1823.] 



amount of his medical attainments. 

 When it is considered how numerous 

 questions the extensive sciences of 

 anatomy, surgery, chemistry, materia 

 medica, botany, with the practice and 

 theory of medicine, can supply, it may 

 be conceived that a full preparation 

 for passing this ordeal triumphantly is 

 not quite an insignificant exertion : 

 indeed, I think it doubtful whether, all 

 things considered, a much more equi- 

 tably severe medical tribunal exists than 

 that before which an Edinburgh gra- 

 duate is summoned ; and it is certainly 

 by no means too severe. Of 100 ap- 

 plicants, I suppose that not much 

 more than ten usually get rejected; 

 and a sieve, which allows ninety grains 

 in every hundred to pass through, can 

 never be impermeable to moderate 

 diligence. A deep consciousness of 

 the indelible stigma attached to him 

 who gets foiled in bis effort to pass the 

 examination, is a valuable inducement 

 to the student to resist those tempta- 

 tions to idle lounging which a city 

 always presents. When the first day 

 of trial is fairly got over, the other 

 university-requisitions are not very 

 alarming. Men, who bear the first 

 test, are seldom afterwards rejected, 

 except for contempt of court ; yet the 

 business is far from being completed. 

 On the 24th of June, the candidate 

 undergoes a second examination be- 

 fore two professors, which, however, 

 lasts not much more than five or six 

 minutes; whereas the former continues 

 nearly an hour and a half. He then 

 receives an aphorism of Hippocrates, 

 and a medical question, both of which 

 he must illustrate in writing, and de- 

 fend before the professors, who pro- 

 pose them on the 6th of July. On this 

 day he receives two Histories of 

 Disease, with questions annexed : 

 these he is expected to answer, and to 

 defend his opinions, on the 22d of 

 July, on which day he delivers in to 

 the Dean of the Faculty eight printed 

 copies of his Inaugural Discourse. On 

 the 31st of July this Thesis is said to 

 be publicly defended ; but the attend- 

 ance is chiefly to hear the judgment of 

 the professor who has examined it, as 

 to the merits of the performance. 

 This accomplished, all preparatory 

 labours and cares are at an end ; and 

 it only remains that, on the 1st of 

 August, the degree should be con- 

 ferred publicly and solemnly. The 

 graduates promise to practise their 

 profession honourably, to remember 



The Medical School of Edinburgh. 99 



the poor with compassion, and to pro- 

 mote the prosperity of the university : 

 all which, though of no earthly use, are 

 much better than the subscriptions and 

 oaths of other colleges in the south. 

 They are pronounced by the principal 

 of the university Doctors of ;\ledicine, 

 and admitted to the honourable cere- 

 mony of Capping, after which they be- 

 come really and truly physicians to the 

 very ends of their finger-nails. 



The Edinburgh Diploma entitles to 

 practise anywhere in Britain or 

 abroad, except in London, or within 

 the bills of mortality. In Scotland, 

 very many physicians practise gene- 

 rally, not observing very scrupulously 

 the difference of the medical and sur- 

 gical spheres of exertion. The case is 

 somewhat similar abroad. In no 

 country are the distinctions of apothe- 

 cary, surgeon, and physician, so very 

 punctiliously attended to as in Eng- 

 land; and, in the colonies, the Edin- 

 burgh Diploma is much respected. 

 In very few important stations are 

 there not some medical men originally 

 from this university. 



A man may pursue his studies for 

 less than a hundred pounds a-year, 

 but he must not drink much wine. 

 Domestic expenses are decidedly 

 less in Edinburgh than in London. 

 The fee to each lecture is about 

 the same; that is, four guineas; and 

 the graduation fees may be esti- 

 mated at less than twenty-four gui- 

 neas. The professors are, in general, 

 men of considerable wealth, various 

 learning, affable condescension, and 

 general urbanity of deportment. 

 Looking upon the school as a whole, I 

 doubt whether greater advantages can 

 be simultaneously enjoyed in any ex- 

 isting medical academy ; and I should 

 wish any ma'h, who would form a cor- 

 rect and favourable idea of the general 

 attainments of the medical students 

 there, to attend a full meeting of the 

 Royal Medical Society, on an evening 

 in which a subject of general interest 

 is discussed. Had I a sick brother or 

 friend, and the liberty of choosing 

 from all the members of the JLscula- 

 pian art, both exotic and indigenous, I 

 should prefer a surgeon of the London 

 scliool, and a physician of Edinburgh. 

 He that aims at the high character of 

 an accomplished general practitioner, 

 will labour to combine the medical 

 philosophy of the North, with the 

 prompt and skilful manual dexterity 

 of the South ; and he may sweeten the 



toils 



