Dr James Copland (1791–1870) and his Dictionary of Practical Medicine

2021 ◽  
pp. 096777202110323
Author(s):  
Simon Gray
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
Practical Medicine ◽  
Orkney Islands

Dr James Copland (1791–1870) was born in the Orkney Islands and studied medicine at Edinburgh where he graduated in 1815. The following year was spent in Paris to acquire knowledge of the latest developments in pathology and he then travelled for a year along the coast of West Africa gaining practical experience of treating tropical diseases. After establishing his medical practice in London, which eventually became extremely successful, he contributed to medical journals and also became editor of the London Medical Repository from 1822 to 1825. His greatest work was The Dictionary of Practical Medicine written entirely by himself which was completed between 1832 and 1858. More than 10,000 copies of the dictionary were sold and its author became world famous during his lifetime. In 1833, Copland was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and from 1837 onwards he played a prominent role in the proceedings of The Royal College of Physicians. This article shows how his extensive professional and literary work was combined with an unusual private life.

William Henry Lang, 1874-1960

1961 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Close Friend ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
Vice Chancellor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Young Wife

The subject of this memoir did not leave any personal record with the Royal Society, but I have been fortunate in having the assistance of his niece, Mrs Margaret E. Franklin; Professor T. B. L. Webster, who was a close friend for the last 25 years of W. H. Lang’s life; the late Lord Stopford, who was also a close friend and was Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University during the last seven years of Lang’s tenure of the Chair of Cryptogamic Botany, and Professor Wardlaw, who succeeded to that Chair when Lang retired. To all these I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for their unstinted help which was the more valuable since Lang was not one who talked about himself and, indeed, was rather uncommunicative about his private life. W. H. Lang’s father was Thomas Bisland Lang, the son of William and Joan Lang who were married in 1825 and lived at Bridge-of-Weir, Renfrewshire. This couple had a typically large nineteenth century family of eleven children of whom Thomas Bisland was the youngest but one. A brother and a sister died in infancy, as was so frequent at that epoch, but Thomas’s sister Margaret lived to the age of 89 whilst his sister Mary lived to be 80, which, despite the fact that all but one of William Henry’s brothers died before they were 30, indicated that the stock was not potentially deficient in physical stamina. Nevertheless Thomas himself died at the age of 34, only two years after the birth of William Henry. The Baptismal Register records that our subject was born on 12 May 1874 at Withyham, Groombridge, Sussex. It was to this place that William’s father had come as a doctor with his young wife to establish a medical practice. After the untimely death of his father, the young baby and his mother returned to live at Bridge-of-Weir. Thus William was brought up in what must then, nearly 90 years ago, have been quite rural conditions for, even to-day, Bridge-of-Weir has a population of only just over 3000 inhabitants. The nearest city to their home was Glasgow, 14 miles away, a long distance when the only alternative to walking was a horse-drawn conveyance, since bicycles were a rarity till the close of the century.

scholarly journals XI. A letter from Pierce Dodd, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to the President of the Royal Society, concerning a person who made bloody urine in the small-pox, and recovered

1743 ◽  
Vol 42 (470) ◽  
pp. 559-563
Keyword(s):  
Royal College ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Small Pox

Sir , Making bloody Water is universally esteemed as terrible a Symptom as any that can happen in the Small-pox ; and all who have wrote concerning that Distemper, do unanimously agree, that it is a certain Forerunner of approaching Death.

scholarly journals Preceptors’ perceptions of assessing clinical associate students at district hospital sites

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aloysious Kakia ◽  
Ian Couper
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
District Hospital ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
District Hospitals ◽  
University Support ◽  
Distributed Platform ◽  
The University

Background: Preceptors are key stakeholders in distributed health professions’ education. They supervise students in the clinical setting to enable them to have a practical experience with patients, and they assess students’ skills at the highest tier of clinical assessment. The university where this study was done conducts a distributed Bachelor of Clinical Medical Practice course on a distributed platform which is dependent on preceptors at the training sites. Understanding the perceptions of preceptors, as major stakeholders, regarding the student assessment they do will assist the faculty to provide better support and development that might be needed and assist in maximising the benefits of distributed training.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of preceptors regarding assessing clinical associate students at district hospitals in the Bachelor of Clinical Medical Practice programme.Setting: The study was conducted at a rural university in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.Methods: This was a qualitative study involving nine preceptors who were purposively selected from three district hospital training sites based on their involvement in assessing clinical associate students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed.Results: Four themes emerged from thematic analysis: assessment issues, preceptor issues, student issues and university support issues. Preceptors are committed and enthusiastic in training and assessing the clinical associate students but require input from the university in terms of training and ongoing support.Conclusion: Lack of training threatens the validity of preceptor assessment. Academic institutions should train and support preceptors to enable them better to fulfil their roles.

Abolition at sea

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-40
Author(s):  
Mary Wills
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
The West ◽  
Perceived Efficacy ◽  
Prize Money ◽  
Slave Ships ◽  
Naval Officers

This chapter introduces the work of the West Africa squadron in detaining slave ships at sea by examining the experiences of the naval officers involved in its operation. It explores the development of a British abolitionist presence in Sierra Leone and examines the evolving tactics of naval suppression, including increasing intervention (so-called ‘gunboat diplomacy’) leading to blockade of points of embarkation for slave ships and destruction of slave barracoons. Arguments over tactics contributed to feelings of futility and low morale over operational limitations and the perceived efficacy of naval abolitionist policy. Other daily struggles faced by naval personnel included ill-discipline, an inhospitable climate and the threat of contracting the deadly tropical diseases that led to unprecedented peace-time mortality rates. Officers often perceived financial incentives in the form of prize money and promotion as the only meaningful compensation for these hardships.

scholarly journals Three lectures on muscular motion, read before the Royal Society in the year MDCCXXXVIII: as appointed by the will of Lady Sadleir, pursuant to the design of her first husband William Croone, M. D. Fellow of the College of Physicians, and of the Royal Society: being a supplement to the Philosophical Transactions for that year

1738 ◽  
Vol 40 (445) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal College ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The Will ◽  
Rational Practice

The late learned and famous Dr. Croune having observed how much the knowledge of the animal oeconomy depends upon the doctrine of the nerves and muscles, and how far the rational practice of physic might be improved by a more Perfect acquaintance with the animal oeconomy, did, for the encouragement of these, studies, form a plan for instituting certain Lectures to be read on such subjects, in the Royal College of Physicians on the nerves and muscles, and in the Royal Society on muscular motion; which was left with his Widow, afterwards Lady Sadleir.

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