July 27, 2025 • 42 mins
Dive into the lives and achievements of doctors who made history in their field. Journey from the inception of the prestigious Edinburgh School of Medicine, through William Harveys revolutionary work on blood circulation, to the advancements in surgery and Edward Jenners pivotal role in creating vaccines. This is Volume 1 of a two-part series.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section four of Eminent Doctors Their Lives in Their Work,
Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Eminent Doctors their Lives in
Their Work, Volume one, But George Thomas Bettany, the Monroes, Cullen,
(00:27):
the Gregory's, John Bell, and the foundation of the Edinburgh
School of Medicine, Part one. Notwithstanding the early day of
the foundation of the College of Physicians of London, and
the fact that the illustrious names of Harvey and send
to him and others adorn the rise of rational medicine
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in the South, the credit of first developing a famous
medical school belongs to Edinburgh, with the Monroes, Gregory's, Culin
Black and Rutherford maintained during the eighteen century an unbroken
succession of brilliant names. It cannot be allowed, however, that
the Town Council of Edinburgh, in founding medical professorships, deserves
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as much of this credit as to the outside founders
of medical teaching, whose existence and success extorted from the municipality,
a recognition formal and limited at first, and certainly unremunerated.
It may be questioned whether the University of Edinburgh has
not really been indebted almost as much to the extra
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academical teachers of medicine, who have continually stimulated the actual
professors to their best endeavors, as to those professors themselves.
Anatomy the necessary foundation of medicine at a kind of
beginning at Edinburgh in fifteen oh five. But the surgeons
and barbers of the city have pronounced the insertion in
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their chartre of a clause and navally them to obtain
once in the year a condemned man, after he be dead,
to make anatomy of. But little came of this, and
it was reserved for a number of able physicians educated
abroad in a latter part of the seventeenth century to
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set on foots of practical teaching in medicine and the
Allied sciences. The names of Sir Robert Zibald, Sir Andrew Balfour,
and Sir Archibald Stephenson must be honorably mentioned in this connection.
The first two of these were most influential in establishing
the earliest public botannic garden in Edinburgh, a piece of
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ground about forty feet Square belonging to holy Roodhouse. They
subsequently allied to themselves James Sutherland, who afterwards became a
notable botanist and obtained the appointment of keeper of a
much larger garden near Trinity College Church. Many valuable collections
of seeds and plants were procured. Medical students were incited
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to collect and send home seeds and cuttings from places
they might travel too, and so the garden became an
important starting point of a materia medica. Professional feuds already
became prominent Edinburgh. The surgeon apothecaries were jealous of the
physicians and doctors of medicine. Several abortive efforts were made
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by the latter towards the establishment of a college of physicians.
In sixteen twenty one, King James gave a warrant to
the Scottish Parliament for this purpose, but no action was taken.
In sixteen thirty the subject was referred to the Privy Council.
In sixteen fifty six Cromwell constituted a college of Physicians
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for Scotland, but his death prevented its completion. Thus it
was not till sibold In Stevenson by the aid of
Sir Charles Scarborough, Harvey's friend gained the ear of the
Duke of York, that at last the College of Physicians
of Edinburgh was founded in sixteen eighty one, notwithstanding the
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strong opposition of the surgeons and the townsmen. Soon after this,
in sixteen eighty five, the Town Council of Edinburgh appointed
three principal members of the College of Physicians to be
professors of medicine in what they now for the first
time at any rate in existing documents, called the University
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of this City. Sir Robert Sibauld was appointed Professor of
physic and rooms were allotted to him, but not a salary.
Doctors Halcott and Pitcairn were speedily added to the list
of professors, and the division of duties between the professors
was left to themselves. We have no record of any
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lectures given by these professors for a long period, but
we know that Pitcairn in sixteen ninety two to three
held a professorship at Leyden. On his return to Edinburgh,
he became enthusiastic in promoting the medical school, aiding Alexander
Monteith in gaining permission from the Town Council to dissect
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the bodies of people who died in Paul's work. We
offer as pitkir to wait on these poor for nothing
and bury them after this section at our own charges,
which now the town does. And yet there is great
opposition by the chief surgeons, who neither eat hay nor
suffer the oxen to eat it. I do propose, if
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this be granted, to make better improvements in anatomy than
have been in laden these thirty years. Monteith obtained a
grant in October sixteen ninety four of those bodies that
die in the correction house and of foundlings that die
upon the breast. He was allowed to make his dissections
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in any vacant waste room in the correction house or
any other thereabouts belonging to the town. Magistrates were to
be admitted if they desired, and the apprentices of the
surgeons might attend and have v However, Montes's scheme did
not succeed because he had acted without concert with the
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other members of the surgeon's corporation. These made a more
successful start in the same year, having obtained a right
to the bodies of foundlings who died betwixt the time
that they are weaned, and they have been put to
school or trades. Also, the dead bodies of such as
are stifled in the birth, which are exposed to have
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none to own them. Also, the dead bodies of such
as our fellow to say, and have none to own them. Likewise,
the bodies of such are put to death by sentence
of the magistrate, and have none to own them. A
condition was annexed to this grant that by Michaelmas sixteen
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ninety seven, an anatomical theater should be built where public
dissection should be made once a year, if opportunity offered.
This was evidently intended to extend to a course of anatomy,
including as much as could be taught of one body.
The method, however, in which anatomy was first practiced in
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the Surgeon's Hall, was for ten surgeons to lecture on
following days, each in succession taking a special part. The
body had to be buried within ten days. It was
in seventeen o five that a special appointment for one
man to lecture on anatomy was first made, and the
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first lecturer of Robert Elliott, was also made professor of
anatomy in the university, with a small stipend. This formal
appointment appears to have been directly occasioned by the offer
of some unknown teacher to give public and private teaching
in anatomy to the surgeons and their apprentices. It is
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not till seventeen o six that we have any record
of Sippo's lectures. The Edinburgh Courante was then made the medium,
whereby he announced in Latin his intention to lecture on
natural history and medicine, and privatist collegius or private courses
of lectures. He appears to have lectured in Latin, and
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to have received no pupils, but such as were skilled
in Greek, Latin, mathematics and philosophy. About this time had
settled in Edinburgh. The progenitor of the long line of
distinguished Monro's John Monroe, formerly an Army surgeon, who became
President of the College of Surgeons in seventeen twelve. His son,
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Alexander afterwards so distinguished, was born in London on the
eighth September sixteen ninety seven. Being an only son, his
father gave unusual attention to his train, and early perceiving
his acuteness of mind, sent him successively to London, Paris
and Leyden to obtain the best medical education at that
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time accessible. The anatomical preparations which he made during his
studentship gave such evidence of ability that Drummond, who then
taught anatomy at Edinburgh, offered to resign in his favor
as soon as he returned home. Chesselton in London and
Bohave in Leyden were highly impressed by the young scotchman's promise.
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The year seventeen twenty may be taken as witnessing the
actual start at the Medical School of Edinburgh, and Alexander
Monroe as its real founder. Although the father did much
to promote this successful start, the son becoming actually the
competent teacher, must necessarily have the greater credit. At the
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age of twenty two, Monroe was appointed professor of Anatomy
and have announced his first course of lectures on anatomy,
to be illustrated by the preparations he had made and
sent home. When abroad, his father, without his knowledge, invited
the President and fellows of the College of Physicians and
the whole of the City Surgeons to the first lecture.
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The surprise caused the young lecturer to forget the discourse
which he had committed to memory, and being without notes,
he had presence of mind enough to commence talking about
some of his preparations, and soon became collected in speaking
of what he was confident he understood. Thus, the surprise
and temporary forgetfulness thereby caused was the foundation of his success.
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He found himself applauded as a ready speaker, and resolved
throughout life to speak extemp array, being persuaded that words
expressive of his meaning would always occur in speaking on
the subject which he understood. From this time, the subjects
of anatomy and surgery in Monroe's hands attracted large classes
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of students, the average of the first decade being sixty seven,
of the second one hundred nine, of the third one
hundred forty seven. Even during this second session his lectures
attracted students from all parts of Scotland, also from England
and Ireland. Seizing the opportunity of the professors, were persuaded
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to start courses of lecture, so that soon a respectable
curriculum was provided, and Monroe secured in seventeen twenty two
a grant of his professorship for life. It had previously
been held only at the will of the town council.
Monroe was now face to face with the difficulty of
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providing sufficient material for the instruction of his large classes.
Under Chesselton in London, he had been accustomed to a
supply of subjects more even than he could make use of.
In edmond Burgh, as early as seventeen eleven, complaints were
made at Surgeons Hall a violation of graves and graves
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fire of churchyard by some who most unchristianly have been
stealing or at least attempting to carry away the bodies
of the dead out of their graves. But said the
surgeons that which affects them most as a scandalous report
most maliciously spread about the town, that some of their
number are accessory, which they cannot allow themselves to think.
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Considering that the magistrates of Edinburgh have been always ready
and willing to allow them what dead bodies fell under
their gift, and thereby plentifully supplied their theater for many
years past, they consequently beg that the magistrates will seek
for and punished the offenders, and resolved to expel any
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of their number found accessory to the violation of graves.
The populace nevertheless continued to be excitable on the subject
of the violation of graves, and in seventeen twenty one
to two Surgeon's apprentices were especially bound not to raise
the dead. In March seventeen twenty five, Monroe was put
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under the stringent obligation of giving information when he procured
each dead body, and guaranteeing that it was regularly obtained.
But the mob were suspicious and threatened to demolish his
museum and theater at Surgeon's Hall. Monroe consequently applied for
and obtained a room in the University building, being there
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safer than at Surgeon's Hall. Here his course included to
sections not only the human body, but also of animals.
Diseases affecting the various organs were referred to, Operations upon
the dead body were performed, bandages were applied, and lastly,
such physiology as was known was treated. Of this course
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was continued for nearly forty years. A great hospital was lacking,
and the whole force of the medical faculty, with the
powerful aid of the far seeing Provost George Drummond, was
engaged to secure the building of the infirmary. Monroe and
Drummond were constituted a building committee and Monroe planned in
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particularly the operating room. Doctor Moore, in his travels through Scotland,
records that the proprietors of many stone quarries made presents
of stone. Others of lyme merchants contributed timber. Carpenters and
masons were not wanting in their contributions. The neighboring farmers
agreed to carry the materials gratis. The journeyman masons contributed
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their labors for a certain quantity of hewn stones, and
as this undertaking is for the relief of the diseased,
lame and maimed poor, even the day laborers could not
be exempted, but agreed to work a day in the
month gratis towards the yeas direction. The ladies contributed in
their way to it, but they appointed an assembly for
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the benefit of the work, which was well attended and
everyone contributed bountifully. The completion of the hospital gave Monroe
the opportunity a delivering clinical lectures on surgery, or rather
fit from seventeen forty eight clinical lectures on medical cases.
Monroe himself was present in every post mortem examination and
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dictated to the students that accurately reported the case. It
was said of him, it is hardly possible to conceive
a physician more attendant to practice, or a precept more
anxious to communicate instruction. His first and perhaps best known
work was his Osteology, published in seventeen twenty six and
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translated into several foreign languages. A French tradition appeared in folio,
with excellent engravings by messieurs Sue demonstrated to the Royal
accout atomy of Paris. A Treatise on the Nerves followed,
and later a series of medical essays and observations, many
by Monroe, was issued by him as the result of
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meetings of the principal medical men in Edinburgh, which flourished
for some years. Another interesting work of Monro's was his
Treatise on Comparative Anatomy, in which you propose to illustrate
the human economy by the anatomy of such vertebrate animals
as he knew. But the contrast is astonishing between Monroe's
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knowledge and that of the present day. He divides quadrupeds
into carnivorous and hervivorous falls, into those that feed on
grain and those that feed on fish fishes into those
that have lungs and those that have naught. He remarks
that the fishes that have lungs differ very unconsiderably from
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an ox or any other quadruped, and are not easily procure. Consequently,
he omits all account of them. Moreover, he says, as
the structure of insects and worms is so very minute
and lends us but little assistance for the ends proposed,
we purfosely omit them. He has a strangely unpenetrating view
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of the relation between an oyster and a sensitive plant.
What difference is there betwixt an oyster, one of the
most inorganized of the animal tribe, and the sensitive plant,
the most exalted of the vegetable kingdom. They both remain
fixed to one spot where they receive their nourishment, having
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no proper motion of their own, save the shrinking from
the approach of external injuries. Doctor Munroe's writings generally are
not inviting, to quote, from being written in a plain
and rather bald style with very little attempt at illustration.
In private life, Monroe primus was humane, liberal insentiment, a
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sincere friend, and an agreeable companion, an affectionate husband and
a kind father, having the art of making his children
his companions and friends. In seventeen forty five, after preston parents,
he went down at once to the battlefield to assist
the sick and wounded, dressed their wounds, and busied himself
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in securing their provisions and convenions to town. Nor did
he confine his attentions to the loyal, but aided the
rebels also. He took an important share in the education
of his children, of whom Donald became a successful physician,
and wrote his life prefixed to the quartal edition of
his works seventeen eighty one, to which all subsequent biographies
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are much indebted. Monroe was a man of a strong
muscular make of metal height, yet his constitution was considerably
weakened in early life owing to his being too frequently blown.
He was liable to attacks of chest affections throughout life,
but died finally of a painful ulcer of the rectum
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and bladder on July tenth, seventeen sixty seven. He had
resigned his chair of anatomy to his son Alexander in
seventeen fifty nine, but continued to practice and to attend
the infirmary till the last. He bore his painful illness
with fortitude and Christian resignation, and talked of his approaching
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death with the same calmness as if he were going
to sleep. He was, says Professor Struthers, an able and
active and at the same time a calm and placid man.
He had family and friends influential in plenty, but the
work he had to do was of a kind at
which friends could only stand and look on. He had
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to do a new thing at Edinburgh, to teach anatomy
and to provide for the study of it in a
town of then only thirty thousand inhabitants, and in an
half civilized and politically disturbed country. He had to gather
in students, to persuade others to join with him in teaching,
and to get an infirmary built. All this he did,
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and at the same time established his fame not only
as a teacher but as a man of science, and
gave a name to the Edinburgh School, which benefited still
more the generation which followed him. Although we must depart
from strict chronological order to do so, it would be
more convenient to give here an account of the second Monroe,
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who was born May twentieth, seventeen thirty three, and was
early attracted to the study of anatomy. Showing great perseverance
in possessing a good memory, he soon became a very
useful assistance toward his father in the dissecting room, and
when the students grew too numerous for one lecture, his
father deputed his son at the early age of twenty,
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to repeat his in an evening lecture to those who
had failed to obtain admission in the morning. His father,
seeing how successful the son was, petitioned the town council
to have him appointed as his colleague and eventual successor,
promising if this were granted, to send his son to
the best medical schools in Europe and in every way
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to fit him for the post. This plan being carried
out young Monroe who took his MD degree at Edinburgh
in seventeen fifty five and set out for a round
of medical schools London, Leyden, Paris and Berlin. In London,
he attended William Hunter. In Berlin, he had the still
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greater advantage of living in the house of and sharing
the intimate instruction of the greatest anatomist meckel, a true
good start for a promising career. On his son's return
to Edinburgh in seventeen fifty eight, his father resigned his
cheer to him, and the son commenced by tea and
quite novel views on the blood, controverting his father's teaching.
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The novelty of his manner, combined with the clearness of
his style, is described as one who was present as
having acted like an electric shock on the audience. It
was at once seen that he was master of the
subject and of the art of communicating knowledge to others.
His style was lively, argumentative and modern compared with that
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of his more venerable colleagues, and from the beginning onwards
the half a century his career was one of easy
and triumphant success. Strutthers. As a lecturer, he was clear,
earnest and impressive, eloquent without display, and at the same
time grave and dignified. Now wondered that his classes increased
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in size until they even reached four hundred. At the
same time, Monroe entered into practice as a physician and
became one of the leading practitioners in Edinburgh, some much
so that doctor James Gregory described him as being far
more than half a century at the head of the
medical school, and for a great part at that time
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at the head of the profession. As a practicing physician,
he was also frequently called into consultation on surgical cases,
though he did not offerate. His chief fame is, however,
as a successful anatomist and teacher of anatomy. In seventeen
seventy seven, he successfully resisted the appointment of a separate
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professor of surgery, claiming that his office included surgery. Monroe
secund disclaimed and not without good grounds, to have made
important original discoveries in regard to the lymphatic system. But
his merits as a discoverer in this department do not
interfere with the greater luster of William Hunter and Houston.
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His observations on the structure and functions of the nervous
system enjoy the distinction of having called Sir Charles Bell's
attention to the ganglion of the fifth pair of cranial nerves,
and to important particulars of the origin of the spinal nerves,
which led in no insignificant degree to his own great discoveries.
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In seventeen fifty eight, Monroe published at Berlin his first
essay on the lymphatics, and Professor Black testified to having
read this essay in manuscript in seventeen fifty five. It
contained an account of the lymphatics as a distinct system
of vessels, having no immediate connection with the arteries and veins,
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but arising in small branches from all cavities and cells
of the body into which fluids are thrown, and stating
that their use was to absorb the whole or the
inner parts of these fluids and to restore them to
the general circulation. He showed further by medical observation that
in cases where acrid manner was applied to the poise
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of the skin or gained access to the cellular membranes,
the glands between the parts affected and the center of
the body became swollen and painful, manifestly from being absorbed
by the lymphatics. Monroe also first described the absorption of
bones and other solid parts in cases of tumor to pressure.
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His various works on the nervous system, on the muscles,
on the brain, eye and ear, and on the structure
and physiology of fishes all contained observations which were of
considerable value in building up the science of anatomy in
the last century, but none of them furnish attractive reading,
such as we have found in the works of Harvey
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and Cindermen. This is somewhat remarkable, considering that Munroe, shown
as an anecdotist, was intimate with all the celebrated Edinburgh
men of his time, and was a great admirer of
the theater, being equally attracted by Missus Siddons, whom he
felt the greatest pleasure in attending as a patient, and
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by Foote, whose performance as president of the College and
physician to Weston Stoctor Lask under examination he enjoyed extremely.
It was said that Monroe sent his own scarlet road
to the theater for the mock doctor to wear. Another
of Monroe's personal tastes was that of horticulture. He planted
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and beautified several romantic hills around his estate at Craig Lockhart.
Here he fitted up, says doctor Duncan, a rural cottage
consisting of two commodeus apartments adjoining his head gardener's house,
whose kitchen could provide dinner for a few select friends.
He would keep no bedroom there that he might never
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be tempted to stay away from his professional duties in Edinburgh,
but in his cottage he often passed to summer day,
and hegaled his friends with the choices fruits. Doctor Duncan,
in his Havarian Oration, relates his disappointment that the younger
generation of his friends before the instrumental music of a fiddle,
a flute, or an organ in a drawing room to
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that of the linac, the thrush, or the goldfinch in
the fields, and that the gardens of his old friends
in which he had spent such happy hours were now
let out for market gardens. Monroe was very economical of
his time and carefully measured it out to each subject
which occupied him, and he worked nearly as hard towards
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the end as at the beginning of his career. He
did not deliver stereotype lectures, but continually improved them. He
is to be credited also with having favorably received Jenna's
discovery of vaccination, and vaccinated many children himself. In person,
the second Monroe was of middle height, a vigorous and
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athletic make. His head was large, with strongly marked features
and full forehead, light blue eyes, and somewhat larch mouthed,
his neck was short and his shoulders high. In seventeen
ninety eight, his son, Monroe Tertius, was conjoined with him
in the professorship, but for ten years more the old
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man continued to give the greater part of the course.
His last lecture was that introductory to the session of
eighteen o eight to nine, after which he retired from
practice also and lived on till he died of apoplexy
second October eighteen seventeen, in his eighty fifth year. Born
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to a great name and a ready made position as professor,
Struthers remarks, the second Monroe had every advantage which education, friends,
and place could secure. But it is to his credit
that among brilliant colleagues like Cullen Black, Ducal, Stuart Play
and others, he held his own, both intellectually and socially,
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even if he has not left so abiding a mark
upon medical and anatomical science as his contemporaries must have
expected him to make. Notwithstanding the note which the Momros
have attained for the anatomical teaching, and the distinction won
by the Gregorys as professors of medicine and able physicians,
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they are outshown by William Cullen, who is justly the
most conspicuous figure in the history of the Edinburgh Medical
School in the eighteenth century. William Cullen was born on
the fifteenth of April seventeen ten at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, his
father having been factored to the Duke of Hamilton. Early
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prominent at the local grammar school by his quick perception
and retemptive memory, he was sent to the University of
Glasgow in due course an apprentice to a medical p practician,
a named Paisley, who is fast studious and possessed a
good medical library, a signal advantage to young culin. It
became remarked by his companions that while he took little
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or no part in their discussions, when he happened to
be ill informed on the subject, he always so studied
it afterwards that he could surpass the best of them
if it came up again. At the close of seventeen
twenty nine, Cullen went to London and first obtained the
surgency to a merchant ship commanded by a relative, with
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whom he went to the West Indies, remaining six months
at Portobello. On his return to London, he took a
situation in an apothecary's shop in henry Eta Street, and
studied as diligently as ever when not occupied in the shop.
His father had died and there was little provision for
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a large family. His eldest brother's death compelled him to
return to Scotland in the winter seventeen thirty one to two
to make arrangements for the education of his younger brothers
and sisters. He began practice at Austionley near Hamilton, taking
charge of the health of a relative, and perseveringly carrying
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on from books those studies which he had not money
to prosecute at the seats of learning, with he longed
to be the receipt of a small legacy was the
turning point of Cullin's earlier fortunes, and how small a
some of studious scotchmen can make available in this direction
is well known. Culin resolved to devote himself to study
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entirely until he should be qualified to take a firm
stand as a surgeon at Hamilton. He first went to
reside with the dissenting minister in Northumberland with a study
of literature and philosophy, and then spent the winter sessions
of seventeen thirty four to five and seventeen thirty five
to six at Edinburgh Medical School, now rapidly rising into
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no on establishing himself as a surgeon at Hamilton early
in seventeen thirty six, young Cullen was soon employed by
the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and the leading families
of the neighborhood. In this comparatively retired situation, Culin yet
gained the confidence of Doctor Clerk, an able Edinburgh physician
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called in to Hamilton Pallas, and was the means of
influencing William Hunter to the choice of the medical profession.
William Hunter was Cullin's resident pupil from seventeen thirty seven
to seventeen forty, and declared these to have been the
happiest years of his life. This natural selection brings men
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a future note together before the world has known them,
and the lineal succession of minds is as fruitfully carried
on as that of bodies. The affection of these two
continued throughout life long after. William Hunter refers to him
as a man to whom I owe most and loved
most of all men in the world. Culin determining to
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devote all this time to medicine, proceeded to the m
due degree at Glasgow in seventeen forty and took a
partner who wished to relieve him of surgical work. In
November seventeen forty one he married Miss Anna Johnstone, a
lady of much conversational power and charming manners, whose companionship
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he enjoyed for the long period of forty six years.
She became the mother of seven sons and four daughters.
Doctor Cullen's name was now becoming known considerably beyond his
native locality, and in seventeen forty four he removed to Glasgow,
a step which he would have taken previously but for
the solicitations and promises of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton.
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His constant attendance on the Duke in his painful illness
was ended by the death of the latter in seventeen
forty three, which put an end to the project of
a chemical laboratory and a botanical garden at the palace,
which had been among the inducements by which he had
been prevailed upon not to quit Hamilton. Henceforth, in the
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intervals of practice, and study. He began to occupy himself
vigorously with the founding of a medical school at Glasgow.
He at once began to lecture on medicine, and subsequently
added to his courses chemistry, Materia medica and botany, in
all of which he gave lectures not merely representing the
knowledge of the time, but also including original views of
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high value. The young school grew, though not so rapidly
as that of Edinburgh, but thus early he was brought
into contact with yet another great man, Joseph Black, who
was for some years his intimate pupil, and afterwards left
Glasgow for Edinburgh. Cullen discerned the promise of his pupil,
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and Kiev abstained from entering upon fields of research, and
which he discerned the promise of his pupil, and carefully
abstained from entering upon fields of research, and which he
expected him to make a mark. Black submitted his treatise
on fixed Air to Culin and dedicated it to him.
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About this time Culin made some important discoveries on the
evolution of heat and chemical combination and the cooling of solutions,
some of which were not published till seventeen fifty five,
while others remained in the manuscript, but suggested to Black
important points in his view of latent heat. At the
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beginning of seventeen fifty one, but interested the Duke of Argyle,
Doctor Culin succeeded doctor Johnstone as a professor of medicine
in the University of Glasgow at the same time that
Adam Smith was appointed to the Chair of Logic, and
a friendship of great inter arose between these thoughtful minds.
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Only a few months afterwards, Adams Smith's transferred to the
Moral Philosophy chair led doctor Cullen to favor strongly the
election of David Hume to the vacant chair. On an
occasion when Edwin Burgh was also a candidate, neither was elected.
Strict orthodoxy carrying the day at this period, the applications
(36:25):
of chemistry to arts and manufactures and to agriculture engage
Cullen's attention considerably, and it proposed to carry out a
process of purifying common salt, but it proved too expensive. Culin,
finding that Glasgow did not promise to build up a
large medical school at present, and being compelled to take
(36:46):
country practice, began to look longingly to Edinburgh, to which
also his friends were calling him. He says in a
letter to William Hunter in August seventeen fifty one, I
am quite tired of my present life. I have a
good deal of country practice, which takes up a great
deal of time, and hardly even allows me an hourys learger.
(37:09):
I get but little money for my labor, and indeed
by country practice with our payments, a man cannot make money.
Very circumstances, however, prevented this step being taken until in
the beginning of seventeen fifty six he was appointed to
the professorship of chemistry at Edinburgh, and was thus fairly
(37:30):
launched on his notable career. In the competition for this cheer,
Joseph Black had been nominated, but the two friends honorably
refused to do anything to prejudice each other, and on
appointment indeed Culin offered Black all the fees if he
would assist him. Colin's first course at Edinburgh was attended
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by only seventeen students, is second by fifty nine, while
it rose later to one hundred forty five. Came to
him and freedom from his pecuniary struggles in seventeen fifty seven,
Doctor Culin first undertook to give clinical lectures in the infirmary,
and in this work his especial talent shown. He had
(38:15):
now had sufficient experience of practice with the best knowledge
of chemistry immateia medica at the time afforded, and his
skill in observation and graphic description of disease, added to
his zeal for imparting knowledge, soon made his clinical lectures renowned.
In these lectures for eighteen years, was carefully prepared the
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first real model of what is now so familiar to
medical students as a clinical lecture was afforded. His candor
may be judged from the following expressions in these lectures. However,
I has in my credit for you instruction, my first views,
my conjectures, my projects, my trials, in short, my thoughts,
(38:59):
which I am a correct an if necessary change. And
whenever you yourself shall be above mistakes, or can find
anybody else who is, I shall allow you to rate
me as a very inferior person. In the meantime, I
think I am no more liable to mistakes than my neighbors,
and therefore I shall go on in telling you of
(39:20):
them when they occur. Promoted by such candor. Cullen's reputation
rapidly grew. His lectures were remarkable for simplicity, ingenuity, and
comprehensiveness of you with copiousness of illustration. He taught his
students to observe the course of nature in diseases, to
(39:40):
distinguish between essential and accidental symptoms, and to carefully discriminate
the influence of remedies from the curative operations of nature.
There is nothing, he said, I desire so much as
that every disease we treat here should be a matter
of experience to you. So you must not be surprised
(40:01):
that I use only one remedy when I might employ
two or three. For in using a multiplicity of remedies.
When the cure does succeed, it is not easy to
perceive which is most effectual. Again, he says, every wise
physician is a dogmatist, But a dogmatical physician is one
(40:22):
of the most absurd animals that lives. We say, he
is a dogmatist in physic who employs his reason, and
from some acquaintance with the nature of the human body,
thinks he can throw some light upon diseases and ascertain
the proper methods of cure, and I have known none
who are not dogmatists, except those who seem to be
(40:44):
incapable of reasoning or who were too lazy for it.
On the other hand, I call him a dogmatical physician
who is very ready to assume opinions, to be prejudiced
in favor of them, and to retain an assert very
tenacious and with too much confidence, the opinions of prejudices
(41:04):
which he has already taken up in common life or
in the study of the sciences. He sought to build
up rational views of medicine, indeed on the basis of
fact and experiment, and giving his clinical lectures, he was
at great pains to choose diseases of the most common
types as most useful to the students. He adhered to
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great simplicity of prescriptions compared with the complex and barbarous
nostrums of receding times, and he experimentally used and introduced
many new drugs of great value, such as cream of tartar,
hen bane, James's powder, and tartar emetic. The novelty with
which Cullen invested his subject and the baldness of his
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views made many, especially conventional practitioners and lecturers regard him
with disfavor and to cry him for not regarding boor
Aves views as final, and for adopting those of Hoffmann
in conjunction with his own. Yet his lively and entertaining lectures,
combined with his pleasing treatment of patience, and his manner
(42:13):
so open, so kind, and so little regulated by pecuniary considerations,
made him win his weighing. More and more. He was
the friend of every family he visited. William Hunter writes
in seventeen fifty eight, I do assure you I have
never found anything in business so pleasing to me as
(42:34):
to hear my patients telling me with approbation what doctor
Culin had done for them, And to hear my pupils
speaking with the reverence and esteem of doctor Culin. That
is so natural, true young minds, and of section four
Section four of Eminent Doctors Their Lives in Their Work,
Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Eminent Doctors their Lives in
Their Work, Volume one, But George Thomas Bettany, the Monroes, Cullen,
(00:27):
the Gregory's, John Bell, and the foundation of the Edinburgh
School of Medicine, Part one. Notwithstanding the early day of
the foundation of the College of Physicians of London, and
the fact that the illustrious names of Harvey and send
to him and others adorn the rise of rational medicine
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in the South, the credit of first developing a famous
medical school belongs to Edinburgh, with the Monroes, Gregory's, Culin
Black and Rutherford maintained during the eighteen century an unbroken
succession of brilliant names. It cannot be allowed, however, that
the Town Council of Edinburgh, in founding medical professorships, deserves
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as much of this credit as to the outside founders
of medical teaching, whose existence and success extorted from the municipality,
a recognition formal and limited at first, and certainly unremunerated.
It may be questioned whether the University of Edinburgh has
not really been indebted almost as much to the extra
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academical teachers of medicine, who have continually stimulated the actual
professors to their best endeavors, as to those professors themselves.
Anatomy the necessary foundation of medicine at a kind of
beginning at Edinburgh in fifteen oh five. But the surgeons
and barbers of the city have pronounced the insertion in
(01:57):
their chartre of a clause and navally them to obtain
once in the year a condemned man, after he be dead,
to make anatomy of. But little came of this, and
it was reserved for a number of able physicians educated
abroad in a latter part of the seventeenth century to
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set on foots of practical teaching in medicine and the
Allied sciences. The names of Sir Robert Zibald, Sir Andrew Balfour,
and Sir Archibald Stephenson must be honorably mentioned in this connection.
The first two of these were most influential in establishing
the earliest public botannic garden in Edinburgh, a piece of
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ground about forty feet Square belonging to holy Roodhouse. They
subsequently allied to themselves James Sutherland, who afterwards became a
notable botanist and obtained the appointment of keeper of a
much larger garden near Trinity College Church. Many valuable collections
of seeds and plants were procured. Medical students were incited
(03:04):
to collect and send home seeds and cuttings from places
they might travel too, and so the garden became an
important starting point of a materia medica. Professional feuds already
became prominent Edinburgh. The surgeon apothecaries were jealous of the
physicians and doctors of medicine. Several abortive efforts were made
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by the latter towards the establishment of a college of physicians.
In sixteen twenty one, King James gave a warrant to
the Scottish Parliament for this purpose, but no action was taken.
In sixteen thirty the subject was referred to the Privy Council.
In sixteen fifty six Cromwell constituted a college of Physicians
(03:48):
for Scotland, but his death prevented its completion. Thus it
was not till sibold In Stevenson by the aid of
Sir Charles Scarborough, Harvey's friend gained the ear of the
Duke of York, that at last the College of Physicians
of Edinburgh was founded in sixteen eighty one, notwithstanding the
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strong opposition of the surgeons and the townsmen. Soon after this,
in sixteen eighty five, the Town Council of Edinburgh appointed
three principal members of the College of Physicians to be
professors of medicine in what they now for the first
time at any rate in existing documents, called the University
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of this City. Sir Robert Sibauld was appointed Professor of
physic and rooms were allotted to him, but not a salary.
Doctors Halcott and Pitcairn were speedily added to the list
of professors, and the division of duties between the professors
was left to themselves. We have no record of any
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lectures given by these professors for a long period, but
we know that Pitcairn in sixteen ninety two to three
held a professorship at Leyden. On his return to Edinburgh,
he became enthusiastic in promoting the medical school, aiding Alexander
Monteith in gaining permission from the Town Council to dissect
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the bodies of people who died in Paul's work. We
offer as pitkir to wait on these poor for nothing
and bury them after this section at our own charges,
which now the town does. And yet there is great
opposition by the chief surgeons, who neither eat hay nor
suffer the oxen to eat it. I do propose, if
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this be granted, to make better improvements in anatomy than
have been in laden these thirty years. Monteith obtained a
grant in October sixteen ninety four of those bodies that
die in the correction house and of foundlings that die
upon the breast. He was allowed to make his dissections
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in any vacant waste room in the correction house or
any other thereabouts belonging to the town. Magistrates were to
be admitted if they desired, and the apprentices of the
surgeons might attend and have v However, Montes's scheme did
not succeed because he had acted without concert with the
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other members of the surgeon's corporation. These made a more
successful start in the same year, having obtained a right
to the bodies of foundlings who died betwixt the time
that they are weaned, and they have been put to
school or trades. Also, the dead bodies of such as
are stifled in the birth, which are exposed to have
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none to own them. Also, the dead bodies of such
as our fellow to say, and have none to own them. Likewise,
the bodies of such are put to death by sentence
of the magistrate, and have none to own them. A
condition was annexed to this grant that by Michaelmas sixteen
(07:00):
ninety seven, an anatomical theater should be built where public
dissection should be made once a year, if opportunity offered.
This was evidently intended to extend to a course of anatomy,
including as much as could be taught of one body.
The method, however, in which anatomy was first practiced in
(07:22):
the Surgeon's Hall, was for ten surgeons to lecture on
following days, each in succession taking a special part. The
body had to be buried within ten days. It was
in seventeen o five that a special appointment for one
man to lecture on anatomy was first made, and the
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first lecturer of Robert Elliott, was also made professor of
anatomy in the university, with a small stipend. This formal
appointment appears to have been directly occasioned by the offer
of some unknown teacher to give public and private teaching
in anatomy to the surgeons and their apprentices. It is
(08:03):
not till seventeen o six that we have any record
of Sippo's lectures. The Edinburgh Courante was then made the medium,
whereby he announced in Latin his intention to lecture on
natural history and medicine, and privatist collegius or private courses
of lectures. He appears to have lectured in Latin, and
(08:25):
to have received no pupils, but such as were skilled
in Greek, Latin, mathematics and philosophy. About this time had
settled in Edinburgh. The progenitor of the long line of
distinguished Monro's John Monroe, formerly an Army surgeon, who became
President of the College of Surgeons in seventeen twelve. His son,
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Alexander afterwards so distinguished, was born in London on the
eighth September sixteen ninety seven. Being an only son, his
father gave unusual attention to his train, and early perceiving
his acuteness of mind, sent him successively to London, Paris
and Leyden to obtain the best medical education at that
(09:09):
time accessible. The anatomical preparations which he made during his
studentship gave such evidence of ability that Drummond, who then
taught anatomy at Edinburgh, offered to resign in his favor
as soon as he returned home. Chesselton in London and
Bohave in Leyden were highly impressed by the young scotchman's promise.
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The year seventeen twenty may be taken as witnessing the
actual start at the Medical School of Edinburgh, and Alexander
Monroe as its real founder. Although the father did much
to promote this successful start, the son becoming actually the
competent teacher, must necessarily have the greater credit. At the
(09:55):
age of twenty two, Monroe was appointed professor of Anatomy
and have announced his first course of lectures on anatomy,
to be illustrated by the preparations he had made and
sent home. When abroad, his father, without his knowledge, invited
the President and fellows of the College of Physicians and
the whole of the City Surgeons to the first lecture.
(10:18):
The surprise caused the young lecturer to forget the discourse
which he had committed to memory, and being without notes,
he had presence of mind enough to commence talking about
some of his preparations, and soon became collected in speaking
of what he was confident he understood. Thus, the surprise
and temporary forgetfulness thereby caused was the foundation of his success.
(10:43):
He found himself applauded as a ready speaker, and resolved
throughout life to speak extemp array, being persuaded that words
expressive of his meaning would always occur in speaking on
the subject which he understood. From this time, the subjects
of anatomy and surgery in Monroe's hands attracted large classes
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of students, the average of the first decade being sixty seven,
of the second one hundred nine, of the third one
hundred forty seven. Even during this second session his lectures
attracted students from all parts of Scotland, also from England
and Ireland. Seizing the opportunity of the professors, were persuaded
(11:25):
to start courses of lecture, so that soon a respectable
curriculum was provided, and Monroe secured in seventeen twenty two
a grant of his professorship for life. It had previously
been held only at the will of the town council.
Monroe was now face to face with the difficulty of
(11:45):
providing sufficient material for the instruction of his large classes.
Under Chesselton in London, he had been accustomed to a
supply of subjects more even than he could make use of.
In edmond Burgh, as early as seventeen eleven, complaints were
made at Surgeons Hall a violation of graves and graves
(12:07):
fire of churchyard by some who most unchristianly have been
stealing or at least attempting to carry away the bodies
of the dead out of their graves. But said the
surgeons that which affects them most as a scandalous report
most maliciously spread about the town, that some of their
number are accessory, which they cannot allow themselves to think.
(12:31):
Considering that the magistrates of Edinburgh have been always ready
and willing to allow them what dead bodies fell under
their gift, and thereby plentifully supplied their theater for many
years past, they consequently beg that the magistrates will seek
for and punished the offenders, and resolved to expel any
(12:53):
of their number found accessory to the violation of graves.
The populace nevertheless continued to be excitable on the subject
of the violation of graves, and in seventeen twenty one
to two Surgeon's apprentices were especially bound not to raise
the dead. In March seventeen twenty five, Monroe was put
(13:14):
under the stringent obligation of giving information when he procured
each dead body, and guaranteeing that it was regularly obtained.
But the mob were suspicious and threatened to demolish his
museum and theater at Surgeon's Hall. Monroe consequently applied for
and obtained a room in the University building, being there
(13:35):
safer than at Surgeon's Hall. Here his course included to
sections not only the human body, but also of animals.
Diseases affecting the various organs were referred to, Operations upon
the dead body were performed, bandages were applied, and lastly,
such physiology as was known was treated. Of this course
(13:58):
was continued for nearly forty years. A great hospital was lacking,
and the whole force of the medical faculty, with the
powerful aid of the far seeing Provost George Drummond, was
engaged to secure the building of the infirmary. Monroe and
Drummond were constituted a building committee and Monroe planned in
(14:20):
particularly the operating room. Doctor Moore, in his travels through Scotland,
records that the proprietors of many stone quarries made presents
of stone. Others of lyme merchants contributed timber. Carpenters and
masons were not wanting in their contributions. The neighboring farmers
agreed to carry the materials gratis. The journeyman masons contributed
(14:44):
their labors for a certain quantity of hewn stones, and
as this undertaking is for the relief of the diseased,
lame and maimed poor, even the day laborers could not
be exempted, but agreed to work a day in the
month gratis towards the yeas direction. The ladies contributed in
their way to it, but they appointed an assembly for
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the benefit of the work, which was well attended and
everyone contributed bountifully. The completion of the hospital gave Monroe
the opportunity a delivering clinical lectures on surgery, or rather
fit from seventeen forty eight clinical lectures on medical cases.
Monroe himself was present in every post mortem examination and
(15:29):
dictated to the students that accurately reported the case. It
was said of him, it is hardly possible to conceive
a physician more attendant to practice, or a precept more
anxious to communicate instruction. His first and perhaps best known
work was his Osteology, published in seventeen twenty six and
(15:49):
translated into several foreign languages. A French tradition appeared in folio,
with excellent engravings by messieurs Sue demonstrated to the Royal
accout atomy of Paris. A Treatise on the Nerves followed,
and later a series of medical essays and observations, many
by Monroe, was issued by him as the result of
(16:12):
meetings of the principal medical men in Edinburgh, which flourished
for some years. Another interesting work of Monro's was his
Treatise on Comparative Anatomy, in which you propose to illustrate
the human economy by the anatomy of such vertebrate animals
as he knew. But the contrast is astonishing between Monroe's
(16:34):
knowledge and that of the present day. He divides quadrupeds
into carnivorous and hervivorous falls, into those that feed on
grain and those that feed on fish fishes into those
that have lungs and those that have naught. He remarks
that the fishes that have lungs differ very unconsiderably from
(16:55):
an ox or any other quadruped, and are not easily procure. Consequently,
he omits all account of them. Moreover, he says, as
the structure of insects and worms is so very minute
and lends us but little assistance for the ends proposed,
we purfosely omit them. He has a strangely unpenetrating view
(17:18):
of the relation between an oyster and a sensitive plant.
What difference is there betwixt an oyster, one of the
most inorganized of the animal tribe, and the sensitive plant,
the most exalted of the vegetable kingdom. They both remain
fixed to one spot where they receive their nourishment, having
(17:38):
no proper motion of their own, save the shrinking from
the approach of external injuries. Doctor Munroe's writings generally are
not inviting, to quote, from being written in a plain
and rather bald style with very little attempt at illustration.
In private life, Monroe primus was humane, liberal insentiment, a
(18:01):
sincere friend, and an agreeable companion, an affectionate husband and
a kind father, having the art of making his children
his companions and friends. In seventeen forty five, after preston parents,
he went down at once to the battlefield to assist
the sick and wounded, dressed their wounds, and busied himself
(18:22):
in securing their provisions and convenions to town. Nor did
he confine his attentions to the loyal, but aided the
rebels also. He took an important share in the education
of his children, of whom Donald became a successful physician,
and wrote his life prefixed to the quartal edition of
his works seventeen eighty one, to which all subsequent biographies
(18:47):
are much indebted. Monroe was a man of a strong
muscular make of metal height, yet his constitution was considerably
weakened in early life owing to his being too frequently blown.
He was liable to attacks of chest affections throughout life,
but died finally of a painful ulcer of the rectum
(19:08):
and bladder on July tenth, seventeen sixty seven. He had
resigned his chair of anatomy to his son Alexander in
seventeen fifty nine, but continued to practice and to attend
the infirmary till the last. He bore his painful illness
with fortitude and Christian resignation, and talked of his approaching
(19:29):
death with the same calmness as if he were going
to sleep. He was, says Professor Struthers, an able and
active and at the same time a calm and placid man.
He had family and friends influential in plenty, but the
work he had to do was of a kind at
which friends could only stand and look on. He had
(19:50):
to do a new thing at Edinburgh, to teach anatomy
and to provide for the study of it in a
town of then only thirty thousand inhabitants, and in an
half civilized and politically disturbed country. He had to gather
in students, to persuade others to join with him in teaching,
and to get an infirmary built. All this he did,
(20:12):
and at the same time established his fame not only
as a teacher but as a man of science, and
gave a name to the Edinburgh School, which benefited still
more the generation which followed him. Although we must depart
from strict chronological order to do so, it would be
more convenient to give here an account of the second Monroe,
(20:35):
who was born May twentieth, seventeen thirty three, and was
early attracted to the study of anatomy. Showing great perseverance
in possessing a good memory, he soon became a very
useful assistance toward his father in the dissecting room, and
when the students grew too numerous for one lecture, his
father deputed his son at the early age of twenty,
(20:59):
to repeat his in an evening lecture to those who
had failed to obtain admission in the morning. His father,
seeing how successful the son was, petitioned the town council
to have him appointed as his colleague and eventual successor,
promising if this were granted, to send his son to
the best medical schools in Europe and in every way
(21:20):
to fit him for the post. This plan being carried
out young Monroe who took his MD degree at Edinburgh
in seventeen fifty five and set out for a round
of medical schools London, Leyden, Paris and Berlin. In London,
he attended William Hunter. In Berlin, he had the still
(21:40):
greater advantage of living in the house of and sharing
the intimate instruction of the greatest anatomist meckel, a true
good start for a promising career. On his son's return
to Edinburgh in seventeen fifty eight, his father resigned his
cheer to him, and the son commenced by tea and
quite novel views on the blood, controverting his father's teaching.
(22:05):
The novelty of his manner, combined with the clearness of
his style, is described as one who was present as
having acted like an electric shock on the audience. It
was at once seen that he was master of the
subject and of the art of communicating knowledge to others.
His style was lively, argumentative and modern compared with that
(22:29):
of his more venerable colleagues, and from the beginning onwards
the half a century his career was one of easy
and triumphant success. Strutthers. As a lecturer, he was clear,
earnest and impressive, eloquent without display, and at the same
time grave and dignified. Now wondered that his classes increased
(22:50):
in size until they even reached four hundred. At the
same time, Monroe entered into practice as a physician and
became one of the leading practitioners in Edinburgh, some much
so that doctor James Gregory described him as being far
more than half a century at the head of the
medical school, and for a great part at that time
(23:12):
at the head of the profession. As a practicing physician,
he was also frequently called into consultation on surgical cases,
though he did not offerate. His chief fame is, however,
as a successful anatomist and teacher of anatomy. In seventeen
seventy seven, he successfully resisted the appointment of a separate
(23:34):
professor of surgery, claiming that his office included surgery. Monroe
secund disclaimed and not without good grounds, to have made
important original discoveries in regard to the lymphatic system. But
his merits as a discoverer in this department do not
interfere with the greater luster of William Hunter and Houston.
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His observations on the structure and functions of the nervous
system enjoy the distinction of having called Sir Charles Bell's
attention to the ganglion of the fifth pair of cranial nerves,
and to important particulars of the origin of the spinal nerves,
which led in no insignificant degree to his own great discoveries.
(24:18):
In seventeen fifty eight, Monroe published at Berlin his first
essay on the lymphatics, and Professor Black testified to having
read this essay in manuscript in seventeen fifty five. It
contained an account of the lymphatics as a distinct system
of vessels, having no immediate connection with the arteries and veins,
(24:40):
but arising in small branches from all cavities and cells
of the body into which fluids are thrown, and stating
that their use was to absorb the whole or the
inner parts of these fluids and to restore them to
the general circulation. He showed further by medical observation that
in cases where acrid manner was applied to the poise
(25:02):
of the skin or gained access to the cellular membranes,
the glands between the parts affected and the center of
the body became swollen and painful, manifestly from being absorbed
by the lymphatics. Monroe also first described the absorption of
bones and other solid parts in cases of tumor to pressure.
(25:25):
His various works on the nervous system, on the muscles,
on the brain, eye and ear, and on the structure
and physiology of fishes all contained observations which were of
considerable value in building up the science of anatomy in
the last century, but none of them furnish attractive reading,
such as we have found in the works of Harvey
(25:47):
and Cindermen. This is somewhat remarkable, considering that Munroe, shown
as an anecdotist, was intimate with all the celebrated Edinburgh
men of his time, and was a great admirer of
the theater, being equally attracted by Missus Siddons, whom he
felt the greatest pleasure in attending as a patient, and
(26:08):
by Foote, whose performance as president of the College and
physician to Weston Stoctor Lask under examination he enjoyed extremely.
It was said that Monroe sent his own scarlet road
to the theater for the mock doctor to wear. Another
of Monroe's personal tastes was that of horticulture. He planted
(26:29):
and beautified several romantic hills around his estate at Craig Lockhart.
Here he fitted up, says doctor Duncan, a rural cottage
consisting of two commodeus apartments adjoining his head gardener's house,
whose kitchen could provide dinner for a few select friends.
He would keep no bedroom there that he might never
(26:50):
be tempted to stay away from his professional duties in Edinburgh,
but in his cottage he often passed to summer day,
and hegaled his friends with the choices fruits. Doctor Duncan,
in his Havarian Oration, relates his disappointment that the younger
generation of his friends before the instrumental music of a fiddle,
a flute, or an organ in a drawing room to
(27:14):
that of the linac, the thrush, or the goldfinch in
the fields, and that the gardens of his old friends
in which he had spent such happy hours were now
let out for market gardens. Monroe was very economical of
his time and carefully measured it out to each subject
which occupied him, and he worked nearly as hard towards
(27:36):
the end as at the beginning of his career. He
did not deliver stereotype lectures, but continually improved them. He
is to be credited also with having favorably received Jenna's
discovery of vaccination, and vaccinated many children himself. In person,
the second Monroe was of middle height, a vigorous and
(27:59):
athletic make. His head was large, with strongly marked features
and full forehead, light blue eyes, and somewhat larch mouthed,
his neck was short and his shoulders high. In seventeen
ninety eight, his son, Monroe Tertius, was conjoined with him
in the professorship, but for ten years more the old
(28:20):
man continued to give the greater part of the course.
His last lecture was that introductory to the session of
eighteen o eight to nine, after which he retired from
practice also and lived on till he died of apoplexy
second October eighteen seventeen, in his eighty fifth year. Born
(28:41):
to a great name and a ready made position as professor,
Struthers remarks, the second Monroe had every advantage which education, friends,
and place could secure. But it is to his credit
that among brilliant colleagues like Cullen Black, Ducal, Stuart Play
and others, he held his own, both intellectually and socially,
(29:05):
even if he has not left so abiding a mark
upon medical and anatomical science as his contemporaries must have
expected him to make. Notwithstanding the note which the Momros
have attained for the anatomical teaching, and the distinction won
by the Gregorys as professors of medicine and able physicians,
(29:26):
they are outshown by William Cullen, who is justly the
most conspicuous figure in the history of the Edinburgh Medical
School in the eighteenth century. William Cullen was born on
the fifteenth of April seventeen ten at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, his
father having been factored to the Duke of Hamilton. Early
(29:49):
prominent at the local grammar school by his quick perception
and retemptive memory, he was sent to the University of
Glasgow in due course an apprentice to a medical p practician,
a named Paisley, who is fast studious and possessed a
good medical library, a signal advantage to young culin. It
became remarked by his companions that while he took little
(30:12):
or no part in their discussions, when he happened to
be ill informed on the subject, he always so studied
it afterwards that he could surpass the best of them
if it came up again. At the close of seventeen
twenty nine, Cullen went to London and first obtained the
surgency to a merchant ship commanded by a relative, with
(30:33):
whom he went to the West Indies, remaining six months
at Portobello. On his return to London, he took a
situation in an apothecary's shop in henry Eta Street, and
studied as diligently as ever when not occupied in the shop.
His father had died and there was little provision for
(30:54):
a large family. His eldest brother's death compelled him to
return to Scotland in the winter seventeen thirty one to two
to make arrangements for the education of his younger brothers
and sisters. He began practice at Austionley near Hamilton, taking
charge of the health of a relative, and perseveringly carrying
(31:15):
on from books those studies which he had not money
to prosecute at the seats of learning, with he longed
to be the receipt of a small legacy was the
turning point of Cullin's earlier fortunes, and how small a
some of studious scotchmen can make available in this direction
is well known. Culin resolved to devote himself to study
(31:37):
entirely until he should be qualified to take a firm
stand as a surgeon at Hamilton. He first went to
reside with the dissenting minister in Northumberland with a study
of literature and philosophy, and then spent the winter sessions
of seventeen thirty four to five and seventeen thirty five
to six at Edinburgh Medical School, now rapidly rising into
(31:59):
no on establishing himself as a surgeon at Hamilton early
in seventeen thirty six, young Cullen was soon employed by
the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and the leading families
of the neighborhood. In this comparatively retired situation, Culin yet
gained the confidence of Doctor Clerk, an able Edinburgh physician
(32:22):
called in to Hamilton Pallas, and was the means of
influencing William Hunter to the choice of the medical profession.
William Hunter was Cullin's resident pupil from seventeen thirty seven
to seventeen forty, and declared these to have been the
happiest years of his life. This natural selection brings men
(32:42):
a future note together before the world has known them,
and the lineal succession of minds is as fruitfully carried
on as that of bodies. The affection of these two
continued throughout life long after. William Hunter refers to him
as a man to whom I owe most and loved
most of all men in the world. Culin determining to
(33:06):
devote all this time to medicine, proceeded to the m
due degree at Glasgow in seventeen forty and took a
partner who wished to relieve him of surgical work. In
November seventeen forty one he married Miss Anna Johnstone, a
lady of much conversational power and charming manners, whose companionship
(33:27):
he enjoyed for the long period of forty six years.
She became the mother of seven sons and four daughters.
Doctor Cullen's name was now becoming known considerably beyond his
native locality, and in seventeen forty four he removed to Glasgow,
a step which he would have taken previously but for
the solicitations and promises of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton.
(33:52):
His constant attendance on the Duke in his painful illness
was ended by the death of the latter in seventeen
forty three, which put an end to the project of
a chemical laboratory and a botanical garden at the palace,
which had been among the inducements by which he had
been prevailed upon not to quit Hamilton. Henceforth, in the
(34:13):
intervals of practice, and study. He began to occupy himself
vigorously with the founding of a medical school at Glasgow.
He at once began to lecture on medicine, and subsequently
added to his courses chemistry, Materia medica and botany, in
all of which he gave lectures not merely representing the
knowledge of the time, but also including original views of
(34:37):
high value. The young school grew, though not so rapidly
as that of Edinburgh, but thus early he was brought
into contact with yet another great man, Joseph Black, who
was for some years his intimate pupil, and afterwards left
Glasgow for Edinburgh. Cullen discerned the promise of his pupil,
(34:59):
and Kiev abstained from entering upon fields of research, and
which he discerned the promise of his pupil, and carefully
abstained from entering upon fields of research, and which he
expected him to make a mark. Black submitted his treatise
on fixed Air to Culin and dedicated it to him.
(35:19):
About this time Culin made some important discoveries on the
evolution of heat and chemical combination and the cooling of solutions,
some of which were not published till seventeen fifty five,
while others remained in the manuscript, but suggested to Black
important points in his view of latent heat. At the
(35:41):
beginning of seventeen fifty one, but interested the Duke of Argyle,
Doctor Culin succeeded doctor Johnstone as a professor of medicine
in the University of Glasgow at the same time that
Adam Smith was appointed to the Chair of Logic, and
a friendship of great inter arose between these thoughtful minds.
(36:03):
Only a few months afterwards, Adams Smith's transferred to the
Moral Philosophy chair led doctor Cullen to favor strongly the
election of David Hume to the vacant chair. On an
occasion when Edwin Burgh was also a candidate, neither was elected.
Strict orthodoxy carrying the day at this period, the applications
(36:25):
of chemistry to arts and manufactures and to agriculture engage
Cullen's attention considerably, and it proposed to carry out a
process of purifying common salt, but it proved too expensive. Culin,
finding that Glasgow did not promise to build up a
large medical school at present, and being compelled to take
(36:46):
country practice, began to look longingly to Edinburgh, to which
also his friends were calling him. He says in a
letter to William Hunter in August seventeen fifty one, I
am quite tired of my present life. I have a
good deal of country practice, which takes up a great
deal of time, and hardly even allows me an hourys learger.
(37:09):
I get but little money for my labor, and indeed
by country practice with our payments, a man cannot make money.
Very circumstances, however, prevented this step being taken until in
the beginning of seventeen fifty six he was appointed to
the professorship of chemistry at Edinburgh, and was thus fairly
(37:30):
launched on his notable career. In the competition for this cheer,
Joseph Black had been nominated, but the two friends honorably
refused to do anything to prejudice each other, and on
appointment indeed Culin offered Black all the fees if he
would assist him. Colin's first course at Edinburgh was attended
(37:51):
by only seventeen students, is second by fifty nine, while
it rose later to one hundred forty five. Came to
him and freedom from his pecuniary struggles in seventeen fifty seven,
Doctor Culin first undertook to give clinical lectures in the infirmary,
and in this work his especial talent shown. He had
(38:15):
now had sufficient experience of practice with the best knowledge
of chemistry immateia medica at the time afforded, and his
skill in observation and graphic description of disease, added to
his zeal for imparting knowledge, soon made his clinical lectures renowned.
In these lectures for eighteen years, was carefully prepared the
(38:37):
first real model of what is now so familiar to
medical students as a clinical lecture was afforded. His candor
may be judged from the following expressions in these lectures. However,
I has in my credit for you instruction, my first views,
my conjectures, my projects, my trials, in short, my thoughts,
(38:59):
which I am a correct an if necessary change. And
whenever you yourself shall be above mistakes, or can find
anybody else who is, I shall allow you to rate
me as a very inferior person. In the meantime, I
think I am no more liable to mistakes than my neighbors,
and therefore I shall go on in telling you of
(39:20):
them when they occur. Promoted by such candor. Cullen's reputation
rapidly grew. His lectures were remarkable for simplicity, ingenuity, and
comprehensiveness of you with copiousness of illustration. He taught his
students to observe the course of nature in diseases, to
(39:40):
distinguish between essential and accidental symptoms, and to carefully discriminate
the influence of remedies from the curative operations of nature.
There is nothing, he said, I desire so much as
that every disease we treat here should be a matter
of experience to you. So you must not be surprised
(40:01):
that I use only one remedy when I might employ
two or three. For in using a multiplicity of remedies.
When the cure does succeed, it is not easy to
perceive which is most effectual. Again, he says, every wise
physician is a dogmatist, But a dogmatical physician is one
(40:22):
of the most absurd animals that lives. We say, he
is a dogmatist in physic who employs his reason, and
from some acquaintance with the nature of the human body,
thinks he can throw some light upon diseases and ascertain
the proper methods of cure, and I have known none
who are not dogmatists, except those who seem to be
(40:44):
incapable of reasoning or who were too lazy for it.
On the other hand, I call him a dogmatical physician
who is very ready to assume opinions, to be prejudiced
in favor of them, and to retain an assert very
tenacious and with too much confidence, the opinions of prejudices
(41:04):
which he has already taken up in common life or
in the study of the sciences. He sought to build
up rational views of medicine, indeed on the basis of
fact and experiment, and giving his clinical lectures, he was
at great pains to choose diseases of the most common
types as most useful to the students. He adhered to
(41:27):
great simplicity of prescriptions compared with the complex and barbarous
nostrums of receding times, and he experimentally used and introduced
many new drugs of great value, such as cream of tartar,
hen bane, James's powder, and tartar emetic. The novelty with
which Cullen invested his subject and the baldness of his
(41:50):
views made many, especially conventional practitioners and lecturers regard him
with disfavor and to cry him for not regarding boor
Aves views as final, and for adopting those of Hoffmann
in conjunction with his own. Yet his lively and entertaining lectures,
combined with his pleasing treatment of patience, and his manner
(42:13):
so open, so kind, and so little regulated by pecuniary considerations,
made him win his weighing. More and more. He was
the friend of every family he visited. William Hunter writes
in seventeen fifty eight, I do assure you I have
never found anything in business so pleasing to me as
(42:34):
to hear my patients telling me with approbation what doctor
Culin had done for them, And to hear my pupils
speaking with the reverence and esteem of doctor Culin. That
is so natural, true young minds, and of section four
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