THE

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1894.

ART. I. THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS OF SCOTLAND.

ONE

NE of the staple trades of Scotland is undoubtedly that of making doctors. During the five years 1888-92, there registered, as commencing their studies in her medical schools, 3,327 medical students, and during the same period there were licensed over 3,000 practitioners of medicine, brand new, qualified and authorised by law to practise every branch of their profession, and each with the hall mark of one of her Universities or licensing bodies. About one third of these were needed for home use, to make up the tear and wear among the existing doctors, and to supply the needs of the yearly increase of the Scottish population. There remained about 2,000 for export. It must be remembered that there are only 30,000 medical practitioners with British or Irish qualifications alive at home and abroad, in practice and out of practice, and that the whole number of diplomated practitioners turned out of all the British and Irish Schools of Medicine has been 6,630 during the past five years. Scotland, therefore, with only 11 per cent. of the population of the United Kingdom, has supplied 45 per cent. of the new crops of doctors for the Empire. This is a fact of great interest not only to Scotsmen but also to the rest of the kingdom and to our Colonies, where so many of her medical graduates go. The general public has a very profound concern in this matter, far more than many persons realise. Any man, woman or child, in this Kingdom, or in our Colonies,