CHAPTEE XXIV. 



THE PROPHET OF BETHELNIE STATE OF MEDICAL 



PRACTICES DR. ADAM DONALD HIS HISTORY AND 

 CLAIMS CRITICALLY VIEWED SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF 

 IN WITCHES AND OCCULT SKILL. 



IN the early part of the eighteenth century, as indeed 

 was the case till near its close, the learned professions 

 apart always from the office of the ministry held 

 but dubious footing in country districts. The school- 

 master, as has been already remarked, was a person of 

 no great consideration in point of erudition or other- 

 wise. In the Aberdeenshire Poll Book he is never rated 

 as a " gentleman"; and they did not deem it worth 

 while to exact anything more of poll money from 

 him than was paid by an ordinary cottar. Here and 

 there sometimes in rather out of the way places a 

 man qualified to act as a "notar publict" was set down; 

 but for the matter of fifty miles along the main route 

 northward from Aberdeen, only a single individual with 

 the technical qualification of a doctor of medicine pre- 

 sents himself at that date.* Sixty years later, so 

 meagre were the means of medical instruction that an 

 Elgin doctor thought it worth his while to inform the 

 people of Aberdeen that any gentleman " desirous of 

 breeding a son to medicine," provided the lad had 

 made sufficient progress in Latin, Greek, and Mathe- 

 matics, might through his services have him initiated 

 in Pharmacy, Chemistry, the Materia Medica, Anatomy, 



* Mr. James Milne, doctor of medicine, Inverurie. 



