NATURE 



[November i8, 1909 



ivith the language of the people. To cite an illustrious 

 example from the south of the Tweed. William Harvey, 

 the son of a Kentish yeoman, was educated in classics and 

 physics at Gonville-Caius College, Cambridge. In 1598 he 

 went to the University of Padua, where he studied under 

 Fabricius, at that time the most eminent professor of 

 iinatomy in Italy. Profiting by the best means of instruc- 

 tion available at that time, and as a result of his own 

 subsequent and independent observations and experiments, 

 lie discovered the circulation of the blood, and wrote his 

 treatise " De motu Cordis et Sanguinis," which has made 

 iiis name immortal, and has entitled him to be called the 

 founder of exact physiological science, and the father of 

 modern medicine. 



Ambitious young Scotsmen did not lag behind in the 

 <lc-sire to extend and perfect their studies by residence at 

 schools of learning on the Continent. Literature, philo- 

 sophy, and theology at first were the subjects of attraction ; 

 tut later on medicine and science were cultivated with 

 great zeal, and instruction and training in their applica- 

 tion were obtained abroad of a quality surpassing that 

 procurable in the universities of their native land. 



In the latter half of the seventeenth century, three 

 Edinburgh physicians. Sir Robert Sibbald, Sir Andrew 

 Balfour, and Dr. Archibald Pitcairnc, all of whom had 

 ■studied abroad, took a kading part in the development and 

 cultivation of medicine and science in Edinburgh. 



Sibbald, Balfour, and Patrick Murray, the laird of 

 Livingstone, being desirous of encouraging the study of 

 liotany, were bent on founding a medicine or physic 

 garden, and, acting in conjunction with some other 

 physicians, obtained a lease from the Town Council of 

 the garden of Trinity Hospital for that purpose. They 

 imported plants and seeds from abroad, obtained subscrip- 

 tions from the nobility, the E.xchequer, and members of 

 the College of Justice, and established the garden which 

 ■was. the precursor of our world-famed Royal Botanic 

 Carden. 



In 1680 Drs. Balfour, Archibald Pitcairne, Sir Thomas 

 Burnett, and other physicians met once a fortn'ght or so 

 In Sibbald's house, to confer on " what was most remark- 

 able a doing by the learned, some rare cases that had 

 iiappened In our practice, and ane account of Bookes that 

 tended to the improvement of medicine or natural history, 

 or any other curious learning." So far as I have been 

 able to ascertain, these conferences marked the first 

 attempt in Scotland to bring together at regular intervals, 

 for purposes of discussion and mutual improvement, those 

 ■who had common interests in science and medicine. On 

 ■St. Andrew's Day, 16S1, after much negotiation, con- 

 ducted principally by Drs. Sibbald, Balfour, and Stevenson, 

 and with the aid of H.R.H. James, Duke of York, and 

 Sir Charles Scarborough, His Majesty's first phvsician, a 

 patent was granted by King Charles II. to found the 

 Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and in 16.S4 

 "Sibbald was elected president of the college. .After its 

 institution the meetings for discussion and interchange of 

 "ideas were discontinued in Sibbald's hause, and were held 

 monthly in the college. 



In granting a charter in July, 1662, to the Royal Societv 

 of London, and one in 1681 to the Royal "College of 

 Physicians of Edinburgh, Charles did two wise actions, 

 which have encouraged science, medicine, and learning, 

 , and therein have redounded to his honour and to that of 

 liis kingdom. 



The scientific spirit and foresight shown by Balfour and 

 Sibbald more than two centuries ago gave an impetus to 

 the study of the natural sciences in Scotland, which as 

 time went on resulted in the establishment of two institu- 

 tions of which Edinburgh may well be proud, the Royal 

 Botanic Garden and the Royal Scottish Museum. 



Early in the eighteenth cenfurv, and during its con- 

 tinuance, a remarkable intellectual awakening took place 

 In Scotland. Public affairs, with the exception of the 

 abortive Jacobite risings in 1715 and 1745, had by this 

 time become more settled. Through the development of 

 -agriculture, mining, manufactures, and commerce, Scot- 

 land had begun to emerge from being a poor country to 

 a state of comoarative affluence. M»n found it possible 

 to direct their thoughts to the arts of peace and to study 

 letters, philosophy, and science. \\'ithin tlie universities, 

 NO. 2090, VOL. 8j] 



as well as in cultured society outside them, men of marked 

 ability came prominently to the front, maiiy of whom 

 acquired, and have retained, a world-wide reputation. 



.4n important change took place within the universities 

 themselves in connection with the methods of instruction 

 imparted in the faculty of arts. The old system of 

 regents, under which it was the duty of each regent to 

 act as tutor to a group of pupils from entrance to laurea- 

 tion, in all the subjects of a prescribed curriculum, began 

 to be abolished, and a special subject was allotted to a 

 particular teacher, who became a professor in that sub- 

 ject.' Encouragement was in this way given to a more 

 profound study and fuller exposition ot the subjects 

 entrusted to the professors. Mathematics and philosophy, 

 both natural and mental, especially commended themselves 

 to the Scottish intellect. Great developments also took 

 place in medicine and in the sciences on which it is based. 

 The incorporation of the physicians of Edinburgh into a 

 Royal College in 1681, the severance in 1722 of the cor- 

 porate interests of the surgeons from those of the barbers, 

 and the granting a new charter in 1778 to the surgeons, 

 which incorporated them as a Ro\al College, greatly 

 improved the tone and status of the medical profession in 

 Edinburgh and in the adjoining counties. 



.\s an indication of the value attached in Scotland during 

 the eighteenth century to the medical education to be 

 obtained in foreign universities, I may state that, from 

 the foundation of the medical faculty in Edinburgh in 

 1726 until about the end of the century, fourteen of the 

 professors in that faculty studied, either in whole or in 

 part, in universities in Holland, France, or Italy, and 

 niany took the degree of Doctor of Medicine abroad. Of 

 these, ten were educated at the University of Leyden, to 

 which they had been attracted by the fame of Boerhaave. 



The language common to all cultured people at that 

 time enabled students to migrate from one European uni- 

 versity to another, and to converse and receive instruction 

 through one of the noblest of tongues, without having to 

 resort to such mongrel forms of speech, to facilitate general 

 intercourse amongst the nations, as Iiave recently been 

 devised by some ingenious persons. In the quality and 

 range of their education and intellectual attainments, pro- 

 fessors of science and the leaders in medicine were on 

 an equal footing with the members of the Church and 

 Bar, and with those who cultivated philosophy and litera- 

 ture. Members of the several professions acquired the 

 habit of meeting together on a friendly footing, and were 

 often joined by country gentlemen living in proximity to 

 Edinburgh. Clubs and societies of various kinds, literary, 

 social, medical, scientific, and legal, became the fashion. 



In 173 1 the leading v)hysicians and surgeons in Edin- 

 burgh instituted a Medical Society for the improvement 

 of medical knowledge. Monro primus acted as secretary, 

 and under his supervision six volumes of " Medical Essays 

 and Observations " communicated to the society were pub- 

 lished. The " Essays " reached a fifth edition in 1771. 

 They were tr.imslated into some foreign langu.iges, were 

 highly commended, and assisted in making the medical • 

 school of the L'niversity known throughout Europe. 

 .Shortly after the formation of the Medical Society several 

 of the leading lawyers, professors in Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

 and St. .Andrews, country gentlemen, Willi.mi Adams the 

 architect, and others, formed a Society for Improving Arts 

 nnd Science, particularly Natural Knowledce. Colin 

 Maclaurin was the movinc spirit; he and .Andrew Plummer 

 were secretaries, and the first president was James 

 Doutflas, fourteenth Erirl of Morton, who became in 1764 

 president of the Royal Society of London. 



fit mav not be out of pl.nce to refer to the part taken 

 by Scotsmen in the earlv history of the Roval Societv of 

 f.ondon. In the original charter appear the names of Sir 



t Durine the incumbency of the regent^, La'in w:ic the medium of intc- 

 course hetween teacherF and stud**nts. After 'he introd-'ciion of prnfes-^nt-- 

 shin'i the lectures in manv siibiects were dellvrett in Latin well into the 

 eiehreenth rentiirv. CJr Alexander Grant sav^ thtt '^t. Clair, p'o'e«"r of 

 medicine, lectured in Latin (:726-i747), as indeed was the prar-tice with all 

 the racnltv of medicine, except anatomy. In Glasgow. Cullen lectur.=d 

 t'-'iS) on hotanv in Latin, hnt his lectures nn medicine were delivered in 

 F-nelish, Sir Rohert Christison relates in h's " Autohiosraphv " that in 

 iSioh's oral examination for the decree of Do^-tor o' Medicine was con. 

 ducted in Latin. The theses presented for sradualion in medicine in 

 t-'d'iihiireh were written and printed 'n T.at'n down to ifi-j^, and an occa- 

 sional thesis in the same language was presented as late as i?44. 



