Notes and recollections of a professional life / by William Fergusson ; edited by his son, James Fergusson.

  • William Fergusson
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes and recollections of a professional life / by William Fergusson ; edited by his son, James Fergusson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    17/304 page 13
    Nelson on liis refcm-n to the Baltic.^ In the Peninsula he was principal medical officer at the taking of Oporto and passage of the Douro. He accompanied the Army to Talavera, and was present at that battle. At the battle of Busaco he served as Chief of the Medical Department with the Portuguese Auxiliary Force. In the year 1815 he accompanied the exj)edition against Guada- loupe, and received the thanks of the General commanding, on the reconquest of that colony. His name having been mentioned in the despatches of that event, he quitted the command in the year 1817, when he received the thanks of the Commander of the Forces in general orders, and also the thanks of the Army Medical Department at home on the same occasion. On his retui-n from the West Indies in 1817, he settled at Edinburgh, with the intention of practising there as a physician; but after four years^ experience, finding the place already overstocked with medical men, and very little chance of success, he was induced, at the invitation of His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, to remove to Windsor, where an opening presented itself; and, owing to the introduction afforded liim by the connection with his Royal Highness, in whose staff he had then been for more than twenty years, and who always showed him the utmost friend- ship and kindness, as weU as favoured by local circumstances, he soon fell into an extensive and lucrative practice, both in the town and country, and this he continued to enjoy until overtaken by his last fatal illness, though declining health, and long and repeated hohdays, had latterly diminished its extent. He stiU, however, continued in the enjoyment of society and the occu]3ations of liis active mind, of which the writing of tliis work was one of the principal and most enjoyed, till November 1843; when, caUedupon to attend as a witness for a friend on a trial at Westminster Hall. * The year of the peace of Amiens was spent in travelling through the north of Europe, on the staff of his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3