Fellows of the Enlightenment

An exhibition by the College Library
for the 41st St. Andrew’s Day Festival Symposium

Exhibition prepared by John Dallas, Rare Books Librarian

Alexander Monro primus (1697-1767)
The anatomy of the human bones
Edinburgh, 1726

Alexander Monro was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh University when he was only 23 years old. He went on to play a prominent role in the development of the Edinburgh medical school, and in the establishment of the Royal Infirmary. His lectures attracted students from Europe and the American colonies. Alexander primus, as he came to be known, was the first in the line of father, son, and grandson, all named Alexander, who consecutively held the chair of anatomy for 128 years.

Robert Whytt (1714-1766)
An essay on the vital and other involuntary motions of animals
Edinburgh, 1751

Whytt was Scotland's first 'neurologist', and President of the College from 1763 to 1766. In the above work he proved conclusively the existence of a class of animal action separate from voluntary motion, thereby giving the first clear description of what is now known as 'reflex action'. He was also the first to show that the response of the pupil to light is a reflex action - Whytt's reflex.

James Lind (1716-1794)
A treatise of the scurvy
Edinburgh, 1753

James Lind spent ten years at sea before returning to practise medicine in Edinburgh. For centuries scurvy had been the scourge of sailors on long sea voyages, and the illness was an extremely important issue. Lind describes how in 1747, while serving on board the HMS Salisbury, he isolated 12 sailors suffering from scurvy and treated them with six different remedies. He found oranges and lemons to be the most effective cures. This experiment, probably the first deliberately planned controlled therapeutic trial, meant that Lind not only found a cure for the disease, but also a means to prevent it.

Sir Stuart Threipland (1716-1805)
President 1766-1770

Stuart Threipland studied medicine at Edinburgh and was one of the founding members of the Royal Medical Society. When Charles Edward Stuart landed in Scotland in 1745, Threipland was one of the first to join the rebel forces. He was personal physician to the Prince throughout the Rebellion and during his weeks as a fugitive on the run. Threipland’s medicine chest, which was carried by him throughout the ’45, is thought to have been given to him by the Prince himself. It contains 160 remedies and numerous miniature instruments. In 1747, after an amnesty was declared, Threipland returned from exile in France and built up a thriving medical practice in Edinburgh.

Sir John Pringle (1707-1782)
Medical notes and correspondence
10 volumes of bound manuscripts, 1752-1777

Sir John Pringle was a Fellow of the College, President of the Royal Society and Physician to the King. During the 1745 Rebellion he was Physician General to the Hanoverian forces under the Duke of Cumberland. Pringle is regarded as the founder of modern military medicine. A pioneer in the study of hospital cross-infection, he was the first to use the term antiseptic in its modern sense. Throughout his career he meticulously recorded observations on medical treatment and corresponded with leading physicians and scientists throughout Europe. In 1781 he gifted ten bound volumes of his personal papers and correspondence to the College. This collection is of major importance in the study of science and medicine during the Scottish Enlightenment.

William Cullen (1710-1790)
First lines of the practice of physic
Edinburgh, 1777-84

William Cullen was one of the most famous physicians of the 18th century, and President of the College from 1773 to 1775. His lectures attracted students from all over the world to study at Edinburgh, and were notable as being the first given in the vernacular instead of the traditional Latin. The above work, although “intended chiefly as a text-book for my students”, was regarded as the authoritative work on medicine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

William Buchan (1729-1805)
Domestic medicine
Edinburgh, 1769

William Buchan graduated MD at Edinburgh in 1761. He is best known for the above work which went on to become a worldwide best-seller. Buchan’s aim, he wrote, was to “lay medicine open” by providing sound medical advice to the educated classes. At least 142 English language editions were eventually published, as well as translations into all the major European languages. Catherine the Great of Russia sent the physician a gold medal in honour of his great work. In 1927 it was reportedly “still in frequent use among the poorer classes” in Scotland.

John Hope (1725-1786)
A catalogue of trees and shrubs growing in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh
Edinburgh, 1775

James Hope was a physician at the Royal Infirmary, Professor of Medicine and Botany at Edinburgh University, and President of the College from 1784 to 1786. He was also King’s Botanist for Scotland and Superintendent of the College’s Physic Garden. Botany had previously been taught at Edinburgh as part of the materia medica. John Hope established it in the curriculum as a science in its own right.

Alexander Monro secundus (1733-1817)
Observations on the structure and functions of the nervous system
Edinburgh, 1783

Alexander Monro secundus is regarded as the greatest of the Monro dynasty. In the above work he summarised and illustrated the current neurological knowledge of the time, as well as including numerous additions from his own observations. These included his discovery of the foramen of Monro - the communication between the lateral ventricles of the brain with each other, and with the third ventricle. Monro secundus was President of the College from 1779 to 1782.

Joseph Black (1728-1799)
Lectures on chemistry
London, 1803

Joseph Black graduated MD at Edinburgh with a dissertation which identified carbon dioxide for the first time. He went on to become Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University, and his research on specific and latent heat was a great advancement in the science of thermodynamics. Although known throughout the world as a research scientist, Black continued to practise as a physician in Edinburgh, and was President of the College from 1788 to 1790.

Andrew Duncan (1744-1828)
Medical and philosophical commentaries
Edinburgh, 1773-1795

Andrew Duncan served two terms as President of the College. He was one of the earliest advocates of the humane treatment of the mentally ill. In 1792 he founded the first hospital in Edinburgh solely for the care of psychiatric patients. From 1773 to 1795 Duncan published the Medical and philosophical commentaries, the only regular medical periodical in Britain during this period. The stated purpose was that practitioners “who have not leisure for extensive study, may early become acquainted with everything proposed as a discovery in medicine.” It included news and reports from medical societies throughout Britain, France, Denmark, Russia and America.