Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Motto Non sinit esse feros
Established 1681
President Professor Derek Bell
Location Edinburgh, United Kingdom
55°57′18″N 3°11′47″W / 55.9550°N 3.1965°W / 55.9550; -3.1965Coordinates: 55°57′18″N 3°11′47″W / 55.9550°N 3.1965°W / 55.9550; -3.1965
Affiliations
Website Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The façade of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 9 Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a Medical Royal College in the United Kingdom that sets medical training standards for UK physicians.[1] It was established by Royal Charter in 1681.[2] While the RCPE is based in Edinburgh, it is not solely a Scottish professional body - more than half of its 12,000[3] Fellows, Members, Associates and Affiliates live and practice medicine outside Scotland, in 86 countries and covering 55 specialties.

History

Origins

The twenty-one founding Fellows of the College, (one of whom was Robert Sibbald, who also held the position of Geographer Royal and was co-founder of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh), were concerned not only with the advancement of medicine as a reputable science, but also with alleviating the miseries of Edinburgh's poor and needy.

Pharmacopoeia

The College published the first Scottish pharmacopoeia in 1699. This was medical guide for physicians and apothecaries which provided standardised recipes and methods of producing remedies which could be consulted by practitioners when prescribing treatment.[4]

Dispensary

The College founded the first public dispensary in Britain in the late seventeenth century, to provide free medical treatment and advice to those unable to afford to pay for their medical care. It was decided at the first meeting of the College in 1682 ‘that att the next meeting of the Colledge some persouns be appointed by the Colledge to be physitians for the poore’[5]

Laboratory

The College founded its own research laboratory in the 1880s. The laboratory was split into the areas of Bacteriological, Chemical, and Histological and Experimental and researchers came from a wide variety of institutions, and included veterinary pathologists, chemists and zoologists, as well as physicians.

The laboratory had two main functions, to carry out original research and to provide diagnoses on medical samples for practicing doctors. The number of specimens which were sent by practitioners during the laboratory's existence steadily rose, by 1948 reaching 30,909 samples in one year.

The laboratory was broad in its scope, and eventually drew workers from as far as Lithuania and Hong Kong, received specimens not just from Scotland and England, but from Kansas, Cairo, Legos and Teheran, and collaborated on projects with researchers in America, India and Australia.

They defined their medical remit in the broadest sense – one Superintendent emphasising ‘the rejection of the narrow and utilitarian aspect of research’. This enabled them to study areas including the workings of the stomach of the narwhal, botanical histology, salmon migration (on behalf of the Scottish Fisheries Board), and the nature of Malayan arrow poisons.

They carried out research into conditions and diseases such as leukemia, anaemia, nutrition, vaccines, haemophilia, foetal death, meningitis, cancer, deaf mutism, asthma, insanity, and pneumonia, and also some more unusual conditions such as a small outbreak of epidemic plague in Glasgow in 1900, and a case of leprosy in Edinburgh.[6]

Current activities

The New Library in the RCPE building

The College acts in an advisory capacity to government and other organisations on many aspects of health, welfare and medical education.

Following successful completion of the MRCP(UK) examination, doctors are eligible to become Members and, in time, Fellows of the College.

The College has influenced the development of medical schools in North America, Australasia, Asia and Africa.

There is a separate Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Buildings

Old Town

The College’s meetings were held in the homes of the founding fellows until they bought property in Fountain Close (off the Cowgate) in December 1704. By 1766 the growing library (well over 2000 titles) was outstripping its deteriorating accommodation and the College decided to move to the New Town. They

George Street

The College asked James Craig, whose simple grid layout had won the Edinburgh Council’s New Town planning competition, to build them a hall in George Street. Unfortunately the great cost of the hall’s exterior exhausted the College’s finances leaving no money to finish the interior of a building. The College’s finances did not improve until 1842 when the Commercial Bank bought and demolished the George Street premises before they replaced it with a not dissimilar building now called the Dome.

9 Queen Street

The College then also demolished a Georgian building - the house they had bought at 9 Queen Street. Once the site was cleared their architect, Thomas Hamilton started building what they hoped would be more practical premises - with lots of room for books. The Queen Street Hall was completed in 1846.

8, 10, 11 and 12 Queen Street

In 1868 the College purchased the adjacent building at 8 Queen Street, which had been built by the renowned and influential Edinburgh architect Robert Adam between 1770 and 1771.[7]

In the 20th century Numbers 11 and 12 were purchased. The space behind 11 was used for the Conference Centre and 12 contains flexible meeting rooms and office space.

Physicians' Hall

The Physicians Hall, as the conjoined buildings are now collectively known, is a superb example of eighteenth century architecture; both the exterior and interior are extremely well preserved despite modernization.[8]

Publications

Depiction of the College from Historical Sketches and Laws of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from its Institution to 1891

The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (JRCPE) is a peer reviewed medical journal published quarterly by the College.

See also

List of Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Notes and references

  1. ↑ http://www.jrcptb.org.uk/about-us JRCPTB
  2. ↑ http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/library_papers/RCPE_Royal_Charter.pdf RCPE Royal Charter
  3. ↑ http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/membership/introduction-representation RCPE - representing our members
  4. ↑ "A Manual for Medicine: The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia | Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh". www.rcpe.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  5. ↑ "Medical treatment for the poor: The Dispensary". Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "The College laboratory: research and diagnosis". Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Craig, W. S. (1976). History of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 73–74.
  8. ↑ Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments Scotland, Canmore Site Records (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/): 9 Queen Street; 8 Queen Street.

External links

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