Medical bibliography and medical education : Dr. Robert Watt's library for his medical students in 1812 / by James Finlayson.

  • James Finlayson
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical bibliography and medical education : Dr. Robert Watt's library for his medical students in 1812 / by James Finlayson. 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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    authors who have written on the subject, and I now put it in your power to peruse these authors, to examine their facts and opinions, and to draw your own conclusions (pp. 5,6). He goes on to combat the idea that ancient literature is useless. An idea has too generally prevailed, that there is little useful knowledge to be derived except from writers of the present day. . . . After having suffered ourselves to be more or less diverted from the true path of inquiry, by the dreams of enthusiasts and the reveries of system-mongers, we are glad to resume our march in the road which Hippocrates and Sydenham traversed with such signal caution and success. By comparing the practice of the ancients with modern improvements, we shall learn to appreciate justly the value of the latter. By marking the errors into which our predecessors have fallen, we shall be enabled to pursue, more steadily, the right method of research (p. 7). Watt's catalogue represents, for its time, an admirable collection of books in all departments of medicine. It consists of fifty-one pages, and contains over a thousand entries. The ancient literature of the Greeks and Arabians is well represented, and Celsus and Cselius Aurelianus, of course, are there too. Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Stahl, Hoffmann, de Haen, Boerhaave, Van Swieten, Gaubius, etc., are all there. Works then recent are also entered. Thus we have Baillie's Morbid Anatomy (1807), as well as Bonetus and Morgagni; the last, as in many other cases, is in an English translation. Books by Glasgow physicians and surgeons are, as might be expected, well represented ; mention may be made of the two important works of Allan Burns, and the various volumes by his brother. Professor John Burns; Dr. Badham on Bronchitis (to use the name he invented ^); Dr. J ohn Eiddell on Fever ; Dr. Richard Millar on the History of Medicine ; Dr. John Moore's Medical Sketches; Cullen's well-known works ; and Dr. Watt's own book on Diabetes (his book on Chin Cough was not published till later). Peter Lowe's Chyrurgerie is represented by the 3rd edition (1634). The collection included many volumes of medical journals also. Dr. Watt points out, in a note, that the deficiencies in his list are chiefly as regards books of the last ten or fifteen years, a defect which he was trying to remedy. In addition to the books, he mentions that he had a collection of about 1000 theses, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Continent, which were all available for reference. He further states that manuscript catalogues, arranged alphabetically according to the author's names and the subjects treated, may be seen in the library, and will be printed as soon as the collection ^ In the New English Dictionary, Dr. Murray gives priority in the nse of the word Bronchitis to P. Frank, 1812, noting Badham's book as 1814 ; he seems, however, to have overlooked Badham's first edition, which was issued in 1808.
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