Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century
This paper reappraises the role of medical clubs and societies in the production and consumption of knowledge in 18th-century Scotland and the wider North Atlantic world. It focuses on the Edinburgh Medical Society, founded in 1731 by Alexander Monro primus; and on the student Medical Society, found...
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crsagepubl:10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 2023-05-15T17:30:40+02:00 Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century Jones, C 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh volume 48, issue 2, page 155-164 ISSN 1478-2715 2042-8189 Education General Medicine journal-article 2018 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 2022-07-03T16:05:16Z This paper reappraises the role of medical clubs and societies in the production and consumption of knowledge in 18th-century Scotland and the wider North Atlantic world. It focuses on the Edinburgh Medical Society, founded in 1731 by Alexander Monro primus; and on the student Medical Society, founded in 1734 and constituted in 1737 as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, ultimately becoming the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1778. The paper examines how Monro, as editor of the transactions of the Edinburgh Medical Society, sought to adapt medical learning to a world of polite sociability; and how that world came under pressure in the student Medical Society, where prevailing orthodoxies, such as the system of Herman Boerhaave and, later, William Cullen, were challenged. In the febrile atmosphere of the 1790s, William Thomson accused the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh of promoting visionary theories and abandoning the proper experimental method in medical science. Yet with its overarching commitment to the sceptical and empirical principles laid down by the Royal Society of London (founded in 1660), the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh provided a model for the establishment of similar clubs and societies on both sides of the Atlantic. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 48 2 155 164 |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
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language |
English |
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Education General Medicine |
spellingShingle |
Education General Medicine Jones, C Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
topic_facet |
Education General Medicine |
description |
This paper reappraises the role of medical clubs and societies in the production and consumption of knowledge in 18th-century Scotland and the wider North Atlantic world. It focuses on the Edinburgh Medical Society, founded in 1731 by Alexander Monro primus; and on the student Medical Society, founded in 1734 and constituted in 1737 as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, ultimately becoming the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1778. The paper examines how Monro, as editor of the transactions of the Edinburgh Medical Society, sought to adapt medical learning to a world of polite sociability; and how that world came under pressure in the student Medical Society, where prevailing orthodoxies, such as the system of Herman Boerhaave and, later, William Cullen, were challenged. In the febrile atmosphere of the 1790s, William Thomson accused the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh of promoting visionary theories and abandoning the proper experimental method in medical science. Yet with its overarching commitment to the sceptical and empirical principles laid down by the Royal Society of London (founded in 1660), the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh provided a model for the establishment of similar clubs and societies on both sides of the Atlantic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jones, C |
author_facet |
Jones, C |
author_sort |
Jones, C |
title |
Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
title_short |
Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
title_full |
Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
title_fullStr |
Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
title_full_unstemmed |
Collectors of Natural Knowledge: The Edinburgh Medical Society and the Associational Culture of Scotland and the North Atlantic World in the 18Th Century |
title_sort |
collectors of natural knowledge: the edinburgh medical society and the associational culture of scotland and the north atlantic world in the 18th century |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh volume 48, issue 2, page 155-164 ISSN 1478-2715 2042-8189 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4997/jrcpe.2018.211 |
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Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh |
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48 |
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2 |
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155 |
op_container_end_page |
164 |
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