Two Highland Protégés of Dr Archibald Pitcairne
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TWO HIGHLAND PROTEGES OF DR "ARCHIBALD PITCAIRNE I By C. P. FINLAYSON, M.A. Keeper of Manuscripts, Edinburgh University Library * Among the papers of the Reverend Colin Campbell of Achnaba (Argyllshire), there are some letters and notebooks relating to his eldest son Patrick and to his nephew Archibald Comrie who were students of medicine together in Edinburgh at the beginning of the eighteenth century and proteges of Archibald Pitcairne. Colin (1644-1726) was of a self-effacing, other-worldly disposition, which found its main outlet in mathematical speculation : James Gregory and his nephews David and James, John Craig, George Cheyne, Archibald Pitcairne, Colin Maclaurin, and even, it is said, Newton himself, were among his correspondents. But Patrick's temperament, as often happens, ran quite counter to his father's ; in place of intellectual genius he was gifted with a zest for the present, which, if naive and earthy, sometimes gives his trivial jottings the power in an intimate flash to recreate the atmosphere of those student days of the past. The father was a graduate of St Andrews (1661), but Edinburgh, with its Royal College of Physicians and distinguished body of surgeons, was a natural choice for a prospective student of medicine. The mere presence of Archibald Pitcairne, however, would probably have sufficed to sway Colin in favour of Edinburgh, for he was not only " the Honour of his Profession in Scotland," but also a distinguished mathematician, and already one of the correspondents through whom Colin sought with touching earnestness to keep abreast of events in the world of learning. To have his son near the great Pitcairne was, for Colin, perhaps the next best thing to being there himself. Archibald Comrie, Patrick's cousin, came from Finlarig in Perth- shire. He was probably the elder of the two for he graduated M.A. at Edinburgh in 1698, the year Patrick entered the University. A small pocket notebook of Patrick's belongs to this period of his career. As well as the first three Satires of Persius and themes in Greek and " Latin, it contains a lively section headed Some litle Sports This consists of a list of receipts in the usual vein of the period, the following examples being sufficient to show its scope :? " To make that no dog shall barck at yow.?Take an herb that is called Serpentine and they shall not bark at yow. * Kindly deposited in the University Library by his descendants, Miss E. B. K. Gregorson and her sister, Mrs. Sillar, in 1949. TWO HIGHLAND PROTEGES OF DR ARCHIBALD PITCAIRNE 53 "To know if a sick person shall die or not.?Take gray netles while they are green and put them in the patients urin, and if they remain green he shall live, and if they wither, not. " That one shall not be drunck.?Drink the juice of yerrow fasting, and he shall not be drunk for no drink and if yow were drunk it will mak yow sober. "To tak away haires.?Anoint the rough place that is shaven with the blood of a black otter, and hair shall never grow there. " A ready and easy way to try whether a maide be a pure virgin or not.? Tak roots of read neattles and stamp them small: and mix the juice thereof with ale, and let her drink therof, and if it do remain with her she is a maid otherways she is not. " To kill lice and nits.?If yow straw the powder or scraping of a hearts horn upon the head or cloath of him that is trubled with them all the lice and nits will presently dye. " How to mak ane old woman fart about the house without any hurt.? Put some ants eggs in hir broth or drink and she will trump about bravely." Patrick's selection of receipts reveals a medical bias as well as a decidedly macabre sense of humour, but the philosophy course was a necessary preliminary to the more academic study of medicine and four more of his notebooks are devoted to the dictates of Regent William Law. In one containing Ethics, however, he has made room " for a copy of Gervase Markham's account of How to make the best sort of bird lyme," and on another page of the same notebook, in more serious mood, he has listed the contents of his private library :? " Patrick Campbell. A catalogue of my books. a gilded bible P : (Alexius) Pedemontanus de Se[c]retis a latine plasm (psalm) book in prose Colloquia Erasmi a Xenophon in greek another book of Seven languages an hibrew grammer a whole course of philosophy, viz. Logicks, metaphysicks, ethics and physicks Ricenii (Reineccii) compendium Theologiae also ane Ethics m:s: ane Inglish bible." But, alas, Comrie coming across this unusual example of scholarly zeal in Patrick's vigorous scrawl, has mockingly added in his regular delicate hand a Latin catalogue of some rude fictitious titles :? " Catalogus Librorum Patricii Campbell Empt. Edinburgi Ex Typis Georgii Mosman.* Impr. Tartaretus de modo Cacandi Burgius de Arte Textoria Fredericius de Modo Crepitandi, etc." * The Edinburgh printer and bookseller. VOL. LX. NO. I D 2 54 C. P. FINLAYSON Patrick finished his philosophy course in 1701 but he did not graduate. At that time the University provided no systematic course in medicine. Instruction in elementary anatomy, indeed, often formed (rfyWlv* if fry-fa'**. THE ANATOMY CLASS From Archibald Flint's notebook containing dictates by Regent James Pillans in Edinburgh University, 1672. Edinburgh University Library Edinburgh University Library " " part of the general philosophy course, and in a historiated initial in an Edinburgh student's dictate book of 1672 we can see such a class in progress, but students who wished to specialise in medicine at University level had to go abroad, e.g. to Leyden, Utrecht, etc. Patrick may well have spent a few years on the continent, though by TWO HIGHLAND PROTEGES OF DR ARCHIBALD PITCAIRNE 55 1704 he was certainly in Edinburgh studying the local theory and practice of medicine. Sibbald, after getting a foreign doctorate in " less than three years, says, After I came home I made it my business, by my acquaintance with some of the Apothecaries and Chirurgions, to informe myself of the method of practice in use amongst the Physitians here, and gott the coppie of the courses of Physick they appointed in most diseases, and of the receipts most in use among them." Patrick kept a small notebook for this very purpose. It contains receipts ascribed to William Eccles, Robert Trotter, John Smellholm, James Murray and Adam Gairdines, but most commonly the author is indicated by the initials A.P. representing Archibald " " Pitcairne, and it was mainly on converse with him that Patrick depended for his medical education in Edinburgh. Other notebooks in Patrick's hand containing extracts from the works of Borelli and Bellini, the eminent continental iatrophysicists, and of Paul Hermann, Professor of Botany at Leyden, are no doubt the fruits of reading prescribed by Pitcairne. Comrie has made use of a blank leaf in one 01 these books to draft a high-flown, metaphysical love letter :? " Madam, Perplexing Thoughts and darkning doubts hath rais'd a storm in my Intellectual world, and have nigh made it once deluge again, and unhinged its poles, disturb'd the harmonious Notes of its weell tun'd Sphaeres, and generally has introduced a perfect ataxie in its frame and obscurity in its brightness and sadness in its Serenity." Comrie had had the laugh on Patrick in his catalogue of books, but this time Patrick has slyly turned the tables by inserting below the " heading of the letter, viz. For Mrs. Margarite Campbell at Kilbryde," the following mock prescription :? Testicul: Arch: Comrie X* pp1 Testicul: equi X1 pp1 M: f: pulv. ad stimuland: $ rem.* ?a vivid, if crude, snapshot of the give and take of student friendship 250 years ago. The following letter from Patrick to his father in 1704, reveals that " " keeping company with the convivial Pitcairne was an expensive, though, no doubt, diverting, way of learning. Patrick is pleading for a remittance and cleverly sugars his appeal with several layers of mathematical and local news which he well knew would be like honey to poor Colin away on the far side of Ben Cruachan :? Edinburgh Aprill 18 th " Dear Father, i7?4- " Yow seemed to find Fault with me in your last about my English Journey. But ye know it is my Imployment (and still my duty in such a caise as it was) 56 C. P. FINLAYSON to use all possible at least laufull Means to recover Peoples that are in Danger of there Lives on there own Charges. " I spoke to Dr. Pitcairn just now to see if he would writt to yow, but he * says it is needless for him to write to yow untill he will send yow Mr Craegs paper anent Fluxions, and some others of Dr. Cheyns,f which he expects dayly from London. I had the occasion last night to be in Company with Mr. Areskin t one of the Regents, who told me he had one of Mr Newtons Books de Luce et Coloribus,? which his brother had sent him from London, who is one of the Royall Society their, of whom Dr. Mead || makes mention in that little book of mine about Poisons which yow have by yow : but I understand that there is non of them corned to Dr. Pitcairns hands as yet for he said to me, when I made mention of it to him, that he had non of them as yet, but that they would be in Toun shortly to be sold.