SKETCHES of the MEDICAL SCHOOLS OF SCOTLAND.

254

which of the MEDICAL SCHOOLS exercise of that skill, as it was said, of the he had acquired under the auspices OF SCOTLAND. Munro. My illness and future destigreat No. I. nation having led to an intimacy with the LETTER INTRODUCTORY. doctor, my respect for his alma mater" still heightened by the flattering ac. Edinburgh, Nov. 10,1826. was counts of its superiority, with which he be. " Quicquid erit vitm color, scribam." HOR. guiled me into potations of chamomile tea in the morning, and of course gave me a AIR. EDITOR, You may possibly recollect, though the due sense of his foreign acquirements. As occurrence is somewhat of an old date, that my education, however, proceeded, the pre. the last time we had the pleasure of meet- judices of my youth were further strength. ing in London, amongst many other topics ened by a daily communion with the names talked over, a conversation took place on of authors and of books, most of which I the affairs of the North. If traced to a Caledonian origin, every elemen. my memory has not been since deranged by tary work put into my hands being .either the multifarious objects on which our pur- composed, revised, or compiled by some suits necessarily engage us, you seemed to luminary of the North, while the magical think then, that while most persons spoke letters of EDINBURGH, emblazoned at the Domina rerum" of medicine in these bottom of each title page, inspired me with of the countries, but few were intimately acquaint- a veneration even for its types. ed with the laws of her temples, and the Contracting in my progress, what many characters of the priesthood who at present wiseacres would be pleased to call an idle officiate at her hundred altars. Pursuing habit of looking into reviews, journals, and the metaphor, I presume you further ob- medical biography, the intellectual feats served, that, like false religions, scientific in- of Scottish Crichtons recorded in these stitutions had their saints, under whose tute- pages struck my imagination with the force Here I ever found lage they dazzled the eyes of mankind by a of a scientific romance. borrowed splendour, and thus prolonged for the appellation of " nurse of science," awhile the empire of error; but that reason " the modern Athens," the " cradle of de- philosophers," ready at the point of some and the public good now manded a reformation in this as well as in patriotic pen, to do homage to this land of " every similar establishment. 1 am not so learning. Itwas consequently the llIecca," vain as to suppose that these remarks were the " Delphic Oracle," the " Vale of Egemade in order to induce me to share the ria," to which all studious pilgrims should toils of a task which, you must have per- resort to drink of the pure springs of knowceived at the time, I deemed of more than ledge ; in short, the idol brightened asI doubtful propriety ; for you will do me the gazed, until, purged of all earthly traces of justice to admit here, that to your opinions imperfection by the intensity of admiraI opposed such arguments as my knowledge tion, it shone forth at length the true diviof the subject supplied, so that, whatever nity of my worship. All this I conscienmy views may turn out to be on this queh tiously believed, and could I help it? I was tion, you are aware of my former preposses- told it, read it, heard it in,every possible sions in favour of the University of Edin- shape and form, and could I be less than burgh. How, indeed, could I be otherwise Pyrrho himself, to doubt the truth of my affected for, as I stated, (while you listened convictions2 My faith, to be sure, was with a smile of patient incredulity curling essentially Christian in its nature, being on your lips, amused, no doubt, by the based on a series of mysteries which I could weakness of my positions,) I had been so not comprehend ; but enough of the inherilong accustomed to hear and read of its cele- tance of ’Eve fell to my lot to desire to eat brity, that a belief in the production of of the " forbidden tree," to examine with great men being as natural to the soil of my own eyes what other causes besides cool Scotland as the growth of the thistle, formed breezes and elevated scenery could have cona portion of my earliest stock of ideas.- tributed to adorn the halls of Edina with so Even at this distant period I can collect, many trophies of genius, and whether, in a as from the confused impressions of a dream, practical point of view, the student’sopporthe dialogues of papa and mamma on the tunities of acquiring information were pro’ matter; the former of whom was for trans- portionate to the fame which the presence mitting me to Edinburgh, as the only place of many illustrious individuals had conferunder heaven where I could be tauglit the red on her institutions. Such were the feelings whence my opposi. art of healing in a proper manner. In support of this allegation, lie adduced the suc- tion to your opinions originated, when vonr cessful practice of one Dr. Salts, an eminentpatience giving way, and your eye sparkphysician of our village, who had but a little ling with indignation, you abruptly replied, before rescued me from the grave, by the that the days of Dr. Salts and the village

SKETCHES

professional

"

imperiously

my

-

255 alumni of the Scottish Universities were mind, that consistency of character, equaaway ; that their former celebrity lity of rank amongst its members, tendency was no compensation for their present de- to progressive improvement, and susceptifects, and that a new and a better order of bility of adaptation to all the wants and things was in progress of development. wishes of society, which ought to belong to LTniversities having abused their privileges, the most necessary of all the arts cultivated should be deprived of the power of confer- by man. ring degrees, the usage being no longer The complacent elevation of the eyes with applicable to the exigencies and circum- which a "builder of castles in the air" may stances of a professiorr which had grown be supposed to contemplate the fabrics of sufficiently numerous and important to con- his own fancy, may serve to give some idea stitute an independent body for the manage- of my appearance on hearing this announcement of its own affairs, the improvement of ment. For, notwithstanding the animated its art, and the education of its members. and eloquent manner in which you delivered Instead of the three or four Corporations your scheme of regeneration, I could not which at present preside over the destinies help suspecting at the instant that it partook of Medicine in England, Scotland, and Lre- as much of fiction as of fact, and was but

passing

each of which Corporations, while another effusion of that unusual beneall arrogate an infallibility in their volence of which you had given so many councils, legislate in direct opposition to proofs in your incursions on the Juggereach other, one college would suffice In each naut" of medical corruption. Yet, on reflecof these countries, in the government of tion, the simplicity of your arrangement, which all its licentiates should equally par- contrasted with the intricacies of that which ticipate. In conformity with this plan the it was intended to supersede, filled my mind instruction of every practitioner should be with that pleasure which one is apt to feel the same, as it was most fully ascertained on beholding a Grecian structure, after bethat the splitting of medicine into physic ing bewildered in the endless grainings and and surgery made divisions but no distinc- tracings of Gothic architecture. I almost tions. For the more easy and economical became an Utopian convert at the prospect attainment of this object, four professor- of so many advantages being secured, and so ships,-one for natural history, another for many ills avoided, by such facile means, chemistry, a third for anatomy, and a fourth more particularly when I applied this new for medicine,—would answer the purpose. scale of economy to the University of EdinUnder these four heads was comprehended burgh, which you were pleased to select as the whole range of medical science, and for a model of the old school. Considering its the poor young gentleman’s trouble, he was pretensions, and dismissing for the time all to be dignified with but one title,-having prejudices, I began to think that the mapexamined him on natural history in a mu- ping out of medicine into ten territories, seum, on chemistry in a laboratory, and on the exact number cultivated in my favourite anatomy and medicine in a dissecting room University, savoured very strongly of a Teand a hospital. By the adoption of these ductio ad absurdum of Adam Smith’s division principles in the founding of colleges, and of labour. Could a student of ever such exthe conducting the education of their num- tensive capacity imbibe in four years the bers, the monopolies, contradictions, and flood of knowledge poured into him by these jealousies of selfish societies were to be ten great reservoirs ?was a question which removed ; the absurdity of the public being ew acquaintance with many pupils who apcompelled to maintain twosets of practi- peared to have been drowned in the experitioners for the treatment of one disease ment, naturally suggested. The unerring would cease ; and the inconsistency of Army certainty, too, with which many of my earBoards requiiing no less than three or four lier companions returned, labelled like an grades of doctors be prevented, as if the apothecary’s empty phial, with certain hierlife of a grenadier was not of equal value to oglyphics attached to their names, rushed on himself and his " lTajesty" as that of a my recollection, and excited some strange marine—in 1820 asin 1825. Proceeding in doubts about the mode of analysing a candithe same line of revolutionary exposition, date’s qualifications for such sacred credenyou launched into an eulogium on the ex- tials. The obligation of residing one year, cellence of your design, and the doors of at least, at "head quarters," looked very hospitals seemed to fly open at the sound of like the payment of tithes to the " Levi" of your voice-libraries and museums to de- the temple, while the generosity of permitliver up their dead—the frauds committed ting the itinerant supplicant of a degree to under the guise of apprenticeships to dis- acquire all the other necessaries for its atappear-the thousand other inconveniences tainment at home, threw some light on the and expenses by which the student is em- regulation. The influx of strangers which barrassed to vanish, and the profession of this device, so ingeniously constructed to

land,

they

medicine

assumed, for the moment,

in your

elude the restrictions of other colleges, pro-

256

duced, turned my attention to the Hospital stitutions, that each may profit by the ex. department, and I asked myself, Could so amples of its competitors, and to demon. many pupils see, hear, touch, exercise the strate in what they all err, form a series of

propositions more of interest than of canosity, and which, owing to the manner of conducting the medical press of Great attendance, under such circumstances, being Britain, previous to the publication of your required for a diploma, forced me to inquire, Journal, were never thoroughly investi. Could a lad of ever such smart parts take a gated. With many, indeed, it has beena dying fellow creature by the hand, and, with matter of some surprise, that while your such scanty preparation, say, "Sir, I will pages teemed with intelligence from every prescribe for you?" The scarcity of anato- other capital, there was no spare corner for mical material next gave a new direction to Edinburgh, the caput micndi of British medi. my soliloquizing, and the interrogation fol- cine. Now, although my future labours lowed, Could demonstrations and plates be shall be principally directed to accomplish senses

in

acquiring

a

familiarity

with dis-

ease, in one comparatively small establishment of this kind? Again, only one year’s

substitutes for dead bodies, of which the this desideratum, as the critics say, and to bailies of Edinburgh seemed so extremely throw some light on the subjects glanced at in this paper, I by no means wish to prediparsimonious ? Having thus reasoned on some of the cate any thing of the manner in which my more prominent features of the picture attempts shall be executed,-promises of which you had drawn with so bold a hand, that kind, like an "I owe you," being sdI thought it possible that the representation dom punctually discharged. I may, for inmight, in many respects, be correct; but still stance, to-day, fall into a private school at I could not go the whole length of your con- the awful hour of instruction, where Hygeia, demnation. Justice demanded an examina- personified by some lecturer learned in all tion of the data with which you had so the arts, scatters her precepts amongst a liberally supplied me, before I came to draw spell-bound audience, catch the expression any fixed conclusions. Besides, I argued, of his features, or the outlines of his dis on the other side, that the division of medi- course, and returning home, rescue from cine into so many branches, tended to haveoblivion the corctrncr of the scene, ere it ladee each more profitably cultivated both by the away for ever from the faithless mirror of pupil and professor; that travelling from the mind. To-morrow, as it may be, the one country to another improved the man- university, that peristriphic panorama" of ners and enlarged the ideas of the wanderer, intellect, may attract my attention; and, besides being sanctioned by the example of seated on one of its benches, as upon one the ancient philosophers, who, as every one of those eternal mounts that tower above our knows, were all, more or less, of the peripa- city, there to feast the sight with outtetic sect; that hereditary professorships stretched palaces, sublime mountains, Illusses did not necessarily imply incompetent ap- of wood, and the sail dimly seen on the pointments, as a son might be worthy of his verge of the distant ocean ; here to admire sire, though the case of Marcus, and’many the proportions of structures of another at the magic call of others, clashed with the supposition ; that, kind, starting in short, ingenuity in the system of com- invention ; the solidity of facts connected municatiug instruction might obviate many by argument into indissoluble union, the impediments which Edinburgh presented to toils of some labourer working his way the study of the healing art. But the shrug through the brakes and brambles of knotty of indifference with which you received all demonstration, or, turning round, hail the my charitable constructions, left no other approach of some navigator launched on alternative than to examine the real state of the boundless abyss of hypothesis, ashe affairs at the fountain head ; and the more I struggles for port with some new doctrine considered the subject, the more import- against adverse currents ; or, obedient to ant the aspect it assumed. In the final ad- the summons of the bell at noon, pass over judication of the question which then casually to the Royal Infirmary, to follow the itarose between us, much useful information cisions of some dexterous operator through must necessarily be promulged ; and how- all the evolutions of the scalpel, and ivateli ever ungrateful the task may be to indi- the less certain advances of the physician viduals, the public will be eventually served. to the citadel of disease, and the results of To point out the means by which one his contentions with the enemy. In short, for so many y6arf,, whenever my fancy is tickled by any ludiestablishment m&intained an ascendancy in the didnctic departments crous associations, my instructed of the profession in these islands,—to ex- by any new accession of hnowlege, or my plain the influence which this monopoly sense of I)rol)riety provoked by the comexereispd on the state of medicine, and the mission of error, my peu shall be the faith. respectability of its pracritioners,—to corn. ful

into being

judgment

pare the merits aad defects of different in-

registrar of my feelings.

i

SCOTUS.