‘General Practice’ in Seventeenth-Century Edinburgh: Evidence from the Burgh Court

SUMMARY

The training and practical organization of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh are well documented, continuous minutes surviving from 1581, and similar evidence exists for the College of Physicians, founded in 1681. However, these sources give little information on day-to-day general medical practice, such as the employment of a surgeon or physician, or the types of condition treated. Relatively little primary or secondary material is available in relation to Scottish medical practice in the important and turbulent seventeenth century, but one source rather unexpectedly provides a fair amount of information on these matters. The records of the Edinburgh Burgh Court contain a substantial number of cases involving surgeons, physicians, and apothecaries, often suing for non-payment of fees, and it is therefore possible to make some, albeit indirect, assessment of the basic mechanics of consultation and of the procedures followed in cases of non-payment. The court records have been assessed in relation to four main areas: practitioners as plaintiffs, as defendants, as employers of apprentices, and as expert witnesses in criminal trials, and the methods of medical consultation and legal redress outlined. It appears that fairly standard procedures were followed in relation to ‘contracts’ made between practitioner and patient, and also that lines of demarcation between physician and surgeon were less rigorously enforced than might have been assumed. The magistrates attempted to adjudicate fairly and decisions made by the Burgh Court were carefully and often sympathetically considered.

General practise, history, Edinburgh, court, seventeenth century, physician, surgeon, procedures