Collegium Medicum Novocastrense : the history of the Medical School, afterwards the Durham College of Medicine at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for forty years, from 1832 to 1872 / by Dennis Embleton.
- Dennis Embleton
- Date:
- 1890
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Collegium Medicum Novocastrense : the history of the Medical School, afterwards the Durham College of Medicine at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for forty years, from 1832 to 1872 / by Dennis Embleton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOL. It is a general belief that Mr. John, afterwards Sir John, Fife was the founder and first President of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne School of Medicine and Surgery, but if we investigate the ground of that belief we. may regret to find that there is reason to doubt that he was either one or the other. Let us see. In Richardson's Table Book (History), Vol. IV. pp. 216-17, where is a woodcut of the Barber-Surgeons' Hall, dated 1830, occurs the following passage :— 1834, October.—This month the first course of lectures delivered in the Newcastle School of Medicine and Surgery comme»ced. The establishment of provincial medical schools became essential when the system of medical appren- ticeships was retained in such an age of improvement as the present. The absurdity of confining a young man for several years to the work of a shop- man as a means of qualifying him for a liberal profession could not fail to be perceived; and Newcastle offers many facilities for the support of a medical school. Accordingly in the year 1833 [error for 1832] Drs. Fife [that is George Fife, M.D.] and Knott and Mr. Fraser conceived the project of establishing a Medical School in that town ; they communicated on the subject with Messrs. John Fife, H. G. Potter, and D. McAllum,* who joined them in the first course delivered in Bell's Court Auction Room in the ensuing winter. After this the Hall of the Barber Surgeons was rented of that Company and fitted up for the purposes of a School. The remainder of the article is mostly error and confusion. Again, fi'om Latimer^s Local Records is the following notice :— October 20th, 1834.—The first lecture in connection with the Newcastle- upon-Tyne School of Medicine and Surgery was delivered in the Surgeons' Hall in that town, A few lectures had, however, been given by Dr. Fife, Mr. John Fife, Dr. Knott, and Mr. Potter, and a few other gentlemen, in Bell's Court during the previous winter. Very scanty notices these of the birth of the Medical School! According to the former of these extracts it appears that its author held the belief that it was Dr. George Fife and Dr. Knott and Mr. Fraser who originated the idea of forming a Medical School, and that Mr. John Fife, Mr. Potter, and Mr. McAllum had the idea im- parted to them by the previously named gentlemen. * Mr. McAllum died August 25th, 1842, set 57.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22303340_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
