Extramural medical education in Edinburgh

[2] Medical education in Edinburgh is considered to have started in 1505 when the Incorporation of Barber Surgeons gained their Seal of Cause or Charter, which requested that, as was common practice elsewhere in Europe.

[5] The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, did not begin to teach medical topics until the early 18th century, with the appointment of Robert Eliot as Professor of Anatomy.

[7] The Edinburgh medical school was open to all faiths, lectures were in English and it was cheaper than European universities or Oxford or Cambridge.

[8] The associated teaching hospital, opened in 1729, was initially situated opposite the top of Robertson's Close in what is now Infirmary Street.

By this time it was too small to meet the demands and a new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was built next to Surgeons' Hall.

[9] Edinburgh's attraction as a medical teaching centre was further enhanced by the growing reputation of Alexander Monro primus.

[1] Extramural teaching of materia medica was carried out in the Royal Public Dispensary which had been established by Andrew Duncan in 1776.

By 1860 a broadly based curriculum of medical subjects was taught and, after the House of Lord's judgement, these were recognised by universities as counting toward the degrees of MB, CM.

From 1825 the house was used to store the anatomical collection of Charles Bell, which had been purchased by the RCSEd, and its final use was as a lock hospital, for the nearby Royal Infirmary.

John Gordon, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, gave lecture courses here on anatomy and physiology from 1808 until his death in 1818 aged 32 years.

His lecture course was taken over by his son William Thomson from 1830 until his appointment as Professor of Physic at the University of Glasgow in 1841.

[5] Number ten, in the south-west corner of Surgeons' Square, had been built for use as a lecture theatre for the physician Andrew Duncan senior.

His popularity was further enhanced by the unpopularity of Alexander Monro tertius, who had succeeded his father in the university chair.

Knox was also a gifted anatomy teacher in marked contrast to Alexander Monro tertius at the university.

After Burke was hanged for these crimes Knox was exonerated by a committee of 'distinguished citizens' and continued to teach at 10 Surgeons' Square until 1833.

At the height of his popularity as a teacher in 1826, Knox attracted over 500 students to his anatomy classes, the largest number ever seen in the British Isles.

William Fergusson assisted Knox with anatomy teaching until 1840 when he was appointed professor of surgery at King's College London and later became sergeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria.

John Lizars taught anatomy and surgery and was succeeded by Peter David Handyside, Henry Lonsdale and James Spence.

[19] The Brown Square School of Medicine was established by James Syme, later Professor of Surgery in the university.

Lecturers in other subjects included: Thomas Wood (practice of medicine); John Lizars (surgery); Dr Marr (midwifery); David Skae (medical jurisprudence); J A Robertson (materia medica).

There Syme taught surgery as did his assistants Alexander Peddie, later President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and John Brown, whose account of the work of the hospital is described in his novel Rab and his Friends.

[3] In 1878 a medical school was opened with the anatomical teaching done by James Cossar Ewart, later Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen.

[5] In the last decade of the nineteenth century an Association of Extramural Teachers was formed with a view to consolidating most of the smaller schools into a single institution under the aegis of the two medical Royal Colleges in Edinburgh.

Dr (later Sir) Henry Littlejohn was chairman of the association and a leading figure in the formation of this new school.

The first Board of Governors was chaired by Alexander Russell Simpson and included John Duncan, Harvey Littlejohn, David Berry Hart, Noel Paton, and Patrick Heron Watson.

While most of the classes were held in Surgeons' Hall, there was teaching on smaller sites including The New School in Bristo Street, Park Place School., Minto House and 27 Nicolson Square.

[1] Many of the students who attended the classes were also registered with the University of Edinburgh and went on to graduate with the degree of MB ChB.

[23] The Goodenough Report published in 1944 recommended that all undergraduate medical education in the UK should be carried out by universities.