As a young man, he was a member of the Rankenian Club, a group of intellectuals who went on to become some of the most influential figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Whytt was to advance knowledge of nerve and muscle function,[5] while Hill went on to make important contributions to the understanding and management of head injury.
[6] Yet he was attracted to a career as a physician and to qualify as such he applied for, and on 21 June 1736 was awarded, the degree of MD (St Andrews) in absentia.
[2] His surgical background and the influence of his Rankenian friends are apparent throughout his lectures; he repeatedly emphasises the need to rely on observed rather than inferred phenomena before reaching conclusions.
Young took exception to Alston's conclusion that 'opium does more honour to medicine than any other remedy whatever' and counters this by emphasising the risks '...that I may prevent such mischief as I can, I here give it as my sincere opinion... that opium is a poison by which great numbers are daily destroyed.'
True to his reputation he is critical about writers whose knowledge of the drug is based on chemical or animal experiments rather than clinical practice.
Hill's ability to clinically diagnose cerebral compression from bleeding following head injury enabled him to treat this successfully by directed trephine and drainage.
His writing was an important addition to the increasing understanding of the basis of the management of head injury, and was being quoted 100 years after publication.