundis, and zoure 
 deputis, to assist, fortifie, concur and defend the saidis visitouris, and their posterior, 
 professouris of the foresaidis artis, and put the saidis actis maid and to be maid to 
 executioun ; and that our otheris letteris of our sessioun be granted thereupon to charge 
 thame to that effect within twentie four houris nixt after they be chargit thairto. Gevin 
 under oure previe seill, at Haliruid house, the penult day of November, the zeir of 
 God jmvc. and fourscore ninetein zeiris, and of oure regun the threttie thre zeir. 
 
 (WriUen on the Tag thus) I'er Signaturam manu S. D. N. Regis, nee 
 
 Litera Mag"ri Petri Low, Chirurgi non manibus Dominorum Ducis Lennocje 
 
 Et Mag"ri Roberti Hamiltone Thesaurarii ac Scaccarii Dicti Domini Regis 
 
 Professoris Medicinte Subscri])tam. 
 
 (Written on the back thus) 
 
 Written to the Privie Seil, Penult Novcmb"' 1599. 
 
 J. Hay. 
 
GENERAL SIGNET LETTERS 
 
 II. 
 
 219 
 
 GENERAL SIGNET LETTERS, THE SURGEONS OF GLASGOW AGAINST 
 THE MAGISTRATES, AND ALL AND SUNDRY. 
 
 Dated -^ist July, Signeted i^th August 1635. 
 
 CHARLES, be the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 
 Defender of the Faith, to our lovittis, John Ramsay, messenger, 
 
 our Sheriffs in that part conjunctlie and severaUie, speciaUie constitut, 
 greeting. — Forasmeikle as we understanding the great abusis qlk hes bein committit 
 in tyme bygane, and zitt dayhe continues, in ignorant unskiUit and unlearnit personis 
 quha hes, under the culler of chyrurgeans abuseit our leidges att yair pleasor, passing 
 away but tryell or punishment and yrby destroying infinit members of our subjects, 
 quarof na order hes taken in tyme bygane, speciaUie within our burgh and baronic 
 of Glasgow, sheriffdoms and burghs of Renfrew, Paisley, Uumbartane, Clydesdaill, 
 Lanerk, Kayll, Carrick, and Cunynghame ; and also understanding that our umqu' 
 deirrest father, King James of worthie memorie, for avoyding of sic inconvenients, 
 and for order to be tane yairanent in tyme coming, be his Hieness I'res of gyft 
 under his Hieness Privie Seall, made y'rupon of the dait att Holirudhouse, the 
 penult day of November the zeir of God jajv and foirscore and nineteen zeirs, 
 made, constituted, and ordainit the visitour in the said airt and calling of chirurgeonrie 
 in our burgh Glasgow, and his successors, indwellers in the said burgh, Commissioners 
 to the effect underw", Giveand and Grantand to them full power to call, summond, 
 and convein before them within our said burgh of Glasgow, or any oy'r of our 
 saidis burrowes or publick places of the foirsaidis boundis, all persones professing 
 or useing the said airt of chirurgeonrie, to examine them upon yair literator, 
 knawledge, and practice, give they be fund worthie, to admitt, allow, and approve 
 them, give them testinioniall according to the airt and knowledge that they sail be 
 fund worthie to exercise, y'raftcr ressave yair aithes, and authorise them as accords ; 
 and to discharge them to use any furder nor they have knowledge or passing yair 
 capacitie, leist our subjectis be abuseit, and that every ane citat report testimonial! 
 of the minister and elders, or Magistrates of the parochine q' they dwell of y' life 
 and conversatione, and in caise they be contumax being lawfuUie citat, everie ane 
 to be oulawit in the soume of fourtie pundis, toties (]uoties, half to the judges, the 
 uther half to dispone at the visitoures pleasour ; and for pay' y'rof they to have 
 I'res of horning on the partie or Magistrates (}' the contemptuous persones dwelles, 
 chargeing theim to poynd yairfor within twentie-foure hours, under the paine of 
 horning, and the pairtie not havcand geir poyndable, the Magistrate under the same 
 paine to incarcerat them cju' cautioun responsall be fund that the contumax person 
 sail compeir att the day and place as the said visitors shall a2)poynt, giveand tryell 
 of y'. qualificatioun ; and that the saidis visitors shall visit everie hurt, murderit, 
 poysoneit, or uther persone tane away extraordinarilie, and to report to the Magistrates 
 of the fact. Thirdly, That it shall be Icisomc to the saidis visitours with advice of 
 
220 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 yair brethren, to mak statutis for the common weill of our subjectis anent the saidis 
 airtes and useing yairof faithfuUie, and the breakers thairof to be punishit and unlawit 
 to the visitors according to the fact. Fourtlie, It shall not be leisome to ony 
 maner of persones within the foirsaidis boundis, to exercise medicine without ane 
 testimoniall of ane famous Universitie q'. medicine is taught, or at the leive of our 
 said umq'. deirest father, and our umq'. deirest mother of worthie memoire, thair 
 chief medicinaries, and in caise they failzie, it soud be leisome to the saidis visitours 
 to challenge, persue, and inhibit thaim throw useing and exercing of the said airt 
 of medicine, under the paine of fourtie pundis, to be distributeit half to the judge, 
 and half to the poor, toties qiwties they be fund useing and exerceising of the same, 
 ay and quhill they bring sufficient testimonialls as said is. Fyftlie, That na maner 
 of persone sell ony drogis within our citie of Glasgow, except the samyn be sightit 
 be the saidis visitors, under paine of confiscatioun of the druggis. Saxtlie, That 
 nane sell ratine poyseing, arsenick, or sublimate, under the paine of ane hundreth 
 merkes (except only the apothecaries quha shall be bund to take cautioune of the 
 buyers for cost, skaith, and dammage.) Seventlie, That the saidis visitores, with 
 their bretheren and successors, shall conveine everie first Mononday of ilk moneth, 
 att some convenient place, to visit and give counsell to puir desaisit folkis gratis ; 
 And last of all, givene and grantit to the saidis visitors, indwellers of Glasgow, 
 professors of the saidis airtis, and their bretherene in pr'nt and to cum, immunitie 
 and exemptioun frae all weipin shawingis, readdis, hostis, wearinge of armour, watching, 
 wardeing, stenting, taxatiounes, passing on assayesses, inquestis, justice courtis, sheriff 
 or burrow courtis, in actiouns criminall or civill, notwithstanding of our said umqhil 
 dearrest father, his hienes actis, caUis and constitutiones made, grantit (exceptin 
 gieveing y'. counsell in matters appertaining to the saidis airtis), ordeineing all and 
 sundrie provestis, baillies of burrowes, sheriffs, stewartis, bailyies of regalities, and 
 oy'. ministers of justice within the saidis boundis, and their deputtis, to assist, fortifie, 
 concur, and defend the saidis visitours and thair posteritie, professores of the foirsaidis 
 airtis, and to putt the saidis actis made and to be made to due executioun ; and 
 that I'res be grantit thairupon to charge them to that effect, within twentie four 
 hours next after they be chargeit thairto ; as in the saidis I'res of gift and commissioun 
 under the privie seall, made and grantit yrupon, of the dait above w". in favours 
 of the saidis visitors in the said airt and calling of chirurgianrie within our said 
 burgh and citie of Glasgow, and thair successoris att mair lenth is conteint, 
 q'upon our lovitt, Mr James Hamiltoun, chirurgian, burges of our said burgh of 
 Glasgow, p'nt visitor in the said airt and calling of chirurgerie within the samyn 
 burgh of Glasgow, for himself, and in name and behalf of the remanent bretherin 
 and freemen of the said airt and calling, and thair successorcs, obteinit ane decreit 
 before the Lords of our Counsell and Sessioun, upon the last day of July last 
 bypast, the zeir of God jayvi and threttie-fyve zieris, against all and sundrie persones 
 quatever, professing or useing the saidis airtis of Chirurgianrie or medicine within 
 our said burgh and baronie of Glasgow, sheriffdomes, and burrowes of Renfrew, 
 Dumbartan, Clyddisdaill, Lanerk, Air, Kyle, Carrick, and Cunynghame, and also 
 ag'. the provestis and bailzies of burrows, sheriffs, stewartis, bailies of regalities, and 
 
GENERAL SIGNET LETTERS 221 
 
 other ministers of justice qu'sumevir, within the saidis boundis, decerning and ordaining 
 thir our I'res of horning to be direct upon ane single charge of three dayes allenarhe, 
 chargeing all and sundrie the saidis persones qu'sumever professing or using the 
 saidis airtis of chirurgianrie or medicine within the bounds foresaidis in generall, 
 or be thair name in speciall as they shall be requirit, to desist and cease frae all 
 useing or usurping of the saidis artis of chirurgeanrie or medicine within the boundis 
 forsaidis of our said burgh and barronie of Glasgow, sheriffdomes, and burrowes of 
 Renfrew, Dumbartane, Clyddisdaill, Lanerk, Air, Kyle, Carrick, and Cunynghame, 
 except they be examined be the said Mr James Hamiltoune, p'nt visitour foresaid, 
 in the said airt and calling of chirurgianrie and medicine within our said burgh of 
 Glasgow, and be his bretherin in the said airt, and thair successors, upon thair 
 literator, knowledge and practice, and admittit, allowit, and approvit be them as 
 being fund worthy, and y' testimoniallis given to them according to thair knawledge, 
 that they shall be fund worthie to exercise y'aftir, thair aithes ressevit, and authorized 
 be the said visitor and his breitherin of the said airt and their successoris, as accords, 
 and also dischargeing them to use anie farder, nor that they have knowledge laist 
 our leidges and subjectis be abusit, and siclyke dischargeing thaim to exerce ony 
 medicine in the boundis foirsaidis, without the testimoniall of ane famous universitie 
 quhair medicin is taught, or at the leif of our, or our deirrest spous' chieff medicinaries, 
 under the said paine of fourtie pundis, toties quoties to be dystributeit half to the 
 poore, and half to the judge, and also that they on no wayes sell any droges within 
 our said burgh of Glasgow, except the samyn be syghtet be the said p'nt visitor, and 
 his successores visitors of the said airt, under the paine of confiscatioune of the 
 saidis drogis ; and that they sell no ratone poyson, arsenick, or sublimate, under the 
 said paine of ane hundreth merkis, — except only the apothecaries wha shall be bund 
 to take cawtioun of the buyers for cost, skaith, and dammage ; and also that they 
 usurpe nor doe nothing in contrair the tenour of the saidis I're of gift and commission, 
 and to obtemper and obey the samyn in all poyntis, after the forme and tenor 
 thairof : And in like manir, chargeing all and sundrie the saidis Provest and Baillies 
 of burrowes, Sheriffis, Stewartis, Bailzies of regalities, and utheris Ministeris of Justice 
 qu'tsumever, within the saidis boundis, and their deputtis, to assist, fortifie, concure, 
 and defend the said Mr James Hamiltoune, p'nt visitor foresaid, and his breitherin, 
 and their successoris, professoris of the saidis artis, and to put their actis made 
 and to be made thairanent to due execution, conformc to the foirssaids I'res of 
 gift and commissioun grantit thairupon, in all pointis, as in the said decreit att 
 more Icnth is conteinit. — Our will is herefore, and we chairge you straitlie, and 
 commandis, that incontinent thir our I'res seen you pass, and in our name and 
 authoritie, command and charge all and sundrie the foirsaidis persones q'tsomevir, 
 professing and useing, or usurping the saidis airtis of chirurgianrie and medicine, 
 within the boundis above specified in general, or be their names in speciall, as 
 they shall be requircit, be open proclamatioun at the mercat croccs of our burrowes 
 of Glasgow, Lanark, Rutherglen, Renfrew, Paislay, Dumbartan, Air, Irving, and uther 
 places neidfull, to desist and cease frae all useing or usurping of the saidis airtis 
 of chirurgeanrie or medicine, within the boundis foirsaidis of our said burgh and 
 
222 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 baronie of Glasgow, sheriffdomes burrowes of Renfrew, Dumbartan, Clidisdaill, Lanerk, 
 Air, Kyle, Carrick, and Cunynghame, except they be examined be the said Mr 
 James Hamiltoune, p'nt visitor foresaid in the said airt and calling of chirurgeanrie 
 and medicin within our said burgh of Glasgow, and his bretheren of the said airt, 
 and thair successores, upon thair literator and knowledge to practize, and admittit, 
 allowit, and approvit be them, as being fund worthie, and y'r testimonial! given to 
 them, according to their airt and knowledge, that they shall be fund worthie to 
 exercise yaireafter, their aithes ressevit, and authorised be the said visitor and his 
 bretherene of the said airt, and thair successores, as accordis : And also that ye, 
 in our name and authoritie, inhibit and discharge them to use ony farder nor that 
 y'rof they have knowledge and capacitie, laist our leidges and subjectis be abuseit ; 
 and sicklike, that ye discharge them to exerce ony medicine within the boundis 
 foirsaidis, without the testimoniall of ane famous Universitie, q'r medicine is taught, 
 or att the leife of our and our dearrest spous chieffe mediciners, under the said 
 paine of fourtie pundis, to be distributeit, half to the poore and half to the judge, 
 toties quoties; and also, that they on no wayes sell ony droges within our said 
 burgh of Glasgow, except the samyn be sightet be the said p'nt visitor, and his 
 successores visitors of the said airt, under the paine of confiscatioun of the saidis 
 drogis, — and that they sell no rattoun poysoun, arsenick, or subleim, under the said 
 paine of ane hundredth merks, except onlie the apothecaries, wha shall be bund 
 to tak cawtioun of the buyers, for cost, skaith, and dammage ; and also, that they 
 usurp nor doe nothing in contrair of the tenour of the saidis I'tres of gift and 
 commissioun grantit be our said umq' dearrest father y'ranent, but to obtemper and 
 obey the samyn in all pointis, efter the forme and tenour foirsaid : And in like 
 manner, that ye, in our name and aut'hie, command and charge all and sundrie the 
 saidis Provestis and Bailzies of burrowes, Sheriffis, Stewartis, Bailzies of regalities, 
 and uther Ministers of Justice q'tsumever, within the saidis boundis, any y' deputtis, 
 to assist, fortifie, concur, and defend the said Mr James Hamiltoune, p'nt visitor 
 foirsaid, and his bretheren, and y' successoris, professores of the saidis airtis, and 
 to put y' actis made and to be made y'ranent, to due execution, conforme to the 
 foirsaidis I'res of gift and commissioun grantit to them y'rupon, and decreet abovew", 
 obteinit be them upon the saymne, in all pointis, within three dayes next after they 
 be chargeit be you thairto, under the paine of rebellioun, and putting of them to 
 our home ; qlk if they refuse to doe, the saidis three dayes being bypast, that ye 
 incontinent y'reafter denounce the disobeyers our rebelles, and put them to our 
 home, and escheat and inbring all y' moveable goodis to our use, for y' contemptioun 
 and rebellioun foirsaid ; and immediatlie after yo' said denounciatioun, that ye use 
 the haill remanent order prescryvit be our act of Parliament made y'anent. — According 
 to justice, as ye will answer to us y'rupon. The qulk to doe we co'mitt to you, 
 conjunctlie and severallie, our full power be thir our I'res of horning, delivering 
 them be you duely execut and indorsed again to the bearer. Given under our 
 signett att Edin', the last day of July, and of our reigne the eleventh yeir, 1635. 
 
 Per Dccrefiun Unomm Concilii. 
 
 (Signed) Ja. Wilson. 
 {Signeted) \\th August 1635. Written be Mr William Purves, my Serv''. 
 
LETTER OF DEACONRY 223 
 
 III. 
 LETTER OF DEACONRY. 
 
 To all and sundrie quhome it effeiris, to quhois knowledge thir present lettres sail 
 cum, we, Johne Andersoune, provest, Johne Andersoune, Johne Walkingschaw and 
 Williame Neilsoune, bailleis, of the brughe of Glasgow, senatouris and counselleris ot 
 the samyn, greiting in God everlasting. Wit your vniversiteis and all vtheris quhome 
 it may concerne, that ther compeirit befoir ws, sittand in our counsell hous, Johne 
 Hall, present headis man or dekine of the chirurgianis and barbouris within the samyn, 
 for himself and in name and behalf of the saids chirurgianis and barbouris, and did 
 oft divers and sundrie tymis present to ws and our counsell, gatherit togither, thair 
 bill and supplicatioune vnderwrittin, off the quhilk the tenour fallowis : — Wnto the 
 right honourabill the provest, bailleis and counsall of Glasgow, the humbill petitioune 
 of your servandis and comburgessis, the chirurgianis and barbouris, residenteris within 
 the said citie, and humblie scheweth that quhair thes fyftie seaven yeiris past, since 
 the patent grantit to ws of the dait the penult day of November, j'" v" [ninety^] nine 
 yeiris, by the deceist King James, to your awin and your predicessoris knowledge, we 
 have bein in vse yeirlie to elect ane deacon as visitour and oversiear of the rest of 
 the members of our calling, as vthers calling have bein in vse be vertew of any 
 patent letter of dekinheid or seall of caus conferit vpone them heirtofoir by any 
 authoritie, and that it is incumbent to ws to have ane lettre of dekinrie of your 
 honowris, as vtheris of this incorporatiounc have grantit to them by your ])rediccssoris, 
 for ane joynt and hermoneus correspondence of brotherhood as brother citizens willing 
 to simpatheise with the rest of the bodic of the citie, whcrintill we sail be concernit 
 to the extent of our power, with the lyk priviledgis and liberteis as that your 
 authoritie may be interponit thairto, and we authorized thairby to vse such power, 
 observe such courssis and custumes as vthcr callings have grantit to them by thair 
 lettre of deaconheid or scale of caus, that we convein at the ordinarie tyme as vthcr 
 callings doe, ycirlic befoir Michaellmes, in our ordinarie place of melting, in all tyme 
 cumying, and thair be pluralitie of voitis, as wse is, elect and mack choyse of ane of 
 our number to be visitour or deacon for ane yeir thairefter to cum, quho sail be 
 ane of the most fite and qualified and worthiest of the said calling, ane chirurgiane 
 and burges of the brughe, and he being sworne de fideli admintstratione may appoynt 
 meltings for conveining the calling, caus quartermaisters be electit, the one half of his 
 awin nominatioune and the vther half by the calling itself, quho sail be authoreized 
 to imped any persoune quhatsumevir, by concurse of your honouris, to presume to 
 exerceis any poynt of the arte of chirurgianrie or barbourie, or sett out any signis for 
 ather of them, till he be tryed and admittit be the said calling in maner of tryall as 
 schall be prescryvit, being first admittit burges of the toune. Nixt, that ane burges 
 sone serveing his prenteischipe fyve yeiris as ane prenteis and twa yeiris for meit and 
 
 'The word "fyftie" is, by mistake, inserted in the record of the Town Council. 
 
224 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 fie, pay [fortie] ^ merkis Scottis at his admissioune for his vpsett, and anie strainger 
 entering with the said calling, first being burges, to pay for his adrnissioun four scoir 
 merkis for the vse of the poore of the calling. Thridlie, that no free mane vsurpe 
 the haveing of any mae prenteissis nor one during the saids seavin yeiris without 
 expres warrand from the visitour and quarter maisteris. Fourtlie, that the said calling 
 may fayne any vsurper that exerceissis the saids artis, without thair admissioune, 
 toUerance and licentiatioune, in the soume of ten punds Scottis tottes quoties, appro- 
 priating the one half to the bailleis of the citie and the vther half to the box of the 
 calling. Fyftlie, that the visitour for the tyme appoynt dyets of four heid courtis or 
 meitings of the calling, and oftner pro re nata, and caus poynd the absentis in half 
 ane merk each tyme for the vse of the poore. Sextlie, that no friemane mak vse of 
 ane vnfrie mane wnder his toUerance, wnder the paine of ane new vpsett ; nather tack 
 ane vther freamanis prenteis without his former masters leave askit and grantit, vnder 
 the lyke pain. Seavintlie, that no freamane presume to tack ane vther freamanis cuir 
 af his hand wntill he be honestlie satisfied and payit for his bygaine painis, and that 
 at the sight of the bailleis with advyce of the visitour incaice the patient find himself 
 grived by the chirurgiane, vnder the paine of ane new vpsett, excepting alwayis libertie 
 to the visitour and quarter masters to tack patientis from ane friemane not fund 
 qualified for the cuiring of them and to put them to ane more qualified persoune as 
 sail be thoght expedient efter exact tryall. Eightlie, that if any member of the calling, 
 of quhatsumevir qualitie, contempner of the visitour and his quartermasters in any of 
 the poyntis afoirsaid, or of thair officer in executioune of thair office, quho is to be 
 the last entrant frea men of the calling and is to remaine till ane vther enter, pay 
 ane new vpsett according to that he payit at his entrie to be qualified be the recordis 
 of the calling. Nyntlie, that no brother within the said calling presume to meddill 
 with any mae poyntis of chirurgianrie nor thais they ar fund qualified of at thair 
 admissioune and conforme as they ar booked, vnder the paine of the soumes above- 
 writtin respective as ane new vpsett. And, lastlie, that the said visitour or deakin 
 may judge betwixt maister and prenteis, at the bailleis sight, in caice any differ of 
 importance aryse, and betwixt brother and brother of the calling in particularis 
 allenerlie relaiting thairto, and give ordour to poynd absentis from courtis and buriallis, 
 being warned for that eff'ect, and for not payment of quarter coumptis. May it ther- 
 fore pleas your honowris, the premissis being considderit, to grant ane lettre of 
 deaconrie or seall of caus to the said calling, wnder the seall of the brughe, and 
 that in regaird of our being so long a standing pairt of the craftis of this citie and 
 contributers yeirlie in a constant proportioune for the supplie of the poore of thair 
 hospitall, to caus extend the same, conforme to the laudabill custume observit, to ws 
 and our successoris, chirurgianis and barbouris, burgessis of this citie, and to grant to 
 ws the priviledges and liberties afoirsaid grantit to vtheris callings, as is above expresit 
 in all poyntis, for removeing of the disordouris that may aryse. And your lordschipes 
 ansuer [etc.] Quhilkis articles and statutis above writtin, being oft tymis red, hard, 
 wnderstand and maturlie advysit be ws, the saids provest, bailleis and counsell of this 
 
 1 This sum, which is left blank in the record, is inserted in the seal of cause in the possession of 
 the Incorporation of Barbers. 
 
LETTER OF DEACONRY 
 
 225 
 
 brughe of Glasgow, and we finding the samyn to tend to the weill of the people als 
 Weill within as without the brughe, and to the benefeit of the said airte and craft of 
 chirurgianis and barbouris, wee thairfore, be thir presents, grant, ratifie, approve and 
 confirme the samyn, for ws and our successours, in the haill headis, articles, and 
 claussis contained in the said supplicatioune above writtin, to the said Johne Hall, 
 present deacon of the said chirurgianis and barbouris, and thair present brethrein of 
 that arte and craft, and to thair successouris, chirurgianis and barbouris, burgessis of 
 this brughe, in perpetwall meraorie in all tyme cumyng, proniiseand faithfullie to fortifie 
 and defend them thairanent be ws and our successouris and office bearers for the 
 tyme; and thir premissis to all and sundrie quhome it effeiris we male manifest and 
 knowin. In witnes of the quhilk, and for the mair verificatioune of the samyn, we 
 have subscryvit thir presentis, togither with our dark depute of court, our commoune 
 seall is heirto appendit, at Glasgow, the [sexteenth] day of August ane thousand sex 
 hundreth fyftie sex yeiris. 
 
 IV. 
 
 RATIFICATION OF KING JAMES' CHARTER TO THE FACULTY OF 
 PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW. 
 
 AT Edinburgh, the elevent day of September one thousand six hundreth seventie-two 
 years, Our Soverane Lord, with advice and consent of his Estates of Parliament, 
 now presentlie conveened be his Majestie's speciall authoritie, hes ratified and 
 APPROVEN, and be thir presents ratifies and approves ane Letter of Gift past under the 
 privy seal of the date at Halyrudehouse, the penult day of November 1599 years, 
 whereby his Majestie's grandfather, of blessed memorie, for avoyding of inconveniences, 
 and for good order to be tane in tyme comeing, within the burgh and baronie of 
 Glasgow, gave and granted full power to the chirurgeans and professors of medicine 
 within the city of Glasgow for the tyme, and their successors, to call and convien 
 before them within the said burgh of Glasgow, or any other place of the bounds 
 foresaid, contained in the said Gift, all persones professing or using the art of 
 chirurgerie, to examine them upon their literature, knowledge, and practice; if they 
 be fund wordie, to admit, allow and approve them, give them testimoniell according 
 to their arte and knowledge to exerce thereafter, receave their oaths, and authorise 
 them as accords ; and that it shall not be leisum to any maner of persons within 
 the forsaids bounds, to exercise medecine, without ane testimoniell of ane famous 
 universitie, wher medecine is taught, or at leist the persons above mentioned, and 
 their successors, under the pains contained in the said Gift; and that no maner of 
 persons sell any drogs within the city of Glasgow, except they be sighted be the 
 forsaids persons, under the paine of confiscation of the drogs ; and that no ratton 
 poyson be sold, except by the apothecaries, who shall be bund to take caution 
 
226 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the buyers, for coast, skaith, and damage, as the said Letter of Gift, in the selft 
 at more length proports, in the hail heids, clauses, articles, and circumstances of 
 the samen, and after the forme and tenor thairof, in all points, in so far as the samen 
 Gift, and this present Ratification thereof, can be extendit in favours of the present 
 chirurgians, apothecaries and barbours within the said burgh of Glasgow, and their 
 successors allenerlie, and no further: And his Majestie and Estates of Parliament, 
 wills, grants and declares, that this present generall Ratification shall be als valeid 
 and sufficient to the said chirurgians apothecaries and Barbours, and their successors 
 allenerlie, as said is, as if the said Gift wer word be word heir engrossed, notwithstanding 
 the samen be not so done, wherewith his Majestie and Estates of Parliament hes 
 dispensid, and be thir presents dispenses forever. 
 
 Extracted furth of the Records of Parliament be me, Sir Archibald Primrose, 
 of Cairntoun, Knight and Baronet, Clerk to his Majestie's Councill, Registers and 
 Rolls. 
 
 (Signed) A. Primrose, 
 Cir. Reg. 
 
 V. 
 
 NOTANDA ANENT THE GLASGOW POOR. 
 
 It is noticeable and natural that during the period of the visitations of Glasgow by 
 the Plague in the seventeenth century, and when infection was threatened from other 
 quarters, that many Minutes are to be found in the Town Council records of a more 
 explicit and stringent character respecting the poor than are to be found at any other 
 time. 
 
 It happens also that about this time so great an immigration of Irish takes 
 place that the number of poor is so appreciably increased that special provision is 
 made for their support,^ and as the means at command of the bailies was appar- 
 ently insufficient for this extra charge, they, on the 5th March following, "ordane 
 ane proclamation to be sent throw the toune to desyre all these who will geve or 
 contribute any supplie to the distressed people that cum from Ireland, that they 
 cum upon Wednesday next at the ringing of the Bells." 
 
 A great influx of Highlanders also takes place at this time,- a special collection 
 being ordered to be made on their behalf in the High, Blackfriar, and New or Tron 
 Churches, which is supplemented by the bailies, but the Highlanders are much 
 more summarily dealt with than the Irish strangers; a Minute on 12th December, 
 1642, peremptorily ordering them "to be removit off the toune on Monday next," 
 there being, however, charitably added an order "to give everie one of them some 
 meil for their supplie." 
 
 M2lh February, 1642. - jlh November, 1646. 
 
NOT AND A ANENT THE GLASGOW POOR 227 
 
 Prior to the Reformation the endowments for behoof of the Poor in Glasgow 
 are said to have been very munificent,^ but with Presbyterianism came the dilapi- 
 dation of many charitable, as well as religious mortifications. 
 
 Little necessity had probably previously existed ; but on 30th August, 1583,^ we find 
 for the first time the appointment of a " Collector for the Poor," to stand at the Laigh 
 Kirk door "to receive alms of town's folk that go into the said Kirk to hear preaching," 
 and on 3rd July, 1595, from the Records of the Session,' that an assessment termed 
 on the margin of the Record, " Buttock mail for poor householders," is for the first 
 time imposed, a Committee being at the same time appointed to consider the Roll 
 of persons in the town liable to be stented for the purpose. In the year 1652"* it 
 appears that the whole Roll of the Poor amounted to ;^437 Scots (^36 8s. 4d. stg.), 
 the Magistrates stenting the town for ^^300, and leaving the balance to be made 
 good by ordinary collection. 
 
 Subsequent to the incursion of Iri.sh and Highlanders, we find in the year 
 1663,^ before the ravages of the Plague had reduced the number, and when the 
 population of Glasgow .amounted to about 15,000 souls, that ;;^2o stg. sufficed for 
 the annual maintenance of such poor — then thought to be very numerous — as could 
 not support themselves by licensed begging. 
 
 In Glasgow at this time, following an ancient custom, under which certain favoured 
 " gaberlunzies," recognizable by their blue gowns, were accredited as "King's Beggars," 
 the Magistrates adopted the principle of the Act, 1579, cap. 74, which declared 
 each parish in Scotland to be liable only for the support of its own poor, or rather 
 of that limited number of them below fourteen and above the age of three score 
 years and ten, whom the Act carefully stipulates must be first found unable to 
 support themselves all others between these ages seeking aid being designed as 
 "vagabounds, sturdy and idle beggars." 
 
 The Act, somewhat quaintly, points these out to the unwary as to be known 
 " from their going about the countrie using subtile, craftie, and unlauchful playes, 
 such as juglarie, fast and lous, ^Egyptians, Minstrells, Sangsters, and Taletellers, not 
 avowed in special service, vagabound Schollers of the Universities of Saint Andrews, 
 Glasgow and Aberdein," and a further category, who are all ordained to be summarily 
 apprehended, "committed in waird Stokes or irons," and, when convicted, "to be 
 scourged and burned throw the ear with ane hot irone," for the first, and for the 
 next offence " to suffer the paines of death as a thief" 
 
 The judgment of the Bailie Court in 1613,^ in the case of Matthew Thomson, 
 a Highland fiddler, "put out of the town at the West Port, and banist the 
 same for ever," as being " ane idill vagabond," illustrates the Magistrates' adoption 
 of the penal portion of the statute. Their enactment of its provisions relative to 
 pauperism occurs on 5th May, 1586, when it is ordained "that all poor be marked 
 with the Towns mark, that they have been within this toune, remaining and lodging 
 for fyve years bypast";'^ and again, on i6th December, 1667, when a Minute 
 
 ' Cleland's Statistics, sub voce "Poor,' 107. '-Ibid., Appendix, 16S. 
 
 '■^ /bid.. Appendix, 172. ■* 271)1 December. Cleland's Statistics, Appendix. 
 
 "> I4lh March. "Cleland's Statistics, A]i]iendix. ^25tli jidy. 
 
228 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 appears, narrating " how that this haill citie is greatHe over burdened with ane 
 number of beggars, all strangers, quhilk ought not to be permitted in any well- 
 governed citie," and therefore ordaining " the whoill beggars, being strangers, to be 
 removed off the toune, and that none be permittit to beg therein but such as are 
 well known to have been borne within the Citie, and to the effect they may be 
 better known, appoints ane badge with the tounes arraes thereon to be raised 
 and given to each one who is suffered to beg, and that none be suffered to beg except 
 such as hes the said badge." 
 
 Stringent regulations were also enacted on 9th June, 165S, anent "sturdie 
 beggars," an arrangement being " thocht expedient to be entered into with William 
 Lightbodie and John Williamsone, twa warkmen, to put the sturdie beggars and 
 otheris the lyk off the toune, and to punish delinquents by putting them on the 
 Cock Stool " ; but as this office seems to have been attended with personal hazard, 
 it is enacted "that quhat persone in toune sail wrang or abuis the said William 
 Lightbodie and John Williamsone for executing of the premises sail be condignelie 
 and severelie punished be sight of the Magistrates," to whom a remit is accordingly 
 made to carry this desirable object into effect. Apparently, however, the wage 
 was considered by the "twa warkmen" as incommensurate with the risk of bodily 
 harm from the "Sturdy beggars," and a higher rate consequently bargained for. 
 The next Minute by the Magistrates, on loth April, 1662, reporting that they "had 
 agreed with John Williamsone and William Lightbodie, to keep the beggars aff the 
 casay," three men being found necessary to be employed in the following year,^ and to 
 " pay to ilk ane of them monethlie, and ordanis ilk ane of them to carie ane staff 
 throw the towne as they walk, having the townes armes thereupon." - 
 
 The terms of the following Minute on the Glasgow Poor are so quaint, and, at 
 the same time, so forcibly illustrate the then condition of the Poor Law establishment 
 in Glasgow, that it would be a mistake to condense them, viz.: "The same day the 
 Magistrats and Counsell taking to their consideration hou that, for all the paines takin, 
 the poor in toune being so numerous, and the contributioune allotit for their monethlie 
 mentinance being so little, and cannot be gottin in timeouslie, notwithstanding of 
 all the great paines and expenss waired on upon twa men and several Officers to 
 attend them in collecting thereof; as also how they are very many persons in the 
 contribution Rolls who vexis the Magistrats daylie with their complents thereanent, 
 crying out that they have nothing to pay, and had neid of contributions themselfes, 
 and zit for all that their pots, pannes, stoups, and uthir their houshold geir is 
 poyndit for the same, quhairby the said Magistrats are in great vexatioune, and so 
 the poor are frustrat and so not tymeously payit and suppliet as they ought, qulk 
 occasiones manye and divers supplicatiounes to be bro' in befor the Counsell for 
 supplie, quhilk ought not to be." It is therefore concluded that ;^2o stg. be 
 expended by the Treasurer in monthly payments for the use of the poor, the 
 maximum allowance to each being is. 6d. per week;^ but that the poor of the town 
 should first be inspected, the roll of them revised and purged, and all strangers and 
 unlicensed beggars summarily ejected. 
 
 ' 17th October, 1663. - 14th March, 1663. 
 
 Cleland's Statistics, Appendix, p. 180. 
 
ACT FOR REGULATING THE FACULTY 229 
 
 VI. 
 ANNO DECIMO TERTIO VICTORI/E REGIN^. 
 
 Cap. XX. 
 
 An Act for better regulating the Privileges of the Faculty of 
 Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and amending their 
 Charter of Incorporation. [loth yime, 1850.] 
 
 WHEREAS the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgotv were incorporated charter 
 by Royal Charter granted by His Majesty King /?w^^- the Sixth oi Scotlatid,^''^^^^^^ 
 under the Privy Seal of that Kingdom, on the Twenty-ninth Day of November One 
 thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, which Charter was ratified by an Act of the 
 Scottish Parliament passed upon the Eleventh Day of September One thousand six Act of Scot- 
 hundred and seventy-two : And whereas by the said Charter the said Faculty were ''^'^ Parha- 
 
 •' ^ , _ -^ ment, nth 
 
 empowered to call before them and examine all Persons practising Surgery within the Sept., 1672. 
 City of Glasgow, and the Counties of Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, and Ayr, to 
 admit and grant Licences to such of the said Persons as they should find qualified, 
 and to debar all others from exercising the Profession of Surgery within the Limits 
 aforesaid ; which Powers the said Faculty have from the Date of the said Charter 
 exercised, and still enjoy : And whereas the City of Glasgoiv, and the said Counties 
 of Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, and Ayr, over which the Privileges of the said 
 Faculty extend, comprehend a populous, wealthy, and important District of Scotland'. 
 And whereas it would be of Advantage to the Public, and also to the Medical 
 Profession, if the exclusive Privileges enjoyed by the said P'aculty were so relaxed 
 and amended that all Persons found qualified and licensed to practise Surgery by any 
 Corporation authorized by Law to grant such Licences might have Right to practise 
 within the said District, and the Right of all Persons found qualified and licensed by 
 the said Faculty to practise beyond the said Limits were better defined, and if the 
 Members of the said Faculty were hereafter designated " Fellows of the Faculty of 
 Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow." And whereas the said Faculty have raised and 
 established a Fund of Provision for the Widows and Children of the Members thereof, 
 and it has hitherto been considered obligatory upon all Persons becoming Members 
 of the said Faculty to become also Contributors to the said Fund ; and it is expedient 
 that such Obligations should cease ; but these Objects cannot be effected without the 
 Authority of Parliament : May it therefore please Your Majesty that it may be enacted ; 
 and be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice 
 and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present 
 Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That the present Members 
 
230 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Altering 
 Name of 
 Members of 
 Faculty, and 
 transferring 
 Powers and 
 Privileges. 
 
 Fellows and 
 Licentiates 
 to have the 
 same Privi- 
 leges as 
 those of other 
 Colleges. 
 
 Fellows and 
 Members of 
 other Col- 
 leges en- 
 titled to 
 practise 
 within the 
 Limits of the 
 Charter of 
 the Faculty. 
 
 Fellows not 
 obliged to 
 contribute 
 to Widows' 
 Fund. 
 
 Widows' 
 Fund to re- 
 main under 
 Management 
 of Contri- 
 butors there- 
 to. 
 
 Power to 
 amend Bye- 
 Laws. 
 
 of the said Faculty of Ph3'sicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and such Persons as 
 shall be hereafter admitted into the said Corporation, shall be known by the Name 
 and Style of "Fellows" thereof; and shall, except in so far as hereby otherwise 
 provided, possess, exercise, and enjoy the same Powers and Privileges as those 
 heretofore possessed, exercised, and enjoyed by the Members of the said Faculty. 
 
 II. And be it enacted, That the Fellows and Licentiates of the said Faculty shall 
 respectively enjoy the same Status and Privileges in the Practice of their Profession, 
 and be equally eligible to the same Offices in connexion therewith, throughout Her 
 Majesty's Dominions, as if the said Faculty had been specially authorized by Law 
 to grant Licences or Diplomas in Surgery conferring the same Status and Privileges 
 as those conferred by any other Corporation or Royal College in Scotland which now 
 is or may hereafter be authorized by Law to grant such Licences or Diplomas : Provided 
 always, that nothing herein contained or authorized shall interfere with any exclusive 
 Privileges heretofore granted by competent Authority to any other Corporation or 
 Royal College, so far and so long as such exclusive Privileges remain in force and 
 unrepealed. 
 
 III. And be it enacted, That the Fellows and Members or Licentiates respectively 
 of any other Corporation or Royal College which now is or hereafter may be authorized 
 bv Law to grant Licences or Diplomas in Surgery shall, within the City of Glasgotv, 
 and Counties of Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, and Ayr, enjoy the same Status and 
 Privileges in the Practice of their Profession, and be equally eligible to the same 
 Offices in connexion therewith, as the Fellows and Licentiates respectively of the 
 Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. 
 
 IV. And be it enacted, That no Person who shall hereafter be admitted a Fellow 
 of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgoio shall be obliged to become 
 a Contributor to the Fund raised and established by the said Faculty for the Widows 
 and Children of the Members thereof as aforesaid ; nor shall any such Person, or the 
 Widow or Children of any such Person, have any Interest in the said Fund, unless 
 such Person shall voluntarily become a Contributor thereto, according to the Regu- 
 lations thereof in force for the Time being. 
 
 V. And be it enacted. That neither the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of 
 Glasgow, nor its Office-bearers, nor the Fellows of the said Faculty, in consequence 
 of their Admission into the said Corporation, shall have any Claim to or Interest in 
 any Part of the said Fund as presently vested in or under the Management of the 
 Trustees thereof or Contributors thereto, but the same shall remain the sole Property, 
 and be under the exclusive Management and Control, of the Contributors to and 
 Trustees of the said Fund for the Time being; and the said Trustees shall have full 
 Power to demand, sue for, uplift, and discharge all Sums owing to or invested for 
 behoof of the said Fund, without the Interference or Concurrence of the said Faculty 
 or its Office-bearers or Fellows, and to manage and from Time to Time to re-invest 
 the same in the Name of the Trustees for the Time being of the said Fund, for 
 behoof thereof. 
 
 VI. And be it enacted, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the Faculty 
 of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from altering the Rules and Regulations 
 
ACT FOR REGULATING THE FACULTY 23 1 
 
 heretofore made by the said Faculty under the Powers contained in the said Charter, 
 or from making such new Rules and Regulations as may be necessary for carrying 
 into effect the Purposes of the said Charter and of this Act : Provided always, that 
 such new or altered Rules and Regulations shall not be inconsistent with this Act 
 or with the Laws of the Realm. 
 
 VII. And be it enacted. That this Act shall commence and take effect from Commence- 
 and after the passing thereof. mentofAct. 
 
 VIII. And be it enacted. That this Act shall be a Public Act, and shall be Public Act. 
 judicially taken notice of as such. 
 
VII. 
 
 ROLL OF MEMBERS, 1599-185L 
 
 %* In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the entry is to be understood as that of a Surgeon-freeman, 
 
 unless the fact is otherwise stated. 
 
 I. PETER LOWE, Founder of the Faculty, the Charter being granted to him of date 
 29th November, 1599. For Memorials of him, see Finlayson's Account of 
 the Life and Writings of Maister Peter Lowe (Glasgow, 1889), Chapter iv. 
 of the Text; Biciiotiary of National Biography, xxxiv. 196; see also 
 Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Vol. viii. 377. Portrait in the 
 Faculty Hall. 
 
 ^-^^^^C^ 
 
 The following shows the line of his direct descendants 
 Dr. Peter Lowe 
 
 and his wife Helen Weems. 
 
 I 
 John Lowe (see No. 28), 
 
 Merchant Burgess, Glasgow, died about 1670. 
 
 I 
 
 James Lowe (see No. 129), 
 
 Writer, Edinburgh. 
 
 Robert Lowe, only son (see No. 200), 
 
 Writer to the Signet, Edinburgh ; his wife jEAN, 
 
 daughter of John Gray of Dalmarnock 
 
 and Carntyne. 
 
 William Lowe, in 1797 only surviving son, Annabella Lowe, daughter, 
 
 "late of Newbern, North Carolina," died died unmarried, 
 
 without issue in Edinburgh towards 
 the end of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 233 
 
 2. ROBERT HAMILTON, Physician. Grantee of the Charter along with No. i. 
 
 Master of Arts. (Query: Graduate of Glasgow University, 1584 or in 1591? 
 See Mtinimenta Universitatis Glasgtiensis, in. 4, 9.) Visitor, 1602-6, 1607-10, 
 1620-22. Father of No. 20. Portrait in Faculty Hall. 
 
 3. WILLIAM SPANG. Appointed under the Charter to "sicht" or inspect the drugs 
 
 sold in the burgh. He was in practice in Glasgow as a pharmacist in 1574. 
 {Burgh Records of Glasgow, Maitland Club, 3.) Visitor, 1606. Father of 
 No. 9. He was probably related to Rev. Wm. Spang, to whom a large 
 number of Principal Baillie's letters were addressed. {Bailli^s Letters and 
 Journals. 3 vols. Edin. 1842.) See Chap. v. of Text. Portrait in Faculty Hall. 
 
 4. ADAM FLEMING. Co-opted as a Member at first meeting in 1602. 
 
 5. ROBERT ALLASON, Master of Arts (probably the Robert Allanson who graduated 
 
 in Arts in Glasgow in 15 98). Co-opted as Member at first meeting in 1602. 
 Visitor, 1611-13. 
 
 6. THOMAS THOMSON. Co-opted as Member at first meeting in 1602, but turned 
 
 out at the next meeting but one, 22nd June, 1602 — "The qlk day, in 
 respect of Thomas Thomsone having givein his oath at his en^re to beir 
 burdine w' the rest of the brethren and discharging of his deutie, he being 
 synsen desired to compeir w' them to ther assistance . . . hes most 
 wrongously contemptosly disobayed, Therfor they ordaine him to tyne 
 whatsoever libertie he hes be yem." 
 
 7. JOHN LOWE. Co-opted a Member at first meeting in 1602. Apparently not 
 
 related to No. i. 
 
 8. JOHN HALL. Entered in 1602. Visitor, 1613-15, 1618, 1629, and 1638. Father 
 
 of No. 18; grandfather of No. 34. There were thus several generations 
 of surgeons of this family. 
 
 9. WILLIAM SPANG, Younger. Entered in 1602. Son of No. 3. 
 
 10. THOMAS READ. Entered in 1604. In the City Burgess Roll of 1605 he is given 
 
 as one of the Medicinar Members of the Crafts' House, the other being No. 2. 
 
 11. GEORGE BIRRELL. Entered in 1605 "to profes the airt of Barborie w' simple 
 
 wounds in the flesh." 
 
 12. WILLIAM READ. Entered in 1610. 
 
 13. JAMES DUNCAN. Entered in 1610. 
 
 14. ANDREW MILL or MYLNE. Entered in ]6i2. Apprentice (and probably son) 
 
 of Thomas Mylne, who feued part of the lands of Peitbog and Dassiegrene 
 (Town Council Minute, 19th April, 1589), and whom the Council compelled 
 to do penance at the Cross for slandering the town and bailies. {Memorabilia 
 of Glasgo7u, 117.) He was professionally consulted along with Dr. Peter 
 Lowe in a curious case of assault. {Register of the Privy Council of 
 Scotland, viii. 377.) Refer oXso \.o Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of 
 Glasg07v, 1573-1642, 479. 
 
234 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 15 GABRIEL SYSERF. Entered in 1614 as a "Pothecar . . . to use lies aine calling." 
 
 16. JAMES HARPER. Entered in 1618, apparently from outside the burgh, there 
 
 being a proviso that if he settled in Glasgow he must make himself a 
 burgess "for the relieve of the craft." 
 
 17. ARCHIBALD LINDSAY. Entered in 1624. Two years later (16th September, 1626) 
 
 there is a Minute of the Town Council ordering "the deane of gild and 
 his blethering of Counsell to ressaue doctour Archibald Lindsay, burges 
 and gild brither of the burghe, and the benefeit thairof to succeid to his 
 bairnes ... for his service done be him to this burghe and inhabitantis 
 within the same in his calling and help of the pure, and to gif him the 
 greater kair to continew thairintill." {Extracts from the Records of the Burgh 
 of Glasgotci, 1876, 356.) 
 
 18. ROBERT HALL. Entered in 1624, soon after which his name disappears. Son 
 
 of No. 8, and either father or uncle of No. 34. 
 
 19. ROBERT ARCHIBALD. Entered in 1627. Visitor in 1635-37. 
 
 20. JAMES HAMILTON. Entered in 1627, the minute bearing that "be examination 
 
 is fund qualifit to profes the airt of Chirurgerie and Medicine." Son of 
 No. 2. M.A. of Glasgow University. He is generally styled in the Records 
 "Professor of Physick." Visitor, 1633-35, 1637-38, 1642, 1646. His house 
 was in High Street, near the Cross. (Query : Was it in his house the great 
 fire of 22nd June, 1652, which consumed a third of the town originated? 
 It is stated to have been "in the house of Mr. James Hamiltoune above 
 the Croce.") 
 
 21. ANDREW MUIR. Entered in 1628. Apparently he must have been in practice 
 
 in the burgh several years earlier, as on 20th March, 1622, he was a witness in 
 the Court of Session in the trial for witchcraft of " Margaret Wallace, spouse 
 of Johnne Dynning, Merchant burges of Glasgow," when he gives his age 
 as 42, and is styled "Chirurgine." (The woman, by the way, was convicted, 
 and sentenced "to be wirreit at ane staik to the deid, and her body thair- 
 efter to be brunt to ashes." Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, in., 328.) There 
 is also mention of a fee paid to him in 1626 by the Town Council. {Extracts 
 from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1876, 479.) Visitor, 1641, 1649-51. 
 Father of No. 75. 
 
 22. JAMES FLEMING. Entered in 1628 "to be ane barber and to cuir simple wounds." 
 
 23. JOHN HAMILTON. Entered in 1630. 
 
 24. WILLIAM SWAN. Entered in 1633 on the same term, as No. 22. 
 
 25. DANIEL BROUN. Entered in 1634. Visitor, 1640, 1646-48, 1653. On 25th 
 
 April, 1646, a Minute of the Town Council "ordaines the thesaurer to pay 
 Daniel Broun, Chyrurgian, twelf punds money for the helping and cuiring of 
 certaine poore sojours hurt at Kilsyth." {Extracts frotn the Records of the 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 235 
 
 Burgh of Glasgow, 93; Pagan's Sketches, 31.) This doubtless refers to what 
 was called "the battle of Kilsyth," in which Montrose was successful. 
 
 26. WILLIAM CLYDDISDALE. Entered in 1636. Apprentice to No. 14. For the 
 
 incident of his expulsion for "railing," see Chap, viii., p. 68. He was 
 subsequently rehabilitated. Visitor, 1665-66. 
 
 27. JAMES BRAIDWOOD, Elder. Entered in 1636 as barber. Father of No. 31. 
 
 28. JOHN LOW. Admitted in 1636. "Son lawful to Mr. Peter Low" (No. 1), 
 
 described as a merchant burgess of Glasgow. (Finlayson's Maister Peter 
 Lowe, 74.) For the circumstances of his admission, see Chap, iv., p. 32. 
 Died about 1670. Father of No. 129. 
 
 27. GEORGE MICHELSON. Entered in 1637. There is a Minute of 9th April, 1636 
 of the Town Council: "The provest, bailHes, and counsall ordanis the deane 
 of gild and his bretherine to admit {blank) Michelsone, Chirurgian, wha is 
 to cum and dwell in this toun, burges and gild brother of the burgh, and 
 his fynes to be hadin as payit, and the benefeit thairof to succeed to his 
 childrine." He seems to have left Glasgow for some years, and in September, 
 1643, there is an "Act" against him for his absence by the Faculty. He 
 turns up, however, in 1644, and was made Visitor. (It may be a coinci- 
 dence, but a man of the same name was admitted a member of the 
 Edinburgh Incorporation of Surgeons in 1639.) On 4th May, 1644, the 
 City Treasurer obtained a warrant for money advanced by him for horses 
 "to the lait expeditioune to him and ana of his twa men to ryd on." 
 
 30. JAMES THOMSON. Entered in 1638. Apprentice to Mr. Ro'- Rosse,^ doctor 
 
 of Physick, who was not a Member. Visitor, 1656, 1662, 1664. A transac- 
 tion connected with a property of his is stated in Hill's History of the Merchants' 
 House, 121. 
 
 31. JAMES BRAIDWOOD, Younger. Entered in 1643 on the same terms as his 
 
 father, No. 27. 
 
 32. ROBERT MAINE (or Mayne, Latin Magnus), Physician. P^ntered in 1645, "Professor 
 
 of Medicine of hes aine consent admittit freman w' the calling conform to the 
 patent." M.A., probably of Glasgow. {Munif?ienta, iii. 19.) In 1635 he was 
 appointed Regent in the University, and in 1637 resigned that office on his 
 being appointed Professor of Medicine. It is not stated from what University 
 he obtained a degree in medicine. As professor he was to have a yearly 
 stipend of 400 merks. In 1641 he vacated his house in the College, to be 
 occupied by Mr. David Dickson, Professor of Divinity. (//'. 11. 305.) His 
 commission was to " teache ane publict lecture of Medicine in the said Colledge 
 once or twyse ewerie week, except in the ordiner tyme of vacance." Visitor, 
 1645. Principal Baillie seems to credit him with poetical abilities {Baillies 
 
 ' Rosse's name is given as a contributor to the University Building Fund in 1632 (Munimenta, III. 472), 
 but it appears in a less commendable connection in the Kir/: Session Records. ( 1st June, 1620, Glasgmo, 
 Ancient and Modern, 1. 146.) 
 
236 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Letters and Journals, in. 403), and this is also referred to in his epitaph, 
 on his tombstone in the High Churchyard, as given by M'Ure (2nd Edit., 
 p. 209), shows that he died in 1646, aged 42. 
 
 " Hie jacet Robertus Cognomento Magnus, multis 
 Nominibus revera magnus, philosophus, orator, poeta, medicus, 
 
 Omnigena virtute ac eruditione clarus, 
 Medicinae in Academia Glasguensi professor. Obiit nonis 
 
 Februarii millesimo sexcentisimo quadragesimo 
 Sexto, anno aetatis suae sexies septimo climacterico." 
 
 [Here lies Robert surnamed Mayne [Magnus], for many reasons truly great, philosopher, 
 orator, poet, physician, renowned for all manner of virtue and learning, Professor of Medicine 
 in the College of Glasgow. He died on the 5th February, 1646, in the sixth septennial 
 climacteric year of his life.] 
 
 33. JAMES DUNNING, Physician. Entered on same day and on similar terms as the 
 
 last. M.A., probably of Glasgow. {Munimenta, iii. 18, 78.) The University 
 at which he graduated in Medicine not stated. Both Dr. Mayne and he 
 came under obligations " to be asisting to the Visitor and brethrine in all 
 things belonging to the well of the calling and to beir burdine w' the rest." 
 
 34. JOHN HALL, Elder. Entered in 1647 " freman w' the calling as professor of 
 
 Chirurgerie," a vagary in the way of phraseology not met with elsewhere in 
 the Minutes. Apprentice to his "gudsher" (grandfather) No. 8, and son or 
 nephew of No. 18. Town Councillor and bailie of Glasgow, 1656-57 and 
 1673-74. Visitor, 1648, 1651-52, 1654-55. In the great plague epidemic of 
 1645-48 he was very active, giving his services gratuitously to rich and poor, 
 and by a Minute of the Council, i8th September, 1647, "John Hall is ordanit 
 to gett fourtie pundis in satisfactioune of all his bygaine paynes in sichting 
 and viseiting suche as deceasit of the pestilence." (See also Minutes of 26th 
 August and 2nd October, 1648.) From a subsequent Minute of the Town 
 Council (23rd April, 1659) we find him " Knocking at the Counsallhous door 
 desyring to have entrie, and it being granted that he should com in his alone 
 and speak quhat he pleased. Because he was not permitted to com with any 
 multitude at his back he refused to com in, but protestit at the door." The 
 cause of this turbulent conduct is referred to by Principal Baillie who styles 
 him "a wavering and volage (fickle) man, albeit the Proveists nephew." The 
 Provost was John Anderson of Dovehill. {Baillie s Letters and Journals, iii. 
 362-3.) He was involved in the dispute between the Town Council and the 
 Faculty mentioned at p. 71, and in one of several Minutes of the Town 
 Council dealing with it, he was forbidden " to sitt in the dean of gilds Counsell " 
 till the Faculty Minute book, alleged to have been tampered with, was pro- 
 duced. Father of No. 103. He was alive in 1696. (M'Ure's History of 
 Glasgow. 2nd edit., 20^^, footnote.) Donor to the University Library in 1693. 
 {Munimenta, in. 440.) 
 
 35. ADAM GRAY. Entered in 1648. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 237 
 
 36. JAMES LYES. Entered in 1648, and re-examined in 1654 for wider licence. 
 
 37. ARCHIBALD BOGLE. Entered in 1649. Father of No. 58. 
 
 38. THOMAS LOCKART. Entered in 1649 as '* Apothecarie " — the words "and 
 
 Chirurgian " which follow interlined in the Minute were probably a subsequent 
 interpolation. It was the election of this man as Visitor in 1658 in violation 
 of the Seal of Cause, which provided that only a Surgeon freeman could be 
 so elected, which provoked the interference of the Town Council (p. 71). (See 
 Town Council Minutes, ist and 22nd November, 1659 ; 3rd and 31st December, 
 1659.) Father of No. 96. 
 
 39. JAMES FRANK. Entered in 1650. According to M'Ure, the Glasgow historian, 
 
 he was "the son of an English Esq""- Leicestershire." Visitor, 1660-62 and 1663. 
 His daughter Mary married Thomas Patoun, Merchant in Glasgow, father of 
 No. 162, Frank seems to have left Glasgow for some time, as we find the 
 Town Council (23rd January, 1658) inviting him back, and coming under 
 obligation to pay him a salary of 100 merks yearly, and they also voted a 
 sum for his transport to Glasgow. Father of No. 76. Died in Glasgow, 1677. 
 
 40. SYLVESTER RATTRAY, Physician. Native of Fife. Date of his entry not 
 
 minuted, but about 1657. In that year a Committee was appointed "to goe 
 to doctour Rotraye and crave a sicht of his letters of graduatione, and if he 
 refuis that they may have a sicht therof To report." Evidently he had 
 not refused, for there is no report. His presence at a meeting shortly after 
 leads to the inference that he had been admitted a freeman. In 1658 he 
 was the physician who attended the son of Principal Baillie. {Baillie's 
 Letters. Ed. by D. Laing. iii. 373.) For an account of his two Medical 
 works see Chap. xxi. In the Munimenta of the University a student of the 
 same name is mentioned (in. 136) who was probably his son. It is not 
 known where Rattray graduated in Medicine. 
 
 41. ANDREW MILLER, " buikit barber" in 1654. 
 
 42. JOHN CRICHTON. Entered as a physician in 1654. There is no evidence where 
 
 he graduated. His son John was booked apprentice to him in 1657. 
 
 43. ROBERT HAREIS. Entered in 1654, "frieman, simple barbor-chirurgiane, onlie 
 
 to medell w' simple woundes allenerlie, and on na termes to meddell w' phisik, 
 tumors, hulsors, dislocanes, fractors, nor nothing y' is composit q" he be furder 
 qualifit." 
 
 44. JOHN HOW, Kilbarchan. Entered or licensed in 1654. One of a medical family 
 
 which practised for several generations (pp. 117, et seq.). This particular 
 member was not bright under examination, and he was only "licentiat . . . 
 to use and exerce sik pontis of ye airtes and caling of Chirurgianrie and 
 Medicine as qrof he hes knowlege, experience, and pratize." Probably father 
 of No. 145, and of Dr. George How, a physician in London. If so, to his 
 relationship to the latter he owes the distinction of being mentioned with a 
 
238 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 rather sinister allusion in a line of Garth's Dispensary. His son, the physician, 
 was the " Querpo " of the physician-poet. 
 
 " In the design shrill Querpo did agree ; 
 A zealous member of the faculty, 
 His sirens pretended steps he treads. 
 And when the doctor fails, the saint succeeds. 
 A conventicle fleshed his greener years. 
 And his full age the righteous rancour hears." 
 
 45. NATHAN GREY. Entered in 1654 "to exercice and cuir simple woundis, and 
 
 in p'ticular in cuting of ye gravell and stone w' ye haill cuir of ye gravell 
 and stone." 
 
 46. ARCHIBALD GRAHAM. Entered in 1654. M.A. Glasgow. He was "licentiatto 
 
 profes farmacie and medicine w'in ye boundis (except ye brut of Glasgow 
 as is content w'in ye Ires of gift, and obleiss him at na tyme heirefter to 
 use nor exerce any point of Chirurgerie)." The Town Council admitted 
 him burgess without fee, "and the benefit thairof to redound to his bairnes, 
 with the provision that he visie the seik poore of the toune . . . they 
 paying for the Medicaments. {Extracts from the Records of the Town Council^ 
 1881, 304.) 
 
 47. JOHN MATHIES, in Cokhue (?). Entered in 1654. 
 
 48. WILLIAM WALLACE. Entered as physician in 1654, "for ye present residenter 
 
 in Paisley, Professor of Medicine of his awin consent." M.A., probably of 
 Glasgow. It is not known where he graduated in medicine. 
 
 49. JAMES SCOT. Entered in 1654. Only " licentiat and tollerat to cuir simple 
 
 wounds," and a few other things. 
 
 50. JOHN PATERSON, Paisley. Entered in 1654 "licentiat in barbar-chirurgie," 
 
 which is explained to connote " to cuir simple wounds, fractors q' y' is no 
 flesh cutt, phlebotomie, applicacione of ventosis and potentiall couteris." 
 
 51. WILLIAM KELSO, Ayr. Entered in 1654. 
 
 52. JOHN LIES. Entered in 1654, not a full freeman, but only as "licentiat and 
 
 tollerat," as in the case of No. 49. 
 
 53. JOHNE MILLER, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1654 as apothecary. 
 
 54. JOHN TOD. Entered in 1654. 
 
 55. ROBERT FERGUSHILL, Ayr. Entered in 1654 "to practise pharmacie and 
 
 Medicine," which is said to be " contenit in ye Ires of gift by ye deceist 
 King James." 
 
 56. THOMAS CHISHOLME, Ayr. Entered full Chirurgian in 1654. 
 
 57. JOHNE KID, Ayr. Entered in 1654 "licentiat to cuir simple woundis allcnderlie" 
 
 [only]. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 239 
 
 58. ARCHIBALD BOGLE. Entered in 1654. Son of No. 37. Visitor 1666-68, 1669, 
 
 1671-73; 1674-75. 
 
 59. WILLIAM SOUTTER. Entered in 1655 "to exerceis his airt of cuting of people 
 
 of the gravell, and preparing of the patientes in reference thereto w'out the 
 citie of Glasgow, swa far as they have libertie by the gift." Next year 
 we find from the Town Council Minutes that they made him a burgess 
 gratis "for service done and to be done be him." He seems to have been 
 destined as City stone-cutter, but was coy in accepting or remaining at the 
 post. As late as 14th May, 1659, "It is concludit that Doctour Soutour 
 be delt with to mak his residence heir . . . and to pay him fourtie poundis 
 be yeir, he being obleist to contract to cure the poore in toune, wha shall be 
 recommendit to him be the magistrats, of the ston." In September, 1657, 
 the Faculty ordained his "fyne to be scorit out of the book and remitted 
 to him." 
 
 60. JAMES TOBIAS, Ayr. Entered in 1655, not only for himself, but as representing 
 
 his "old aged father, who was not able to travell," on the latter producing 
 a certificate from the magistrates and freemen of the Corporation, residing 
 in Ayr. 
 
 61. ALLAN KIRKWOOD, Darnley. Entered in 1655. His qualification extended in 
 
 1673. 
 
 62. IVER M'NEILL. Entered in 1656. The Minute bears that he "hes been in use 
 
 these ten yearis or therby bygaine in cutting of the Stone. They upon 
 sight of severall creditable testificates did licentiat him allenerlie to exerce 
 the cutting of the Stone." He appears to have received no regular salary 
 from the town for some years; but on 21st March, 1661, "It was concludit 
 be the Magistratis and Counsell to pay yearlie to Evir M'Neill that cuts the 
 stone ane hundred markes Scots, and he to cut all the poor for that frielie.: 
 whempon ane contract was subscryvit betwist the toune and him theranent 
 this day." In the City Accounts for 1684 we find his salary still being paid, 
 so that he must have pursued his specialty for about forty years. He was 
 alive, but infirm, in 1688, when his successor, No. 152, was appointed. 
 
 63. ROBERT MUIR, Gorbals. Entered in 1657. Barber only. 
 
 64. JOHN LIDDELL. Entered in 1657. Barber only. 
 
 65. JAMES MOWAT. Entered in 1657. Apprentice of No. 40. 
 
 66. DAVID SHARP. Entered in 1658. M.A. Glasgow, 1651. At first he was 
 
 admitted only as pharmacian, afterwards also as surgeon. Married Elizabeth, 
 sister of Mr. John Young, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. 
 Visitor, 1673. (Ref Muniinenta Universitatis G/asgucnsts, i. 400.) 
 
 67. THOMAS YOUNGER, Ardgowan. Entered in 1659. M.A. Glasgow. 
 
 68. JOHN FORSTER, Auchenleck. Entered in 1659. 
 
240 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 69. THOMAS ROBIESON. Entered in 1659. 
 
 70. JOHN WEIR, Cambusnethan. Entered in 1659. 
 
 71. WILLIAM FLEMING. Entered in 1659. 
 
 72. ALEXANDER DUNLOP, Hamilton. Entered in 1659. M.A. Admitted " to use 
 
 some small poyntes of Chirurgie, sell drogis, and to give phisikes to patientis 
 according to ane approven doctours receipt." 
 
 73. GILBERT KENNEDY, Maybole. Entered in 1659. Apprentice to David Kennedy, 
 
 surgeon, Edinburgh. 
 
 74. ANDREW ELPHINSTON. Entered in 1660. Visitor, 1670. 
 
 75. JOHN MUIR. Entered in 1 66 1. Son and apprentice of No. 21. M.A. .» He is said to 
 
 have been admitted as "having sealled Patent or Letters of Gradua°ne producet 
 be him and red over befoir ye sd Court Quho hes fund him efter Exanina°n 
 qualifiet." This was the first time a Medical Graduate is said to have been 
 examined. Probably it arose from his having elected to practise surgery 
 instead of medicine. 
 
 76. JAMES FRANK, Younger. Entered in 1661. Son of No. 39. 
 
 77. JAMES WILSON, barber, booked in 1661. 
 
 78. ROBERT HAMILTON, Cambuslang. Entered in 1661. 
 
 79. JOHN SPREULL, Paisley. Entered in 1661 as a pharmacian. He was a keen 
 
 Covenanter, and after the battle of Pentland was fined by the Earl of Middleton, 
 and forced to hide himself. His son, then a lad under twenty, was thereupon 
 apprehended, but in spite of threats that he would be roasted alive or shot, 
 he refused to divulge his father's place of retreat. This son, who was sub- 
 sequently tortured in presence of the Duke of York, and whose long imprison- 
 ment in the Bass Rock obtained for him the sobriquet of '* Bass John," 
 does not appear to have been entered, although he was styled pharmacian 
 and merchant, but the defect in the Records renders this uncertain. Father 
 of No. 122. (Ref. Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, 11. 47.) 
 
 80. JAMES WATT. Entered in 1662. 
 
 81. JOHN EWING, Paisley. Entered pharmacian in 1661 "to sell drogs and mack 
 
 up recepes according to ane doctors direction qch he is to receave frae ye 
 doctor only in Scots Languadge, because he hes no uyr Languadge." 
 
 82. ANDREW BROWNE, Hamilton. Entered in 1662. 
 
 83. HUGH MONTGOMERIE. Entered in 1664. M.A. Glasgow, 1649. 
 
 84. QUINTIN M'ADAM, Girvan. Entered in 1665. 
 
 85. JOHN LOGAN, Gorbals. Entered in 1666. 
 
 86. JOHN PAN TON, Hamilton. Entered in 1666. Brought up under Letters of 
 
 Horning. " He acknowledgit that neir thes fyfteine years bygaine sine he 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 24 1 
 
 cam from france as he had occasione he profest to cuir all sort of wounds, 
 impostumes, vlcers, fractors, disIoca°ns, — flebotomies, applieca°ne of couters, 
 and in vse to give physik to woundit persons, etc." 
 
 87. ROBERT DUNLOP, in Doniine? Entered in 1667. 
 
 88. DAVID FLEMING, in Killelane ? Entered in 1667. 
 
 89. ADAM GRAY. Entered in 1667. Apprentice of No. 58. Son of Adam Gray, 
 
 Maltman, Glasgow. 
 
 90. JOHN ROBIESON. Entered in 1667 as an Apothecarj', and '-exempt from ever 
 
 bearing place or office w'in the said facultie," for what reason does not appear. 
 
 91. -JOHN FLEMING. Entered as barber in 1667. 
 
 92. WILLIAM CURRIE, Douglas. Entered in 1667. It was his admission which 
 
 roused the ire of No. 26, and brought about the expulsion of the latter for 
 "blaspheming" (p. 68). 
 
 93. JOHN NIVEN, Dumbarton. Entered in 1667. 
 
 94. MATTHEW MILLER, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1668. Son of No. 53. (Seep. 52.) 
 
 95. THOMAS HARPER, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1668. 
 
 96. GEORGE LOCKHART. Entered in 166S. Son of No. 38. 
 
 97. CHARLES MOWAT. Entered in 1669. M.A. Glasgow. He was entered as a 
 
 pharmacian at first, his qualification being afterwards extended. Visitor, 
 1675-76, 1680. At the request of the Archbishop of Glasgow, he was admitted 
 burgess of the City gratis. (Hill's History of the Merchant^ House, 129.) 
 
 98. PETER BOGLE. Entered in 1669. 
 
 99. GILBERT NELSON, Strathaven. Entered in 1669, and his licence extended on 
 
 re-examination in 1672. 
 
 100. ROBERT HOUSTON. Entered in 1669, his licence being afterwards enlarged. 
 Visitor, 1667, 1679, ^"d possibly i6gi. Father of No. 175. 
 
 loi. HEW HUNTER. Entered as pharmacian in 1670. 
 
 102. JOHN HALL. Entered as barber in 1671. The Minute of his admission states 
 
 that " After he had payd his freedom fyne of 40 pounds, Therafter the said 
 faculte, heaving taken to ther considera°ne the respect, kyndnes, favour, 
 and courtacie The sd John Hall had shown to the said calling, and guid 
 deeds done be him to them, they all in one voyce ordainit their collector 
 To give back Twentie Poundes as the equall half of the same fridome fyne." 
 
 103. JOHN HALL, Younger. Entered in 167 1. Eldest son of No. 34. Married, in 
 
 1665, Mary, daughter of Peter Gemmell, merchant and bailie of Glasgow. 
 (For his relationsliip to another surgeon, James Calder, No. 162A, see 
 M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., p. 106.) The parsonage house of the Rector of 
 Carstairs in the Rotten Row, occupied by Rev. David Weems (father-in-law 
 
242 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 9 
 
 of Dr. Peter Lowe), is stated to have come to Hall " by his heir female." 
 {Glasgow, Past and Present. ii. 23. 1884.) In 1693 he gifted books to 
 the University Library. [Miintmenta, in. 440.) M'Ure mentions that he left 
 only one daughter, Christian ; in the Faculty Records two of his daughters (or 
 sisters?), neither of them of that name, are mentioned as beneficiaries. 
 
 104. ANDREW RALSTON. Entered in 167 1. Died in 1673, while holding office as 
 
 Collector, 
 
 105. WILLIAM SEMPILL, of Dalmok. Entered in 1672. 
 
 106. JAMES WEIR. Entered in 1672. Apprentice of No. 109. Visitor, 1698. Died 
 
 in 1705, when his son-in-law presented to the Library some of his books. 
 He himself was a donor of books in 1698, when the Library was founded. 
 
 107. JOHN TOD, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1672 as apotliecary. 
 
 108. ALEXANDER PORTER, Beith. Entered in 1672 as apothecary. M.A. Glasgow. 
 
 109. JOHN COLQUHOUN. Entered in 1672 as physician. For an account of the 
 
 negotiations resulting in his admission see Chap, vii., p. 62. In 1672 
 he was appointed Rector's Assessor in the University. {Afnnifnenta, in. 325.) 
 Phys. Visitor, 1672-73. It is not stated where he got his medical degree. 
 
 no. THOMAS HAMILTON. Entered in 1672 as physician under similar circum- 
 stances to the last. Phys.-Visitor, 1674-75. He died in 1675, as we find 
 his daughter Marion entered as his heir to a considerable amount of real 
 estate, including "in botho mercatorio in dicto burgo ex orientale latere viae 
 regiae nuncupatae Saltmercat," besides lands in the new Gallowmuir, etc. 
 {Glasgow, Past and Present, in. 13. 1884.) Place of his degree not known. 
 
 111. MICHAEL WALLACE. Entered as physician in 1673, when he was appointed 
 
 "Visitor for the country," being then resident in Ayr, and intrusted with 
 the exercise of the powers conferred by the charter in his district. He 
 seems subsequently to have settled in Glasgow. Died 23rd January, 1692, 
 bequeathing ;^ioo to the Merchants' House. His son John, who died 
 in 1699, made a similar bequest. (M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., 204-5.) No 
 information as to his degree. 
 
 112. THOMAS SMITH. Entered in 1673. M.A. Glasgow. He was summarily 
 
 removed from the office of Collector in 1677 in view of his "being 
 denuncit or conveent before the lords of Secret Counsell ffor atten^ con- 
 venticls." A year before this he was found guilty of using "vilipending 
 expressions " against the Visitor, but apologised, admitting that " he had been 
 then in passion." 
 
 113. BRYCE BELL. Entered in 1673 as physician. He was, jointly with No. iii, 
 
 appointed Visitor for the country, being then resident in Kilmarnock. By 
 the middle of 1677 he had settled in Glasgow, and was that year elected 
 Physician-Visitor. No evidence as to^his degree. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 243 
 
 114. JOHN LANG, Hamilton. Entered in 1673. 
 
 115. JOHN LENNOX, Greenock. Entered pharmacian in 1673. 
 
 116. JAMES SAYES, Douglas. Entered in 1674. 
 
 117. JAMES MUTER, Stenhouse. Entered pharmacian in 1674. 
 
 118. WILLIAM BOGLE. Entered in 1674. Apprentice and probably son of No. 58. 
 
 119. JOHN ROBISON. Entered in 1674. Son of John Robison, Merchant in Glasgow. 
 
 Apprentice of No. 66. Appointed town surgeon for the poor ; in the burgh 
 accounts for 1653 there occurs under i8th September the entry: "To John 
 Robison for his year's fiall as townes chirurgian, 66 lib. 13/4." {Memorabilia of 
 Glasgow, 241.) 
 
 120. JOHN TAP. Admitted barber in 1675. He was subsequently brought up for 
 
 " prophanation and abuse of the lord's day by barbourising therupon. . . . 
 He denyit the same on his word of honesty and credit, was assoilzied," and 
 was warned not to do it again. 
 
 121. ROBERT BOYD. Entered in 1675. Apprentice of No. no. His freedom fine 
 
 was remitted in accordance with the deathbed request of his master. 
 
 122. JAMES SPREULL, Paisley. Entered in 1675. Son of No. 79, and brother of 
 
 " Bass John." Married his cousin Ann, daughter of John Spreull, Town Clerk 
 of Glasgow, who was removed from office owing to his disaffection to the 
 Stewart dynasty. Their daughter Janet married James Shortridge, of a well- 
 known Glasgow family. Died in 1680. 
 
 123. JOHN WHYTE, Paisley. Entered as pharmacian in 1675. Ref. History of the 
 
 Witches of Re?fre-U'shire, App. iv., 71. 
 
 124. JAMES MORTON. Entered in 1675. 
 
 125. LUDOVIC LINDSAY. Entered in 1676. Visitor, 1681. 
 
 126. JOHN HALL, Paisley, afterwards in Gorbals. Entered in 1676, but subsequently 
 
 brought up "under caption," and expelled for practising in points beyond 
 his licence in the way of cancer operations. 
 
 127. JAMES FORRESTER, Kilmalcolm. Entered in 1677. 
 
 128. THOMAS MELVILL. Booked barber in 1676 "at the request and desyre of 
 
 his . . . master, Jon Bell, Provest of Glasgow, w'out any payment." 
 
 129. JAMES LOW. Entered in 1677. Son of No. 28, and grandson of No. i, An 
 
 Edinburgh Writer to the Signet. Admitted under the same circumstances 
 as his father (see p. 32). Father of No. 200. 
 
 130. SAMUEL LOCKHART, Lanark. Entered in 1677. He is styled "Captain" in 
 
 the Minutes of the Faculty as in those of the Lanark Town Council. He 
 was brother-german to James Lockhart of Cleghorn. Some curious references 
 to him are given in the Extracts from the Records of the Tozvn Council of 
 Lanark {\Z()T,), 204, 212-215, of which he was a member. 
 
244 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 131. DAVID BAILLIE, Lanark. Entered as pharmacian in 1677. Apprentice to 
 
 Robert Campbell, Pharmacian, Edinburgh. 
 
 132. JAMES SHIELDS, Lanark. Entered in 1677. Apprentice to Hew Brown, 
 
 Chirurgian, Edinburgh. In 1679 removed to Glasgow. 
 
 133. JOHN CAMPBELL, in Inerary. Entered in 1677. 
 
 134. JOHN CRAWFORD, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1677. 
 
 135. ALEXANDER TRAN. Entered in 1678. Apprentice to Wm. Borthwick, Chirur- 
 
 gian, Edinburgh. The examinators reported, as regards pharmacy, that his 
 compositions were not " made secuiidutn artein " ; and his licence was subject 
 to "this qualifie, that they will order his shope to be sichted and visited." 
 He was alive in 1708. 
 
 136. JOHN COUPER, Lesmahagow. Entered in 1678. 
 
 137. JOHN ADAM, Inglestoun Bridge. Entered in 1679 
 
 138. ANDREW BROWN, Dolphington. Entered in 1679. 
 
 139. JOHN STOBO. Entered in 1680. M.A. Glasgow, 1666. 
 
 140. MARK CLIFFORD, Lanark. Entered in 1680. (Ref. Extracts from the RecoJ'ds 
 
 of the Burgh of Lanark, 207, 214.) 
 
 141. JOHN OR. Entered in 1680, when under age, in view of his poverty, "and in 
 
 regard to his neir rela°ne to the now deceist Mr. Peter Low." 
 
 142. JOHN LIDDELL. Entered in 1680; afterwards suspended "for his misbehavior 
 
 towards the Visitor, and abusing him, w' several myr (more) members of 
 the Facultie." 
 
 143. JOHN CRAWFORD, Paisley. Entered in 1681 as pharmacian. "Sone to Mr. 
 
 Hew Crawford, master at Cumnock." 
 
 144. WILLIAM M'GIE. Entered in 1681. 
 
 145. JOHN HOW, Yr., of Demptoun, Kilbarchan. Entered in 1681, having been 
 
 brought up in " obedienc to a charg of horning." Probably the son or grand- 
 son of No. 44. (Rff. Crawford's History of Renfrewshire, 378 ; Hector's 
 Judicial Records of Renfrewshire, 2nd Series, 66.) 
 
 146. GEORGE ARMOUR, barber. Booked in 1682. 
 
 *^* From this date till 1733 the Records are awanting, having been destroyed 
 under circumstances stated at p. 91, ^/ seq. But an imperfect list has been compiled 
 from other documents, printed and manuscript, which have been preserved. The dates 
 of entry cannot be given in most cases ; and the order of the names makes no pretence 
 to be their order of enrolment. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 245 
 
 147. MATTHEW BRISBANE. Entered as physician about 1684. jM.D. Utrecht, 
 
 i66i (Thesis, " De Catalepsi"). Son of Rev. Matthew Brisbane, parson of 
 Erskine, a scion of the house of Brisbane of Bishopton. Held office in the 
 University as Dean of Faculty, 1675-76; Rector, 1677-81. {Munifnenta, in. 326, 
 356.) In the City Accounts for 1684 his name appears as town's physician, 
 his salary being the same as that of the surgeon and of the stone-cutter. 
 He gave a professional opinion in the famous Bargarran Witchcraft case in 
 1696. {Witches of Renfreiushire, 129.) Father of No. 195. 
 
 148. ROBERT GRAHAM, of Gallengade. Entered before 1698; deceased between 1708 
 
 and 1 7 19. A considerable donor to the Faculty Library. 
 
 149. ALEXANDER KNOX, deceased between 1708 and 17 19. Donor to Library. 
 
 150. THOMAS HAMILTON. Visitor, 1708; alive in 1733. In 1716 he was ordered 
 
 by the Town Council to be paid ;;^48 (Scots) " for curing a complicat fracture 
 of the hand of Robert Russell, the tonne's Master Gunner, which he received by 
 one of the great guns," and for similar services to various volunteers " contusit, 
 woundit, and otherwise injured by the firing of their own great guns." (Cleland's 
 Statistics, 186.) Donor to Faculty Library. 
 
 151. JOHN BOYD. Entered before 1698. Alive in 17 19, but not in 1733. He was 
 
 the Joannes Bodie who, at the starting of the Library in 1697, presented the 
 folio book with clasps in which to record donations. 
 
 152. DUNCAN CAMPBELL. Succeeded No. 62 as City "Stone-cutter." 27th March, 
 
 1688: "The said day there was ane testificat produced in favour of Duncan 
 Campbell, subscryvit be the haill doctors and most part of the chirurgianes 
 in toune, of his dexterite and success in cutting of the stone, as also sounding 
 with great facilitie, and hes given severall proofes therof within the burgh : 
 Whilk being taken to the said magistrats and counsell ther consideration, 
 they nominat and appoynt him to cut such poor in towne as he shall be desyred 
 be the magistrats, in place of Evir M'Neill, who is become unfit to do the 
 same through his infirmitie. {Memorabilia of Glasgow, p. 258.) Died before 
 1708. 
 
 153. DAVID HALL. Alive in 1708, but not in 1719. Donor to Library. 
 
 154. JOHN NAISMITH. " Son to the deceasit Mr. James Naismith, sometime Minister 
 
 at Hamilton." Apprentice to No. 66. 
 
 155. JASPER TOUGH, Kilmarnock. W'odrow, in his History of the Church, describes 
 
 how he was subjected to the rigours of military despotism in 1683 for non- 
 conformity. (See also M'Kay's History of Kilmarnock, 53.) 
 
 156. HENRY MARSHALL. Entered after a lawsuit raised by the Faculty against 
 
 the Town Council in regard to the assumed right of that body to license 
 
246 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 him to practise in Glasgow. (Chap, ix.) As an example of a Glasgow 
 medical genealogical tree, the following may be of some interest : 
 
 Patrick Marshall, 
 
 Surgeon, Kilsyth 
 (1631-1697). 
 
 His son, Henry Marshall, His son, John Marshall, 
 
 Surgeon, died 1727. Surgeon, died 1719. 
 
 His daughter Lillian, 
 
 married Alexander Horsburgh, Surgeon, 
 who died 1745. 
 
 Their daughter, Lillian Horsburgh, 
 
 married Robert Cowan, Merchant 
 (1735-1813). 
 I 
 
 Their son, Robert Cowan, 
 
 Surgeon, Glasgow 
 
 (1769-1808). 
 
 I 
 
 His son, Robert Cowan, M.D., 
 
 Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, 
 University of Glasgow 
 (1706-1841). 
 I 
 
 His son, John Black Cowan, M.D., 
 
 Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica, 
 
 University of Glasgow 
 
 (1829- 
 
 I 
 His son, John Marshall Cowan, M.B. Cantab. 
 
 Henry Marshall married (i) Jean Baillie and (2) Margaret Storie, daughter 
 of Richard Storie, Esq., and Lady Lilias Fleming, the latter being daughter 
 of the third Earl of Wigton and Lady Jane Drummond, eldest daughter of 
 the third Earl of Perth. It is this marriage of Richard Storie that is perpetuated 
 in the ballad : 
 
 " The Erie of Wigton had three daughters, 
 O braw willie they were bonnie ; 
 The youngest of them and the brawest too, 
 Has fallen in love wi' Richard Storie." 
 
 157. WILLIAM WILSON, Greenock. Father of No. 221. (Ref Weir's History of 
 
 Greenock, 114.) 
 
 158. NICOL BROWN, Newmilns. Married Marion Campbell of Waterhaughs. Father 
 
 of Thomas Brown, surgeon, London, who built Langside, and died in 1739. 
 The latter was the father of No. 354. (Ref Cowttry Houses of the old Glasgow 
 Gentry, 160.) 
 
 159. JOHN HATTRICK, Merkdaily, Glasgow. Wodrow {Analecta, ii. 370) tells a 
 
 story that " he being under very great deepths of exercise, came to a resolution 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 247 
 
 to put ane end to his dayes, and went resolutely to the Peat-bogg at the 
 Green of Glasgow and cast himself into the Clyde: That he was caryed, he 
 did not knou hou, to Govan side of the water ; and was very litle wet when 
 he came to the shore though he could sweem none." 
 
 160. JOHN MELVILL. Entered in 17 18, and died in that or the following year. 
 
 161. WILLIAM THOMSON. Apprentice to No. 97. Chirurgeon-Visitor, 1709-11, 
 
 1714-15. Died between 1719 and 1733. 
 
 162. PETER PATOUN. Entered as physician about 1692. Son of Thomas Patoun, 
 
 merchant in Glasgow, whose wife was a daughter of No. 39. Studied medicine 
 at Leyden, and graduated there as M.D., 1691 (Diss. Inaug., "De partu 
 difficili "). ^Married Anna Hamilton, daughter of the laird of Dalserf. Father 
 of No. 199. Donor of a considerable number, of books to the University 
 Library {Mtmwienta, iii. 440), also to the Faculty Library. Contributor to 
 the Edinburgh Medical Essays (i. 172). Long one of the leading physicians 
 in Glasgow. President, 1709-10. 
 
 163. HUGH FULTON. Entered in or before 1705. Visitor, 17 12-13. Wodrow, the 
 
 Church historian, says : " He was mighty in wrestling, a great sympathizer, and 
 had a constant concern about the publick interests, and great apprehensions 
 of comming and suddain and desolating stroaks. He had a mighty concern 
 about the matter of purity of doctrine." {Analecfa, in. 475.) Died in 1728. 
 
 161 A. HEW COCHRAN, Lanark. Ref. Glaister's Dr. William Smellie, 19. 
 
 162A. JAMES CALDER, Senior. Entered before 1705. Married Mary, daughter of 
 
 Walter Atchison of Roughsulloch, she being grand-daughter of No. 103. 
 
 (M'Ure's History of Glasgow, 2nd ed., 106.) Father of 184. Donor to 
 Faculty Library. Visitor, 17 16-18. 
 
 163A. JOHN CAMPBELL, Paisley. Apprentice to John Hall, No. 34(?) According to 
 Wodrow there was a design to appoint him Professor of Anatomy in the 
 University of Glasgow in succession to Dr. Brisbane. {Atialecta, iv. 28.) M.D. (?) 
 (University unknown). Long the leading practitioner in Paisley. (For a pro- 
 fessional account of his, containing some curious items, see Hector's judicial 
 Records of Renfrewshire, 2nd Series, 59.) 
 
 164. THOMAS NAPIER of Ballikinrain. Second son of William Napier, eleventh 
 
 of BaUikinrain, and Rebecca Buchanan, his wife. Born in 1684; died in 
 1 7 18. His father had a house in Glasgow. In 17 13 married Anna, daughter 
 of Alexander Napier of Blackstone. In 1714 he presented to the Faculty a 
 copy of the Works of Heurnius, the donor being entered as " Thomas Napier 
 of Ballikinrain, Chyr." Mr. Guthrie Smith, who gives the genealogy of the 
 family in his History of Strathe/idrick, does not mention that he was a surgeon 
 (p. 201); and as he came into the succession in 1702 he may never have 
 practised. His uncle James had been apprenticed to Wm. Borthwick, an 
 Edinburgh surgeon. {Ibid., p. 199.) 
 
 165. WILLIAM WRIGHT, M.D. Entered as a physician. Donor to Library. 
 
248 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 166. THOMAS KENNEDY, M.D. Leyden, 1682. (Inaug. Diss., "De nutritione 
 
 foetus.") In 1703 was called in by the University to act as one of the 
 assessors to Dr. Sinclare, M.D., Professor of Mathematics, in the examina- 
 tion of the first (or one of the first) candidates for the degree of M.D. 
 {Mtmivienta, iii. 376.) Donor to Library. Died in 1708, aged 48, 
 bequeathing money to the Merchants' Hospital. (Hill's Merchants' House, 
 576; M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., 206.) 
 
 167. JAMES BAIRD, M.D. Entered as a physician. Donor of books at the start of 
 
 the Faculty Library. 
 
 168. JOHN BOGLE. Entered before 1708; deceased before 1718. Son of No. 
 
 ii8(?). Donor to Library. (Ref. M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., 128.) 
 
 169. HUGH THOMSON. He had been minister of Kilmaurs, which office he demitted 
 
 about 1712, "having no freedom to take the oath of abjuration," says 
 VVodrow. (Aualaia, iv. 203.) He then took to-^the practice of medicine, 
 which he seems to have learned, and eventually came to Glasgow, where he 
 practised till his death in 1731. Wodrow states that he used to preach four 
 or five hours, and was the longest preacher he ever heard. 
 
 170. JOHN MARSHALL. Son of Patrick Marshall, surgeon, Kilsyth. After appren- 
 
 ticeship he seems to have studied at Paris in 1677, one of the books he gifted 
 to the Faculty bearing his name with that year and place. Married Christian 
 Stewart. Brother of No. 156 {q.v.). M.A. 1707. In 1704 he was appointed 
 by the University to have charge of the Physic Gardens, the entry to which, 
 curious to say, was restricted to masters and those students who were 
 the sons of noblemen. {Munimenta, 11. 421.) The Minute of his appoint- 
 ment runs thus: "The Faculty [of the University] having resolved to 
 prosecute their own act of July 4th anent the improvement of some parts 
 of their Great Yard for Botany and a Physick Garden, do now think it 
 necessary to name one who shall have the charge and oversight thereof, 
 and who may instruct the scholars who shall apply to him for the study 
 of botany, and being informed that John Marshell, Chirurgeon in Glasgow, 
 is capable of discharging that trust, and being specially recommended 
 by the Dean of Faculties letter. Therefore the Faculty does nominate 
 the said John Marshell to the said employment." Died in 17 19. 
 
 171. JOHN SEMPLE of Dalmoak. Donor to Library. 
 
 172. MATTHEW LAMB of Rorkwood. Donor to Library. 
 
 173. ADAM CUNNINGHAM, Greenock. Donor to Library. Died 1769. (Ref. Weir's 
 
 History of Greenock, 114.) 
 
 174. ANDREW REID. Entered on or before 1708. Donor to Library. Deceased 
 
 before 17 19. 
 
 175. ROBERT HOUSTON. Son of No. 100. Entered after 1684. f:ither he or his 
 
 father was Visitor in 1691, probably the former, M.A. Glasgow. In 1711 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 249 
 
 he applied to the University to be examined for the doctorate of medicine, 
 and in 17 12 this was done, and he received the degree. Previous to this 
 he seems to have acquired reputation in and around Glasgow as a surgeon. 
 The exact date of his leaving Glasgow is not known, but seems to be about 
 1 7 14. He then settled to practise about Westminster. In 1725 he was 
 admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed to their Trans- 
 actions "An account of an extra-uterine foetus taken out of a woman after 
 death, that had continued four and a half years in the body." (xxxii. 257, 
 1725.) Next year he contributed "An account of a Dropsy in the left ovary 
 of a woman aged 58, cured by a large incision made in the side of the 
 abdomen " (xxxiii. 8), the operation having been performed a quarter of a 
 century earlier when he was a surgeon in Glasgow. (See p. 114 of Text.) In 
 1723 he published, with his initials only, " Lithotomus Castratus : or 
 Mr. Cheselden's treatise on the High Operation for the Stone thoroughly 
 examin'd, and plainly found to be Lithotomia Douglassiana, etc., under 
 another title, .in a letter to Dr. John Arbuthnot." (Lond. : T. Rayne.) In 
 1726 he published, also under initials only, "The history of Ruptures and 
 Rupture Cures, etc., wherein both are thoroughly and impartially considered. 
 . . . With a genuine receipt of the whole secret, which was lately sold 
 for an immense sum of money, etc." (Lond. : E. Strahan.) Houston died 
 in 1734. (Ref Lawson Tait, Diseases of the Ovai'ies^ 239.) 
 
 176. ROBERT HAMILTON. Signs the "Letter of Demission and Renunciation" of 
 
 the Seal of Cause, 17 19. 
 
 177. JOHN HAMILTON. Donor to Faculty Library. 
 
 178. ALEXANDER MASON. Signs the "Letter of Demission and Renunciation" of 
 
 the Letter of Deaconry, 17 19. 
 
 179. WILLIAM ENGLISH. Deceased before 17 19. 
 i8o. JOHN MURDOCH. Father-in-law of No. 187. 
 
 181. GEORGE THOMSON, M.D. Leyden. Was in practice in Glasgow in 1703, when 
 
 he was selected to be one of the assessors to Dr. Sinclare, M.D., Professor 
 of Mathematics at the first examination for the medical degree. He seems 
 to have set credulous Wodrow agape with the teratological marvels he had 
 seen in Holland, of a man whose neck grew out of his side, and of a boy 
 with " Deus Meus " written on his eye. {A/iakcta, i. 3, 4.) Physician-Visitor 
 1733-34- 
 
 182. ALEXANDER PORTERFIELD. In 1684 booked apprentice to No. 119. Son 
 
 of Alexander l^orterficld, who was third son of Alexander Portcrfield of that 
 ilk. Entered about 1690, and in 1733 was senior surgeon member. (For 
 his genealogy see Crawfurd's General Description of the Shire of Renfrew, 
 edited by J. G. Robertson, 18 18, 63. See also Glasgoav, Past and Present, 
 1884, III. 484). 
 
250 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 183. ANDREW HOW, of Pannell, Kilbarchan. This is another member of the medical 
 
 family to which belonged Nos. 44 and 145. For copy of a curious summons 
 taken out by him against some half-dozen of his patients for the payment 
 of their bills, see p. 108. 
 
 183A. JOHN M'J ARROW, Ayr. Born 1688. Entered about 17 12. Eldest son of 
 Thomas M'Jarrow of Bass. Married Agnes, daughter of Robert Simpson, 
 at one time Provost of Ayr. (Paterson's History of Carrick, 417.) 
 
 184. JAMES CALDER, Younger. Son of No. 162A. Contributed a number of papers 
 
 to the Edinburgh Medical Essays. Died about 1765. 
 
 185. JAMES HAMILTON, of Newton. Entered after 17 19. Married Annabella, 
 
 third daughter of Sir Robert Pollok of that Ilk (Mearns). He had an only 
 son, James, who died without issue. Practised as a surgeon in Glasgow. 
 Visitor 1733-34. (Ref. Crawfurd's Shire of Renfrew (1818), 292.) 
 
 186. DUNCAN M'LACHLAN, Dumbarton. " Forasmeikell as Doctor Duncan M'Lach- 
 
 lan is content to mak his residence in the burgh, and to use his calling in 
 the service of phisick, pottingerie and chirurgerie hier, the burgh furnishing 
 him ae hous and yaird to him to dwell into. Thairfor finding it necessary 
 and for the weill of the burgh and commonwealth thairof to have him to 
 dwell thairin, The sd p'est, baillies and counseill codescends to geve him 
 yeirlie . . . fourtie pundis Scottis money for paying the maill of ae hous 
 content that p'eist, baillies and counsaill mak indentures w' him in the same 
 termes." {Dumbartofi Burgh Records., 52.) 
 
 187. WILLIAM STIRLING. Entered in 1712, his admission being one of the 
 
 occasions of setting the surgeons and barbers by the ears. (See Chap, x.) 
 Member of an old Glasgow family, being the great-grandson of Walter 
 Stirling, who married Dr. Peter Lowe's widow, and father of the Walter 
 Stirling who founded Stirling's Library. His surgery was in the Dispensary 
 Close, High Street. He was an M.A. of Glasgow, and appears to have re- 
 ceived at least part of his training in Holland. Partner with No. 191, along 
 with whom and other two citizens he introduced the linen manufactures into 
 Glasgow. (M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., 257.) Married, yf/-i'/, Janet Smith; 
 second, Elizabeth Murdoch, daughter of No. 180. Died in 1757. 
 
 188. THOMAS BUCHANAN. Entered between 1708 and 17 19. Surgeon-Visitor 
 
 1734-36- Married Elizabeth Napier, eldest daughter of Archibald Napier, 
 of Bankell and Ballocharne. (Guthrie Smith, History of Strathendrick, 
 185, 186.) 
 
 189. ROBERT WALLACE. Entered between 1708 and 17 19. Father of No. 252. 
 
 Visitor in 1745-48. House in Saltmarket (M'Ure's History, 2nd ed., 126), 
 and possibly afterwards in Candleriggs {Old Glasgow, by Senex, 437). 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 251 
 
 Mr. Robert Reid says that " he was at the top of his profession as a 
 medical man" {Ibid.). 
 
 190. ROBERT HUNTER, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1728. 
 
 191. JOHN GORDON. Entered before 17 19. Partner with No. 187, and subsequently 
 
 with No. 251. Along with the former he set up the linen works of Grahams- 
 town Hall, near Glasgow. After practising as a general practitioner for 
 upwards of thirty years, he graduated at the University in 1754, and limited 
 his practice to that of a physician. President 1755-56 and 176364. Married 
 Mary, daughter of Patrick Bell, Cowcaddens. Smollett, his old pupil, is stated 
 to have had Gordon in his mind when drawing the character of " Potion " in 
 Roderick Random. In 1725 he was one of " The Secret Committy" of three 
 who drew up for publication in London a vindication of the Magistrates of 
 Glasgow against aspersions cast upon them in connection with the Shawfield 
 House Riot arising from the imposition of the Malt Tax. (Wodrow's Analeda., 
 III. 248.) Friend and correspondent of Smellie, the obstetrician. Died in 1770. 
 
 192. JOHN PAISLEY. Entered between 17 19 and 1724. Educated at the University 
 
 of Glasgow. He was long " bibliothecarius " to the Faculty. Thomson states 
 in his Life of Culleti (i. 3) that he was engaged in extensive practice, was of 
 a studious turn of mind, and had collected a large and valuable medical 
 library. When his old pupil-apprentice, CuUen, began as a lecturer on 
 medicine, Mr. Paisley's library was thrown open to his students. He con- 
 tributed some articles to the Edinburgh Medical Essays (vi. 283, 296). 
 
 193. THOMAS DOUGALD. See p. 91. 
 
 194. COLIN M'CALL, Cumbernauld. 
 
 195. THOMAS BRISBANE. Son of No. 147. Entered as physician. M.D. (Uni- 
 
 versity not ascertained). First Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the 
 University 'of Glasgow (1720-42). As far as appears he taught neither of the 
 subjects, and more than once there was a movement to supersede him. 
 (Rff. Wodrow's Analecta, in. 332, iv. 28.) He died in 1742. Father of 
 No. 290. 
 
 196. WILLIAM JOHNSTON, Paisley. 
 
 197. JOHN WODROW, M.D. Admitted as a physician. Son of Rev. James Wodrow, 
 
 Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, brother of Rev. Robert 
 Wodrow, minister of Eastwood, author of the History of the Suffcrifigs 
 of the Church of Scotland, etc. He was a man of scientific tastes, devoted 
 to natural history. His physic garden, to the upkeep of which the Faculty 
 contributed annually, was situated on the east bank of the Molendinar, 
 about where St. Andrew's Square now is. Married Sophia Douglas, who, 
 when a widow, presented his botanical books, etc., to the Library. Rff. 
 Duncan's Literary History of Glasgow, 37 ; Wodrow's Analecta, iii. 185, 
 188, 339 (the last a story of second sight). Died 1769. 
 
252 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 198. JOHN JOHNSTOUN. Admitted as physician. M.D. Utrecht, 1709. (Inaug. 
 
 Diss., " De niitrimento, incremento et detriinento animahum.") His father's 
 Christian name and profession were the same as his own, but his place of 
 practice has not been ascertained. Second Professor of Medicine in the 
 University of Glasgow (17 14-51). Like Dr. Brisbane, he does not appear 
 to have performed the duties of his Chair, as Wodrow says, " Dr. John- 
 stounn teaches as little and praelects none." {Analecta, iii. 333.) President, 
 i737"38- Resigned his Chair in 1750. 
 
 199. DAVID PATOUN. Entered as physician prior to February, 1724. Son of 
 J. , No. 162. President, 1741-42. Married in 1727 Agnes, daughter of Thomas 
 
 ^ yf' ^^*r*'^ Baxter, merchant in Glasgow. M.D. (University not stated). Long a leading 
 
 ^ ^ physician in Glasgow. His brother was Colonel Patoun, F.R.S., author of 
 
 J,"-^ a once well-known treatise on Navigation ; and his son Archibald was the 
 
 Captain Patoun, a familiar figure under the Tontine piazza, the hero of 
 
 Lockhart's Lament. Died in 1782. 
 
 200. ROBERT LOW. Entered 2nd October, 1721, on the same honorary terms as 
 his father (No. 129) and his grandfather (No. 28). Writer to the Signet, 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 201. JOHN CAMPBELL, Greenock. 
 
 202. WILLIAM MAITLAND. Entered as physician, in virtue of what degree does 
 not appear. " Minister of the Gospel, Mauchline." His daughter, Mrs. 
 Mary Stewart, a widow, was admitted a pensioner in 1744. 
 
 203. ALEXANDER HORSBURGH. Son-in-law of No. 156. He spent some time in 
 China, from which place in 172 1 he sent some "rarities" to the Faculty 
 Museum. Died in 1745, bequeathing to the Faculty a small legacy. His 
 son Harry, regarding whom the story of a curious litigation turning on 
 the ownership of a sword is told in some of the histories of Glasgow 
 {Glasgow, Past and Present, iii. 296), was a partner of the firm of Anderson 
 and Horsburgh, merchants in Glasgow. (See also what is said under No. 
 
 156.) 
 
 204. JOHN LOCKHART. 
 
 205. ALLAN M'RAE. 
 
 206. WILLIAM SMELLIE. Entered in 1732-33. Born at Lanark in 1697, in which 
 burgh he began to practice about 1720, and continued up to 1739. After 
 visiting Paris, he eventually settled in London, and began to teach midwifery, 
 his demonstrations being remarkable for the ingenuity of his mechanical 
 models. He soon became the leading exponent of man-midwifery in the 
 Metropolis. By his improvement of the forceps, and in other ways, he con- 
 tributed much to t'-^e progress of obstetrics. In 1752 he published A Ireatise 
 on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, which went through many editions, 
 and was translated into several languages. It was republished by the New 
 Sydenham Society, and edited by Dr. M'Clintock of Dublin. This work was 
 followed by his Anatomical Tables in 1754. In 1745 he received from the 
 University of Glasgow the honorary degree of M.D. In 1759 he retired to 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 253 
 
 Lanark, where he died in 1763. (Rff. Glaister's Dr. William Smellie and 
 his Contemporaries., 1894; M'Clintock's Memoir in Vol. i. of the New 
 Sydenham Society edition of his Midwifery, 1876.) 
 
 207. JAMES GARDINER, Kilmaurs. 
 
 208. ROBERT KELSO, Beith. 
 
 209. WALTER ALEXANDER. 
 
 210. JAMES CORBERTSON. 
 
 211. ROBERT FREEBAIRN, Kilbride. 
 
 * * 
 
 The entries frovi 2 1 2 omvards are taken from the Mijiiitc Books. 
 
 212. THOMAS SIMSON, Biggar. Entered in 1735. 
 
 213. JOHN LOVE. Entered in 1735, when he was resident in Greenock. Removed 
 
 to Glasgow in 1740. Contributed to Editihirgh Medical Essays (v. 735), 
 "Observations on the effects of Lignum Guaiacum in Cancer." 
 
 214. JOHN M'FARLAND. Entered 1735. Resident outside of Glasgow. 
 
 215. THOMAS KILPATRICK, Camtyne. Entered in 1735. 
 
 216. ROBERT CHISHOLM. Entered in 1735. Practised first at Blairs, afterwards 
 
 at Skelmorlie. 
 
 217. ARCHIBALD CROSBIE, Carmunnock. Entered in 1735. 
 
 218. GEORGE MONTGOMERIE. Admitted as physician in 1735. M.D. Glasgow, 
 
 1732. There appears to have been another Dr. Montgomerie practising in 
 Glasgow in 171 2 [Alitfiii/ienta Universitatis Glasguensis, 11. 402), who was 
 also a member of the Faculty, as his daughter became a pensioner in 1745; 
 his Christian name has not been ascertained. Dr. George Montgomerie was 
 President in 1743-45. Died 1778, aged 73. (Rff. Glasgow, Fast and Present, 
 1884, I. 509, 582 ; II. 524, footnote.) 
 
 220 JAMES MUIR. Entered in 1736. Practised first in Rutherglen and latterly 
 in Glasgow. He was probably the earliest lecturer on midwifery in Glasgow, 
 his advertisement appearing in the Glasgoiv yournal. No. 950, Oct. 15-22, 
 1769. (See p. 134.) For other references to him, see Glasgow, Fast and 
 Fresent, 1884, 111. 161 ; Transactions of the Glasg07v Archaeological Society, 
 1883, Vol. II., 305.) 
 
 221. NATHAN WILSON, Greenock. Entered in 1736. Son of No. 157. Father 
 
 of No. 286. (Ref. Weir's History of Greenock, 114.) 
 
 222. JAMES GRIER. I'.ntered in 1736. Apprentice to No. 192. 
 
 223. ROBERT BOGLE. Entered in 1737. 
 
254 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 224. THOMAS GARVINE, Ayr. Entered in 1738. Apprentice to No. 170. 
 
 225. HECTOR M'LEAN, Gorbals. Entered in 1739. Died 1782. He was long 
 
 a pensioner of the Faculty. 
 
 226. DAVID CORBETT. Entered in 1739. His house or place of business was in 
 
 the Faculty's property in Trongate, adjoining the first Faculty Hall. 
 
 227. PARLAN M'FARLAN, Dumbarton. Entered in 1739. 
 
 228. GEORGE COLQUHOUN. Entered in 1739. Apprentice to No. 203. 
 
 229. JOHN CRAWFORD. Entered in 1741. Son of John Crawford, Merchant in 
 
 Glasgow. Visitor, 1751-53. The Glasgow Journal for 3rd Nov., 1755, 
 has the notice — " Last week Mr. John Crawford, Surgeon in Glasgow, had 
 a prize of ^^500 in the present lottery." (Other Rff., Glasgow, Fast and 
 Present, 1884, iii. 157, 161 ; The Regality Club, 3rd Series, 21, et seq.) 
 
 230. ROBERT HAMILTON. Entered in 1743 as physician. M.D. Glasgow, 1742. 
 
 A cadet of the Hamiltons of Airdrie, a branch of the house of Preston 
 and Fingaltoun, the baronetcy of which was eventually assumed by his grand- 
 nephew, Sir Wm. Hamilton, the metaphysician. His father was Rev. Wm, 
 Hamilton, of Bothwell. Married Molly, daughter of John Baird of Craighton, 
 described in the newspaper notice as " a beautiful young lady with a hand- 
 some fortune." {Glasgow Journal, 4th May, 1747.) President, 1745-47. He 
 succeeded No. 195 as Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University 
 in 1742, and in 1756 he was transferred to the Chair of Medicine, and died 
 the following year. Brother of No. 254. (For the pedigree of the family, 
 see Crawfurd's General Description of the Shire of Renfrew, 18 18. See also 
 Veitch's Life of Sir Wm. Hamilton; Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd ed., 21.) 
 
 231. THOMAS HAMILTON, Hamilton. Entered in 1743. Two years earlier he had 
 
 entered into partnership with No. 234, which continued till Cullen's removal 
 to Glasgow in 1744. (Thomson's Life of Cullen, i. 15.) 
 
 232. ROBERT ANDERSON, Dumbarton. Entered in 1743. 
 
 233. JAMES ANDERSON. Entered in 1744. Assistant for some time to No. 182. 
 
 234. WILLIAM CULLEN. Entered in 1744 as physician. Born in Hamilton in 
 
 17 10, he was apprenticed to No. 192. After a voyage to the West Indies 
 he returned to Hamilton, and began practice in Auchinlee, near his birthplace. 
 In 1734-36 he went to study medicine at Edinburgh, and started practice 
 in Hamilton in 1736, having as pupil from 1737 to 1740 William Hunter, 
 afterwards so celebrated. In 1741 he entered into partnership with No. 
 231; and in 1744 settled in Glasgow, having taken his medical degree 
 at the University of Glasgow in 1740. He at once began lecturing on 
 medicine, chemistry, and other subjects, and in 1751 he succeeded 
 Dr. Johnstoun as Professor of Medicine in the University, and quickly 
 transformed the post from a sinecure to a working Chair. In 1755 he 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 255 
 
 transferred his services to the Edinburgh Medical School, and filled succes- ffijfiu^*^ / ^"^^ r 
 sively the Chairs of Chemistry, Institutes of Medicine, and Practice of I'm/^^'^ 
 Medicine; but his career in Edinburgh need not here be followed. "" ' ' 
 President, 1747-49. He died in 1790. For a full Memoir, see Thomson's 
 Account of the Life and Writings of William Ciillen, M.D. (Vol. i., 1832 ; 
 Vol. II., 1859). For condensed Memoir, see article in the Dictionary of 
 National Biography, Vol. xiii. 279. Portrait by W. Cochrane in the 
 Hunterian Museum ; replica in the Faculty Hall, 
 
 234A. CHRISTOPHER BANNATYNE, Lanark. Entered in 1745. 
 
 235. ROBERT CAMPBELL, Paisley. Entered in 1745. 
 
 236. ANDREW CRAIG. Entered in 1745. His brother William was one of the city 
 
 ministers, father of Lord Craig, one of the Senators of Justice. Married 
 daughter of Rev. John M'Laurin, minister of Luss and afterwards of St. David's 
 Parish, Glasgow. One of three daughters, Agnes, wife of a Mr. Maclehose, 
 a Glasgow lawyer, was the "Clarinda" of the poet Burns, who met her in 
 Edinburgh when she was living apart from her husband. This lady herself 
 was a pensioner of the Faculty for some years after her father's death in 
 1782. Another daughter, Peggy, married Mr. Kennedy of Auchtyfardle, 
 advocate. 
 
 237. JOHN WILSON, Hartridge of Douglas. Entered in 1745. 
 
 238. JOHN CARRICK. Entered in 1746. Son of Rev. Robert Carrick, minister of 
 
 Houston, and brother of Robert Carrick of Monfode, a well-known Glasgow 
 banker of his day. He acted as assistant to Dr. Robert Hamilton, Professor 
 of Anatomy, and in collaboration with Dr. William CuUen, he also lectured 
 on Chemistry and Materia Medica. He died prematurely in 1750. (Ref. to 
 Thomson's Life of Cullen, i., 29.) 
 
 239. ANDREW MORRIS. Entered in 1747. Born in 17 17. M.D. Rheims. Son of 
 
 a Bailie Morris, who was also a member of the Faculty, but who has not 
 been identified. Having failed in a legal suit to establish his claim to practise 
 as a surgeon in virtue of his degree, he submitted himself to examination, 
 and was licensed as a surgeon, having been apprenticed to his father. In 
 1757 he was reported as "now a Surgeon in the Army"; but he soon 
 returned. In 1764 he applied for and obtained the use of the Faculty Hall for 
 " Medicall Lectures." He was undoubtedly eccentric, though the story told 
 about him in some histories of Glasgow of his inducing disease by experi- 
 menting whether himself or his horse would subsist longest on starvation 
 diet is probably apocryphal {Glasgotv, Fast and Present, 1884, i. 350). It is 
 true, however, that he was for many years paralyzed in his lower limbs, and 
 became a pensioner on the Faculty. He had an animus against lawyers, and 
 protested against the Faculty Clerk being of that profession. He edited 
 an edition of Celsus in 2 vols., 1766. Died in 1788. (Rcf. Transactions 
 
256 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the Archeological Society of Glasgow, 1883, 11. 304.) His house was in 
 Dunlop Street. 
 
 240. JOHN MORRISON, Old Kilpatrick. Entered in 1747. Combined school-keeping 
 
 with surgery. 
 
 241. ALEXANDER MOLLISON, Port-Glasgow. Entered in 1749. 
 
 242. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, Beith. Entered in 1749. He was one of several 
 
 generations of medical members of the family in Beith. (Ref. Cuninghame, 
 topographized by T. Pont, continued by J. Dobie. Glasgow, 1876.) 
 
 243. JOHN GRAHAM, Paisley. Entered in 1749. 
 
 244. THOMAS LOGAN, Dalmellington. Entered in 1749. 
 
 245. NINIAN HILL, Paisley Entered in 1750. Settled in Glasgow in 1754. Partner 
 
 with No. 305. Resided in Trongate. (Ref. Glasgow, Fast and Present, 
 1884, II. 205, 206. 
 
 246. WILLIAM MORRIS, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1750. 
 
 247. WILLIAM DEANS, Stewarton. Entered in 1750. 
 
 248. WILLIAM MUIR, Kilmarnock. Entered in 1750. 
 
 249. WILLIAM RALSTON. Entered in 1750. 
 
 250. ANDREW RIDDALL, Gorbals. Entered in 1750. 
 
 251. JOHN MOORE. Entered in 1751. Son of Rev. Charles Moore, Stirling, and 
 
 Marion, daughter of Rev. John Anderson, Glasgow. Educated at Glasgow 
 University, and apprenticed to Nos. 187 and 191 jointly. In 1747 he was 
 appointed surgeons' mate, and was at Maestricht when the hospitals were 
 filled with the wounded from the battle of Laffeldt. He was then promoted 
 to be assistant surgeon to the Coldstream Guards. In 1747 he returned to 
 London, attending the lectures of Dr. Wm. Hunter and Dr. VVm. Sraellie, 
 and afterwards studied in Paris. In 1751 he entered into partnership with 
 his old master, John Gordon, and on the latter restricting himself to the 
 practice of a physician he took as partner No. 254, and afterwards No. 288. 
 Married Jane, daughter of Rev. John Simson, Professor of Divinity in the 
 University. In 1770 he took his degree at the University, which limited 
 him to medical practice while in Glasgow. Two years later he left the town 
 to travel with the Duke of Hamilton, remaining five years on the Continent, 
 and returned in 1778, when he settled in practice in London. He re-visited 
 Glasgow in 1786, and next year corresponded with the poet Burns. In 
 1792 he visited France, publishing a "Journal" of the visit in two volumes, 
 1 792-1794. He died in 1802, He had several sons, one of whom was Sir 
 John Moore, the hero of Corunna; and another, James Carrick Moore, a 
 London surgeon, author of the History of Vaccination and History of the 
 Smallpox. Besides his hterary works, the best known of wliich is his novel 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 257 
 
 Zeluco, he published in 1786 Medical Sketches. While in Glasgow he lived 
 in Trongate, opposite the Tron Church, and subsequently in Dunlop Street. 
 (Rff. Thomson's Life of Cullen, i. 585 ; Glasgow, Fast and Present, 1884, 
 II. 436, 461, 482 ; Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 37, 40, 
 
 252. ROBERT WALLACE. Entered in 1751. Son of No. 189. Resided first in 
 
 King Street and afterwards in Princes' Street. One of the original Managers 
 of the Royal Infirmary. He was apprenticed to his father, and also attended 
 lectures under Cullen, and when an old man he wrote to Dr. Thomson, 
 Cullen's biographer, a letter containing his reminiscences of Cullen and the 
 young Glasgow Medical School. {Life of Cullen, i. 3.) Died in 1812. 
 
 253. ANDREW TENNANT, Strathaven. Entered in 175 1. Apprentice of No. 161 a. 
 
 254. THOMAS HAMILTON. Entered in 1751. Brother of No. 230 {q.v.), and father 
 
 of No. 309. Bom in 1728, his father being Rev. Wm. Hamilton of Bothwell. 
 Apprentice of No. 229, and, unlike his brother, not a graduate in medicine. 
 Entered into partnership with No. 251, which continued till 1757. He 
 succeeded No. 275 as Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University. 
 Was an intimate friend of Dr. Black and the two Hunters, William and John, 
 who much esteemed him. He was a man of social accomplishments, endowed 
 with wit and humour, and his society was courted by lovers of good fellow- 
 ship in Glasgow. (Cleghorn in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
 Vol. IV. 38.) Married Isabel, daughter of Rev. William Anderson, first 
 Professor of Church History in the University. Died in 1781. (Rff. Strang's 
 Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition ; Veitch's Memoir of Sir William Hamilton, 16.) 
 
 255. JOHN BROWN. Entered in 1751. Apprentice to No. 162A. 
 
 256. JAMES ZUILL, Kilbride. Entered in 1751. His father, William Zuill, also a 
 
 surgeon in Kilbride, was probably a member, but his name has not been 
 found. 
 
 257. JOHN WEIR, Lesmahagow. Entered in 1751. 
 
 258. ROBERT DICK. p:ntered as physician in 1751. M.D. Glasgow, 1751. Son of 
 
 Mr. Robert Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University. He 
 succeeded to his father's Chair in 1751. He may not have been in practice, 
 but he gave great attention to Faculty business, and was President in 1751-53. 
 Died in 1757. (Rff. Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 21 ; Duncan's 
 Literarv LLi story of Glasgow, 68.) 
 
 259. GAVIN MARSHALL, Lesmahagow. Entered in 1751. 
 
 260. THOMAS STEWART, Pollokshaws. Entered in 1751. 
 
 261. THOMAS CLARK, Greenock. Entered in 1752. He united the oftlces of 
 
 surgeon and minister. 
 
 R 
 
258 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 262. JOHN M'LEAN. Entered in 1753. Son of Rev. Archibald M'Lean, Mull. 
 
 Apprentice to his uncle, No. 225. 
 
 263. JOHN HUNTER, Airdrie. Entered in 1753. Afterwards removed to Port-Glasgow. 
 
 264. GILBERT LAWSON, Paisley. Entered in 1754. 
 
 266. JAMES ARTHUR. Entered in 1755. 
 
 267. JOHN HALL or MAXWELL. Entered in 1755. Partner with No. 274. 
 
 268. THOMAS STUART, Pollokshaws. Entered in 1755. 
 
 269. JAMES GRAHAM, Paisley. Entered in 1755. 
 
 270. JAMES SWAN, Dumbarton. Entered in 1756. 
 
 271. JAMES FLINT, Dumbarton. Entered in 1756. 
 
 272. ALEXANDER STEVENSON of Dolgain. Entered in 1756 as physician. M.D. 
 
 Glasgow, 1749. Son of Dr. John Stevenson, Edinburgh, and uncle of No. 
 329. Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow, 1766-89. Pre- 
 sident, 1757-58, 1773-75. Married Jean, only child of John Picken of Ibrox 
 and Jean Barns his wife. Father of Sir James Stevenson Barns, a colonel in 
 the army, who assumed the additional surname on succeeding to the estate of 
 John Barns of Barns. (The estate of Dolgain in Ayrshire, which belonged 
 to Dr. Stevenson, is now part of the estate of Sorn.) He took an active 
 part in the preliminary steps for establishing the Royal Infirmary. In 1789 
 he resigned his Chair from ill-health, and died in 1791. (Rff. Glasgow, Past 
 mid Present, 1884, 11. 477, 509, 598; iii. 410; Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd 
 edition, 46, in which is given his epitaph by the poet of the " Hodge Podge 
 Club"; Medical Commentaries, xvi. 426; Board of Green Cloth, 73 et seq.) 
 
 273. JOHN COOK, Hamilton. Entered as a physician in 1756. M.D. St. Andrews. 
 
 He subsequently travelled in the East, and in 1770 published in Edinburgh, 
 in two volumes. Voyages and Travels through the Russian Empire, Tartary, 
 and part of the Kiftgdom of Persia. 
 
 274. ALEXANDER PARLANE. Entered in 1756. Partner with No. 267. 
 
 275. JOSEPH BLACK. Entered in 1757 as physician. M.D. Edinburgh, 1754. Pre- 
 
 sident, 175960. This celebrated chemist was born at Bordeaux in 1728, 
 and educated in Belfast and at Glasgow University. In 1750 he went to 
 Edinburgh to complete his medical education begun at Glasgow under 
 Cullen, who detected his genius for natural science, and made him his assistant 
 and personal friend. His graduation thesis, " De humore acido in cibis orto 
 et magnesia alba," which, in a developed form, was published in Essays and 
 Observations in 1756, established the separation of carbonic acid, thereby 
 opening up a wide field of research. In 1756 he was appointed Professor 
 of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow, which Chair he next year 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 259 
 
 exchanged for that of Medicine on the death of Dr. Robert Hamilton. 
 Whilst in Glasgow he completed his other great scientific achievement by the 
 exposition in 1761 of the doctrine of Latent Heat, which, though taught by 
 him, and expounded to a Literary Society in Glasgow, he did not take 
 the trouble to publish in the ordinary way. In 1766 he was appointed to 
 succeed CuUen in the Chair of Chemistry in Edinburgh, which he filled 
 till his death in 1799. President, 1759-61, 1765-66. (Rff. Grant's History 
 of the University of Edinburgh^ ii. 395 ; Dictionary of National Biography, 
 V. 112; Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotstnen, i. 109.) 
 
 276. WILLIAM TENNANT. Entered in 1758. Married Margaret Straitton. Died 
 
 in 1777. 
 
 277. JOHN GIBSON. Entered in 1759 as physician. M.D. Leyden. President, 
 
 1761-62. House in Virginia Street. 
 
 278. JOHN M'ARTHUR, Pollokshaws. Entered in 1759. 
 
 279. ROBERT YOUNG. Entered in 1761. 
 
 280. COLIN DOUGLAS. Entered in 1763 as physician. M.D. St. Andrews, and a 
 
 fellow-student with Cullen in Edinburgh. He had been surgeon to the 
 Welsh Fusileers, and had also travelled for some years. President, 1766-69. 
 Mr. John Dunlop, the elegiac poet of the "Hodge Podge Club," honoured 
 him with an epitaph, which is given in the Club's Records. (Strang's Glasgow 
 Clubs, 2nd edition, 46.) Moore's stanza, written while he was still alive, is 
 however better : 
 
 " Despising all airs, detesting all arts, 
 The thought bursts spontaneous from Douglas's heart ; 
 Of the dregs of his vigour the best let us make, 
 He may do for a leech, though he's done for a rake." 
 
 The last two lines refer to his premature physical decay, which ended in an 
 early death. 
 
 281. JOHN HARDIE. Entered in 1764. 
 
 282. JAMES PARLANE. Entered in 1764. Residence, Callendar's land, west side 
 
 of Stockwell. Died in 1805. 
 
 283. JOHN STEVENSON, Paisley. Entered in 1765. 
 
 284. GAVIN FULLERTON, Greenock. Entered in 1765. His son John was one of 
 
 the "Mediciner" Trustees of Anderson's University, nominated in the will of 
 the founder. Died in 1795. (Ref. Weir's History of Greenock, 114.) 
 
 285. PETER WRIGHT. Entered as physician in 1766. M.D. St. Andrews, 1765. 
 
 President, 1771-73, 1777-79, 1785-87, 1795-97. 1804-6 (five times in all). 
 Residence at the corner of Trongate and the west side of Virginia Street. 
 First President of Anderson's University, to the Chair of the Theory of 
 Medicine of which he had been designated by Dr. John Anderson's will. He 
 is stated to have been the last prominent Glasgow citizen who continued "to 
 
26o FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 walk the plane-stones," as the daily promenade under the Tontine Piazza was 
 called. {Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, i. 350.) He died in 1819. He 
 had two sons who attained to high rank in the army. 
 
 286. WILLIAM WILSON, Greenock. Entered in 1768. Son of No. 221. (Ref. 
 
 Weir's History of Gree?iock, 114.) 
 
 287. ROBERT MARSHALL. Entered in 1766 as a physician. M.A. Glasgow, 1749; 
 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1765. President, 1769-71, 1779-81, 1787-89. Residence in 
 Argyle Street. 
 
 288. ALEXANDER DUNLOP. Entered in 1765. His grandfather was Alexander 
 
 Dunlop, Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow (1704-46), who was 
 the son of William Dunlop, Principal of the University (i 690-1 700). Married 
 Jane Anderson, The Field, near St. Rollox; (her sister Janet married Andrew 
 Anderson, Greenock, whose son was No. 436). He resided successively in 
 Argyle Street, corner of Virginia Street, in 1807 in Queen Street, and in 
 181 1 in St. Enoch's Square. He was partner, first with Dr. Moore, shortly 
 before the latter left Glasgow, and afterwards with Mr. John Burns. He 
 was surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Volunteers, and one of the original 
 Managers of the Royal Infirmary. Father of No. 356. Died in 1815. (Rff, 
 Cleland's Aniials, i. 277; Glasgoza, Ancient and Modern, 11. 1249; Board of 
 Green Cloth, 61, 62.) 
 
 289. GEORGE COCHRANE, Strathaven. Entered in 1769. Removed to King Street, 
 
 Glasgow, in 1777. 
 
 291. CHARLES WILSONE. Entered in 1770. Resided in Stockwell Street, and 
 
 afterwards in Buchanan Street. One of the first surgeons to the Glasgow 
 Royal Infirmary. Surgeon to the " Armed Association," and one of the 
 original " Mediciner " Trustees of Anderson's University. On 20th January, 
 1787, he was knocked down at night in Argyle Street and robbed by two 
 men, who suffered the penalty of death for the crime. Father of No. 396, 
 and father-in-law of William Brown of Kilmardinny, and grandfather of Charles 
 Wilsone Brown of Wemyss. Died in 1820. (Rff. Cleland's Annals, i. 287 ; 
 Glasgow, Past and Present, 11. 204 ; iii. 399 ; Frazer, The Story of the Making 
 of Buchanan Street, 53, 104.) 
 
 292. ALEXANDER MURRAY. Entered in 1770. 
 
 293. DAVID COLQUHOUN, Greenock. Entered in 1771. 
 
 294. WILLIAM WHYTE. Entered in 1771. 
 
 295. JOHN HOW, Kilbarchan. Entered in 17 71. Another of the medical family of 
 
 the house of Dampton and Pennelt, to which belonged Nos. 44, 145, 183. 
 Writing in 1782, Semple states that the present was the twelfth John in direct 
 descent, and the eighth who had been engaged in medical practice. He 
 had a son John who died in 1797. Father-in-law of No. 312. Died in 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 26 1 
 
 18 16. (Ref. Crawfurd's General Description of the Shire of Renfrew, by 
 Robertson, 1818, 378.) 
 
 296. JOHN JACK, Hamilton. Entered in 1772. 
 
 297. WILLIAM BROWN, Hamilton. Entered in 1772. 
 
 298. WILLIAM IRVINE. Entered as physician in 1773. The son of a Glasgow 
 
 merchant, he was born in 1743, entered the University in 1756, and studied 
 chemistry under Black, whom he assisted in his first experiments on the 
 heat of steam. M.D. Glasgow, 1766. President, 1775-77, n^S-SS- ^^ 
 1766 he was appointed lecturer on Materia Medica in the University, and 
 in 1770 he also succeeded Robison in the lectureship of Chemistry. In his 
 experimental work he devoted himself mainly to the improvement of indus- 
 trial processes, paying special attention to the manufactures of his native city. 
 It was while he was working at the improvement of glass-making processes 
 that he was attacked with fever, and died in 1787. By his wife, Grace 
 Hamilton, he- had a son. No. 360, who published after his death his Essays, 
 chiefly on Chemical Subjects, Lond. 1805. Cleghorn describes his lectures as 
 remarkable for erudition, evincing great capacity and power of elucidation. 
 (Rff. Black's Lectures on Chemistry, i. 504 ; Preface to his Essays as above ; 
 Medical Commentary, xii. 415.) 
 
 299. WILLIAM M'AULAY. Entered in 1773. 
 
 300. THOMAS SMITH. Entered in 1773. 
 
 301. WILLIAM ANDERSON. Entered in 1773. 
 
 302. JOHN JAMIESON. Entered in 1774. Residence, Jamieson's Land, King Street. 
 
 He is stated to have introduced into Glasgow the use of the umbrella. 
 {Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, 11. 182; in. 390.) Died in 1809. 
 
 304. JAMES SOMERS. Entered in 1776, having come to Glasgow from Lanark. 
 
 Married Margaret, the sister of Denholm, the historian of the City. Somers 
 died shortly after his admission, his widow and after her his two daughters 
 becoming pensioners of the Faculty, one of the latter continuing on the list 
 till about 1854, nearly eighty years after his death. 
 
 305. JAMES MONTEATH. Entered in 1777. Son of Mr. James Monteath, a manu- 
 
 facturer in Anderston, He was one of the original Trustees nominated by 
 Dr. John Anderson for his College, being also designated by him as the first 
 Professor of Practice of Medicine in the institution, of which he was made 
 President in 1801. His place of practice was long in Leitch's land, Trongate, 
 where he worked in partnership with No. 245, and afterwards with No. 312. 
 In 1 781 married Mary, daughter of John Adam, who built the Broomielaw 
 Bridge in 1768, and also afterwards Adam's Court. Surgeon to the Royal 
 Glasgow Volunteer Light Horse. For some time about 1778 he appears to 
 have lectured on Midwifery (p. 134). In 1803 he is styled "Dr." in the 
 
262 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Minutes ; from what University he obtained the degree does not appear ; nor 
 did he restrict himself to medical practice. President, 1820-22, being the 
 first President who was not a "pure" physician. Died in 1834. (Rff. 
 Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, 11. 116; Cleland's Annals, i. 288.) 
 
 306. ROBERT SIMPSON. Entered in 1778, having previously practised in Birmingham. 
 
 His residence was in King Street, and afterwards in Princes' Street. 
 
 307. ARCHIBALD YOUNG. Entered in 1778. Son of Robert Young, cooper, Candle- 
 
 riggs. Residence in Saltmarket, and subsequently in Soaperie Close, east 
 side of Candleriggs. One of the first surgeons of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. 
 In 1792 the Faculty offered a reward of fifty guineas for the discovery of 
 the persons who had made a daring attempt on his life, but it does not 
 appear that the reward was ever claimed. In the same year he married 
 Isabel, daughter of William Semple, merchant, Port-Glasgow. Died in 18 18. 
 (Ref. Glasgow, Past atid Present, 1884, iii. 449.) 
 
 308. ALEXANDER STENHOUSE. Entered in 1779. Had been in America previously. 
 
 309. WILLIAM HAMILTON. Entered in 1780. B.A. Glasgow, 1775; M.A., 1776; 
 
 M.D. Edinburgh, 1779. Son of No. 254, and nephew of No. 230. He was 
 born in Glasgow in 1758, and educated at the University. He also studied 
 medicine for two years in Edinburgh, and subsequently in London under Dr. 
 William Hunter, who entrusted him with the charge of his Dissecting Room. 
 He was recalled to assist his father, and on his death in 1781 he was nominated 
 to succeed him in the Chair of Anatomy in the University. In addition to 
 this subject, he taught also Botany and Midwifery, in which last named 
 branch he had a large consulting practice. Partner with No. 328. Married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of William Stirling, of the old family of Glasgow Stirlings. 
 Died in 1790, aged thirty-two. A memorial tablet with a Latin inscription 
 was erected to him in the Cathedral nave. He left two sons who attained 
 to eminence ; the elder. Sir William Hamilton, the metaphysician, and Captain 
 Thomas Hamilton, the accomplished author of Cyril Thornton. (Rff. Veitch's 
 Memoir of Sir William IIa?nilton, 10 ; Transactions of the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh, 6th November, 1792 ; Crawfurd's Renfrewshire, 293-98. 
 
 310. JOHN CREE. Entered in 1783. Resided in High Street, and afterwards in 
 
 Gallowgate. Died in 1829. (Ref. Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, 11. 205; 
 III. 493. 
 
 311. WILLIAM PARLANE. Entered in 1783. Son of No. 274. 
 
 312. WILLIAM COOPER or COUPER. Entered in 1783. Born in 1757. Educated 
 
 in Glasgow, he quahfied as M.R.CS. England. President in 1822-24. He was 
 one of the " Mediciner " Trustees nominated by Dr. John Anderson, and 
 also designated by him as Professor of Chemistry in his institution. For 
 some time partner with No. 305. One of the first surgeons of the Glasgow 
 Royal Infirmary, and surgeon to the 2nd Regiment Trades House Volunteers. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 263 
 
 He became a partner of Charles Tennant and Co., of St. Rollox Chemical 
 Works, and was also an original partner of the Glasgow Apothecaries' Company. 
 Father of 418. Married the daughter of No. 295. Died in 1843. (Rff. 
 Cleland's Annals^ i. 283; Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, 11. 116; Crawfurd's 
 Shire of Retifrew, 18 18, 378.) 
 
 314. JOHN RIDDELL. Entered in 1783. M.D. He was credited with some talent 
 
 in painting. Published Remarks on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of Continued 
 Fevers (Glasgow, Foulis, 1788) Residence in Saltmarket. Died in 181 9. 
 
 315. JAMES MARSHALL. Entered in 1784. Apprentice to No. 289. 
 
 316. WILLIAM NIMMO. Entered in 1785. Resided in 1789 above 169 High Street. 
 
 Married Janet Hamilton. He is stated by Strang to have been the first 
 medical man in Glasgow to inoculate with cow-pox. Father of No. 369(?). 
 Brother of No. 327, who was his partner. Died in 1802. (Ref. Strang's 
 Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 248.) 
 
 317. JOHN SCRUTON. Entered in 1785. Son of Mr. John Scruton, who in 1749 
 
 was brought from London to Glasgow at the instigation of the Magistrates 
 to teach " Italian writing." Apprentice to No. 302. One of the " Mediciner" 
 Trustees nominated by Dr. John Anderson for his University, and also desig- 
 nated as "Professor of Clinical Cases." He resided in Candleriggs, his 
 laboratory being in King Street. Brother and partner of No. 326. Died in 
 1833. (Rff. Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, I. 312; ii. 203; Strang's 
 Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 60.) 
 
 318. JAMES FOSTER, Port-Glasgow. Entered in 1785. 
 
 319. JOHN FRAZER, Lanark. Entered in 1785. 
 
 320. PHILIP WHITESIDE, Ayr. Entered in 1785. 
 
 321. WALTER BAIRD. Entered in 1785. Resided in Candleriggs. {Glasgow, Past 
 
 and Present, 1884, 11. 104-5.) 
 
 322. THOMAS DUNCAN. Entered in 1785. He left Glasgow and settled in Strath- 
 
 aven. Married Marion Tennent. Died in 1808. 
 
 323. ROBERT CLEGHORN. Entered in 1786. M.D. Edinburgh, 1783 (Thesis, "De 
 
 Somno"). President, 1788-91. Lecturer on Materia Medica in Glasgow 
 University, 1788-91 ; on Chemistry, 1791-1818. Residence in 17S9 in SpreuU's 
 Land, north side of Trongate, afterwards in College Street. 
 
 First physician to the Glasgow Royal Asylum for lunatics ; one of the 
 original Managers of the Royal Infirmary, and also one of the two first physicians. 
 Married Margaret, granddaughter of Andrew Thomson of Faskin. He was a 
 considerable contributor to the periodical medical press, and his biographical 
 notices of some of his contemporaries were especially sympathetic and neat. 
 Died in 182 1. His portrait by Raeburn is in the Royal Lunatic Asylum. 
 
264 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 324. JAMES ALEXANDER. Entered in 17S6. Residence in Wallace Court, Bell's 
 
 Wynd. Private lecturer on Materia Medica. Died in 181 7. (Ref. Lancet, 
 1827, xiL 796. 
 
 325. DUGALD MACLACHLAN. Entered in 1787. Place of practice, 16 High Street. 
 
 He emigrated to the West Indies, where he died in 1807. 
 
 326. WILLIAM SCRUTON. Entered in 1787. Brother and partner of No. 317 {q.v.). 
 
 Married Mary Scruton, his cousin. Removed to London, where he died in 
 1803. (Ref. Glasgow, Fast and Present, 11. 203, 207.) 
 
 327. ALEXANDER NIMMO. Entered in 1787. Brother and partner of No. 316. 
 
 328. JAMES TOWERS. Entered in 1787. Educated at the Edinburgh Medical 
 
 School. CM. Glasgow, 181 7 ; Licentiate Royal College of Surgeons of 
 Edinburgh. Partner with No. 309 till the death of the latter in 1790. 
 Married Helen, daughter of James Maclehose of Newlands. In 181 5 he 
 was appointed first Professor of Midwifery in the University of Glasgow. 
 Surgeon to the 2nd Regiment of Glasgow Volunteers. Father of Towers 
 Clark, a well-known Glasgow solicitor, and of No. 385. Died in 1820. 
 
 329. THOMAS CHARLES HOPE, F.R.S. Entered in 1789. Son of John Hope, 
 
 Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, he was born in 1766, 
 and educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. in 1787 
 (Thesis, " Quaedam de plantarum motibus et vita"). President, 1791-93. 
 Lecturer on Chemistry in the University of Glasgow, 1787-91; on Materia 
 Medica, 1788-91. On the resignation of his uncle (No. 272) of the Chair of 
 Medicine, he was appointed his successor, thus teaching three subjects up to 
 1791. In 1796 he was appointed colleague to Dr. Black in the Chair of 
 Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. He excelled rather as a lucid 
 teacher and neat demonstrator than as an original investigator, though his 
 name is associated with the demonstration he gave in a series of experiments 
 of the existence of a peculiar earth in strontianite, and he also established that 
 water attains its maximum density several degrees above the freezing point. 
 Died in 1844. (Rff. Trajisactions of the Royal Society of Edi7ibiirgh, 1844; 
 Grant's Story of the University of Edinburgh, 11. 397 ; Life of Christison, i. 57.) 
 
 330. WILLIAM PENMAN. Entered in 1789. His dispensary was on the west side 
 
 of King Street. Died in 1835. 
 
 331. PATRICK MUSCHET. Entered in 1790. Residence in Stockwell. He went 
 
 to the East Indies, and subsequently settled in Stirling, where he died in 
 
 1837. 
 
 332. PETER ROLLAND. Entered in 1790. He went to the West Indies for some 
 
 years, and on his return settled near Milngavie, subsequently in Maryhill 
 and Glasgow. Married Helen Colquhoun. By the will of Dr. John Anderson 
 he was designated to be Professor of Practical Surgery in his institution. 
 Died in 1825. (Ref. Thomson's Notes on Maty hill, 95.) 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 265 
 
 333. WILLIAM HENDERSON. Entered in 1790. M.D. Edinburgh, 1784 (Thesis, 
 
 " De vita marina "). At his admission he requested that he should be entered 
 " without an appeal to the Deity," but the Faculty declined to dispense 
 with the oath sworn on entry, and he took it. Four years after he repented 
 of his swearing, and requested to be absolved from the oath, and, further, 
 that as he was leaving town his entrance fee should be returned. Both requests 
 were refused. He settled in Bo'ness, and died there in 1806. He published 
 Observations . . . relative to the History and Cure of the Plague. Lond. 
 1689 (a misprint for 1789); also General View of the Natural Progress of 
 Human Life. Part I. Glasg. 1791. 
 
 334. WILLIAM ANDERSON. Entered in 1790. He was Professor designate of 
 
 Obstetrics by Dr. John Anderson's will in the Andersonian University. Surgeon 
 to the Anderston Volunteer Corps. Died in 1819. (Ref. Cleland's A7inals^ 
 I. 286.) 
 
 335- JOHN HUME. Entered in 1790. Died in 1825. 
 
 339. ROBERT COWAN. Entered in 1790. Born in 1768, son of Robert Cowan of 
 
 Carronbank and Lillias Horsburgh, daughter of No. 203. One of the original 
 "Mediciner" Trustees under Dr. John Anderson's will, and therein designated 
 Professor of Botany in his institution. Married Helen, daughter of Rev. 
 John M'Caul, one of the ministers of Glasgow. Surgeon to the Highland 
 Volunteers. (Cleland's Annals, i. 284.) Father of No. 420. Died in 1808. 
 
 340. JAMES JEFFRAY. Entered in 1791. Born at Kilsyth in 1759, he was educated 
 
 at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in Medicine in 1786 
 (Thesis, " Quaedam de placenta praeponens "). Appointed Professor of 
 Anatomy in the University of Glasgow in 1790. Married (i) Mary, daughter 
 of Walter Brisbane, merchant in Glasgow, in 1794; and (2) Margaret, 
 daughter of James Lockhart, ironmonger, Saltmarket. President, 1793-95. 
 He was the inventor of the chain saw. In 1835 he published in Glasgow 
 Observations on the Heart and on the Peculiarities of the Foetus ; and in the 
 same year he also published there a work giving a translation of the recorded 
 cases of Excision of Joints, by Park and Moreau, with observations on the 
 subject by himself. Father of No. 484. Died in 1848. 
 
 341. JOHN M'LEAN. Entered in 1791. Married Phoebe Bainbridge. Emigrated to 
 
 America, and published, in 1797, Two Lectures on Combustion (Philadelphia). 
 Died in 1813. 
 
 342. JOHN ROBERTSON. Entered in 1791. M.D. St. Andrews. He went to the 
 
 West Indies, where he died in 1797. 
 
 343. JAMES LAPSLEY. Entered in 1792. Died in 1793. 
 
 344. JOHN BURNS. Entered in 1796. Born in 1774, son of Rev. John Burns, D.D., 
 
 of the Barony Church. Educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. 
 On his appointment as surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, he resolved to give 
 
266 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 clinical lectures, being apparently the first to do so in Glasgow. In 1797 
 he opened a private Anatomy School in Virginia Street, in which he taught 
 anatomy, surgery, and latterly also midwifery, and about the end of the century 
 removed his school to College Street. Eventually he handed over anatomy 
 to be taught by his brother Allan. In 1799 he was taken under the wing 
 of Anderson's College, teaching Anatomy and Surgery probably in John Street. 
 In 1815 he was appointed first Professor of Surgery of the University. In 
 private practice his partner was No. 298, and subsequently No. 378. F.R.S. 
 and Member of the Institute of France. 
 
 In 1828 he took the degree of M.D. in the University, having in 1817 
 received the surgical degree (CM.). In 1833, after the aboUtion of the rule 
 making only "pure" physicians eligible for the office, Dr. Burns, though 
 Professor of Surgery, was appointed one of the hospital physicians. Married 
 Isabella, daughter of Rev. John Duncan of Alva. Father of No. 471. On i8th 
 June, 1850, he was drowned in the wreck of the "Orion." Portrait of him 
 by Graham Gilbert in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. He published amongst 
 others : 
 
 Dissertation on Inflammation. 2 Vols. Glasgow, 1800. — Observations on Abortions. 
 Lond. 1806. — Practical Observations on Uterine Haemorrhage, with Remarks on the Manage- 
 ment of the Placenta. Lond. 1807. — The Principles of Midwifery. Lond. 1809, which went 
 through ten editions, and was translated. — Popular Directions for the Treatm-ent of the 
 Diseases of Women and Children. Lond. 181 1. — The Principles of Surgery. 2 Vols. 
 Lond. 1824-38. — Principles of Christian Philosophy. 1828. 
 (Rff. Medical Times, 1850, i. 148-50; Biog. Did. of Eminent Scots, i. 252.) 
 
 346. ROBERT FREER of Essendy. Entered as physician in 1796. Bom in 1745; 
 
 studied in Edinburgh, and graduated M.A. 1765, M.D. 1779, King's Col- 
 lege, Aberdeen. Entering the army, he served as ensign and surgeon in 
 the American War, and was present at the battle of Bunker's Hill. President, 
 1 7 97-1 800. In 1796 he was appointed Professor of Medicine in the University 
 of Glasgow, and in the subsequent year physician of the Royal Infirmary, 
 an office he intermittently held for several years, his last term of office 
 being 18 13-15. He was Captain in the Armed Association. Married 
 Margaret Thomson; his only son predeceased him. Died in 1827, a Latin 
 epitaph marking his grave in the High Churchyard. (Rffi Gordon's Vade- 
 Mecum to the Cathedral, Glasg. 1894; Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 2nd edition, 
 244, 246, 249, 251 ; Glasgow Medical Examiner, 11. 97-99.) 
 
 347. JOHN M'NISH. Entered in 1796. Father of and partner with No. 451. Resided 
 
 successively in Argyle Street, Buchanan Street, and latterly in West George 
 Street. President, 1828-30. Died in i860. 
 
 348. JOHN GIBSON. Entered in 1797. Father of and partner with No. 417, the firm 
 
 in 1834 being given as John and David Gibson, 17 Gordon Street. Pre- 
 sident, 1830-32. Died in 1844. 
 
 349. JOHN GRIEVE. Entered in 1797. Married Elizabeth Galloway. Died in 1820 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 267 
 
 350. THOMAS GARNETT. Entered as physician in 1798. Born in Westmoreland 
 
 in 1766, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he adopted 
 Brunonian views. Graduated M.D. Edinburgh, 1788 (Thesis, " De Visu"). 
 He practised successively at Bradford, Knaresburgh, and Harrogate. A 
 casual invitation to lecture in Liverpool, to which city he had gone to arrange 
 for a passage to America, brought to light his great powers of popular exposi- 
 tion in science, and this led to his being invited in 1798 to accept the 
 Professorship of Natural Science in Anderson's University, then in process 
 of being inaugurated. Both as a lecturer and a medical practitioner he had 
 much success in Glasgow. In 1799 he was appointed lecturer in the Royal 
 Institution, but differences arising between him and Count Rumford, the pre- 
 siding genius of the institution, he resigned in two years, and began practice 
 in London. Married in 1795 Catherine Grace Cleveland. He was carried 
 off by typhus fever in 1802. 
 
 351. MOSES GARDNER. Entered in 1798. Surgeon-Visitor, 1815. Died in 1823. 
 
 352. WILLIAM WILSON. Entered in 1798. Died in 1799. 
 
 353. WILLIAM LECKIE. Entered in 1799. Apprentice of No. 311. Surgeon to 
 
 the Volunteeer Light Horse. His labours in the great epidemic of typhus 
 fever of 1818-20 are appreciatively spoken of by Cleland {Rise and Progress of 
 Glasgow, 106) and by Strang {Glasgow Clubs^ 2nd ed., 369). 
 
 354. THOMAS BROWN. Entered in 1799. Grandson of No. 158. Son of Thomas 
 
 Brown of Langside, some time surgeon on board an East Indiaman, afterwards in 
 London, who built Langside House. M.D. Edin., 1798 (Thesis," De Hydarthro"). 
 Married Marion, sister of Francis JefiTrey of the Edinburgh Review. In 1829 
 he succeeded to the estates of Waterhaugh and Lanfine; he sold Langside 
 in 1852. Surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary for several years between 
 1804-10, and physician 1824-28. He lectured for some years on Botany 
 in the University, before the foundation of the Chair in that subject. Died 
 in 1853, bequeathing his large collection of minerals and fossils to the 
 Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in equal shares. A paper of 1820 
 left by him in MS., entitled "Cases of Sore Throat ending in Croup," was 
 published by Dr. James Finlayson in 1881, as a contribution to the early 
 history of diphtheria in Scotland. His portrait is in possession of his 
 daughter, Miss Martha Brown of Lanfine. (Ref The Old Country Houses of 
 the Old Glasgow G entry , 160.) 
 
 355. RICHARD MILLAR of Wellhouse. Entered in 1799 as physician. M.D. 
 
 Glasgow, 1789 (Thesis, "De morbi venerei natura, atque de facultate 
 propria"). In 1791 appointed Lecturer on Materia Medica in the University 
 of Glasgow, his lectureship being made a professorship in 1831. In 1796 
 appointed physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, a position which he 
 held, with occasional intervals, till his death in 1833. In the terrible fever 
 epidemic of 1818-19 ^is labours were untiring, and by his pen he also 
 attempted to impress the public authorities with a proper sense of their 
 
268 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 duties in the way of ameliorating measures. He took a prominent part 
 in the contest waged in the Royal Infirmary in reference to the appointment 
 of other than "pure" physicians. In 1811 he published Disquisitions on the 
 History of Medicine, Part i. (Edinburgh). He was also the author of several 
 pamphlets on fever in Glasgow, and of a volume of Clinical Lectures on the 
 Contagious Typhus. Glasgow, 1833. President, 1800-2, 1806-8, 1818-20, 
 1826-28. 
 
 356. WILLIAM DUNLOP. Entered in 1799. Son of No. 288. Surgeon to the First 
 
 Regiment of Glasgow Volunteers. (Cleland's Annals, i. 281.) He is stated 
 {Glasgow, Fast and Present, 11. 190) to have been the first to deliver 
 clinical lectures in Glasgow Royal Infirmary ; this, however, is an error, 
 as he was preceded by Mr. John Burns. About 1805 he associated himself 
 with a Licentiate of the Faculty, Mr. Samuel Hunter, under the firm of 
 Samuel Hunter & Co., in the conducting and publication of the Glasgow 
 Herald. Married Anne Ferguson. Died in 1809. 
 
 357. JOHN M'ARTHUR. Entered in 1800. Surgeon to the "Glasgow Sharp- 
 
 shooters." (Cleland's Annals, i. 284). President, 1832-34. Died unmarried 
 in 1837. In 1880 his niece, Miss Jean M' Arthur, bequeathed ^^500 to 
 the Faculty to found an University Medical Bursary under their management 
 in memory of her uncle. 
 
 358. ARCHIBALD MILLAR. Entered in 1800. Practised for some years in Ander- 
 
 ston, and was subsequently surgeon to the 47th Regiment of Foot, spending 
 a number of years in India. Died in Edinburgh in 1852. 
 
 359. JOHN BALMANNO. Entered as physician in 1801. M.D. Edinburgh, 1798 
 
 (Thesis, " De debilium palpitatione "). His mother's drug-shop, at the sign 
 of the Golden Galen's Head, north end of the Laigh Kirk Close, was well 
 known and much frequented ; while the old lady's physic garden was situated on 
 the Deanside Brae, now known as Balmano Street. One of the "Mediciner" 
 Trustees under the will of Professor John Anderson, and designated to the 
 Chair of Materia Medica in his institution. During the visitation of the 
 great fever epidemic in 1818-20 he was honourably distinguished for his 
 activity and zeal, and his private beneficence was great at all times. He 
 was physican to the Royal Infirmary, with intervals, from 1804. President, 
 1802-4, 181 2-14. He was physician to the Royal Asylum for Lunatics, 
 in which is his portrait, painted by Raeburn. His residence latterly was 
 in St. Vincent place. Died, unmarried, 31st December, 1840. (Rff. Glasgow, 
 Fast and Fresent, i. 221; 11. 113, 115; Cleland's Rise and Progress of 
 Glasgow, p. 106; Strang's Glasgow Clubs, 127.) 
 
 360. WILLIAM IRVINE. Entered in 1802. M.D. Edinburgh, 1798 (Thesis, "De 
 
 Epispasticis "). .Son of No. 298. Born in Glasgow in 1776, and educated in 
 Glasgow and E^dinburgh. His thesis on graduating in Medicine is stated to 
 have been based on an unpublished essay of his father's on "Nervous 
 Diseases." Entered the army as Physician to the Forces. In 18 10 appeared 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 269 
 
 his most important contribution to medicine, entitled, Some Observations upon 
 Diseases, chiefly as they occur ifi Sicily (Lond.). He died of fever in Malta 
 in the year following the publication of this work. His Letters on Sicily 
 were published posthumously. 
 
 361. JAMES CORKINDALE. Entered in 1803. M.D. Edinburgh, 1801 ("Thesis, 
 
 "De vigore et debilitate eorumque signis in corpore humano"). LL.B. 
 Glasgow. Surgeon to the Grocers' Corps. (Cleland's Annals, i. 285.) He 
 was long resident in Glassford Street, and was for many years Medico-Legal 
 Examiner in Criminal Cases. President, 1834-36. Married Marion Munn. 
 Died in 1842. Portrait in Faculty Hall. 
 
 362. HUGH MILLER. Entered in 1803, Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary. Died 
 
 1818. (Rfif. text, p. 148 ; Buchanan's History of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 13.) 
 
 363. ANDREW URE. Entered as physician in 1803. Born in Glasgow in 1778, 
 
 and studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, at the former 
 of which he graduated M.D. in 1801. In 1804 he was appointed Professor 
 in Anderson's University to lecture on physical science to popular classes. 
 His class-rooms were filled to overflowing, as many as 400 attending. He 
 specially directed the attention of his students to the industrial applications 
 of science. In 1809 he made a visit to London to make the scientific 
 arrangements for the Glasgow Observatory, and during its early years he 
 had charge, residing in the building. About 181 7 he embarked on a series 
 of important researches connected with various subjects lying within the 
 domain of Physics and Chemistry, which found a place in the Philosophical 
 Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he was elected a member in 
 1822. His Dictionary of Chemistry, which passed through several editions, 
 appeared first in 182 1. In 1824 appeared from his pen a translation of 
 Berthollet's work on Dyeing and Bleaching (2 vols., Lond.). In 1829 
 appeared his System of Geology, one of the last text-books on the subject 
 in which the influence of the Noachian deluge is insisted on. To 
 his teaching labours in Anderson's College he added that of lecturing on 
 Materia Medica, probably in the Portland Street School. On this subject 
 he had published Systematic Tables in 1813. These various labours in 
 widely differing fields show the great versatility of the man. In 1830 he 
 removed to London as chemist to the Board of Customs, and there he pub- 
 lished his encyclopaedic work in 1837, The Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, 
 and Mines, which went through several editions. He died in 1857. 
 
 364. GEORGE MACLEOD. Entered in 1803. One of the original members of the 
 
 Glasgow Medical Society. Died, unmarried, in 1832. (Ref. p. 188.) 
 
 365. JOHN STENHOUSE. Entered in 1804. Married Agnes Muir. Died 181 7. 
 
 366. ARCHIBALD BROWN. Entered in 1804. Died in 1804 or 1805. 
 
 367. JOHN DICK. Entered in 1804. Left Glasgow in 1819 for Muiravonside, where 
 
 he died, unmarried, in 1838. 
 
2/0 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 368. ANDREW RUSSEL. Entered licentiate 1803, member 1805. Married Agnes 
 
 Scott. Was Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery in the College Street School, 
 and, along with No, 397, he was tried in connection with a "resurrectionist" 
 charge, but acquitted. About 18 18 he left Glasgow for Crawfordjohn, 
 subsequently taking up his residence in Rothesay. About 1833 he emigrated 
 to the United States, where he died in 1861. 
 
 369. JOHN NIMMO. Entered as physician in 1805. M.D. Edinburgh, 1804 (Thesis, 
 
 " De quibusdam foetui propriis "). Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 
 1809. In 1814 he addressed to the Managers of the Infirmary a "Memorial 
 relative to a motion for establishing a system of out-patients." Married Mary 
 Gladstone (or Gladestone), sister of Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Gladstone of 
 Liverpool, father of the Right Hon. Wm. Ewart Gladstone. President, 
 1808-10. On the death of Dr. Freer in 1827, Dr. Nimmo was spoken of 
 as his successor in the Chair of Medicine, but he died in the same year. 
 (Ref. Lancet, 1827, 120.) 
 
 370. ALEXANDER PANTON. Entered in 1805. M.A. Glasgow, 1805; M.D.Glasgow, 
 
 1805. Died, unmarried, in 1840. 
 
 371. ROBERT COUPER. Entered in 1805. M.D. Glasgow, 1805. Died, unmarried, 
 
 in 1810 or i8ri. 
 
 372. ROBERT WATT. Entered in 1807. Born in 1774 in the parish of Stewarton. 
 
 In the intervals of labour on the farm, and as a stone mason, he qualified 
 himself to begin the University course, which he entered on in 1793. 
 During the summer months he supported himself by teaching. He obtained 
 the licence of the Faculty in 1799, and began practice in Paisley. In that 
 town he published his Cases of Diabetes and Consumption, in 1808. He had 
 early taken as a partner in practice No. 378; this left him more time for 
 experiments in physics and chemistry, to the study of which he was devoted. 
 After a tour through England in 1809, he settled in Glasgow in 1810 as a 
 physician, having received the degree of M.D. from King's College, Aber- 
 deen. His house was in Queen Street; and in 181 1 he began to lecture 
 there on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, soon attracting a good attend- 
 ance of students. For the use of his students he formed a medical library, 
 of which in 181 2 he printed a catalogue, with subject-index. The utility of 
 a subject catalogue struck him so forcibly, that he set about enlarging the 
 scope of that already printed so as to embrace all medical works published 
 in the United Kingdom. To medical books were eventually added those on 
 law, divinity, and, latterly, the whole round of science and literature. Such 
 was the mode of evolution of the Bibliotheca Britafinica, one of the most 
 stupendous monuments existing of the patient labour of a single man. In 
 18 1 7 he retired from professional work with a view to the completion of his 
 task, which he accomplished before his death in 181 9, though he did not live 
 to see the publication of the work. In 18 13 he published in Glasgow, A 
 Treatise on the History^ Nature, and Treatment of Chincough to which is 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 2/1 
 
 subjoined a valuable statistical enquiry into the mortality of Glasgow for 
 thirty years. President, 1814-16. Physician to the Royal Infirmary, 18 14-17. 
 There are two portraits of him in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 373. JOHN BAIRD. Entered in 1807. M.D. Glasgow, 1804, Married Elizabeth 
 
 Thompson. Died 1825. 
 
 374. BENJAMIN WATTS KING. Admitted in 1808. M.D. Glasgow, 1799. He 
 
 had practised for some years in the West Indies. Surgeon to Royal 
 Infirmary from 1822. Residence in Gordon Street (181 3 and 1820). Died 
 1841. 
 
 375. WILLIAM CULLEN. Entered in 1808. Died, unmarried, in 18 15. 
 
 376. DUNCAN BLAIR. Entered in 1808. Married Agnes Blair. President, 1836-38. 
 
 About 1840 he retired to Balfron, where he died in 1852. 
 
 378. JAMES MUIR. Entered in 1810; licentiate in 1802. Began practice in Paisley 
 
 where he was partner with No. 372. He removed to Glasgow, where he 
 was some time partner with No. 345. Married Margaret M'Farlane. Possessed 
 considerable artistic abilities, and was especially attached to painting, in 
 which he had skill. Died in 18 15. 
 
 379. JAMES WATSON. Entered in 1810. Born in Glasgow in 1787, he was educated 
 
 at the Grammar School and University. He graduated M.D. Glasgow in 
 1828. In 1813-14 he was surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and in 1842 he 
 was appointed physician to the hospital. He was also physician to the Fever 
 Hospital in Clyde Street. President, 1838-41, 1849-52, 1857-60. He took 
 part in the long preliminary negotiations which terminated in the passing of 
 the Medical Act of 1858; was appointed first representative of the Faculty 
 in the General Medical Council; and in 1865 the Faculty instituted a prize 
 in his honour, subsequently changed to a lectureship. Died in 187 1, Father 
 of No. 508. Portrait by Sir Daniel Macnee in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 380. ROBERT GRAHAM. Entered as physician in 181 1. Born in Stirling in 1786, 
 
 his father being Dr. Robert Graham (afterwards Moir of Leckie). He was 
 educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1808 
 (Thesis, " De effectibus frigoris "). Married Elizabeth, daughter of David 
 Buchanan of Mount Vernon and DrumpelHer. In 1818 he was appointed 
 first Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. President, 181 6- 18. 
 In 1812 he was appointed one of the physicians of the Royal Infirmary, 
 and gave some of the results of his experience in that office in his 
 valuable Practical Observations on Continued Fever (Glasgow, 181 8). The 
 book is dated from Ingram Street, and contains statistics of fever in 
 Glasgow from 1795. He was one of the six original members of the 
 Glasgow Medical Society, founded in 1815. In 1820 he was transferred 
 to the Chair of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and soon gave a 
 marked impetus to the teaching of that subject in that city. He set himself 
 
272 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 to prepare materials for a work on the " Flora of Britain," but he did not 
 live to accomplish his task. His published scientific works consist chiefly of 
 memoirs on rare plants. He died in 1845. (Rff. Biographical Sketch, by 
 Dr. Charles Ransford. Edin. 1846; Biographical Dictionary of Etiiitient Scots., 
 Vol. II. ; Dictionary of National Biography, xvii. 358.) 
 
 381. GEORGE HENDRIE. Entered in i8ii. Married Elizabeth Lamie. M.D. (Uni- 
 
 versity of St. Andrews). Died 1840. 
 
 382. ROBERT MACKECHNIE, Paisley. Entered in 181 1; licentiate of the Royal 
 
 College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, 1803. M.D. Marischall College, Aberdeen, 
 1820. Died 1S53. 
 
 383. JAMES WADDELL. Entered in 181 1. About 1839 he removed to Airdrie, 
 
 where he died, unmarried, in 1850. 
 
 384. FRANCIS STEEL. Entered in 1811. M.D. Glasgow, 1805 (Thesis, " De In- 
 
 flainmatione"). President, 1841-42. Residence in 1834 in St. Enoch's Square, 
 afterwards in West Regent Street. Died in 1857. Father-in-law of No. 514. 
 
 385. JOHN TOWERS. Entered in 1811. CM. Glasgow, 1821 ; M.A., 1828. Surgeon 
 
 Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1815-16. Son of No. 328, whom he succeeded as 
 Professor of Midwifery in the University of Glasgow in 1820. Died, unmarried, 
 in 1833. 
 
 3853. JOHN BURNSIDE. Entered in 181 2. In 1820 removed to Dalserf. Married 
 Mary M'Arthur. Died in 1834. 
 
 386. FRANCIS NEILSON. Entered in 1812. Married Margaret Chalmers. Died 
 
 in 1831. 
 
 387. ALEXANDER BUCHANAN. Entered in 181 2. M.D. Glasgow, 1810. Married 
 
 Ann Booth. Died in 1837. 
 
 388. ROBERT PERRY. Entered in 181 2. Born in Kilmarnock in 1783, and 
 
 educated at Glasgow University, where he graduated M.D. in 1808. One 
 of the original members of the Glasgow Medical Society. President, 
 1843-45. Physician to the Royal Infirmary for over thirty years, and also 
 Physician to the Fever Hospital in Clyde Street. As the result of original 
 investigations in the latter institution, he submitted to the Medical Society 
 a series of propositions, which establish a strong case in favour of his priority 
 in the recognition of the non-identity of typhus and typhoid fever. (See 
 Chap. XX.) He was an active worker in the great fever epidemic of 
 1843-44, and embodied his researches in his published Facts and Observations 
 on the Sanitary State of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1844). Married Helen M'Culloch. 
 Father of Dr. Robert Perry, President 1889-91. Died in 1848. 
 
 389. GEORGE WATSON. Entered in 181 2. Married Isabella M'Kechnie. Presi- 
 
 dent, 1845-46. Father of No. 513. Died in 1849. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 273 
 
 390. GEORGE CUNNINGHAM MONTEATH. Entered as physician in 1813. Born 
 
 in 1788, his father being Rev. John Monteath, Minister of the Parish of 
 Neilston. Educated at the Arts Classes of the University, graduating M.A. 
 1805. Studied medicine at Glasgow University, and afterwards in London 
 under Sir Astley Cooper. M.R.CS. Eng., and M.D. Glasgow, 1808. In 
 1809 he was appointed surgeon to Lord Lovaine's Northumberland Regi- 
 ment of Militia. About 1813 he settled in Glasgow, lecturing a year or 
 two in the College Street School, and in Gallowgate, on Anatomy. In 
 practice he resolved to devote himself to Ophthalmology, being the first 
 specialist of the kind in the City. He published a translation of Weller's 
 Die Knmkheiten der inenschlidien Augen, with so many added cases and 
 observations of his own as to make it a new book, which he styled Manual 
 of the Diseases of the Hiima7i Eye (2 vols., Glasgow, 182 1), and which 
 remained a standard work *-ill superseded by Mackenzie's text-book on the 
 subject. In association with the latter he founded the Glasgow Eye Infir- 
 mary. Married Ann, daughter of John Cunninghame of Craigend, and this 
 lady was afterwards the wife of Lord John Campbell, who became seventh 
 Duke of Argyle. Dr. Monteath died in 1828 from inflammation following 
 on a night journey. Portrait in possession of Rev. Geo. C. Monteath 
 Douglas, D.D. Nephew of No. 305. (Rff". Chambers s Biographical Dic- 
 tionary, III. 160; Lancet, ix. 840; Glasgow Medical Journal, i. (1828) 227. 
 
 391. JOHN COATS. Entered in 1813. Died, unmarried, in 1827. 
 
 392. ANDREW JARVIE. Entered in 1813. Married Margaret Paterson. Died 
 
 in 1815. 
 
 393. JOHN MAXWELL. Entered in 1813, when, as a member of the Society of 
 
 Friends, he was allowed to make a declaration in heu of an oath. M.D, 
 (1822). Married Phoebe Macalister. Brother of No. 436A. Died in 1843. 
 
 394. JOHN CAMPBELL. Entered in 181 3. Married Hannah Blair. Died in 1835. 
 
 395. ROBERT GIBSON. Entered in 1813. Seems to have practised successively in 
 
 Glasgow, Belfast, Leith, and latterly again in Glasgow. Married Grace Rankin. 
 Died in 1841. 
 
 396. DAVID HENRY WILSONE. Entered in 1813. Resided first in Stockwell 
 
 and afterwards (1820) in Buchanan Street. Son of No. 291. About 1836 
 he went to Australia, where he died, unmarried, in 1841. 
 
 397. GRANVILLE SHARP PATTISON. Entered in 1813. Bom in 1791, the youngest 
 
 son of John Pattison of Kelvingrove, and educated in the City. While still 
 a young man he associated himself with Allan Burns in the teaching of 
 Anatomy in College Street School. He was, while there, tried in connection 
 with a body-snatching case, but acquitted. In 1818 he was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Anatomy and Surgery in Anderson's College, and held the position 
 for one session. In his short career as a surgeon of the Royal Infirmary 
 
 s 
 
274 FACULTY OF PNVS/C/ANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 a quaiTcl he had with one of his colleagues led to an alteration of the rules 
 of the Hospital, (Buchanan's History of Glasgow Royal Lifirmary^ p. 13.) 
 Shordy after, but not in consequence of, this incident he left the City under 
 a cloud, and betook himself to America, having been promised the Chair of 
 Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. In consequence of the faiJia 
 preceding his arrival, the promise was not kept, but he taught privately, 
 and here he also published Experimental Observations on Lithotomy 
 (1820); and in the course of a year he obtained an appointment as 
 Lecturer on Anatomy, etc., in the University of Maryland, where he taught 
 with distinguished success. He returned to England in 1827, and in 1828 
 he filled the Chair of Anatomy in the London University (now University 
 College), which appointment he obtained over the head of Sir Charles 
 Bell. But a serious misunderstanding having arisen between him and the 
 Demonstrator (Dr. Bennett) he lost his Chair. On his return to America 
 he secured the appointment of the Professorship of Anatomy in Jeafferson 
 College, Philadelphia (1831-40), This position he worthily filled, and 
 from it he was called, in 1840, to found the Anatomical Department of 
 the University of New York, which he superintended with success till his 
 death in 1851, He edited the second edition of Allan Burns' Surgical 
 Anatomy of the Head and Neck, to which he prefixed a Memoir of the 
 author, (Glasgow, 1824.) He also edited the American Recorder and several 
 other publications. Married Mary Sharp. (Rff, Autobiography of Sa?nuel 
 D. Gross, M.D., i, 92, 161 ; 11. 256-60.) 
 
 399. JOHN ROBERTSON. Entered in 1813. M.D., Edinburgh, 1813. Lectured 
 
 in College Street on Anatomy, 181 4, {Lancet, ix, 840.) Physician to 
 Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1822-23; President, 1824-26, About 1827 he 
 went to Bath, where he lived till 1836, when he settled in Edinburgh, having 
 apparently retired from practice. He died in Rothesay in 1866. 
 
 400. EBENEZER HISLOP. Entered in 1813. Married Margaret Graham, Died in 
 
 1820. 
 
 401. JOHN YOUNG. Entered in 1814. M.D. Glasgow, 1823, in which year he 
 
 removed to Edinburgh, where he died, unmarried, in 1825. 
 
 402. SAMUEL CLARKE. Entered in 18 14, being the son of Mr. A. Clarke, admitted 
 
 a Licentiate in 1785. Residence in George Street, Surgery, west side of 
 High Street, near George Street. Died in 1862. 
 
 403. ROBERT NELSON. Entered in 1814, Married Margaret M'Whinnie. Dispen- 
 
 sary in Trongate. Died in 1832, (Ref, Frazer, Story of the Making of Buchanan 
 Street, 10.) 
 
 404. JOHN BROWN. Entered in 1814, Married Ann Campbell, Died in 1858, 
 
 405. WILLIAM WYLLIE. Entered in 1814. Married Catherine Miller, Died in 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 275 
 
 406. JOHN REID. Entered in 18 14. M.D. Glasgow, 1808. Married Jean M'Gavin. 
 
 Died in 1830. 
 
 407. HARRY RAINY. Entered in 181 5. M.D. Glasgow, 1834. In 1828 appointed 
 
 one of the surgeons of the Glasgow Eye Infirmary. From 1835-41 he lectured 
 on the Theory of Medicine in the University of Glasgow by arrangement 
 with Dr. Badham; and in 1841 he was appointed Professor of Medical Juris- 
 prudence in the University, which office he resigned in 187 1. Visitor of the 
 Faculty, 1869-71. In 181 7 he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary 
 Died in 1872. 
 
 408. WILLIAM M'ALPIN. Entered in 1815. Died, unmarried, in 1821. 
 
 409. WILLIAM WEIR. Entered in 1816. Born in Glasgow in 1794, his father being 
 
 jNIr. John Weir, a teacher of music and precentor in St. George's Church. 
 He was educated at the Grammar School and University, and after being 
 qualified he practised a short time in Lochwinnoch, and then settled in Glasgow. 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1829. He was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary 
 in 1829, and physician in 1840. From 1830 to 1842 he was Lecturer on 
 Medicine in the Portland Street Medical School, and Secretary of the School. 
 President, 1847-49, and many years Treasurer, and Collector of the Widows' 
 Fund. He was one of the original promoters and earliest contributors of the 
 Glasgoiv Medical Journal, and was editor for several years. He added to 
 his other offices that of Lecturer on Phrenology in the Andersonian Institution. 
 He published an address on the Origin and Early History of the Faculty 
 (1864); and gifted to the Faculty a series of extracts from the Minute Books 
 of the Faculty, with comments. Married Helen Hunter. Died in 1876. 
 Portrait by Graham Gilbert in Faculty Hall. 
 
 410. WILLIAM CUMIN (Cummin). Entered in 1816. The son of Patrick Cumin, 
 
 LL.D., Professor of Oriental Languages, he was educated at Glasgow University, 
 where he graduated M.A., 1805; M.D., 1813. Appointed Professor of Botany in 
 Anderson's University, 1819; and of Midwifery in the University of Glasgow, 
 1834. Surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 18 18, and also surgeon to 
 the Lock Hospital and the Royal Asylum for Lunatics. Died in 1840. 
 
 411. JOSEPH M'LEOD, Paisley. Entered in 18 16. Married Julia Browning. Died 
 
 in 1831. 
 
 412. JOHN CAMPBELL, Largs. Entered in 181 6. M.D. Glasgow, 1830. He was 
 
 also a licentiate of the Edinburgh and a member of the London College of 
 Surgeons. Engraved portrait in the Faculty Hall. Died in 1873. 
 
 413. JAMES ARMOUR. Entered in 1816. Born in Fenwick, Ayrshire, he was educated 
 
 at the University of Glasgow, and graduated in Medicine in 1827. After 
 studying for some time in Paris, he began to lecture on Midwifery in the 
 College Street School about 1820, and some years after he added Medical 
 Jurisprudence. In 1828 he was appointed Andersonian Professor of Midwifery. 
 He contributed a number of papers to the Glasgow Medical /on ma I. Married 
 
276 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Rebecca Witterick. He had the reputation of being a good classical (especi- 
 ally Greek) scholar. Died of typhus fever in 1831. (Rff. Lancet, xii. 796; 
 Glasgow Medical Journal, (1832) v. 110. 
 
 414. JAMES WILSON. Entered in 1816. Born in 1782, he was educated at the 
 
 University of Glasgow, the M.D. of which he obtained in 1837. From 1830 
 to 1838 he lectured on Midwifery in the Portland Street School of Medicine, 
 and he was mainly instrumental in founding the Maternity Hospital in 1851. 
 Contributed a number of papers to the Glasgow Medical Journal. Father of 
 Dr. J. G. Wilson, Andersonian Professor of Midwifery (1863-81). Died in 1857. 
 
 415. WILLIAM COUPER. Entered in 1817. Educated at Glasgow University, where 
 
 he graduated M.A., 181 1, and M.D., 1816. Appointed Professor of Natural 
 History in the University of Glasgow, 1829. He early abandoned medical 
 practice to devote himself to the special studies of his Chair. He had a 
 wide and accurate acquaintance with Mineralogy, and added considerably to 
 the mineralogical collection of the Hunterian Museum. President, 1822-24. 
 He died in 1857. (Rff. Glasgow, Fast and Present, 1884, i. 516; 11. 116; 
 Glasgow Medical Journal, 3rd series, Vol. v. 378.) 
 
 416. MOSES STEVEN BUCHANAN. Entered in 1818. Born in Glasgow, he was 
 
 educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, graduating M.D. 
 at the latter in 1816 (Thesis, " De concoctione ciborum"). In 1830 
 he was appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, an ofifice which 
 he filled at intervals for a number of years. From 1836 to 1841 he lectured 
 on Anatomy in the Portland Street Medical School, and in the latter year 
 was appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Andersonian Institution. Married 
 Agnes Leechman. He published a History of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary 
 (4to, Glasgow, 1832) — a storehouse of information regarding the hospital, and 
 also of the epidemiology of the City during the early part of the century. 
 He also published various clinical lectures, papers on surgical subjects, medical 
 reform, etc. Father of Dr. George Buchanan, Professor of Clinical Surgery 
 in the University of Glasgow. Died in i860. 
 
 417. DAVID GIBSON. Admitted in 1818. M.D. Edinburgh, 1817 (Thesis, "De 
 
 diabete mellito"). Son of No. 348. Educated at the Universities of Glasgow 
 and Edinburgh, and studied also in Paris. Lectured on Botany in Portland 
 Street School, 1840-42. Married Margaret Laird. Medical visitor to the Blind 
 Asylum; surgeon to the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire Prisons. Died in 1860. 
 
 418. JOHN COUPER. Entered in 1818. Son of No. 312. Born in Glasgow in 1794, 
 
 and educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, at the latter of which 
 he graduated in Medicine in 181 6 (Thesis, "De acidorum constitutione "). 
 Appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1824; Assistant 
 Physician, 1827 ; and Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Glasgow 
 in 1834. "He collected at his own expense a most complete museum of the 
 Materia Medica." {Memorabilia of the Old College, 125.) Died in 1855. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 277 
 
 419. ALEXANDER ANGUS. Entered in 181 9. Son of the teacher of an academy 
 
 in Ingram Street. Surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1831. Married 
 Helen Hanna. Died of fever in 1832. 
 
 420. ROBERT COWAN. Entered in 1819. Born in 1796, being son of No. 339, 
 
 and educated at the University of Glasgow, where he took his Medical degree 
 in 1834. Appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1825, he 
 filled the office for a number of years, giving the result of his surgical 
 experience in contributions chiefly to the Glasgow Medical Journal; physician, 
 1836-38. In 1839 appointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow. He published several papers on the "Epidemiology and 
 Vital Statistics of Glasgow" from 1835 to 1840. Married Margaret, daughter 
 of Mr, John Black, merchant, Glasgow, their son being Dr. John Black Cowan, 
 Professor of Materia Medica, University of Glasgow, 1865-80. (See under 
 No. 156.) Died in 1841. 
 
 421. THOMAS WALKER. Entered in 1819. Son of Josiah Walker, Professor of 
 
 Humanity in the University of Glasgow, and descended from a long line of 
 ministers of the Church of Scotland, including John Knox. He was born in 
 1796 in Dumfriesshire, and studied medicine in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, 
 and Paris, being admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
 Edinburgh in 1815, and M.D. Edinburgh, 1843. After practising for a short 
 time in Glasgow, he settled in 1819 in Peterborough. He filled the office of 
 surgeon to the Peterborough Infirmary for forty-three years. In 1876 he 
 retired from practice, and died in 1887 at the age of ninety-one. (Ref 
 British Medical Journal, 1887, i. 43.) 
 
 422. BENJAMIN M'NAIR. Entered in 1819. Educated at Glasgow University, where 
 
 he graduated in Medicine in 18 15. Married Mary Miller. Died in 1844. 
 
 422A. JOHN LOCKE. Entered in 1819. M.D. Edinburgh, 1817 (Thesis, "De capite 
 vulnerato"). Died, unmarried, in 1824. 
 
 423. JAMES DRYSDALE. Entered in 181 9. Married Euphemia Thompson. Died 
 
 in 1829. 
 
 424. WILLIAM GIBSON, New Lanark. Entered in 1819. Married Euphemia 
 
 Bannatyne. Died in 1831. 
 
 425. JAMES HAMILTON, Paisley. Entered in 1819. Married Janet Faichney. Died 
 
 in 1825. 
 
 426. JOHN STIRLING. Entered in 1819. Lecturer on Anatomy in the Portland 
 
 Street School, 1830-36; surgeon to the Royal Infirmary from 1832. Married 
 Helen Rose. Died in 1836. 
 
 427. WILLIAM YOUNG. Entered in 18 19. M.D. Glasgow, 181 5. Surgeon to the 
 
 Glasgow Royal Infirmary from 1822. Died, unmarried, in 1837. 
 
 428. WILLIAM MACKENZIE. Entered in 18 19. Licentiate, 18 15. Born in Glasgow, 
 
 1 79 1, he was educated at the Grammar School and University of his native 
 
278 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 City. In 1 815 he made a long tour on the Continent, and while in Vienna 
 he studied the eye under Beer. In 18 18 he returned home, and was admitted 
 M.R.C.S. that year. After an abortive attempt to begin practice in London, 
 he settled in Glasgow, and within a year or two we find him lecturing on 
 various subjects — anatomy, surgery, materia medica, medical jurisprudence, 
 and diseases of the eye. The lectures on anatomy and surgery were given 
 in Anderson's College, of which he was appointed a Professor. In 1824 
 he co-operated with Dr. G. C. Monteath in founding the Eye Infirmary, 
 and on the death of the latter in 1828, he resolved to devote himself 
 to this specialty. In 1833 he graduated M.D. Glasgow University, and in 
 1843 he was made F.R.C.S. England. He was appointed surgeon oculist to 
 the Queen in Scotland in 1838, and till his death he stood in the front rank 
 of European oculists. Married Sophia Christina Napier. The list of his 
 published writings is too long to be here given, but the work on which his 
 reputation mainly rested was his Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye, 
 published first in 1830, which ran through four English editions, and was translated 
 into German and French ; whilst a supplement, corrected by the author, was 
 published in Brussels in 1866. He was the first editor of and a copious 
 contributor to the Glasgow Medical Journal. Died in 1868. Portrait in 
 Faculty Hall (replica of one by A. Keith in the possession of Mrs. Mackenzie) ; 
 and another by Macnee in the Eye Infirmary ; while the cast of a marble 
 bust by G. Ewing is also in the Faculty Hall. (Rff. Memoirs and Portraits 
 of One Hundred Glasgow Men; Glasgow Medical Journal, 5th series, i. 6; 
 Dictionary of Afedical Biography, xxxv. 164.) 
 
 429. JOHN MACFARLANE. Entered in 18 ig. Born in 1796, he was the son of a 
 
 Relief Minister of Glasgow, and received his medical education mainly at the 
 University, where he graduated M.D. in 1824. Married Mary Gray Edington. 
 He began practice in the east end of the City, gradually moving westward 
 as he made sure his footing. He was surgeon to the Royal Infirmary from 
 1826, and in 1832 he published the results of his surgical experience under 
 the title of Clinical Reports, which greatly added to his reputation in that 
 department of practice. In 1852, on the death of Dr. William Thomson, he 
 succeeded him in the Chair of Medicine in the University of Glasgow. 
 President, 1832-34. Owing to failing health he retired from the duties of 
 his Chair, as well as from practice, in 1862, spending the last few years 
 of his life in Helensburgh. Died in 1869, aged seventy-three. Portrait in 
 the University of Glasgow. 
 
 430. JAMES M'LEOD. Entered in 1819. Died, unmarried, in 1821. 
 
 431. WILLIAM FERGUSON. Entered in 1819. M.D. Edinburgh, 1819 (Thesis, " De 
 
 vaccinia"). Died, unmarried, in 182 1. 
 
 431A. GEORGE SMITH. Entered in 1819. Married Jane J. Henry. Died in 1848. 
 
 432. WILLIAM RICHARDSON GIBB. Entered in 1820. Son of Rev. Gavin Gibb, 
 
 D.D., Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Glasgow, he 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 279 
 
 was educated at Glasgow University, where he graduated M.D. in 181 1. He 
 served in the Peninsular War as a surgeon under Wellington. He was sub- 
 sequently stationed in Canada, and was quartered at Paris during the occupation 
 of the City by the Allies after Waterloo. Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary 
 from 1821. Residence latterly in India Street. Died in 1855. 
 
 433. THOMAS THOMSON. Entered as physician in 1820. He was born at Crieff 
 
 in 1773; educated at Stirling Grammar School and the Universities of St. 
 Andrews and Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. at the latter in 1799 (Thesis, 
 " De aero atmospherico "). In 1796 he succeeded his brother as editor of 
 the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britafinica, to which he also contributed 
 a number of articles. He opened in Edinburgh a Chemical Laboratory for 
 pupils, and taught the subject with success, introducing into it the system of 
 symbols, and later a new nomenclature of oxides and acids, with the number 
 of atoms of an oxide expressed in numerals. He was the inventor of the 
 oxy-hydrogen blowpipe; and by a series of original investigations laid the 
 foundation of Scottish excise legislation. In 1802 he published his System of 
 Chemistry (Edinburgh, 4 vols.), which went through seven editions. His 
 Elements of Chemistry (Lond. 1810) and his History of the Royal Society 
 (Lond. 181 2) were published while he was in Edinburgh, and there also he 
 started the Annals of Philosophy (Lond. 1813-22). In 1817 he was appointed 
 Lecturer, and in 181 8 Professor, of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. 
 Though physician to the Royal Infirmary for two years, he was probably 
 never engaged in private medical practice in Glasgow. Some of his other 
 works are : An Attempt to Establish the First Principles of Chemistry by 
 Experiment (2 vols., London, 1825); Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology (2 
 vols., Lond.); History of Chemistry (2 vols., Lond. 1830). During the 
 last eleven years of his life his nephew. Dr. R. D. Thomson, was associated 
 with him in the duties of the Chair, Died in 1852, Portrait by Graham 
 Gilbert (engraved by Faed) in the Hall of the Philosophical Society. 
 
 434. LORIMER CORBETT. Entered in 1821. Married Janet Gibson. Died in 1829. 
 
 435. WILLIAM THOMSON. Entered in 1821. M.D. Edinburgh, 1819. Lectured 
 
 on Anatomy and Physiology, Pathology and Surgery in the College Street 
 School. Died in 1832. (Ref. Glasgow Medical Journal^ May, 1895, p. 323.) 
 
 436. ALEXANDER DUNLOP ANDERSON. Entered in 182 1. Son of Mr. Andrew 
 
 Anderson, merchant, Greenock, who was brother-in-law of No. 288 {q.v.)., 
 he was born in 1794, and studied medicine in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and 
 London; graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 1819 (Thesis, " De Pneumonia"). 
 Nephew of Dr. John Anderson, founder of the " Andersonian." He was 
 admitted M.R.C.S. Eng. in 1816, and Fellow of the same College in 1844. 
 He entered the Army Medical Service, and was assistant-surgeon to the 
 49th Regiment. In 1820 he settled in practice in Glasgow, and in 1823 
 he was first appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, an office he after- 
 
2^0 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 wards held for a good many years. In 1838 he was appointed physician 
 to the Hospital. President, 1852-55. Married Sarah, daughter of Thomas 
 M'Call of Craighead. Father of Dr. T. M'Call Anderson and uncle of 
 No. 495. Died in 187 1. Portrait by Sir Daniel Macnee in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 436A. ROBERT GRAY MAXWELL. Admitted in 182 1. Licentiate 1820. Brother of 
 No. 393. Practised in Duke Street. Died in 1865. 
 
 437. ROBERT HUNTER. Entered in 1822. Born in 1795, he was educated at 
 
 Glasgow Grammar School and University, taking the degree of M.D. in 
 
 1828. He began his career as a teacher by lecturing on Anatomy and 
 Surgery in College Street School, and in 1828 he was appointed Professor 
 of Anatomy in Anderson's College. In 1841 he removed to London to fill 
 the appointment of Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in the Westminster 
 Hospital School. Not finding this post to his liking he returned to Glasgow, 
 where in 1851 he was appointed to the Chair of Surgery in the "Ander- 
 sonian." He filled the office of surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for a 
 number of years from 1857; President, 1855-57. Author of a Text-Book 
 of Human Anato7ny, the second edition of which is dated 1838. He was 
 also a contributor on surgical subjects to various medical periodicals. Died 
 in 1864, (Rff. Lancet, 22nd Sept., 1827, 746; Glasgoiv Medical Journal, 
 XII. 3rd Series, z^z-) 
 
 438. JOHN RITCHIE WALLACE. Entered in 1822. M.A. Glasgow, 1816; M.D. 
 
 Glasgow, 1822. Died, unmarried, in 1825. 
 
 439. DAVID ANDERSON. Entered in 1822. M.D. Glasgow, 1830. Died, unmarried, 
 
 in 1831. 
 
 440. WILLIAM AUCHINCLOSS. Entered in 1822. Educated at the University 
 
 of Glasgow, where he graduated M.D. in 1828. Surgeon to the Royal 
 Infirmary for many years, beginning in 1829. Lectured on Surgery in Port- 
 land Street Medical School from 1830 to 1838, the published outhne of his 
 course bearing date 1832. Died in 1841. 
 
 441. JOHN AITKEN. Entered in 1823. Graduated M.A. and M.D. Glasgow, 1815. 
 
 He was some time a member of the Glasgow Town Council. Married Margaret 
 M. Thomson. Died in his house in Blythswood Square in 1861. (Ref 
 Glasgow, Past and Present, 1884, i. 216.) 
 
 442. WILLIAM HALL. Entered in 1823. Educated at Glasgow University, where 
 
 he graduated M.D. in 1822, having previously taken the Arts degree. 
 Assistant-physician Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1821-22. Left Glasgow in 
 
 1829, and travelled for several years on the Continent, and was entered as 
 member of a number of scientific societies. He took up his residence in 
 Exeter about 1848, and died there in 1869. Brother of No. 507. 
 
 443. ANDREW REID. Entered in 1824. M.D. St. Andrews, 1812. Married 
 
 Margaret Railton. He was one of the Doctors of Medicine against wliom 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 28 i 
 
 the Faculty raised a lawsuit in 18 16 (p. 163). Quarantine surgeon, Glasgow, 
 and practised on the South-side. Died in 1868. 
 
 444. ANDREW BUCHANAN. Entered in 1824. Born in Glasgow in 1798, his 
 
 father being senior partner of the well-known firm of Buchanan, Falconer 
 & Co., of which Dr. Buchanan's eldest brother, Walter Buchanan, M.P., 
 was afterwards head. He was educated at the Grammar School and 
 University, and graduated M.D. 1822. After a period of post-graduate study 
 in Paris, he was appointed surgeon to one of the parochial districts of 
 Glasgow, and in that field of practice he contracted the first of three attacks 
 of typhus in which he all but lost his life, as actually did one of his pupil 
 assistants. He was one of the projectors of the Glasgow Medical Journal, 
 and succeeded Mackenzie as editor, but had to resign owing to some papers 
 on the medical management of the sick poor giving offence in some quarters. 
 In 1832 he threw himself with ardour into the crusade against the cholera 
 epidemic, publishing the results of his experience. In 1835, he was appointed 
 one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary; and in 1848 published his 
 notable paper on Lithotomy as performed with a Rectatigular Staff. In 1828 
 he was appointed Professor of Materia Medica in Anderson's University, 
 and in 1839 Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of 
 Glasgow, resigning his Chair in 1876. His contributions to medical literature 
 were very numerous, one of the most notable being some papers on The 
 Coagulation of Fibrinous Liquids, including the Blood, in 1 844-45 ; and one 
 of the latest was his work on The Forces lohich carry on the Circulation of 
 the Blood, 1874. President, 1877-80. Died in 1882. Engraved portrait in 
 Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men, i. 45. 
 
 445. GEORGE MURRAY MACLACHLAN, Entered in 1824. (Probationary essay, 
 
 "The Medical Uses of Iodine.") M.D. St. Andrews. He served for a few 
 years as Army surgeon, and was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary in 
 1827. In 1830 he went to Demerara, where he died in 1832. (Ref. Lancet, 
 1827-28, II. 569,) 
 
 446. ROBERT MANN SMITH. Entered in 1825. Died, unmarried, in 1827. 
 
 447. ALEXANDER JOHN HANNAY. Entered in 1826. (Probationary essay, "On 
 
 some important points connected with Puerperal Fever.") Educated at the 
 University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in Medicine in 1823 (Thesis, 
 " De tartratis antimonii usu externo "). Elected as surgeon to the Glasgow 
 Royal Infirmary in 1844. He lectured in the College Street School on the 
 Theory and Practice of Physic {Lancet, 22nd Sept., 1827), and in 1828 
 he was appointed the first Professor of Medicine in the Andersonian Institu- 
 tion, which office he held till his death in 1846. Portrait by Macnee in 
 possession of his son, Mr. Maxwell Hannay. 
 
 448. JAMES SMITH CANDLISH. Entered in 1S26. He was apprentice or pupil 
 
 to No. 361 and studied medicine in Glasgow, London, and on the 
 
282 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Continent, settling to practise in Glasgow about 1825. In 1829 he was 
 appointed Professor of Surgery in Anderson's University, but he died before 
 he could enter on his duties. Brother of Rev. Principal Candlish of Edin- 
 burgh. He was an accomplished scholar and a man of great promise. Died 
 of typhus fever in 1829. 
 
 449. CHARLES RITCHIE. Entered 1827. He was educated in Glasgow, and 
 
 began practice in Neilston on his obtaining the Faculty Licence in 181 5. 
 While here he published an account of the medical topography of the 
 parish. In 1827 he came to Glasgow to practise, devoting himself largely 
 to Medicine and Gynaecology. In 1838-40 he lectured on Midwifery in 
 the Portland Street Medical School, graduating also M.D. Glasgow in 1839. 
 In 1843-45 he published a series of 19 papers on "The Ovaries" in the 
 London Medical Gazette., which were published in book form by his son. 
 Dr. Charles G. Ritchie, along with some papers of his own, under the title 
 of Contributions to assist the Study of Ovarian Physiology and Pathology 
 (Lond. 1865). In 1841 he was appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary, 
 and he published the results of his clinical experience in a series of papers 
 on Chronic Diseases of the Heart, Scorbutus, Fevers, etc. President, 1862-65. 
 Died in 1878 at Bays water, Loncfbn, to which place he had retired several 
 years previously. 
 
 450. JOHN SPITTAL. Entered in 1827. (Probationary essay, "Summary View of the 
 
 Practical UtiUty of the Stethoscope.") M.D. Glasgow, 1826. Appointed 
 assistant-physician to the Royal Infirmary in 1830, and in 1837 surgeon 
 to the Hospital. Residence in 1834 in Trongate. Died, unmarried, in 1840. 
 
 451. ROBERT M'NISH. Entered in 1827. (Probationary essay, "The Anatomy of 
 
 Drunkenness.") Son of No. 347, he was born in Glasgow in 1802, and studied 
 medicine at the University, where he graduated CM. in 1820 and M.D. 
 in 1825. After serving as an assistant in Caithness, he studied in Paris, 
 and finally settled to practise in Glasgow. He early devoted himself to 
 literature,^contributing articles to Blackwood' s Magazine and other periodicals. 
 His Metempsychosis, probably the most important of his contributions in pure 
 literature, appeared in Blackwood in 1828. His most ambitious work, The 
 Philosophy of Sleep, the preface of which was contributed by his friend 
 D. M. Moir ("Delta"), was published in Glasgow in 1830, and a second 
 edition in 1834. His Anatomy of Drunkenness, the subject of his proba- 
 tionary essay, was published in 1827, and went through many editions. In 
 1833 he published his Book of Aphorisms, and in 1835 his Introduction to 
 Phrenology, and next year appeared Brigham's Remarks on the Influence of 
 Mental Cultivation and Mental Excitement upon Health, with annotations 
 by Dr. M'Nish. On his death in 1837 his friend "Delta" collected his 
 tales and sketches, and published them with a Memoir in 2 vols. (Edin. 1838), 
 under the title of The Modern Pythagorean, which M'Nish had used as a 
 nom de plume. Bust by Dobbie in the Faculty Hall. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 283 
 
 453. JOHN M. PAGAN. Entered in 1827. (Probationary essay, "Remarks on the 
 
 Pathology of Apoplexy.") Born at Halglen, parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire, the 
 son of a sheep-farmer, he was educated at Irvine Academy, and studied medicine 
 at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1823 (Thesis, " De Syncope 
 Anginosa"). In 1825 he began practice in Preston, Lancashire, and settled in 
 Glasgow two years later. In 1833 he was appointed one of the surgeons of 
 the Royal Infirmary. In 1830 he began to lecture on Medical Jurisprudence 
 in Portland Street Medical School, continuing this post till his appointment to 
 the Chair of Midwifery in Glasgow University in 1840. He was Librarian to 
 the Faculty for several years, and compiled a catalogue of the collection. He 
 published The Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity (Lond. 1840). Died in 1868. 
 
 454. JOHN M'DOWALL. Entered in 1827. Licentiate 1819. M.D. Glasgow, 1817. 
 
 Married Caroline Shaw. Died in 1857. 
 
 454A. JAMES BROWN. Admitted in 1827. A native of Paisley and educated in 
 Glasgow. Married Jean Macome. Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in 
 the Mechanics' Institution ; Professor of Midwifery in Anderson's University, 
 1834-41. His surgery in Argyle Street at the head of York Street. Died in 
 1846. (Ref p. 170.) 
 
 455. THOMAS GRAY. Entered in 1828. IMarried Isabella Gilchrist. Died in 1848. 
 
 456. WILLIAM LYON. Entered in 1828. (Probationary essay, "On Delirium 
 
 Tremens.") Licentiate 1816. Educated at Glasgow University, he began 
 to practise a few miles to the east of the City, but eventually settled in 
 Glasgow, gradually moving westward as his practice increased. In 1839 
 he was elected a surgeon of the Royal Infirmary, and with intermissions 
 held this office for many years. In 1841-43 he lectured on Surgery in the 
 Portland Street Medical School. In 1859 he graduated in medicine in the 
 University of Glasgow. President, 1860-62. He made several contributions 
 on surgical subjects to the periodicals, and was long one of the best known 
 medical men in Glasgow. Died in 1874. 
 
 457. WILLIAM DAVIDSON. Entered in 1828. L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1S16. M.I). 
 
 Glasgow, 1825. In 1838 he was elected a physician to the Royal Infirmary. 
 He was Lecturer on Materia Medica in the Portland Street Medical School 
 from 1830 to 1840. About 1846 he removed to Largs, and two years later 
 to Greenock. Married Elizabeth Williamson. He was the author of Lectures 
 on Pharmacology (Glasgow, 1834), the Thackeray Prize Essay on Fever (Lond. 
 1 84 1, and Glasgow 1846), Treatise on Diet, 1843. He also contributed a 
 series of Clinical Lectures to the London Medical Gazette, 1840, and other 
 papers. Died in 1859. 
 
 458. PETER MACFARLANE. Entered in 1828. He removed to Gartmore in 1835. 
 
 Married Jean Hunter. Died in 1837. 
 
 459. WILLIAM CHALMERS. Entered as physician in 1828. M.D. Aberdeen, 1805; 
 
 M.R.C.S. Kng., 1805. In 1805 he entered as surgeon in the service 
 
284 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 of the East India Company, remaining in India for twenty years. In 1829 
 he was elected assistant-physician to the Royal Infirmary. About 1832 
 he removed to England, and for the last eight years of his life he lived in 
 Brighton, where he died in 1862. 
 
 460. WILLIAM M'KAY. Entered in 1828. Died, unmarried, in 1831. 
 
 461. WILLIAM M'TYER. Entered in 1829. (Probationary essay, " Observations on 
 
 the Pathology and Treatment of Cancer.") He was born in Glasgow, and 
 studied medicine at the University, where he graduated in 1826, and next 
 year was admitted M.R.C.S. About 1830 he removed to Ayrshire, and for 
 upwards of forty years practised in Maybole, having a connection as consultant 
 in the surrounding district. Married Janet Rowan. He was devoted to 
 the study of Microscopy and Natural History. Died in 1878. 
 
 462. WILLIAM SHIRREFF. Entered in 1829. (Probationary essay, "On the 
 
 Pathology of Excretion.") In 1831 he removed to India as a surgeon in 
 the East India Company. Married Frances Elizabeth Wood. Died in 1840. 
 
 463. JAMES JOHN KNOX. Entered in 1829. (Probationary essay, " On the Treat- 
 
 ment of Strumous Iritis.") Died in 1837. 
 
 464. GEORGE WATT. Entered in 1829. (Probationary essay, "The Pathology of 
 
 Pulmonary Consumption.") He was born in Glasgow and educated at the 
 Grammar School, the University, and Anderson's College. In 1849 he was 
 appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary. In 1831 he was elected Professor 
 of Medical Jurisprudence in the " Andersonian," resigning the office in 1842. 
 He was Parliamentary Inspector of Madhouses in Lanarkshire, and was 
 Representative of the Faculty to the General Medical Council, 1860-63. 
 Married Margaret Monteith. Died in 1863, 
 
 465. JAMES ADAIR LAWRIE. Entered in 1830. Born at Loudon Manse in i8oi, 
 
 he studied in the University of Glasgow, and on his graduating M.D. in 1822 
 he went out to India in the East India Company's service. Having returned 
 to this country he began practice in Glasgow in 1828, was appointed surgeon 
 to the Royal Infirmary, and in 1829 was elected Andersonian Professor of 
 Surgery. In 1832 he devoted himself with ardour to the study of cholera, 
 visiting, for this purpose, Sunderland, Newcastle, and Gateshead, publishing 
 the results of his investigations, and of his Indian experiences of the disease. 
 In 1850 he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow, 
 and in 1858-59 he was the Representative of the Universities of Glasgow 
 and St. Andrews to the General Medical Council. His contributions to 
 surgery appeared chiefly in the Glasgow Medical Journal, which he edited 
 for some time. Died in 1859. 
 
 466. JOHN A. FULLARTON. Entered in 1830. (Probationary essay, "On Croup.") 
 
 He practised only for a short time, joining the publishing firm of Archibald 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 285 
 
 Fullarton & Co., and removed to Edinburgh in 1843. Married Helen Frew. 
 Died in 1882. 
 
 467. THOMAS GRAHAM, F.R.S. Entered in 1830. (Probationary essay, " On the tend- 
 
 ency of Air and the different Gases to Mutual Penetration.") Born in Glasgow 
 in 1805, he studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, devoting 
 himself largely to physical and chemical science. In 1828 he lectured on 
 Chemistry in Portland Street School, and next year in the Mechanics' Institu- 
 tion ; and in 1830 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian, 
 in succession to Dr. Ure. His distinguished career as a chemist cannot be 
 followed here in detail. In 1837 he was appointed Professor in the London 
 University (University College), and in 1854 Master of the Mint. It was in 
 1833, while in Glasgow, that his most important contribution to pure chemistry 
 was published, entitled Researches on the Arsefiiates, Phosphates, and Modifi- 
 cations of Phosphoric Acid, which formed the starting point of the theory of the 
 basicity of acids, which memoir was reissued as No. lo of the "Alembic Club 
 Reprints," 1895. His name will ever be associated with his researches on 
 the diffusion of gases. His memoir on the Diffusion of Liquids appeared in 
 1849-50. His friend, Mr. James Young of Kelly, published his collected 
 Chemical and Physical Researches after his death, which happened in 1869. 
 (Ref. Thorpe's Essays on Historical Chemistry, 1894, 160-235.) Statue in 
 George Square, Glasgow. 
 
 468. JOHN M'EWAN. Entered in 1831. (Probationary essay, "On the Physiology 
 
 and Pathology in the Non-vascular Tissues, especially those of the Eye.") 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1827. Married Isabella Clow. Died in 1856. 
 
 469. WILLIAM NIMMO. Entered in 1831. (Probationary essay, " Illustrations of the 
 
 Theory of Mental Derangement.") M.D. Glasgow, 1835. Assistant-surgeon 
 to the Eye Infirmary; lecturer on Surgery in College Street. In 1836 he 
 went out to Demerara, where he died in 1841. Author of Description of the 
 Anatomy of Inguinal and Femoral Hernia (4to, Glasgow, 1835). 
 
 470. JAMES MILLER. Entered in 1832. (Probationary essay, "On the Nature and 
 
 Treatment of Mania a Potu.") Born in Glasgow, and educated in the Univer- 
 sity, he left the profession to enter the firm of Miller and Son, wrights and 
 builders. Married Jane Blair. Author of Architecture, Architects and Builders 
 of the Middle Ages (Glasgow, 1851), History, Nature atid Objects of Masonry 
 (London, 1853). Died in 1861. 
 
 471. ALLAN BURNS. Entered in 1832. (Probationary essay, " On Tetanus.") Born 
 
 HI Glasgow in 18 10, he was the youngest of the four children of No. 344. 
 Educated at the University of Glasgow, he studied afterwards for some years 
 on the Continent. Began practice in Glasgow about 1832, and having a great 
 liking for anatomical pursuits, he gave promise of future eminence when lie 
 was cut off by intermittent fever in 1843. 
 
286 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 473. JOHN DRUMMOND. Entered in 1832. (Probationary essay, "On Diabetes 
 
 Mellitus.") Married Elizabeth Arneil Paterson. Died in 1843. 
 
 474. DAVID WARK. Entered in 1832. (Probationary essay, "Practical Remarks on 
 
 Fever.") Went out to Australia, where he died in 1862. 
 
 475. JAMES M'CONECHY. Entered in 1832. Born at Kilblane in 1796, he was 
 
 educated at the University of Glasgow. M.D. Glasgow, 1858. He lectured 
 on Chemistry in the Portland Street School in 1833-35. Lieutenant, Royal 
 Marines. For twenty-three years he was editor of a newspaper, the Glasgow 
 Courier. Died in 1866. 
 
 476. JOSEPH FLEMING. Entered in [834. Contributed a series of articles on 
 
 " Ventilation as a Means of Preventing Infection," to the Glasgow Medical 
 Exa7ni?ier, 1832. Latterly chiefly engaged in practice under the Factory Act. 
 Surgeon to the Police Force, Western District, in connection with which 
 office he gave expert evidence in the Sandyford murder trial. Died at 
 Dunoon in 1879. 
 
 477. JOHN GIBSON FLEMING. Entered in 1833. (Probationary essay, "Pathology 
 
 and Treatment of Ramollisement of the Brain.") Born in 1809, descended 
 from an old Glasgow family, he was educated at the Grammar School and 
 University of his native city, and graduated M.D. in 1830, studying subsequently 
 in Paris. Having begun practice in Glasgow, he was appointed a surgeon 
 of the Royal Infirmary in 1846, and for a number of years after he had 
 ceased to be surgeon he was connected with the hospital as Manager. In the 
 latter capacity he published a pamphlet in the form of a letter to the Managers, 
 which eventuated, in 1870, in some changes in the organization of the House. 
 It was on his initiative that on the removal of the University to Gilmorehill a 
 Medical School was affiliated to the Infirmary. This school he inaugurated 
 by an address in 1874. President, 1865-68, 1870-72. He was representative 
 of the Faculty to the General Medical Council, 1863-78, and Examiner in 
 Glasgow University. He published The Medical Statistics of Life Assurance 
 (Glasgow, 1870) founded on the experience of the Scottish Amicable Company, 
 of which he was medical adviser. Died in 1879. Father of William James 
 Fleming, M.D., surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1886-95. Portrait 
 by Sir Daniel Macnee in the Faculty Hall, and engraved portrait in Memorials 
 and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men. 
 
 478. CHARLES BRYCE. Entered in 1833. (Probationary essay, "On Cholera.") 
 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1824. After practising in various places he was attached to 
 the Army Medical Staff on special service at Scutari hospitals. On his return 
 from the East he settled at Brighton, where he died in 1874. His most 
 important contributions to medical literature were a Me?noir oit the Remittent 
 Fever of the Levant, which was prepared at the request of the Army Medical 
 Department for the special use of the Medical Staff of the Crimean army ; 
 and England and France before Sebastopol, looked at from a Medical Point of 
 View (Lond. 1857). 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 287 
 
 479. WILLIAM CRAIG. Entered in 1833. (Probationary essay, "On the Use of the 
 
 Stethoscope in Diseases of the Chest.") M.D. Glasgow, 1828. Lecturer on 
 the Theory of Medicine in the Portland Street Medical School, 1833-36. 
 Died in 1836. 
 
 480. FRANCIS PARKER. Entered in 1834. (Probationary essay, "On Pericarditis.") 
 
 jM.D. Glasgow, 1833. In 1837 he went to India in the service of the East 
 India Company, where he died in 1841. 
 
 481. JAMES DOUGLAS. Entered in 1835. (Probationary essay, "On Phlebitis, 
 
 particularly as connected with Secondary Abscesses.") Lecturer on Anatomy 
 in the Portland Street School, 1841-43. Married Agnes D. Atkinson. Author 
 of A Popular View of the Anatomy of the Hiajian Body. Died in 1844. 
 
 482. JOHN JACKSON. Entered in 1835. (Probationary essay, "On Apoplexy.") 
 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1838. Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in the Portland 
 Street Medical School, 1842-43. Died in 1844. 
 
 483. PETER STIRLING. Entered in 1835. (Probationary essay, "On Uterine 
 
 Haemorrhage occurring during Pregnancy.") M.D. Glasgow, 1832, Died 
 in 1846. 
 
 484. JAMES JEFFRAY, Jun. Entered in 1836. (Probationary essay, "On Pleurisy.") 
 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1834. Son of No. 340, whom he assisted in the duties of 
 the Anatomy Chair in the University some years before his father's death. 
 Did not practise. Died, unmarried, in 1886. 
 
 485. NINIAN HILL. Entered in 1836. (Probationary essay, "Notes on the In- 
 
 sufficiency of the Aortic Valves of the Heart.") M.D. Glasgow, 1830. 
 Married Marion Lancaster. In 1842 removed to London, and in 1847 to 
 Guernsey, where he died in 1852. 
 
 485A. HANDASIDE DUNCAN. Entered in 1836. (Probationary essay, "Remarks on 
 Hydrocephalus.") M.D. Glasgow, 1835. About 1838 he removed to Adelaide, 
 South Australia, where he died in 1878. 
 
 486. ROBERT M'GREGOR. Entered in 1837. (Probationary essay, "Experimental 
 
 Enquiry into the Comparative State of Healthy and Diseased Urine.") 
 L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1833 ; M.D. Glasgow, 1842. In 1848 appointed physi- 
 cian to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and in connection with his previous office 
 of apothecary to the Hospital, published Pharmacopoeia in usuni Nosocomii 
 Regii Glasgivensis (2nd ed. Glasgow, 1835), which went through several editions. 
 He lectured on Chemistry in the Portland Street Medical School from 1836 
 till it closed about 1844, and subsequently in a room in College Street up 
 to about 1850. Died in 1855. 
 
 487. WILLIAM DAWSON HOOKER. Entered in 1839. (Probationary essay, "On 
 
 the Cinchonas, their History, Uses, and Effects.") Born in 1816, the son 
 of Sir William Jackson Hooker, Professor of Botany in the University, 
 and subsequently Director of the Kew Gardens, he was educated at the 
 
288 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 University, graduating M.D. in 1839. Married Isabella Smith. He visited 
 Norway in 1837, and in 1839 published Notes on Norway^ containing some 
 shrewd observations on Natural History. In 1839 he was appointed Professor 
 of Materia Medica in Anderson's University, but died before the completion 
 of the session, on ist January, 1840, at Kingston, Jamaica. He had made 
 a considerable ornithological collection. 
 
 488. JOHN D. MUTER. Entered in 1839. (Probationary essay, "On Dissection 
 
 Wounds.") Lecturer on Materia Medica in the Portland Street School, 
 1841-42. Father of Mr. John Muter, editor of The Analyst, and author 
 of works on Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Died in 1862. 
 
 489. ARCHIBALD BROWN. Entered in 1839. (Probationary essay, "On Creasote.") 
 
 Married Jane M'Coll. Died in 1848. 
 
 490. JOHN PANTON. Entered in 1840. (Probationary essay, "On Uterine Phlebitis.") 
 
 M.D. Edinburgh, 1838. Served as surgeon to the Royal Navy. Married 
 Mary Eliza M'Bride. Died in 1864. 
 
 491. ALEXANDER MAXWELL ADAMS. Entered in 1840. Probationary essay, " On 
 
 Scarlatina." M.D. King's College, Aberdeen, 1849. Married Eliza Craig. 
 Lecturer on Midwifery in the Portland Street Medical School, 1840-42. 
 Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, Anderson's University, 1846-50. 
 Surgeon to the Lock Hospital. Brother of No. 506. Removed to Lanark 
 about 1850 where he died in 1867. 
 
 492. HUGH MORRIS LANG. Entered in 1840. (Probationary essay, "On Delirium 
 
 Tremens.") M.D. Glasgow, 1832. Practised in Largs, but for many years 
 has lived retired on his estate in Selkirkshire. 
 
 493. HENRY WILSON CLELAND. Entered in 1840. (Probationary essay, "On the 
 
 History and Properties, Chemical and Medical, of Tobacco," a repertory of 
 out-of-the-way information, recondite references, and quaint conceits, in which 
 not only the historical and scientific aspects of his theme are discussed, but 
 its position in literature considered, the whole having a good deal of the 
 flavour of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.) Son of James Cleland, LL.D., 
 the annalist, historian, and statistician of Glasgow. He was educated at the 
 University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.D. in 1840. Lecturer on 
 Medical Jurisprudence in the Portland Street Medical School 1840-42. 
 Died, unmarried, in 1844. Sketch Portrait on the cover of his "Essay." 
 
 494. JOHN ALEXANDER EASTON. Entered in 1840. (Probationary essay, "Cursory 
 
 Remarks on the Action of Medicines.") Licentiate 1828. M.D. Glasgow, 
 1828. He was bom in India (his father being in the Indian Medical Service), 
 and educated in Glasgow. Appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary in 
 1852; he was also medical officer to the Glasgow Police. He was appointed 
 Professor of Materia Medica in Anderson's University in 1840, and was 
 elected to the Chair on the same subject in the Glasgow University in 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 289 
 
 1855. He is perhaps most widely known for the introduction of what is 
 now known as " Easton's Syrup," He contributed a number of papers to 
 the medical periodicals. Died in 1867. 
 
 495. ANDREW ANDERSON. Entered in 1840. (Probationary essay, "Observations 
 
 on Typhus.") Eldest son of James A. Anderson, Esq., of Carlung, Manager 
 of the Union Bank, and nephew of No. 436, he was educated at Glasgow 
 University, graduating M.D. in 1839. In 1840 he was appointed Professor 
 of the Institutes of Medicine in Anderson's College, in 1844 assistant-surgeon 
 and afterwards surgeon and consulting surgeon to the Eye Infirmary, and in 
 1846 Professor of Practice of Medicine in Anderson's College, resigning the 
 office in 1863. Married Jane, daughter of Mr. James Reddie, Town Clerk 
 of Glasgow. President, 1868-70, filling the office at his death in 1870. 
 Contributed copiously to the medical journals, and published Five Lectures 
 Introductory to the Study of Fever (Lond. 1861). Examiner in the University 
 of Glasgow. 
 
 496. ALEXANDER MACLAVERTY. Entered in 1841. (Probationary essay, "Com- 
 
 parison of the Advantages of Lithotomy and Lithotrity.") M.D. Edinburgh, 
 1838; L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1839. Removed from Glasgow to Ross, Here-" 
 fordshire. Retired from practice. 
 
 497. ALEXANDER FORBES. Entered in 1841. (Probationary essay, "Nature and 
 
 Treatment of Anasarca and Ascites.") M.D. Glasgow, 1833. About 1861 
 removed to Auchterarder, where he died in 1877. 
 
 498. JAMES PATERSON. Entered in 1841. (Probationary essay, "On Cancer ot 
 
 the Uterus.") CM. Glasgow, 1834; M.D., 1836. In 1841 appointed 
 Professor of Midwifery in Anderson's University, resigning the Chair in 1863. 
 In 1865 his name was prominently before the public in connection with his 
 evidence in the Pritchard trial, and his claim to have detected poisoning from 
 the symptoms during life. Died in 1881. 
 
 499. WILLIAM HUTCHESON. Entered in 1842. M.D. Edin., 1838; F.R.C.P. 
 
 Edinburgh, 1844. The first Resident Physician-Superintendent to the 
 Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics. In 1850 he removed to London, and 
 in a year or two thereafter to Troon. Married Jane F. M'Rorie. Died 
 in 1863. 
 
 500. ALEXANDER FISHER. Entered in 1842. (Probationary essay, "Observations 
 
 on Hooping-Cough.") M.D. Married Elizabeth Roxburgh. Died in George 
 Street in 1855. 
 
 501. ALEXANDER KING. Entered in 1842. (Probationary essay, "Remarks on 
 
 Amputations.") M.D. Glasgow, 1843. Married Jane D. Cleghorn. Died 
 in 1859. 
 
 502. JOHN FINDLAY. I-'.ntered in 1842. (Probationary essay, "On Peritonitis.") 
 
 M.D. (ilasgow, 1841. Married Elizabeth Robertson. Died in 1849. 
 
290 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 503. JOHN CRAWFORD. Entered in 1842. (Probationary essay, "On the ex- 
 
 pediency of abolishing mechanical restraint in the treatment of the Insane 
 in Lunatic Asylums.") M.D. Glasgow, 1838; M.R.C.S., 1840. Medical 
 Officer of the Town's Hospital. Physician to the Glasgow Cholera Hospital, 
 1854-55. Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Anderson's College, 1842-56. 
 In the latter year removed to Carstairs, where he died in 1879. 
 
 504. CHARLES CRAWFORD, Gourock. Entered in 1843. (Probationary essay, "On 
 
 Asphyxia.") M.D. Glasgow, 1845; CM., 1827. Died in 1855. 
 
 505. JOSEPH BELL. Entered in 1844. Probationary essay, "On the Treatment of 
 
 some forms of Incipient Phthisis.") Licentiate, 1837 ; M.D. St. Andrews, 
 1832. Born in 1817, and studied medicine at Anderson's University. Prac- 
 tised first in Barrhead, whence he removed to Glasgow. Appointed physician 
 to the Royal Infirmary in 1853, and Professor of Botany in the Andersonian 
 College in 1847. Married Elizabeth Stephen. He was a considerable con- 
 tributor to periodical medical literature. Died in 1863. 
 
 506. JAMES ADAMS. Entered in 1846. (Probationary essay, "On Tubercle of the 
 
 Brain in Children.") L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1841 ; M.D. Aberdeen, 1849. 
 Born in 18 18, and educated at the Edinburgh School. Has served the Faculty 
 as Councillor, Librarian, Examiner, etc. President of the Glasgow Medical 
 Society; Secretary of the same society, and President and Secretary of the 
 Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society ; has contributed copiously to periodical 
 medical literature, chiefly in the department of hygiene. In 1865, in con- 
 junction with Dr. F. Penny, he instituted a series of experiments on animals, 
 with a view to the detection of aconite by its physiological actions, in connection 
 with the Pritchard murder trial. Brother of No. 491. Father of Dr. James 
 A. Adams and Mr. F. V. Adams, both Fellows. 
 
 507. ALFRED HALL, Brighton. Entered in 1847. (Probationary essay, "On the 
 
 great prevalence of Venereal Diseases in Great Britain.") Brother of No. 442. 
 M.D. Edinburgh, 1840; F.R.C.P. London, 1873. Formerly Vice-president 
 Obstetrical Society of London. 
 
 508. EBENEZER WATSON. Entered in 1849. (Probationary essay, " On the 
 
 Organ of the Human Voice.") Son of No. 379, he was born in 1824, and 
 educated at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated in Arts in 1844, 
 and in Medicine in 1846. In 1850 he was appointed Professor of the 
 Institutes of Medicine in Anderson's University, and resigned the Chair in 
 1876. In 1856 he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and filled 
 the office for many years. President, 1872-74. Married Mary Ferrier 
 Young, daughter of J. H. Young, Esq., of Ruchill. He contributed copiously 
 to periodical medical literature, mainly on surgical subjects, and published a 
 treatise On the Topical Medication of the Larynx in certain Diseases of the 
 Respiratory and Vocal Organs (Lond. 1854). Died in 1886. 
 
 509. ANDREW RISK. Entered in 1850. (Probationary essay, "On Iron and its 
 
 Preparations.") Married Louise A Grenet, a French lady. Died in 1861. 
 
ROLL OF MEMBERS 
 
 291 
 
 510. ROBERT TELFER CORBETT. Entered in 1850. Licentiate, 1841. M.D. 
 
 Glasgow, 1841. Appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1855. 
 
 Medico-legal Examiner for Glasgow, and latterly engaged chiefly in aural 
 practice. He emigrated to New Zealand, where he died in 1877. 
 
 511. WILLIAM DRURY. Entered in 1850. Licentiate, 1822. M.D. Glasgow, 1840. 
 
 Physician to Garngad Asylum. He retired to Shrewsbury, where he died in 1855. 
 
 512. ANDREW FERGUS. Entered in 1850. Born in 1822. Son of a Presbyterian 
 
 clergyman in Newcastle-on-Tyne, he was educated at University College, 
 London, and in medicine at Glasgow University and King's College, 
 London. Admitted M.R.C.S. England, 1845. In 1847 ^^ ^'^s appointed 
 in Glasgow as one of the district surgeons of the city. In 1854 he had con- 
 siderable experience of the cholera epidemic, his treatment consisting of 
 large doses of opium at the onset, with rest. He also made investigations 
 into the relations of typhoid fever and diphtheria to a corroded condition 
 of the soil .pipes, and other sanitary subjects. From 1870 to 1874 he was a 
 member of the Town Council. President, 1874-77 and 1883-86. In 1883 he 
 received the appointment of Queen's Representative for Scotland on the 
 General Medical Council. For the years 1877-80 he was President of the 
 Glasgow Philosophical Society. He was also on the governing bodies of the 
 Western Infirmary, the Eye Infirmary, Anderson's College, etc., and Examiner 
 in the University. Father of Dr. A. Freeland Fergus. Died in 1887. 
 Portrait in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 513. THOMAS WATSON. Entered in 1 85 1 ; Licentiate, 1836. M.D. Glasgow, 1846. 
 
 Son of No. 389, and father of Mr. G. L. Watson, the well-known naval 
 architect. Appointed physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1857. 
 He was also Examiner in the University of Glasgow. Died in 1867. 
 
 514. ROBERT DUNLOP TANNAHILL. Entered in 1851. L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 
 
 1840; M.D. King's College, Aberdeen, 1854. Born in Kilmarnock in 181 1. 
 Studied medicine at Glasgow, and practised some time in Kilmarnock and 
 Campsie before settling in Glasgow, Appointed physician to the Royal 
 Infirmary in 1856, and subsequently also physician-accoucheur to the Maternity 
 Hospital, surgeon to the Lock Hospital, and medical officer to the Old 
 Man's Institution. Son-in-law of No. 384. Died in 1887. 
 
 515. JAMES STEVEN. Entered in 1851. Born in Hamilton in 1827, and educated 
 
 at Hamilton Grammar School, and at Glasgow University, where he graduated 
 M.D. with Honours in 1848. In that year he volunteered to act in the 
 cholera epidemic in Dumfries, and on his return began practice in Glasgow 
 in 1849. Appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary in 1865. He acted 
 for some time as one of the editors of the Glasgow Medical Journal. Died 
 of renal disease in 1873. 
 
 516. JAMES FRASER. Entered in 185 1. Licentiate, 1843. ^-I^- King's College, 
 
 Aberdeen, iJi54. Medical officer for the Clyde under the Passengers' Act. 
 
2Q2 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Author of The Emigrant's Medical Guide (Glasgow, 1853). Appointed 
 physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in i860. A few years before 
 his death he removed to Gatehouse of Fleet. Died in 1870. 
 
 517. ROBERT PARKER. Entered in 1851, Licentiate, 1844; M.D. St. Andrews, 
 
 185 1. Practised in Tradeston district. Died in i860. 
 
 Si7A. JOHN BURNS. Entered in 1851 ; Licentiate 1848; Governor of St. Mungo's 
 College Medical School. 
 
 518. GEORGE ROBERTSON. Entered in 185 1. Licentiate, 1836. M.D. Glasgow, 
 
 1840. A native of Paisley, he was educated in medicine in Glasgow, and 
 latterly practised chiefly as a specialist in eye diseases. Appointed physician 
 to the Royal Infirmary in 1855. Died in 1869. 
 
 5x9. JOHN COATS. Entered in 1851. L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1836; M.D. Glasgow, 
 1836. He was a native of East Kilbride, and was educated at the University 
 of Glasgow. He was for many years Examiner in Arts and in Medicine, 
 and also Treasurer of the Faculty, and also an Examiner in Medicine in 
 the University of Glasgow. Father of Surgeon Lieut.-Col. James Coats. 
 Died in 1879. Portrait in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 520. JAMES MORTON. Entered in 1851. L.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 1844; M.D. St. 
 Andrews, 1845. -^^ ^^"^ born at Ochiltree, Ayrshire, in 1820, and to a 
 great extent was self-educated. When about twenty-one he entered Anderson's 
 University, and on being qualified commenced practice on the south-side of 
 the Clyde in Glasgow, changing to the north-side in 1851. In 1855 he was 
 appointed Professor of Materia Medica in Anderson's University and held the 
 position till 1888. In 1859 he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, 
 and, with an intermission of two years, held office till 1885. In 187 1 he 
 introduced the treatment of Spina Bifida by the injection of iodo-glycerine 
 solutions. On this subject he published a monograph. The Treatment of 
 Spina Bifida by a New Method (Lond. 1877), a second edition of which 
 appeared in 1887. In 1885 he had the gratification of seeing his method 
 endorsed by the Special Committee of the Clinical Society of London as the 
 best and the only method they felt justified in recommending. President, 
 1886-89. LL.D. Glasgow, 1888. Died in 1889. Portrait, by his son, in the 
 Faculty Hall. 
 
VIII. 
 ROLL OF HONORARY MEMBERS AND FELLOWS. 
 
 I. JAMES STEVEN. Enrolled 7th June, 1736. "Surgeon to the Honourable 
 Generall Wytham's Regiment of Foot now in lying-in quarters in Glasgow." 
 
 2 WILLIAM HUNTER. Enrolled 4th March, 1751. The eminent Anatomist, 
 Physician, and Obstetrician, founder of the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow. 
 M.D. Glasgow, 1750. Died in 1783. Portrait by Reynolds in the Hunterian 
 Museum, and another in the Faculty Hall. 
 
 3. WILLIAM HASTIE. Enrolled 6th January, 1755. "Surgeon to the Honourable 
 
 Edward Skelton's Regiment of Foot now quartered in Glasgow, as descended 
 from Mr. Peter Low, the Faculty's great benefactor." 
 
 4. JOHN BRISBANE. Enrolled 4th December, 1768. Son of Dr. Thomas Brisbane, 
 
 the first Professor of Anatomy and Botany, University of Glasgow: No. 195 
 Roll of Members. M.D. Edinburgh, 1750. Physician to the Middlesex 
 Hospital, 1758-73. Author of The Anatomy of Painiing {l^ondi. 1769). Died 
 about 1776. 
 
 5. SIR JAMES M'GRIGOR. Enrolled 3rd January, 1825. Director-General of the 
 
 Army Medical Department, 18 15-51. Died in 1858. 
 
 6. SIR WILLIAM BURNETT, K.C.B. Enrolled 3rd January, 1842. M.D. Aberdeen. 
 
 Physician-General of the Navy. Introduced Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid. 
 Died in 1861. 
 
 7. SIR ANDREW SMITH, K.C.B. Enrolled 6th August, 1855. Director-General of 
 
 the Army Medical Department, 1851-58. Died in 1872. 
 
 8. DAVID LIVINGSTONE. Enrolled 5th January, 1857. The celebrated African 
 
 Missionary and Explorer. Student of Anderson's College. Licentiate of 
 the Faculty, 1840. Died in 1873. Portrait in Faculty Hall. 
 
 9. SIR JOHN LIDDELL, K.C.B. Enrolled 6th September, 1858. M.D. Edinburgh, 
 
 1794. Director-General of the Medical Department of the Navy, 1854-64. 
 Died in 1868. 
 
 10. CHARLES EDOUARD BROWN-SEQUARD. Enrolled 7th November, 1859. The 
 eminent experimental Physiologist and Pathologist. In 1859 he delivered 
 a course of lectures in Glasgow. Died in 1894. 
 
294 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 11. ALEXANDER BRYSON, CB. Enrolled ist July, 1867. Director-General of the 
 
 Medical Department of the Navy, 1864-69. A native of the parish of 
 Houstoun. Educated in Glasgow. Licentiate of the Faculty, 1825; M.D. 
 Glasgow, 1837. Died in 1869. 
 
 12. JAMES HENDERSON. Enrolled 6th December, 1869. Inspector-General of 
 
 Hospitals to the Army. A native of Glasgow, and educated there. Licentiate 
 of the Faculty, 1809: also M.D. Glasgow, 1822. Died in 1871. 
 
 13. JAMES SYME. Enrolled 3rd January, 1870. The eminent Scottish Surgeon. 
 
 Professor of Clinical Surgery, University of Edinburgh. Died in 1870. 
 
 14. ALLEN THOMSON. Enrolled 3rd September, 1877. Born in 1809, his father 
 
 being Professor John Thomson of Edinburgh, and his brother Professor 
 William Thomson of Glasgow. M.D. Edinburgh, 1830; F.R.C.S. Edinburgh, 
 1 83 1. After teaching for some years in Edinburgh in association with 
 Mr. William Sharpey he filled in succession the offices of Professor of 
 Anatomy in Marischal College, Aberdeen (1839), Professor of Institutes of 
 Medicine, Edinburgh University (1842), and Professor of Anatomy, Glasgow 
 University (1848-77). As a teacher of Anatomy in Glasgow he earned great 
 reputation, whilst he took an active interest in everything which concerned the 
 University and the medical profession. He was President of the Medico- 
 Chirurgical Society, and Representative of the Universities of Glasgow and 
 St. Andrews in the General Medical Council. He was one of the editors of 
 the 7th and 8th editions of Quains Anatomy, and a contributor of a number 
 of the articles in Todd's Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology. As an 
 investigator he was best known by his researches in Embryology, chiefly 
 published in the last-named work. He retired from office as a teacher in 
 1877, and in the same year he was President of the Plymouth Meeting of the 
 British Association. He was a Fellow, Member of Council, and Vice-President 
 of the Royal Society, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the 
 Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Died in 1884. 
 
 15. SIR BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON. Enrolled 3rd June, 1870. The well- 
 
 known London Physician. Educated at Anderson's College ; Licentiate of 
 the Faculty, 1850. Faculty Lecturer, 1877. M.D. St. Andrews, 1854. 
 F.R.S., F.R.C.P., etc. 
 
 CORRIGENDA, 
 
 Page 182, line 7, for "Dr. John Ninimo on Medicine" read 
 " Mr. Andrew Ninimo on Surgery." 
 
 Page 185, third column, headed " Portland Street School," for 
 " Peter Stirling" read ''John Stirling." 
 
 Page 246, lines 8 and 11, for "Lillian" read " Lillias." 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Abercorn, Earl of, 35. 
 
 Aberdeen, early teaching of medicine at, 41 ; 
 medical graduates of, 163 ; the gleugore in, 14 ; 
 alleged scarcity of anatomical material in, 176. 
 
 Abernethie, James, 17. 
 
 Absentees from meetings, 97, 224. 
 
 Act, anent apprenticeship, 78 ; of adjournal, 90, 
 160. 
 
 Adam, John, 244. 
 
 Adams, Dr. A. Maxwell, 185, 186, 288. 
 
 Adams, Dr. James, 190, 290 ; his suns, 290. 
 
 Adams, Dr., Banchory, 52. 
 
 Adulteration of drugs, 44 and note. 
 
 Aitken, Dr. John, 280. 
 
 Alexander, James, 187, 264. 
 
 Alexander VI., Pope, 41. 
 
 Alexander, Walter, 253. 
 
 " Aliquis" on the lifting of the dead, 177. 
 
 AUason, Mr. Robert, 45, 233. 
 
 Anaesthetics, discussion on, 191. 
 
 Anatomical tables by Smellie, 252. 
 
 Anatomy, statistics of students of, in Glasgow, 
 172, 183 ; supply of material for, 176 et scq. ; 
 teachers of, early in the present century, 181, 
 182; Warburton's Act, 178. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. A. D., 198, 279. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. Andrew, 185, 186, 289. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. David, 280. 
 
 Anderson, George and Andrew, Glasgow Printers, 
 199. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. John, Founder of Anderson's Col- 
 lege, 178 et scq. 
 
 Anderson, T. M'Call, 280. 
 
 Anderson, William, 261. 
 
 Anderson, William, 265. 
 
 Anderson's College (formerly Anderson's Univer- 
 sity), origin and constitution, 178 d seq. ; first 
 lecturers of, 180; the medical school, 181, 182; 
 statistics of students of, 183 ; medical professors 
 of, 185, 1 86. 
 
 Andersoune, John, bailie, 45. 
 
 Anderson, Robert, 254. 
 
 Anderson, William, 179. 
 
 Andersoune, Will, bailie, 45. 
 
 Aneurism, case of, treated by a barber, 38. 
 
 Angus, Alexander, 277. 
 
 Antipathy. See Sympathy. 
 
 AntiseiDtic system, beginning of, 194. 
 
 Apothecaries, origin of, 5. 
 
 Apprenticeship of surgeons, 49, 50, 95 ; act to 
 
 limit to members only, 190. 
 Apprentices, 49, 224 ; of barbers found qualified 
 
 as candidates for licence in surgery, 87. 
 Archer, Thomas, 18. 
 Archibald, Robert, 234. 
 " Arellian," doubts as to meaning of, 23. 
 Armour, George, 244. 
 Armour, Dr. James, 183, 185, 186, 275. 
 Arnott, G. A. Walker, 186. 
 Arthur, James, 258. 
 Astruc, Jean, 21, 23 note, 24, 34 note. 
 Asylum, first Glasgow lunatic, 150 ; the Gartnavel, 
 
 150. 
 Auchincloss, Dr. William, 1S5, 280. 
 Auchmowtie, Robert, 49. 
 Avenzohar, 52. 
 Ayr, medical men of, 65. 
 
 Bachelor of surgery, institution of degree in Glas- 
 gow, 165 note. 
 
 Bacon's belief in sympathetic cures, 200 note. 
 
 Badham, Dr. Charles, 141, 174, 185, 275. 
 
 Baillie, A., bailie, 20. 
 
 Baillie, David, 244. 
 
 Baillie, Robert, 216. 
 
 Bailies, Glasgow, their work during the plague, 12. 
 See Water Bailie. 
 
 Baillie's Institution, 152. 
 
 Baird, Dr. James, 216, 248. 
 
296 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Baird, Dr. John, 271. 
 
 Baird, Walter, 263. 
 
 Balfour, Dr. Bayley, 174. 
 
 Balfour, Dr. John H., 173, 186. 
 
 Balmanno, Dr. John, 141, 150, 179, 268. 
 
 Balmanno, Mrs., 268. 
 
 Bannatyne, Christopher, 255. 
 
 Barbers, as practitioners of surgery, 2 ; in Paris, 4 
 and 42 note ; adopted in Glasgow as a pendicle of 
 surgery, 48 ; not associated with the surgeons by 
 Royal Charter, 42 ; date of incorporation of, 58, 
 60 ; forbidden to use their calling on Sunday, 
 72 ; complaints of, against the surgeons, 84 ; 
 their apprentices declared admissible to trial as 
 surgeons, 87 ; separation of, from the surgeons, 
 88; Glasgow barbers fined, 88; of Edinburgh, 89. 
 
 Barber-surgeons, origin of, 2 ; decline of, 3 ; of 
 London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, 4 ; terms of 
 the licence of, 52. 
 
 Barclay, Dr. John, of Edinburgh, 177. 
 
 Bargarran witchcraft case, 112. 
 
 Barrowfield, Lady, elder, 216. 
 
 Bartholomseus Anglicus, 214. 
 
 " Bass John," 240. 
 
 Battalion of soldiers, contribution for, 97. 
 
 Bayle, Captain, 38. 
 
 Beaton, Archbishop, 41. 
 
 Beer's Diseases of the Eye, 207. 
 
 Beggars in Glasgow, 227, 228 ; sturdy, 228. 
 
 Bell, Dr. Bryce, 65, 242. 
 
 Bell, James, 216. 
 
 Bell, Dr. Joseph, 186, 208, 290. 
 
 Belwell, Michael, 3 note. 
 
 Benion, Samuel, M.D., 125. 
 
 Bible, Ray's, 206. 
 
 Bibliography, early Glasgow medical, 198. 
 
 Bibliothecarius, office of, 94. 
 
 Birkbeck, Dr. George, 180. 
 
 Black, Dr. Joseph, 129, 185, 258. 
 
 Blackfriars Kirk, 44 and note, 226; "steepling" 
 
 in, 26. 
 Blair, Duncan, 271. 
 Blair, Rev. Hugh, 216. 
 Blackwood, Dr. Henry, 6. 
 Blakburne, John, minister, 20. 
 " Blaspheming," the crime of, 66-68. 
 Bogill, John, 216, 248. 
 Bogill, Peter, merchant, 216. 
 Bogill, Peter, 241. 
 Bogle, Archibald, 76, 237. 
 Bogle, Archibald, 238. 
 Bogle, Robert, 93, 243. 
 Bogle, William, 243. 
 " Book of the infantment," 34. 
 Botanic Garden, the Faculty's connection with, 151. 
 
 Botany, Glasgow teachers of, 173, 174, 186. 
 
 " Bowclling," process of, 29. 
 
 Boxmaster, office of, 56, 94. 
 
 Boyd, John, 216, 245. 
 
 Boyd, Robert, 2l6, 243. 
 
 Braidwood, James, 29, 235. 
 
 Braidwood, James, younger, 235. 
 
 Brisbane, Dr. John, 212, 292. 
 
 Brisbane, Dr. Matthew, 53, 62, 112, 113, 216, 245. 
 
 Brisbane, Dr. Thomas, 92, 93, 185, 251. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, 168. 
 
 Broun, Daniel, 54, 234. 
 
 Brown, Archibald, 269. 
 
 Brown, Archibald, 288. 
 
 Brown, Andrew, 244. 
 
 Brown, James, 186, 190. 2S3. 
 
 Brown, John, 257. 
 
 Brown, John, 274. 
 
 Brown, Nicol, 246. 
 
 Brown, Dr. Thomas, 189, 267. 
 
 Brown, William, 261. 
 
 Browne, Andrew, 240. 
 
 Brown-Sequard, C. E., 194, 293. 
 
 Bryce, Dr. Charles, 286. 
 
 Bryson, Alexander, 294. 
 
 Buchanan, Dr. Alexander, 272. 
 
 Buchanan, Dr. Andrew, 155 note, 175, 186, 193, 
 
 208, 281. 
 Buchanan, Dr. George, 172, 177 note, 183 note, 276. 
 Buchanan, Dr. Moses Steven, 141 note, 142 note, 
 
 185, 276. 
 Buchanan, Thomas, 92, 93, 250. 
 Burghs, Royal and Barons', 41. 
 Burials, obligation to attend, 59 and note. 
 Burning of a minute book, 91 et seq. 
 Burnett, Sir William, 293. 
 Burns, Allan, 178. 
 Burns, Allan, 285. 
 Burns, John, 292. 
 
 Burns, Dr. John, 145, 147, 173, 179, 185, 205, 265. 
 Burns, RoVjert, the poet, his correspondence with 
 
 Dr. John Moore, 256; "Clarinda" of, 121. 
 Burnside, John, 272. 
 Bursary, the M 'Arthur, 268. 
 Burrell, George, 45, 233. 
 " Buttock Mail," 26 note, 227. 
 
 Calder, James, 102. 
 
 Calder, James, elder, 91, 93, 216, 247. 
 
 Calder, James, younger, 91, 93, 250. 
 
 Campbell, David, 195. 
 
 Campbell, Duncan, 53, 54, 245. 
 
 Campbell, James, of Mains, 216. 
 
INDEX 
 
 297 
 
 Campbell, John, 273. 
 
 Campbell, Dr. John, 275. 
 
 Campbell, John, 216, 252. 
 
 Campbell, John, Paisley, 107, 123, 247. 
 
 Campbell, Robert, 255. 
 
 Carbolic acid dressings, 194. 
 
 Carbonic acid, separation of, 129. 
 
 Carrick, John, 128, 255. 
 
 Castration, 53 note. 
 
 Cathedral (or Hie Kirk), 7, 16, 31, 226. 
 
 Cerecloths, preparation of, 107. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr. William, 283. 
 
 Champerius, his Rosa Gallica, 214. 
 
 Charities, Medical, of Glasgow, 136-151. 
 
 Charity, the Faculty, 48, 96, 153, 158. 
 
 Charleton, Ternary of Paradoxes, 200. 
 
 Charter of the Faculty, 217 ; provisions of, 39-43 ; 
 ratification of, 61, 225. 
 
 Chemical laboratory of Cullen, 128. 
 
 Chemistry, early Glasgow teachers of, 128, 173, 182. 
 
 Chincough, Dr. Robert Watt's work on, 206, 214. 
 
 Chirurgeon-Apothecaries, 5. 
 
 Chirurgerie, Lowe's, 35. 
 
 Chirurgiae Magister, institution of degree, 165, 175. 
 
 Chisholm, Robert, 253. 
 
 Chisholme, Thomas, 238. 
 
 Chloroform, discussion on, 191. 
 
 Circulation of the blood, Glasgow edition of Har- 
 vey's work on, 204. 
 
 "Clarinda" of Burns, 121. 
 
 Clark, Thomas, 257. 
 
 Clarke, A., licentiate, 274. 
 
 Clarke, Samuel, 274. 
 
 Cleghorn, Dr. Robert, 104, 130, 132, 150, 185, 
 186, 204, 263. 
 
 Cleland, Dr. Henry Wilson, 186, 288. 
 
 Clement, Julian, 19. 
 
 Clergymen, prescribing, 96, 192. 
 
 Clerical physicians, i, 2. 
 
 Clerk, oflice of Faculty, 56, 255. 
 
 Clifford, Mark, 244. 
 
 Clift, William, 214. 
 
 Clinical examinations, early, 51, 
 
 Clinical lectures, beginning of, in Royal Infirmary, 
 145, 266; disputes concerning, 145-147; by Dr. 
 R. Whytt, 214; in Towns' Hospital, 137. 
 
 Clubs, Medical, of Glasgow, 197. 
 
 Clyddisdale [Cliddesdaill], William, 67, 68, 235. 
 
 Coats, John, 273. 
 
 Coats, Dr. John, 292. 
 
 Cochrane, (ieorge, 260. 
 
 Cointret, John, 36. 
 
 Collector, ofiice of, 94. 
 
 College of St. Come, 25. 
 
 College Street Medical School, 181, 182. 266. 
 
 Collot, Fran9ois, 54. 
 
 Colquhoun, David, 260. 
 
 Colquhoun, Dr. John, 62-64, 112, 242. 
 
 Colquhoun, John, clerk, 92. 
 
 Committee of privileges, 159. 
 
 Consultants in Glasgow, 189. 
 
 Cook, Dr. John, 258. 
 
 Corbertson, James, 253. 
 
 Corbett, David, 93, 254. 
 
 Corbett, Lorimer, 279. 
 
 Corbett, Dr. R. Telfer, 291. 
 
 Corkindale, Dr. James, 269. 
 
 Cornaro, L., on long life, 204. 
 
 Coulter, James, 149. 
 
 Couper, John, Lesmahagow, 244. 
 
 Couper, Dr. John, 117, 186, 276. 
 
 Couper, Dr. Robert, 270. 
 
 Couper, Dr. William, 141 note., 186, 276. 
 
 Couper, Dr. William, 140, 262. 
 
 Covenanting treasurer, 69 ; member, 240. 
 
 Cowan, Dr. John B., 186, 208, 246. 
 
 Cowan, Mr. John Marshall, 246. 
 
 Cowan, Robert, 140, 246, 265. 
 
 Cowan, Dr. Robert, 174, 186, 246, 277. 
 
 Crafts' Hospital, 81. 
 
 Craftsmaster, 94. 
 
 Craig, Andrew, 121, 255. 
 
 Craig, Dr. William, 186, 287. 
 
 Crawford, Dr. Charles, 290. 
 
 Crawford, Dr. John, 186, 290. 
 
 Crawford, John, 244. 
 
 Cree, John, 262. 
 
 Crichton, Dr. John, 112, 237. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, his visit to Glasgow, 69. 
 
 Crosbie, Archibald, 253. 
 
 Cross, Dr. John, 207. 
 
 Cullen, Dr. William, 127, 12S, 129, 185, 254, 257. 
 
 Cullen, William, 271. 
 
 Cumbernauld, the minister of, 96. 
 
 Cumin or Cummin, Dr. William, 185, i86, 275. 
 
 Cunningham, Adam, 216, 248. 
 
 Currie, William, 67, 241. 
 
 Dalrymplc, Hugh, 80. 
 
 Darlingism, 193. 
 
 Davidson, Dr. William, 186, 283. 
 
 Deacon of the Faculty, sec "visitor." 
 
 Deaconry, see letter of deaconry. 
 
 Deans, William, 256. 
 
 Degrees, in medicine, in reference to the practice 
 of surgery, 163 et scq. ; cosm<)|K)litan character 
 of, 164; no examination in surgery for, 164. 
 
298 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Degrees, in surgery, institution of, in Glasgow, 165 ; 
 powers of the University to grant, 165, 167; 
 decision of House of Lords on, 170; validated 
 by the Scottish University Commissioners, 170. 
 
 "Denner," the, 49, 50. 
 
 Dick, John, 269. 
 
 Dick, Dr. Robert, 122, 257. 
 
 Dickson, Dr. Alexander, 174. 
 
 Digljy, Sir Kenelm, 200. 
 
 Diphtheria in Glasgow, 1S9, 267. 
 
 Disruption of surgery from medicine, I. 
 
 Dissection, supply of subjects for, in Glasgow, 177; 
 plea of Dr. William iMacKenzie for legalized 
 supply, 178. 
 
 Doctor, "in the Facultie of Chirurgerie," 25. 
 
 Doctors of Medicine, acting as surgeons, 94; at 
 first "pure" physicians, 141; betake themselves 
 to general practice, 141; requirements for, 162; 
 lawsuit to exclude from practice of surgery in the 
 bounds of the Faculty, 162 et st'i/. ; the suit suc- 
 cessful, 164. 
 
 Dothienenteritis, 190. 
 
 Dougald, Thomas, 91, 251. 
 
 Dougall, Dr. John, 194. 
 
 Douglas, Archibald, 240. 
 
 Douglas, Dr. Colin, 122, 259. 
 
 Douglas, Dr. James, 212, 216. 
 
 Douglas, James, 185, 287. 
 
 Douglas, Mrs., 103. 
 
 Drugs, adulteration of, 44 and nolv; "sichting" 
 of, 44. 
 
 Drummond, John, 286. 
 
 Drury, Dr. William, 291. 
 
 Drysdale, James, 277. 
 
 Duncan, Dr. Handaside, 287. 
 
 Duncan, James, 233. 
 
 Duncan, Thomas, 263. 
 
 Dunlop, Alexander, 104, 140, 260. 
 
 Dunlop, Robert, 241. 
 
 Dunlop, William, 100, 145 note, 268. 
 
 Dunning (Dwining), Dr. James, 61, 236. 
 
 Dureau, Dr. A., 24 note. 
 
 Dyers and bonnetmakers, craft of, 88 note. 
 
 Easton, Dr. John A., 186, 288. 
 
 Ecclesiastes, last chapter of, medical glosses on, 
 36 and rtote. 
 
 Ecclesiastics as medical practitioners, i. 
 
 Edict of Innocent III., 2. 
 
 Edinburgh, Grangore Act of, 14; Medical School 
 of, 125; Royal Infirmary, 138; College of 
 Surgeons, 42 ; College of i'hysicians, 69, 70. 
 
 Edwards, Alexander, deacon of the barbers, 90. 
 
 Election, mode of, in case of praeses, etc., 94. 
 
 Electro biology, 193. 
 
 Elphinstone, Sir George, 44 and note. 
 Embalming, as a subject of surgical licence, 29, 
 
 52; of a Glasgow provost, 29. 
 Embassy to France in 1601, 28. 
 English, writing of medical books in, 36. 
 English William, 249. 
 Epidemiology, early, of (Glasgow, 10. 
 Eskgrove, Lord, 105. 
 Essex, Earl of, 33. 
 
 Ether as an anaesthetic, discussion on, 192. 
 Ethics, medical, code of, 195. 
 Etiquette, professional, 189. 
 Examinations, early, 50; in writing, 51 ; sometimes 
 
 clinical, 51 ; in eighteenth century, 95. 
 Examining Board, first medical in Glasgow, 27 ; 
 
 evolution of the Faculty, 96. 
 Extramural medical teaching, non-recognition of, 
 
 175- 
 Ewing, James, 240. 
 Eye Infirmary, 151- 
 
 Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow — 
 the corporate name, 57, 59; charter, 39-44, 217; 
 territory assigned to, 4 ; points of analogy to the 
 Paris medical bodies, 43 ; inauguration of, 44 ; 
 relations of, to medicine, 41, 45; early places of 
 meeting, 56, 57; ratification of charter, 61, 225 ; 
 office-bearers of, 56 ; obtain a letter of deaconry, 
 59; confusion from the two charters, 60; ex- 
 tension of operations of, beyond (ilasyow, 65; 
 negotiations with the Edinburgh physicians, 69, 
 70; vitiation of their minute book, 71 ; pass act 
 limiting apprenticeship to members, 78 ; raise an 
 action of declarator against Town Council, 80; 
 erect their first hall, 81 ; intestine feuds within, 
 84 ei seq.; renounce letter of deaconry, 88; 
 their earliest extant minute in the eighteenth 
 century, 90 ct seq. ; election of office-bearers, 
 94; business at the meetings, 96; quorum of, 
 97 ; terms of admission of freemen, 98 et seq. ; 
 origin of the licentiates, 99; some noted licen- 
 tiates, loo; license midwives, loi ; prosecutions 
 by, loi et seq.; public burdens of members of, 
 105; medico-legal functions of, 106; rates of 
 professional fees of," 106 et seq.; position taken 
 up in regard to clinical teaching, 145 et seq.; 
 contri]:)ute to the Lying-in Hospital — to the 
 Western Infirmary — connection of, with the 
 Royal Botanic Institution, 151; their "visita- 
 tion" of the sick poor, 153; start free vaccine 
 station, 154; proposed change of name of, 156; 
 institute a widows' fund, 158; "members" of, 
 changed to "fellows" of, 159; lawsuit of, against 
 doctors of, medicine, 162 et seq. ; position of, as 
 a corporation challenged, 169; commencement 
 of their lilirary, 21 1; general signet letters in 
 favour of, 219; act for regulating privileges of, 
 229; separation of widows' fund, 230; abandon- 
 ment of territorial jurisdiction, 230; roll of 
 members, 232 ei seq. ; honorary mcmbeis, 
 293- 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 Falconer, Thomas, clerk, 216. 
 
 Farrell, David, 75. 
 
 Fees, professional, 106, 107; of physicians in 
 eighteenth century, 107; tariff of in 1794, 107; 
 nature of physicians, 167. 
 
 Fellows, institution of grade of, 159, 230. 
 
 Fergus, Dr. Andrew, 291. 
 
 Fergus, Dr. A. Freeland, 291. 
 
 Fergushill, Robert, 238. 
 
 Ferguson, Dr. William, 278. 
 
 Fever in Glasgow, 190, 269; as a cause of mor- 
 tality of medical men, 159. 
 
 Findlay, Dr. John, 289. 
 
 Fines of unqualified practitioners, 96; absentees 
 from meetings, 97. See also Freedom Fine. 
 
 Finlay, Kirkman, 148, 156, 170. 
 
 Finlayson, Dr. James, 21, 23 note, 34, 37, viii, 
 ix, p7'ef. 
 
 Fisher, Dr. Alexander, 289. 
 
 Fleming Adam, 45, 233. . 
 
 Fleming, David, 241. 
 
 Fleming, James, 234. 
 
 Fleming, John, 68, 241. 
 
 Fleming, Dr. John Gibson, 140, 286, vi, prcf. 
 
 Fleming, Joseph, 286. 
 
 Fleming, Sir William, of Farme, 210. 
 
 Fleming, William, 240. 
 
 Fleming, Dr. Wm. James, 286. 
 
 Forbes, Dr. Alexander, 289. 
 
 Forrester, James, 243. 
 
 Forret, James, bailie, 20, 44. 
 
 Foster, James, 263. 
 
 Foster, John, 239. 
 
 Foulis Press, The, 204. 
 
 Frank, James, 113, 237. 
 
 Frank, James, younger, 240. 
 
 Fraser, Dr. James, 291. 
 
 Frazer, John, 263. 
 
 Freedom Fine, 98, 157; al)olition of, for Licenti- 
 ates, 209. 
 Freer, Dr. Robert, 133, 147, 185, 266. 
 Freland, Kate, midwife, 19. 
 Frere Jacques, 54. 
 FuUarton, John A., 284. 
 Fullerton, Gavin, 259. 
 
 Gaberlunzies, 227. 
 
 Gaddesden, John of, 214. 
 
 Galen, Medicine and Surgery in time of, i. 
 
 Gardner, James, 253. 
 
 Gardner, Moses, 267. 
 
 Garnett, Dr. Thomas, 153 note, 180, 267. 
 
 Garth's Dispensary, 204, 238. 
 
 Garvine, Thomas, 254. 
 
 Gibb, Dr. William R., 278. 
 Gibson, Dr. David, 186, 276. 
 Gibson, John, 259. 
 Gibson, John, 266. 
 Gibson, Robert, 273. 
 Gibson, William, 277. 
 Gladstone, Mary, 270. 
 Glaister, Dr. John, \\,pref., 123. 
 
 Glasgow, physicians and surgeons of, in one 
 corporation, i ; description, sanitation, and 
 epidemiology of, about 1600, 7-16; population 
 of, 7 ; leper hospital of, 8 ; insanitary districts 
 of, 13 ; turbulence of the burghers, 15 ; incor- 
 porated crafts of, 16 ; slander of, by a surgeon, 
 18 ; movements in, towards medical reform, 19 ; 
 first medical examining board of, 20 ; cathe- 
 dral of, 16 ; medical societies and clubs of, 187 
 et seq. • medical charities of, 144 et seq. ; rise 
 and progress of the medical school of, 124, et 
 seq. ; 171 et seq. ; medical men of, in seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries, 113 1?/ seq. ; medical 
 bibliography and journalism of, 199 et seq. ; 
 notanda anent poor of, 226. 
 
 Glasgow Courier, 286. 
 
 Glasgow Faculty of Medicine, 195 ; constitution 
 and features of, 196. 
 
 Glasgow Medical Club, 197 ; members of, 198. 
 
 Glasgow Medical Examiner, 157, 209, 210. 
 
 Glasgow Medical Journal, 208. 
 
 Glasgow Medical Society, 187 ; founders of, 1S8 ; 
 constitution and rules, 189 ; some of the papers, 
 189 ; discussions on fever, 190 : Dr. Perry's 
 opinions on typhus and enteric, 191 ; inocula- 
 tion of typhus, 191 ; transactions of, 1S9, 214 ; 
 amalgamation with Medico-Chirurgical .Society, 
 192. 
 
 Glasgow Pathological Society, 196. 
 Glasgow Pathological and Clinical Society, 197. 
 Glasgow Teachers of Medicine removed to other 
 centres, 133, 174. 
 
 Glen, J. P., 209. 
 
 Glengore [Grangore] in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and 
 
 Glasgow, 14, 1 5. J 
 Goff, Dr. Bruce, 31. 
 
 Gordon, Dr. John, 91, 93, 95, 120, 216, 251. 
 Gordonius, his Liliuni Medicine, 209. 
 Goudie, John, 195. 
 Graham, Archibald, 54, 55, 69, 238. 
 Graham, James, 258. 
 Graham, John, 256. 
 
 Graham, Robert, of Gallengade, 216, 245. 
 (iraham. Dr. Robert, 73, 186, 187, 207, 271. 
 liraham, Thomas, 182, 185, 285. 
 Cjranlield, Margaret, 75. 
 tiray, Adam, 236, 241. 
 Gray, Rev. John Hamilton, 31. 
 Gray, Thomas, 283. 
 
300 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Gregory, Dr, James, his "Memorial," 139. 
 
 Gregory, Dr. John, 214. 
 
 Gregory, Dr. William, 1S5. 
 
 Grey, Nathan, 238. 
 
 Grier, James, 253. 
 
 Groux, M., case of, 193. 
 
 Guilds, Trade, origin of, 3 ; of Glasgow, 16. 
 
 Guillemeau, Jacques, 18. 
 
 Hall, Dr. Alfred, 290. 
 
 Hall, David, 216, 245. 
 
 Hall, John, Paisley, 243. 
 
 Hall, John, elder, 12, 18, 113, 236. 
 
 Hall, John, 233. 
 
 Hall, John, 258. 
 
 Hall, John, younger, 18, 241. 
 
 Hall, John, barber, 241. 
 
 Hall, Robert, 234. 
 
 Hall, Dr. William, 280. 
 
 Hall, the first Faculty, 81, 85; second Faculty, 82, 
 
 108 ; third Faculty, 109. 
 Hamilton, James, 18. 
 Hamilton, Mr. James, 44, 56, 234. 
 Hamilton, James, Paisley, 277. 
 Hamilton, James, of Newton, 92, 93, 250. 
 Hamilton, John, 234. 
 Hamilton, John, 216, 249. 
 Hamilton, Dr. Mathie, 177. 
 Hamilton, Mr. Robert, grantee of Faculty Charter, 
 
 27, 28, 39, 43, III, 222, 233. 
 Hamilton, Robert, Cambuslang, 240. 
 Hamilton, Dr. Robert, as Professor of Anatomy, 
 
 126; as Professor of Medicine, 129; 185, 254. 
 Hamilton, Dr. Thomas, 62, 64, 112, 242. 
 Hamilton, Thomas, Surgeon in Hamilton, 254. 
 Hamilton, Thomas, Professor of Anatomy, 130, 
 
 185, 257. 
 Hamilton, Thomas, 91, 93, 245. 
 Hamilton, Captain Thomas, 131. 
 Hamilton, Dr. William, Professor of Anatomy, 
 
 130, 185, 262. 
 Hamilton, Sir William, 131. 
 Hannay, Dr. A. J., 183, 281. 
 Hardie, John, 259. 
 Hareis, Robert, 54, 237. 
 Harper, James, 234. 
 Harper, Thomas, 241. 
 Harvey, Dr. William, work on the circulation, 
 
 203, 204. 
 Hastie, William, 33 note, 293. 
 Hattrick, John, 246. 
 Hay, Alexander, 17. 
 Heat, Latent, doctrine of, 129. 
 Henderson, James, 294. 
 
 Henderson, James, Fordoun, 193. 
 
 Hendrie, Dr. George, 272. 
 
 Henry IV. of France, 6, 23. 
 
 Henry, Prince, 39 and note. 
 
 Henderson, Dr. WiUiam, 205, 265. 
 
 Herald, The Glasgow, 268. 
 
 Herbertson, Robert, clerk, 45. 
 
 Highlanders, influx of, into Glasgow, 226 ; order 
 for their expulsion, 226. 
 
 Hill, Ninian, 97, 256. 
 
 Hill, Dr. Ninian, 287. 
 
 Hill, Dr. William H., vi, vii, pref. ; on the Glas- 
 gow poor, 226. 
 
 Hippocrates, i ; presages of, 37 ; oath of, 53. 
 
 Hislop, Ebenezer, 274. 
 
 Hodge Podge Club, 130. 
 
 Hogisyard, Robert, 29. 
 
 Homoeopathy, discussion on, 192 ; practitioners of, 
 as insurance referees, 192. 
 
 Home, Sir Everard, 214. 
 
 Hooker, Sir William Joseph, 173, 174. 
 
 Hooker, Dr. William D., 186, 287. 
 
 Hope, Dr. Thomas C, 131, 132, 140, 185, 186,264. 
 
 Hopkirk, Thomas, younger, of Dalbeth, 206, 214. 
 
 Horning, letters of, 74, 217, 219. 
 
 Horsborough, Alexander, 92, 93, 216, 246, 252. 
 
 Hospitals, special, usual mode of origin of, 150. 
 
 Houston, Robert, 216, 241. 
 
 Houston, Dr. Robert, 114, 116, 216, 248. 
 
 How, Andrew, 108 note, 250. 
 
 How, John, no, 237. 
 
 How, John, 260. 
 
 How, John, younger, 244. 
 
 Hows, of Kilbarchan, 117. 
 
 Humane Society, The Glasgow, 149. 
 
 Hume, John, 265. 
 
 Hunter, Hew, 241. 
 
 Hunter, John, 130, 214. 
 
 Hunter, John, London, 258. 
 
 Hunter, Dr. Robert, 185, 280. 
 
 Hunter, Robert, Kilmarnock, 251. 
 
 Hunter, Samuel, 100. 
 
 Hunter, Dr. William, London, 128 note, 130, 262, 
 293- 
 
 Hutcheson, Dr. William, 289. 
 
 Hutchesons' Hospital, 81. 
 
 Hypnotism, 193. 
 
 Illuminating open cavities of the body, 192. 
 Inchkeith, those affected with grangore banished 
 
 to, 14. 
 Index Funereus Chirurgorum Parisiensium, 30. 
 Innocent HI., Pope, 2. 
 Inoculation of small-pox, 155. 
 
INDEX 
 
 301 
 
 Insane, the, in Glasgow, 149. 
 
 Insurance Companies, med. referees of, 192. 
 
 Irish, immigration of, into Glasgow, 226. 
 
 Irvine, Dr. William, 131, 185, 186, 261. 
 
 Irvine, Dr. William, 268. 
 
 Irvine, college authorities boarded at, 11. 
 
 Jack, John, 261. 
 
 Jackson, Dr. John, 186, 287. 
 
 James VI. of Scotland, 27, 32. 
 
 Jameson, Rev. William, 216. 
 
 Jamieson, John, 104, 261. 
 
 Januensis, Simon, 214. 
 
 Jardine, Professor George, 137. 
 
 Jarvie, Andrew, 273. 
 
 Jeffray, Dr. James, 105, 133, 147, 173, 185, 265. 
 
 Jeffray, Dr. James, Jun., 2S7. 
 
 Jews as mediciners, I. ^ 
 
 Johnston, William, 251. 
 
 Johnstoun, Dr. John, 91,' 93, 128, 185, 252. 
 
 Kelso, Robert, 253. 
 
 Kelso, William, 73. 
 
 Kennedy, Gilbert, 240. 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. Thomas, 216, 248. 
 
 Kid, John, 238. 
 
 Kilbarchan, the Hows of, 117. 
 
 Kilmarnock, medical men of, 65. 
 
 Kilpatrick, Thomas, 253. 
 
 King, Dr. Alexander, 289. 
 
 King, Dr. B. Watts, 271. 
 
 King, William, deacon of the barbers, 90. 
 
 King's beggars, 227. 
 
 Kirk wood, Allan, 239. 
 
 Knox, Alexander, 216, 245. 
 
 Knox, James John, 284. 
 
 Knox, Dr. Robert, 184, 185. 
 
 Lamb, Matthew, 216, 218. 
 Lang, Dr. Hugh M., 288. 
 Lang, John, 243. 
 Lapslie, James, 265. 
 Laskey, Captain, 206. 
 Lawrie, Dr. J. A., 185, 192, 208, 284. 
 Lawson, Gilbert, 258. 
 Leckie, William, 267. 
 Lee, Dr. Robert, 174, 185. 
 Leech, Dr. John, 195. 
 Lees, John, 238. 
 Leishman, Dr. William, 208. 
 Lennox, Duke of, 28. 
 Lennox, John, 243. 
 Leper Hospital of Glasgow, 8, 9. 
 Lepers in Glasgow, 8 ; hosjiital for, 8 ; under 
 supervision of the water bailie, 8 ; rules for, 9. 
 
 Letter of Deaconry, 59, 60, 222, alleged violation 
 
 of, 71 ; renunciation of, 89. 
 Letter of Guildry, 29, 60. 
 Letters, general signet, 219. 
 Lewis, Thomas, Jun., 102. 
 Librarian, 94. 
 
 Library, the Faculty, 211 ; donations to, 216; 
 
 catalogues of, 212; Stirling's, 151. 
 Licensing, partial, 51. 
 Licentiates, institution of grade of, 99 ; some 
 
 noted country, 99, 100; town, 157. 
 Liddell, John, 239. 
 Liddell, Sir John, 293. 
 Lilhun yl/rt//V/«^ of Gordonius, 214. 
 Lindsay, Archibald, 234. 
 Lindsay, Ludovic, 243. 
 Lindsay's Port, 13. 
 Lister, Sir Joseph, 194. 
 Lithotomy, as a specialty, 52-55 ; forbidden by 
 
 the Hippocratic Oath, 53 ; with rectangular staff, 
 
 281. 
 
 Littre, E., 53 wA'. 
 
 Livingston, David, 100, 293. 
 
 Lochow, Lady, 8. 
 
 Locke, Dr. John, 277. 
 
 Lockhart, George, 241. 
 
 Lockhart, Mr., 18. 
 
 Lockhart [Lockart], Thomas, 54, 71, 72, 237. 
 
 Logan, John, 240. 
 
 Logan, Thomas, 256. 
 
 London, barber surgeons of, 4. 
 
 Longmore's treatise on wounds, 214. 
 
 Love, John, 253. 
 
 Lowe, Annabella, 232. 
 
 Lowe, James, 32, 232, 243. 
 
 Lowe, John, 32, 36, 54, 232, 235. 
 
 Lowe, John, 45, 233. 
 
 Lowe, Peter, 6, 15, 20; memoir of, 21-38; advent 
 in Glasgow, 21 ; residence on the continent, 22 ; 
 services as military surgeon, 22 ; religious per- 
 suasion, 23 ; nationality, 23 ; " Doctor in llie 
 Facultie of Chirurgerie," 24 ; " Arellian," 24 ; 
 return to London, 25 ; town's surgeon of 
 Glasgow, 21, 26 ; offends the presbytery, 26 ; 
 grant to him of charter, 27 ; submits it to town 
 council, 27 ; visit to France, 28 ; transferred 
 chartered powers by co-option of other members, 
 44; commissioner in dispute between merchants 
 and craftsmen, 29; bowelling of the laird of 
 Houstoun, 29 ; date of his death, 30 ; epitaph, 
 31 ; memorial in cathedral, 31 ; his wife, 32 ; 
 his descendants, 32, 232 ; his works : Spanish 
 Sicklies^ 33, 214; Chtruri:;irk, 35; I'trsa^cs 
 of Hippocrates, 37 ; unpublished works, 34 ; 
 personal qualities, 38 ; other references, 36, 39, 
 4'. 43. 49. 53. 62. 
 
 Lowe, Robert, 33 iicic, 232, 252. 
 
302 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Lowe, William, 33, 232. 
 
 Lowery, Blais, minister, 20. 
 
 Lyes, James, 237. 
 
 Lying-in-hospital, abortive attempt to found, 150; 
 
 foundation of, 150. 
 Lyle, Thomas, 100. 
 Lyon, Dr. William, 185, 283. 
 
 M'Adam, Quintin, 240. 
 M'Alpin, William, 275. 
 M'Arthur, Duncan, 100. 
 M'Arthur, John, 268. 
 M'Arthur, John, 259. 
 M'Aulay, William, 261. 
 M'Call, Colin, 251. 
 M'Cluir, Dr., 12. 
 
 M'Conechy, Dr. James, 185, 189, 286. 
 M'Crae, Allan, 252. 
 M'Dougall, Dr., 144. 
 M'Dowall, Dr. John, 283. 
 M'Ewan, Dr. John, 285. 
 M'Farlan, Parian, 254. 
 M'Farland, John, 253. 
 Macfarlane, Dr. John, 278. 
 Macfarlane, Peter, 283. 
 M'Ghie, Dr. James, 208. 
 M'Ghie, William, 244. 
 Macgillivray, P., sculptor, 31. 
 M'Gregor, Dr. Robert, 1S5, 287. 
 M'Grigor, Sir James, 293. 
 M'Jarrow, John, 250. 
 M'Kay, William, 284. 
 M'Kechnie, Dr. Robert, 272. 
 MacKenzie, Dr. William, 151, 178, 185, 1S6, 208, 
 213,214, 215, 277. 
 
 MacKinnon, Professor, 53 note. 
 M'Lachlan, Dugald, 264. 
 M'Lachlan, Duncan, 250. 
 Maclachlan, Dr. George M., 281. 
 Maclaverty, Dr. A., 198 }iote, 289. 
 M'Lean, Hector, 93, 254. 
 M'Lean, John, 258. 
 M'Lean, John, 265. 
 Maclehose, Mrs., 121, 255. 
 Macleod, George, 187, 188, 269. 
 Macleod, James, 278. 
 Macleod, Joseph, 275. 
 M'Murrich, Dr. M., 209. 
 M'Nair, Dr. Benjamin, 277. 
 M'Nair, Robert, of Belvidere, 149. 
 M'Neill, Evir, 53, 54, 55, 239. 
 M'Nish, John, 266. 
 M'Nish, Dr. Robert, 282. 
 
 M'Tyer, Dr. William, 284. 
 
 Maitland, Hon. Charles, 216. 
 
 Maitland, William, 252. 
 
 Malpraxis, 75. 
 
 Malt, vote for increasing duty on, 69. 
 
 Man- Midwifery, origin of, 18, 19 note, in London, 
 252 ; growth of, in Glasgow, 134. 
 
 Manuscripts in Faculty library, 214. 
 
 Marshal [Marshall], Dr. Robert, 123, 260. 
 
 Marshall, Gavin, 257. 
 
 Marshall, Henry, 79, 80, 84, 85, 113, 114, 216, 245. 
 
 Marshall, James, 263. 
 
 Marshall, John, 216, 246, 248. 
 
 Marshall, Dr. Thomas, 173 note. 
 
 Mason, Alexander, 249. 
 
 Masters, election of, 56. 
 
 Masters of Surgery, degree of, 165, 175; debarred 
 from practising in West of Scotland, 168. 
 
 Mathie, John, 238. 
 
 Matthias, Georgius, 23. 
 
 Maxwell, John, 258. 
 
 Maxwell, Dr. John, 273. 
 
 Maxwell, Robert G., 280. 
 
 Mayne [Maine, Magnus], Dr. Robert, 61, iii, 
 125 and note, 235. 
 
 Mayne, Dr. Robert G., 100. 
 
 Medical bibliography, early, of Glasgow, 199. 
 
 Medical Clubs of Glasgow, 197. 
 
 Medical School of Glasgow, rise of, 124 ; at the 
 end of the i8th century, 133 ; progress of, 171 ; 
 effect of Continental war on, 17 1 ; statistics of, 
 172; table of teachers in, 185, 186; suggestion 
 of Dr. William Hunter, 128 note. 
 
 Medical F School, extramural, of Glasgow, non- 
 recognition by the University, 175. 
 
 Medical teaching, the earliest, in Glasgow, 50. 
 
 Medicine, original unity of i ; chair of, in Glas- 
 gow University, in, 127, 128; relation of the 
 Faculty to, 55 ; defined as including surgery, 70. 
 
 Medicine, Institutes of, as a separate subject of 
 teaching, 174. 
 
 Mediciners, early Glasgow, 17-20. 
 
 Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow, origin of, 
 192 ; some papers read at, 193 ; case of alleged 
 plagiarism, 193 ; contributions made by, 194 ; 
 papers by Professor Lister and Dr. E. Watson, 
 on the germ theory, 194. 
 
 Medico-Chirurgical Society of the University, 187. 
 
 Medico-Chirurgus, 37. 
 
 Melville, John, 247. 
 
 Melville, James, 16. 
 
 Melville, Thomas, 243. 
 
 Melvin, John, 216. 
 
 Michelsoune, George, 79, 235. 
 
 Merchants of Glasgow, dispute with Trades' House, 
 29. 
 
INDEX 
 
 303 
 
 Midwifer}', early Glasgow lecturers on, 134 ; 
 Smellie's treatise on, 252. See Man-Midwifery. 
 
 Midwives in Glasgow, 19; examining and licensing 
 of, by the Faculty, loi. 
 
 Millar, Archibald, 268. 
 
 Millar, Dr. Richard, 132, 141, 1S6, 267. 
 
 Miller, Andrew, 237, 
 
 Miller, Hugh, 148, 269. 
 
 Miller, James, 285. 
 
 Miller, John, 238. 
 
 Miller, Matthew, 52, 241. 
 
 Minute book, burning of, 92 ; \'itiation of, 71. 
 
 Mollison, Alexander, 256. 
 
 Monteath, Dr. G. C, 151, 182, 187, 207, 273. 
 
 Monteath, Dr. James, 134, 179, 261. 
 
 Montgomerie, Dr. George, 93, 253. 
 
 Montgomerie, Hugh, 240. 
 
 Montgomer)', Robert, 256. ^ 
 
 Montrose, Duke of, 174. 
 
 Moore, James Carrick, ^56. 
 
 Moore, Dr. John, 95, 120, 121, 256. 
 
 Moore, .Sir John, 256. 
 
 Moore, Dr. Norman, 39 note. 
 
 Moorhead, John, 216. 
 
 Morris, Dr. Andrew, 94, 95, 119, 135, 204, 255. 
 
 Morris, William, 256. 
 
 Morrison, John, 256. 
 
 Morton, Dr. James, 186, 243, 292. 
 
 Mowat, Mr. Charles, 114, 241. 
 
 Mowat, James, 239. 
 
 "Mr.," prefix of, 45, 113. 
 
 Muir, Andrew, 234. 
 
 Muir, James, 134, 253. 
 
 Muir, James, 271. 
 
 Muir, John, 240. 
 
 Muir, Robert, 239. 
 
 Muir, Thomas, Town councillor, 27. 
 
 Muir, William, 256. 
 
 Muir, the, for the plague-stricken in Glasgow, 11,12. 
 
 Muirhead, L., 186. 
 
 Muiris, Archibald, il. 
 
 Murdoch, John, 249. 
 
 Murray, Alexander, 260. 
 
 Muschet, Patrick, 264. 
 
 Museum, abortive effort to found, 215 ; the Glas- 
 gow Hunterian, 206. 
 
 Muter, James, 243. 
 
 .Muter, John D., 186, 288. 
 
 Myln (Mill), Andrew, 55, 233. 
 
 Myln, Thomas, 18. 
 
 Naismith, John, 216, 245. 
 
 Napier, Thomas, of Ballikinrain, 216, 247. 
 
 Neilson, Francis, 272. 
 
 I Nelson, Gilbert, 241. 
 Nelson, Robert, 274. 
 Nimmo, Alexander, 264. 
 Nimmo, Dr. John, 270. 
 
 Nimmo, Dr. William, 182 {read " William " for 
 "John"), 285. 
 
 Nimmo, William, 153, 263. 
 
 Niven, John, 241. 
 
 Officer, the Faculty, 49 note. 
 Or, John, 33 note, 244. 
 Orr, Mr., Town clerk, 106. 
 Orleans, Medical School of, 24. 
 Ovariotomy, first case of, 114- 116, 249. 
 
 Pagan, Dr. John M., 1S5, 186, 213, 283. 
 
 Painter, John, 8. 
 
 Paisley, visited by the plague, 10 ; the Glasgow 
 
 College migrate to, 13 ; medical members of 
 
 the Faculty in, 64, 65. 
 
 Paisley, John, 91, 92, 93, 118, 251. 
 
 Panton, Dr. A., 270. 
 
 Panton, Dr. John, 288. 
 
 Panton, John, 240. 
 
 Pare, Ambroise, 23, 30, 36. 
 
 Paris, College or Confrairy of Surgeons of, 4; Lowe 
 
 a member of, 23 ; status of the members, 25. 
 Paris Faculty of Medicine, 4 ; members of, at 
 
 funerals, 59. 
 Parker, Dr. Francis, 287. 
 Parker, Dr. Robert, 292. 
 Parlane, Alexander, 258. 
 Parlane, James, 259. 
 Parlane, William, 262. 
 Partnerships, medical, in 18th century, 123. 
 Paterson, Dr. James, 185, 289. 
 Paterson, John, 238. 
 Patients, surgeons debarred from taking each 
 
 others', 45, 59, 75. 
 Patoun, Dr. David, 91, 92, 93, 113, 118, 252. 
 Patoun, Dr. Peter, 91, 92, 93, 118, 216, 247. 
 Patronage of chairs in Glasgow University, 174. 
 Pattison, Granville Sharp, 148, 177, 180, 185, 187, 
 
 273- 
 Paul III., Pope, 41. 
 Pender, Mrs. Marion, 2i6. 
 Penman, William, 264. 
 Pensions from the town to mediciners, 17 ; tlie 
 
 practice of giving discontinued in (ilasgow, 18. 
 Pensioners of the Faculty, 97, 158. 
 Penny, Frederick, 185. 
 Perry, Dr. Robert, 187, 190, 191, 198, 272. 
 Pctrequin on Lithotomy, 53 note. 
 Pettigrew, Thomas, bailie, 20. 
 Phlebotomy practised by barbers, 2 ; in syphilis, 1S9. 
 
304 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Physic Gardens, of the University, 248 ; Dr. Wod- 
 
 row's, 118, 251 ; Mrs. Balmanno's, 268. 
 Physicians, nature of degree of, 5 ; educated 
 abroad, 6 ; admitted as members of the Faculty, 
 6, 64 ; freedom fines paid by, 98, 99 ; as con- 
 sultants in Glasgow, 190; of Edinburgh, attempt 
 to incorporate, 69, 70; College of, 216; of 
 London, 5 ; of Glasgow, sometimes originally 
 general practitioners, 95 ; fees of, 107, 167 ; 
 " Pure," 141. 
 Physicians and Surgeons, united in one body in 
 Glasgow, I ; in London, i note ; disputes be- 
 tween, in Paris, 25. 
 
 " Physiologia" of the Kova Erectio, 123. 
 
 Pillar, the, the punishment of standing at, 26 and 
 note. 
 
 Pitcairn, Dr. Archibald, 212, 216. 
 
 Pitcairn, Mr., 103. 
 
 Plagiarism, alleged case of, 193. 
 
 Plague, epidemics of, in Glasgow, 10 ; statistics 
 anent, lo ; in Paisley, 10 ; fast held in view of, 
 II ; visit of, 1645-6, II ; action of College autho- 
 rities during, ii, 13; seclusion of Glasgow 
 patients to the " muir," 12. 
 
 Poor of Glasgow, in the Town's hospital, 137 and 
 note ; notanda anent, 226 ; early endowments 
 for, 227 ; minute of Town Council anent, 228. 
 
 Poor, the sick, gratuitous medical advice to, 43, 
 94, 136 ; medical treatment of, 153. 
 
 Foore Mans Guide, 34, 53. 
 
 Porter, Alexander, 242. 
 
 Porterfield, Alexander, 91, 92, 93, 118, 216, 249; 
 of that ilk, 216. 
 
 Portland Street Medical School, 183, 185 ; statistics 
 of, 184; teachers of, 185, 186. 
 
 Portuguese army surgeons, 3 note. 
 
 Post-mortem examinations, 106. 
 
 Praeses or President, office of, 93. 
 
 Printing, early Glasgow, 199, 204. 
 
 Prism, reflecting, for illuminating open cavities, 192. 
 
 Privileges, Committee of, 159. 
 
 Procurators, Faculty of, 68 ; members apt to be 
 "boisterous," 68 ; injunctions for, 68. 
 
 Prognosis, Rattray's work on, 202. 
 
 " Propynes " by Glasgow Town Council, 29. 
 
 Prosecutions, 73-75 ; difficulty of in i8th and 19th 
 centuries, loi, 105, 155; revival of, 160; of 
 Thomas Lewis, 102 ; of James Calder, io2 ; of 
 Mr. Pitcairn and Mrs. Douglas, 103 ; of Alex- 
 ander Dunlop, 104; of doctors of medicine, 162; 
 of masters of surgery 165 et seq. ; of women, 75, 
 103. 
 
 Provosts of Glasgow, propynes to, 29. 
 
 Putrefaction, germ theory of, 194. 
 
 Quacks and quackerj' in i6th century, i ; raids 
 against, 74, 96, 103 ; see also Prosecutions. 
 
 Quartermaster, office of, 56 ; filled by Dr. Peter 
 Lowe, 28. 
 
 "Querpo,"' of Garth's Dispensary, 238. 
 Quorum of the Faculty, 97. 
 
 Rae, Doctor, 12, 112. 
 
 Rainy, Dr. Harry, 174, 1S6, 275. 
 
 Ralston, Andrew, 242. 
 
 Ralston, ^Yilliam, 236. 
 
 Rattan jDoyson, 105, 218. 
 
 Rattray, Dr. Sylvester, 61, 112, 199-202, 237. 
 
 Ray's bible, 206. 
 
 Read, Thomas, 233. 
 
 Read, William, 233. 
 
 Reid, Andrew, 216, 248. 
 
 Reid, Dr. Andrew, 280. 
 
 Reid, John, licentiate, 193, 210. 
 
 Reid, Dr. John, 275. 
 
 Reid, Dr. Thomas, 131. 
 
 Renfrew, the parson of, 16. 
 
 Renunciation of the letter of deaconry, 88. 
 
 " Resurrectionism," in Glasgow, 127 ; defence of, 
 177. 
 
 Rheims, Glasgow medical graduate of, 95. 
 
 Richardson, Sir Benjamin Ward, 294. 
 
 Riddall, Andrew, 256. 
 
 Riddell, John, 205, 263. 
 
 Risk, Andrew, 290. 
 
 Ritchie, Dr. Charles, 185, 282. 
 
 Ritchie, Dr. Charles G., 282. 
 
 Robertson, Dr. George, 292. 
 
 Robertson, Dr. John, 265. 
 
 Robertson, Dr. John, 182, 187, 274. 
 
 Robertson, Robert, clerk, 216. 
 
 Robertson, William, 216. 
 
 Robiesoune, James, baxter, 12. 
 
 Robinson, John, 243. 
 
 Robison, James, 216. 
 
 Robison, Sir John, 131. 
 
 Robisoune, John, town's surgeon, 53, 241. 
 
 Robison, Thomas, 240. 
 
 Rodger, James, 75. 
 
 Rogers, H. D., 186. 
 
 RoUand, Peter, 179, 264. 
 
 Rosa Anglka, The, 214. 
 
 Kosa Gallica, The, 214. 
 
 Royal Infirmary (Glasgow), origin of, 137, con- 
 tributions to by the Faculty, 138 ; proposal for 
 rotation of surgeons in, 138, 139 ; plan adopted, 
 140 ; physicians of, 140- 143 ; contest regarding 
 " pure " physicians, 142; appointment of a non- 
 fellow as surgeon, 144; origin and progress of 
 clinical teaching in, 145 ; disputes as to clinical 
 lecturers, 145 ; medical officers disqualified to 
 be managers, 148. 
 
 Russell [Russel], Andrew, 182, 270. 
 
INDEX 
 
 305 
 
 . Sabbatarian zeal, 73 and note. 
 Sailors, old, as practitioners of medicine, 104. 
 St. Andrews, early teaching of medicine in, 41. 
 St. Cflme ; see Paris College of Surgeons. 
 Sayes, James, 243. 
 Scaliger, the elder, 5. 
 Scot, Andrew, 38, 49. 
 Scot, James, 238. 
 Scot, Sir John, Scotstarbet, 199. 
 Scotland, intellectual barrenness in 17th century, 
 
 no. 
 Scotsmen in France, 6. 
 Scouler, Dr., 182. 
 Scruton, John, 179, 263. 
 Scruton, William, 264. 
 Scuile Wynd, the, 13. 
 Seal of Cause ; see Letter of Deaconry. 
 Seal keeper, 94. v 
 
 Serapionis Liber, 214. 
 Sempill, Lord Robert, 37. • 
 Semple, John, 216, 248. 
 Semple, William, 243. 
 Session, the Glasgow General, move in the matter 
 
 of medical reform, 19 ; inquisitorial powers of, 
 
 16 ; summon Peter Lowe before them, 26. 
 Sharp, Mr. David, 72, 113, 239. 
 Shaving, on Sabbath, 72, 73 ; by surgeons, 3 note. 
 Shaw, Christian, Bargarran, 112. 
 Shawfield House riot, 251. 
 Sherriff, William, 284. 
 Shields, James, 244. 
 " Sichting " medicines, 40, 44. 
 Simpson, Sir James, 14. 
 Simpson, Dr. P. A., 209. 
 Simpson, Robert, 262. 
 Simpson, Thomas, 253. 
 Simson, Rev. John, 256. 
 Simson, Robert, 104. 
 Skirban, Mr. George, 216. 
 Slandering the town, 18. 
 Small-pox, Moore's history of, 256. 
 Smellie, Dr. William, 123, 252. 
 Smith, Sir Andrew, 293. 
 Smith, George, 278. 
 Smith, John, youngest, 10. 
 Smith, Dr. John, 36 note. 
 Smith, R. Mann, 281. 
 Smith, Thomas, 261. 
 Smith, Thomas, 69, 242. 
 Sraoliet, Tobias, 120. 
 Societies, Medical, of Glasgow, 187 ^t ieq. 
 Soldiers, quartering of, 105 ; old, as practitioners 
 
 of medicine, 104. 
 Somers, James, 261. 
 
 Souttar, William, 53 note, 79, 239. 
 
 Southern Medical Society, 194 ; features of, 195. 
 
 Spang, William, apothecary, 27, 40, 45, 233. 
 
 "Spanish sicknes," 25, 32, 214. 
 
 Spittal, Dr. John, 282. 
 
 Spottiswoode, Rev. John, 28, 37. 
 
 Spreull, James, 243. 
 
 Spreull, John, 240. 
 
 Stable nuisance, 193. 
 
 Steel, Dr. Francis, 272. 
 
 Stenhouse A., 262. 
 
 Stenhouse, John, 269. 
 
 Sternum, case of congenital deficiency of, 193, 
 
 Steven, James, 293. 
 
 Steven, Dr. James, 208, 291. 
 
 Steven, Dr. J. Lindsay, \x, pref., 210. 
 
 Stevenson, Dr. Alexander, 131, 137, 185, 257. 
 
 Stevenson, James, 73. 
 
 Stevenson, James, Ayr, 73. 
 
 Stevenson, John, 259. 
 
 Steward, Marion, 30. 
 
 Stewart, Dr. James, 195. 
 
 Stewart, Sir James, 80. 
 
 Stewart, Thomas, 257. 
 
 Stirling, John, 185; 277 (read "John" for "Peter"). 
 
 Stirling, Dr. Peter, 287. 
 
 Stirling, Walter, 30. 
 
 Stirling, Mr. William, 86, 91, 93, 118, 119, 216, 
 
 250. 
 Stirling's Library, 151. 
 Stobo, John, 244. 
 Stone, cutting for, 52-55. 
 Strontianite, peculiar earth in, 264. 
 Stuart, Marjory, 8. 
 Stuart, Thomas, 258. 
 Sunday shaving, 72, 73. 
 
 Suppuration, theory of, by Dr. E. Watson, 194. 
 Surgeons, of Edinburgh, College of, 42; of London 
 
 Commonality of, 104. 
 
 Surgeons, socially below the physicians, 5 ; gown, 
 6; terms of admission as freemen, 49; negotia- 
 tions with physicians, 61 et seq.; contests with 
 the barbers, 84 et seq.; renunciation of letter of 
 deaconry by, 88; fee paid by, on entering, 98, 
 99- 
 
 Surgery, divorce of from medicine, 2, 3, 163. 
 
 Swan, James, 258. 
 
 Swan, William, 234. 
 
 Swedish navy surgeons, 3 note. 
 
 Syme, James, 294. 
 
 Sympathetic cures, 200, 201. 
 
 Sympathy, powder of, 200. 
 
 Syphilis, phlebotomy in treatment of, 189. Sec 
 Glengorc ; Spanish Sicknes. 
 
3o6 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW 
 
 Talbot, Sir G., 200. 
 
 Tannahill, Dr. R. D., 291. 
 
 Tap, John, 243. 
 
 Taxation, mode of imposing, 69. 
 
 Tempill, Arthur, 79. 
 
 Tennant, Andrew, 287. 
 
 Tennant, William, 259. 
 
 " Ternary of Paradoxes," 200. 
 
 Theoria medicinae, 214. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. Allen, 173, 185, 294. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. George, 91, 92, 93, 249. 
 
 Thomson, Hugh, 248. 
 
 Thomson, James, 54, 70, 235. 
 
 Thomson, Matthew, 227. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. Thomas, 141 note, 173, 185, 192,279. 
 
 Thomsoune [Thomson], Thomas. 45, 233. 
 
 Thomson, William, 216, 247. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. William, 182, 279. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. William, 185, 294. 
 
 Tobias, James, 239. 
 
 Tod, John, 238. 
 
 Tornamira, Johannes de, 214. 
 
 Tough, Jasper, 245. 
 
 Towers, James, 140, 185, 264. 
 
 Towers, John, 185, 272. 
 
 Town and Country Club, 198. 
 
 Town's Hospital, 92, 136; clinical instruction in, 
 137 and note. 
 
 Town Council of Glasgow, licensing of a surgeon 
 by, 79; lawsuit with the Faculty, 80; arbitrate 
 on complaints of barbers, 84 et seq. ; another 
 lawsuit, 105; depose a visitor of the Faculty, 71 ; 
 minutes of, 77 ; require the president to make a 
 post-mortem examination, 106; minutes of, 
 quoted, 17, 19, 21, 28, 29, 71, 228. 
 
 Tran, Alexander, 216, 244. 
 
 Treasurer of the Faculty, 56. 
 
 Trades' House, dispute with the merchants, 29; 
 representation of the Faculty on, 57; withdrawal 
 from, 81 ; arbitrates on complaints of barbers, 
 84 et seq. 
 
 Tron church, 226. 
 
 Trongate, first Faculty hall in, 81. 
 
 Typhoid fever, diagnosis of from typhus, 190; 
 
 death of Prince Henry from, 39 note. 
 Typhus fever, experimental inoculation of, 191 ; 
 
 large medical mortality from, 159. 
 
 Unity of medicine, i. 
 
 Universities of Aberdeen, 41. 
 
 University of Edinburgh, 163. 
 
 University of Glasgow, migration of, to Irvine, 1 1 ; 
 to Paisley, 13; origin of the Medical School, 
 124, 163; medical graduates, 95 note; teachers 
 of, in nineteenth century, 173, 174; non-recog- 
 nition of extramural teaching by, 175; position 
 
 taken up as to clinical teaching, 145 et seq.', 
 institutes degrees in surgery, 165. 
 
 University of St. Andrews, 5, 41 ; medical gradu- 
 ates of, 163. 
 
 " Upset," the, 50, 224. 
 
 Ure, Dr. Andrew, 180, 269. 
 
 Ure, David, preacher, 179. 
 
 Uric, Robert, printer, 204. 
 
 Vaccination, beginning of, in Glasgow, 153; first 
 station, 154; progress of, 155; history of, by 
 Moore, 256. 
 
 Valiere, Mile, de la, 19 note. 
 
 Van Helmont, 201. 
 
 Vennail, The Stinking, 13. 
 
 Vesalius, first edition of his anatomy, 214. 
 
 Visitation of the University of Glasgow, iii. 
 
 Visitor, office of, 37, 45, 93, 94; the crime of blas- 
 pheming, 67 et seq. ; for the country, 65 ; illegal 
 election of, 71 ; deposition by the town council, 
 72 ; physician-, 93 ; official head of surgeons, 
 160; vice-president, 161; 
 
 Waddell, James, 272. 
 Walker, Marionne, 11. 
 Walker, Dr, Thomas, 277. 
 Wallace, Dr. John Ritchie, 280. 
 Wallace, Dr. Michael, Ayr, 64, 65, 74. 
 Wallace, Robert, elder, 91, 92, 93, 122. 
 Wallace, Robert, younger, 122, 140, 250, 257. 
 Wallace, William, 216. 
 Wallace, Dr. William, 61, 23S. 
 Wappenschawing, application for exemption from, 
 
 90. 
 Warden, Dr. A., 192. 
 Warding, application for exemption from, 90. 
 
 Wark, David, 286. 
 
 Watching, application for exemption from, 90. 
 
 Water bailie, his charge of lepers, 8. 
 
 Water, searching for, round Glasgow, 132 note. 
 
 Watson, Dr. Eben., 186, 194, 290. 
 
 Watson, George, 272. 
 
 Watson, Dr. James, 271. 
 
 Watson, Dr. Thomas, 192, 291. 
 
 Watt, George, 186, 190, 284. 
 
 Watt, James, 240. 
 
 Watt, Dr. Robert, 180, 187, 188, 206, 214, 270. 
 
 Wedderburn, Sir John, 202 and note. 
 
 Weir, James, 216, 242. 
 
 Weir, John, 257. 
 
 Weir, Dr. William, 184, 191, 208, 275, \,pref. 186. 
 
 Wemyss [Weems], Mr. David, 16, 32. 
 
 Wemyss [Weems], Helen, 30, 32. 
 
 Western Infirmary, 151. 
 
 Western Medical Club, 198. 
 
INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Whiteside, Philip, 26. 
 
 Whyte, John, 243. 
 
 Whytt, Dr. Robert, 214. 
 
 Widows' Fund of the faculty, 158, 159 ; separation 
 
 of from the faculty, 230. 
 Wigtown, Earl of, 13. 
 
 Wilson, Dr. James, 150, 185, 189, 192, 276. 
 Wilson, Dr. J. G., 276. 
 Wilson, James, 240. 
 Wilson, John, 255. 
 Wilson, Nathan, 253. 
 Wilson, William, 246. 
 Wilsone, Charles, 140, 260. 
 Wilsone, David Henry, 273. 
 Wiseman's treatise on wounds, 214. 
 Witchcraft, the Bargarran case, 112, as an alleged 
 
 cause of disease, 202. 
 Witkowski, G., 19 ^tote. 
 
 Wodrow, Dr. John, 91, 92, 93, 118, 216, 251. 
 Wodrow, Rev. Robert, 126, 204 note, 245, 247, 
 249, 251. 
 
 Women, prosecution of, 75, 103. 
 Wounds, Wiseman's treatise on, 214. 
 Wright, Dr. Peter, 122, 259. 
 Wright, Dr. William, 216, 247. 
 Wyllie, William, 274. 
 
 Young, Archibald, 140, 262. 
 Young, Dr. John, 274. 
 Young, John, 187. 
 Young, Robert, 259. 
 Young, Dr. William, 277. 
 Younger, Thomas, 239. 
 
 Zuill, James, 257. 
 
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