The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons under the Medical Act : the introductory address at Surgeons' Hall, session 1861-62 / by John Struthers.

  • Struthers, John, Sir, 1823-1899.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons under the Medical Act : the introductory address at Surgeons' Hall, session 1861-62 / by John Struthers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Arrangements, however, were made by which the service of the surgeons was secured for a separate Surgical Department of the Infirmary, and, instead of two separate hospitals, we thus ob- tained one great hospital in two parts. The Fellows of the Colleges at first acted as physicians and surgeons, respectively, each for two years in rotation. The unsuitableness of this method, however, soon became apparent, and it was superseded, first at the Medical and afterwards at the Surgical Hospital, by the method of special appointments for a longer period, which is now followed in nearly all hospitals. The Eoyal Infirmary has from time to time been extended, and has now grown to be not merely an hospital for Edinburgh, but one to which patients are sent from all parts of Scotland. The Surgical Department was enlarged about thirty years ago by the purchase of the old High School; and again a few years ago by a new building, which in- creased the then surgical accommodation more than three times. Additional appointments have also been made, in the Physicians' department, to special wards for diseases of females, and, in the Surgical Hospital, to ophthalmic wards. Indeed, the Hospital |) ' has so greatly outgrown its original plan that the number of tlie physicians, and still more the number of the surgeons, might with advantage be increased, as well as the time which they are attached to the Hospital. An hospital is, of course, indispensable to the existence of a Medical School, and in these times when more and more attention is being given to clinical study, it is fortunate that we possess one of such magnitude, and so organized as to render it throughout a great clinical school both in Medi- cine ^nd in Surgery. In regard to medical education the College of Physicians has also played an important part, in .promoting the development of the Medical School which had arisen at the other and more ancient College, in furnishing teachers from among its Fellows equally with the sister College, and in going hand in hand with the sister College in all movements for the improvement of edu-