xii THE "MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS" 141 



others who joined it after its first origin. The society thus 

 formed as a small coterie of friends was afterwards enlarged 

 and organised, and well maintained by a succession of intelli- 

 gent students. It acquired in course of time a library, and in 

 1775 had become so large and important that a hall was built 

 for its accommodation. The money for this purpose was 

 raised by subscription. The Duke of Buccleuch and Fother- 

 gill, who ever loved his alma mater, gave 100 each, and others 

 contributed smaller sums. In 1778 the society came under 

 royal patronage, and it still flourishes as the Royal Medical 

 Society of Edinburgh. 1 



About the year 1752, when Fothergill had been twelve 

 years in practice in London, he and some other physicians, 

 who had the care of hospitals or were otherwise of repute in 

 the profession, agreed to meet together from time to time, in 

 order to discuss the prevalent diseases and their methods of 

 cure, to relate cases of interest, and to canvass new discoveries. 

 Dr. J. Clephane, the intimate friend of Hume, Drs. Silvester 

 and Dickson of the London Hospital, Drs. G. Macaulay.and 

 S. Pye, were among the number, besides Dr. William Hunter, 

 and afterwards Drs. Michael Morris, Brocklesby, W. Watson 

 and Solander. The Medical Society at Edinburgh, which 

 had issued the Medical Essays, was their example, and some 

 of them had belonged to the students' society at that univer- 

 sity. After some time the society began to publish, at Fother- 

 gill's instance and expense, a selection of the papers which 

 had been read before it. Six -volumes of Medical Observations 

 and Inquiries, well printed and bound, were issued between 

 1757 and 1784. They formed a valuable body of clinical 

 medicine, and had a high reputation in their day, several 

 editions being called for. Some of the essays are still referred 

 to. Those of Fothergill, who wrote or communicated more 

 than fifty papers, that is, one-quarter of the whole, have been 



1 Letter from Cuming to Lettsom, 1782, in Mem. Lettsom, iii. 288 ; Foth., 

 Works, ii. 367. See also Dr. Garland's eloquent panegyric (1763), showing 

 the admirable spirit in which the society was carried on : " Is certe locus est, 

 ubi audita a doctoribus, e libris petita, undecunque accepta ad medicinam 

 pertinens disciplina, in medium prolata, ac ultro, citroque in contrarias partes 

 disputando agitata, altius in omnium animos influit : ubi juventutis studia 

 gloria incenduntur, exercitatione acuuntur, animique ad multiplicis ac spinosae 

 scientia? quasrendae laborem perferendum, propositis ex suorum numero 

 exemplis pulcherrimis, perpelluntur, postremo, ubi omnes inter se mutuae 

 amicitiae firmissimum nectit vinculum. Floruit triginta prope annos his 

 juvenilis circulus, et ut aeternum floreat precor ! " Idem, p. 368, note ; Med. 

 and Philos. Commentaries (Edin.), iii. 446 ; Hist, of Roy. Med. Soc. Edin. ; 

 J. Thomson, Life of Cullen, i. 9, n. A MS. book containing the discourses 

 of the Society in 1735 was in 1788 in Cullen's possession. 



