John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney.

  • William Joseph Marie Alois Maloney
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/20 page 609
    a poet. His ode, though six months old, remained in manuscript. The search for a publisher could continue, no matter what John chose to study. Apparently he reverted to Arts ; for before being accepted as an M.D. candidate, he passed an examination in general knowledge, including Mathematics and Philosophy. It is, however, uncertain whether he became a pupil of the mighty Colin M‘Laurin in the session 1726-27, or 1727-28. In the summer of 1728, William, being nineteen, completed the Divinity course. A certificated college candidate was not eligible for admission to the Presbytery trials until he was twenty-one. As it was cheaper to wait at the manse, and as there he could help his aged father, presumably William then went back to Castleton. Returning alone to Edinburgh, the sole beneficiary of the collegiate tax on the stipend, John probably entered the Medical School at the opening of the winter session of 1728-29. The seventh graduate, he necessarily completed the prescribed curriculum. It comprised instruction by all five members of the Faculty ; which he doubtless received. But no medical class being inscribed in the Matriculation Register, and no class fees being entered in the University Fee Book, there is no official record of his course in Medicine. The only member of the Faculty who has left a list of the students that attended his classes, is Monro. In his notebook, the eighty-sixth in the class of ninety that opened on 15th October 1729, is John Armstrong—again listed as neither an apprentice nor a graduate. During the years that Monro was the only professor, he was a Faculty in himself; teaching not merely the anatomy of the body, but also the structure and function of the various parts, as well as their common morbid changes, and the ways to treat these surgically— and medically, too. After the School was organised, Monro’s lectures may have been somewhat restricted in scope, but they still covered a vast field, which many a student gleaned more than once. George Cleghorn went over it five times : John Armstrong, twice ; once in 1724-25, and again in 1729-30. Had John first entered the Medical School in October 1729, his graduation in February 1732 would imply that he received credit for the session of 1724-25 ; and that the three years’ course could be covered in two. As he repeated anatomy, and graduated insignitus, it is unlikely that he started so late, and finished so hurriedly. Graduation ended an ordeal, resembling a long-drawn out Presbytery trial. A candidate for the degree, John submitted a thesis, probably, first to Monro, who may have suggested the topic, de tabe piirulenta. Approved by Monro, it was sent to his colleagues. Two months were required for adjudging the thesis. Then John sustained it before the Faculty ; and underwent a professional examination, both written and oral, conducted in Fatin. Sometime in November, or in October 1731, before being allowed to submit the thesis, John had qualified as a candidate for the M.D.?
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