3* MEMOIR OP 



general and special questions are then repeated, 

 which concludes the book. 



At the same time, he published in English " An 

 account of the Scottish Atlas, or the description 

 of Scotland, Ancient and Modern," folio. 



Dr Sibbald was highly instrumental in the 

 establishment of the College of Physicians in 

 Edinburgh, which originated in a dispute on the 

 part of a Mr Cunningham, a surgeon, with the 

 company of surgeon apothecaries, who had 

 refused him admission into their society ; in con- 

 sequence of which he raised an action in the 

 Court of Session, as to their right to exclusive 

 privileges ; upon which the judges thought it 

 necessary to take an opinion from four of the 

 principal physicians in Edinburgh, Doctors Hay, 

 Burnet, Stevenson, and Balfour : first, whether 

 the junction of the profession of surgeon with 

 that of apothecary was customary in other coun- 

 tries ; and, secondly, whether such an union was 

 beneficial or not. In an affair of so great impor- 

 tance, the gentlemen appealed to consulted with 

 the other physicians before drawing up their 

 report, and to debate the matter, they called a 

 general meeting of the profession, to meet at Dr 

 Hay's house, when they came to a resolution that 

 there was no such union of these departments in 

 other countries, and that such an union was " very 

 prejudicial," both to the public and to the physi- 



