5 The two holders of the Regius Chair of Military Surgery in Edinburgh – John Thomson and George Ballingall: the topics covered in their teaching courses When John Bell proposed the establishment of ‘one great school of military surgery’ in 1798 to Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty in the then Whig administration, 1 there is every reason to believe that he viewed Edinburgh as the optimal location for such a school, probably with him at its head. Edinburgh had an Infirmary established sixty years earlier that had amply demonstrated that it was capable of coping with large numbers of soldiers and seamen in its military wards. 2 Equally, there were a number of regimental and garrison hospitals in an around Edinburgh where additional men could be accommodated should the need arise. While Bell had no pretensions to being a military surgeon, he was, however, both a competent surgeon, and a highly regarded teacher and author on anatomical and surgical topics. 3 It was only after 1800 following his bitter controversy with Professor James Gregory, who was acting on behalf of the Managers of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, that he was no longer allowed access to patients in the Infirmary. Bell had argued that all of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh should continue to have access to all patients in the Infirmary. After 1800, Bell devoted much of his time to teaching and writing, 4 and presumably gave up any ambition he might have had of heading a school of military surgery in Edinburgh. This, in due course, opened the door to John Thomson and his influential Whig supporters, coinciding as it did with the increased threat of invasion from the Continent. Thomson was seen at the time as a politically sound appointment. Many considered that his elevation to the Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh in May 1806 was a just reward for his political services on behalf of the Whig party. 5 Contemporary information suggests that the Military Surgery course he established complemented his Surgery course associated with his College Professorship in this subject that dated from 1804. His University course covered all aspects of military surgery, medicine 211 M. H. Kaufman and hygiene. Despite attempts by his successor to suggest to the Royal Commissioners who visited the University of Edinburgh in 1826 that, because Thomson was not by training a military surgeon, his course might have been in some way deficient, the available evidence suggests that this was not the case. While no prospectus of Thomson’s Military Surgery course survives, a set of manuscript student’s notes from about 1810 and a set of notes taken down by another student who attended his College course on Surgery at about the same time, makes it clear that there was no overlap. During the pre- and early post-Waterloo period Thomson lectured to enormous audiences, and it was only from about 1816/17 that his two courses were amalgamated, and given as a single ‘combined’ course. 6 Thomson was universally regarded as being ‘the most learned physician in Scotland,’7 having previously taught chemistry during the latter years of the eighteenth century, and even published a book on this topic. His Lectures on Inflammation published in 1813 was a classic of its time, 8 and his Life of Cullen is still regarded as the finest work on possibly the greatest physician of the second half of the eighteenth century. 9 When James Gregory died in 1821, Thomson applied for his Chair of Physic, resigning from the College Chair of Surgery in order to do so. He was unsuccessful principally because the members of the Town Council and Senatus of the University were unsympathetic to his political views. 10 Thomson resigned from his professorship of Military Surgery in 1822. His successor, George Ballingall, was dedicated to advancing his subject despite considerable opposition from his colleagues within the Faculty of Medicine. It is clear from his Prospectus published in 1824 that he proposed to deliver a more practical and comprehensive course than did his predecessor, covering all aspects of the work of the military and/or naval surgeon. He discussed the history and progress of Military Surgery, with particular reference to the means of preserving the health of soldiers, and the clinical examination of recruits to establish their suitability or otherwise for the service. In the first section of his course, he discussed the accommodation of troops and the factors that affected their health in different situations, at home and abroad. He also emphasised the critical features associated with the siting and construction of military hospitals, and illustrated with appropriate models the means of transporting the sick and wounded to hospital. 11 In the second part of his course, he considered the diseases and accidents to which troops were particularly prone. He concluded this section of the course with lectures on ‘Fictitious Diseases, and means of detecting 212.