Valedictory address delivered to the members of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, at the last ordinary meeting of session 1852-53, April 15, 1853 / by William Murray Dobie.

  • Dobie, William M. (William Murray), 1828-1915.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Valedictory address delivered to the members of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, at the last ordinary meeting of session 1852-53, April 15, 1853 / by William Murray Dobie. 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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    by a far larger number of distinguished men than usual. Among them was the venerable Sir James Grant, C.B., who, having the Society's diploma-cases. This bottle contained only a silver medal, a wood- cut of which is annexed. The leaden case was found to contain only two of the diplomas,—one paper, the other parchment,—originally granted to the members of the Medical Society. The following is a copy of the diploma, verbatim et literatim:— SOCIETAS MeDICA EDnsBURGi. A. D. 1737. Instituta ; Omnibus ad quos hsec pervenerint— « Sc. Ingmuus ornatissimusque Juvenis, dum Socius nobis interfuit, plurima et pulcherrima, haud minus Ingeniifelicis, quam Diligentioe insignis, Animique ad optimum qziodque parati, exempla edidit; Ideoque, ei, has literas, meritis tantum concessas, sigillo nostro mimitas, Nominibusque subsignatis, disce- denti, lubentissime donamus. '■' ' • This diploma is surmounted by an urn, from which floral wreaths depend on either side; and the spaces for signatures are diiaded by an ^sculapian rod, serpent, and cock. There is one circumstance which renders this ancient diploma unusually A'aluable and curious, viz.: the certainty of the existence or form of a diploma at this period, being unknown to any member, even to the Society's historian, Dr Stroud. This gentleman, in his valuable account of the Society, page 70, says :— Suitable diplomas were granted, at least as early as April 1778, when a communication was transmitted to the Society by Dr James Gregory, on the part of the Medical Professors, declining, in their capacity of honorary members, to annex their signatures in futiu-e, on account of the peculiar impropriety of their seeming to attest qualifications
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