Physicians and Society

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’McCrae’s story of progress driven by Scottish genius and social concern is one of the glories of the nation.’ - Marc Lambert, Scotland on Sunday

’a fascinating and most readable book’ - Scottish Genealogy

'enjoyable reading for all with an interest in the history of medicine or the history of Scotland' - Iain Macintyre, FRCSEd

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh was founded during one of the most disturbed and violent periods in Scottish History, yet it survived the religious and political conflicts of its early years to become the most influential medical and scientific body in Scotland. Fellows of the College created what became the foremost medical school in Europe and the English-speaking world. At the same time the College took the lead in promoting measures to raise the health and welfare of a radically changing society in Scotland.

In 1681 when the College was founded Scotland was a poor country economically dependent on the products of the land; two centuries later it was one of the leading industrial countries in the world. It was the close and constant involvement in the evolving problems of Scottish society that shaped the growth and development of College giving it a character and traditions quite distinct from those of all other British medical corporations. It was in meeting the medical problems of the time, as they presented in Scotland, that many of the Fellows of College earned their considerable international reputations. 

This book is a social history of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from its foundation in 1681 until 1918 when, at the end of the First World War, its role was changed by the creation of the Ministry of Health.

Morrice McCrae has been a House Physician and a House Surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and a House Physician at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He is the author of The National Health Service in Scotland: Origins and Ideals (Tuckwell Press, 2003) and The New Club: A History (Tuckwell Press, 2004).