Main description:

Andrew Duncan (1744-1828) was a remarkable figure in a remarkable period of history - the Scottish Enlightenment. Born the son of a Fife shipmaster, Duncan rose to become Physician to the King and was twice President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. As a young doctor he attended the poet Robert Fergusson in his terminal illness. His views on medicine were very much ahead of their time. He saw the need for a Dispensary for the Sick Poor, and for a Lunatic Asylum in Edinburgh - where inmates were treated humanely. In the face of opposition, he founded a Chair of Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health in Edinburgh, the first in Britain. His name lives on in the Andrew Duncan Clinic, established in 1965. A man of wide interests, Duncan was a very sociable character with impressive organisational vigour who founded many societies, three of which still survive: the Aesculapian and Harveian Societies, and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society.

Contents:

I. Andrew Duncan Senior (1744-1828) A Biographical Overview John Chalmers II. Medical and Philosophical Commentaries and its Successors Iain Chalmers, Ulrich Trohler and John Chalmers III. Edinburgh's Royal Public Dispensary M. H Kauffman IV. The Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum John Chalmers V. Duncan's Therapeutics John Chalmers VI. Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health The Role of Andrew Duncan Junior John Chalmers VII. Medical Clubs and Societies founded by Andrew Duncan John Chalmers VIII. The Royal Medical and Medico-Chirurgical Societies James A. Gray IX. The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Connie Byrom and John Chalmers X. Duncan's Non-Medical Clubs and Societies XI. Duncan's and the Brunonian Society John Chalmers XII. James Gregory's Attack on the Royal College of Physicians and on Andrew Duncan John Chalmers XIII. Duncan's Dispute with James Hamilton John Chalmers XIV. Duncan and Sir Henry Raeburn John Chalmers XV. Memorials to the Dead John Chalmers Appendix 1 The Writings of Andrew Duncan Senior Appendix 2 The Children of Andrew Duncan Senior Bibliography Selected Index Image and Text Credits