Memorial for Dr. Hamilton, Professor of Midwifery in the College of Edinburgh, respectfully submitted to the Right Honourable the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh, patrons of the said college.

  • James Hamilton
Date:
[1824]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial for Dr. Hamilton, Professor of Midwifery in the College of Edinburgh, respectfully submitted to the Right Honourable the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh, patrons of the said college. 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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    avowed that out of above One hundred and sixty subjects relating to that department of xMedical Knowledge, he treats incidentally or fully of Forty only. The Professors of Botany, of Chemistry, of the Mate- ria MecHca, and of the Theory of Medicine, cannot be expected to give any detail of the Diseases of Women and Children; and although the Professor of Anatomy told the Senatus Academicus that he was accus- tomed to point out the diseased changes upon the Uterine System, he did not allege that he explained either the symptoms or the cure of the Diseases produced by those changes. If the Medical Faculty had brought forward a charge against the Professor of Midwifery, for neglecting to explain the Act of Human Parturition, and taking up the time of the Students in describing dis- eases treated of by other Professors, they would have had just grounds of Complaint; but their accusation of his encroaching upon the Prac- tice of Physic, in a department of the Profession untaught by any other Professor, must excite not a little surprise, and is very inconsistent with the former principles and practice of that Faculty *, for in the year 1777 they unanimously agreed to petition the Patrons of the Uni- versity to appoint Dr. IVIonro Professor of Surgery, as well as of Ana- tomy, because he had, for several years, added to his usual Course, with great adv^antage to the Students, a View of the 1 linciples of Surgery. On the same grounds, if my Commission did not entitle me to lecture upon the Diseases of Women and Children, I might have applied to the Medical Faculty for their sanction to be appointed Professor of that department; and I should scarcely have expected any eflectual opposition from the Professor of the Practice of Physic, unless he could have showm that his Course of Lectures did actually comprehend all the subjects generally understood to belong to the Practice of Physic, and also an account of the Diseases of Women and Children. This argument might be extended much farther; for 1 might pro- ceed to inquire into the practical purposes for which the different INIe- dical Professorships were instituted ; and I should have no difficulty in proving, that these were the investigation of the Nature and Cure of Human Diseases, and that, in this respect, the duty of the Professor of K
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