34 
MEMOIR OF 
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 fonr 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- 
