Hi I have some knowlege of the medical profession as practised in Jamaica in the 19th century. I have 6 or 8 ancestor doctors in the Phillippo and Saunders families who trained in London or Edinburgh. The better doctors later qualified as Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians or Surgeons, sometimes both. Dentist also could qualify for the Royal College designation. If they qualified for the Royal College their records are at the Royal College site: http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/ They will do a searchfor you. I haven't had a search done yet, but there was a Dr. Arthur Rich Saunders FRCP&S who practised in Kingston from roughly 1865 until 1908. Hope this helps. Jim ""Richard Allicock"" <richwyn@idirect.com> wrote in message news:006501c3203b$f7797f80$12059ad8@oemcomputer... > Hi Joan, > > I have found the children of West Indian plantation owners training in > Scotland as early as the mid-1700's, training in various fields like > Chemistry and Agronomy, and other fields which I think would have been > useful to them as the sons of Plantation owners. This particuIar example > came from Scotland from a University. Another example that I have, is of a > son of a Plantation owner, who went to Scotland and trained as a Doctor in > the very period you mention, even establishing his own Spa or Baths as they > were called then. He trained at University too. > > But I think the training was more integrated then, with study in class-rooms > in the hospitals combined with walking the wards, very similar to the > teaching hospitals of to-day. I am sure that as soon as many plantation > owners established a family, and by the time the sons had reached an age to > go to university, and had demonstrated the aptitude or inclination for > further education, some of them did go to university, but not necessarily to > study medicine. Many of them did not return to practise in the colonies, but > some did. > > Your "plethora" of Practitioners in Physic and Surgery probably had some of > these. Surgery in those days frequently did not go beyond amputations, or > lancing boils, which even barbers or ships carpenters could and did do. > Doctors of Physic was usually one who dispensed medicines, and may have dome > some blood letting or leeching. Any apothecary or apothecary's assistant > could have set himself up as Doctor with or without fake papers. So I > suspect that there may have been some of these in the mix as well. > > But for sure there may have been a few genuine doctors, and for the British > West Indies the first place I would look is Scotland. > > It seems to be a little known fact on how much the Scots more than the > English pre-dominated in the day to day life of places like Guyana and > Jamaica, and I suspect many of the other islands. Once the Crown Colony > system was established, the English dominated at the political levels, but > the Scots were well represented, and in some places, and at some times, even > predominant in trade and finance, the skilled trades and as Overseers on the > Plantations. And not to forget in education as well, through the Scottish > Missionary Societies, especially afer slavery was abolished, again in the > period you mention. After the abolition of slavery in 1838, I suspect that > some older out of work Overseers who may have had years of experience in > dispensing Apothecaries' potions to the slaves or even performing the odd > amputation, may have set themselves up with the same title of Doctor of > Physic and Surgery. > > One traveller in the very period you mention commented on how British Guiana > was the most Scottish of the British colonies, while Barbados was the most > English. I am sorry that I did not have the pleasure of reading the whole > book, as I was reading only in relation to Demerara. However it might help > to know that I did correspond with some-one at one of the Scottish > Universities a few years ago, who had just finished a thesis on the Scots in > the West Indies. His base of operations was Jamaica and he was a good > advertisement for Red Stripe beer:)) > > I hope this helps. > > Richard > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Garcia-Sibley" <wintergully@direct.ca> > To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:38 PM > Subject: Re PRO wills for doctors > > > > Thanks to those who recently gave us this address at the PRO: > > > http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/ > > > > I entered "Jamaica" in the Advanced Search section and deleted all > > categories except "wills" and "text". > > > > First, I was struck by how many unfamiliar names there were, and assume > that > > many were UK ex-patriots or seamen who worked on ships travelling to > > Jamaica. > > > > Second, I noticed an extraordinary number of "Practitioners in Physic > (sic) > > and Surgery". I would welcome any thoughts from Listers on the following: > > Would these have been doctors mostly from the UK working in the Island? > > Does anyone know the most likely cities/country where West Indians would > > have gone for medical training between 1800 and 1850? I wonder if the > > training then would have taken place as it does now, first at a university > > and then at a hospital. > > > > I ask because my g-g-g-grandfather, who was born in Jamaica and who also > > died there, practised medicine in Kingston. His son is also described as > a > > medical doctor, yet we can find absolutely no record of where they > trained. > > > > Thanks, > > Joan Garcia > > -- > > > > > > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > > For information on individual islands, research aids, island bulletin > boards or history please visit the CaribbeanGenWeb project at > > http://www.rootsweb.com/~caribgw/ > > > > >

Dear Richard, Jim, Peter and Edward.....you have given me a WEALTH of information.....especially the following: > The whole business of doctoring was very messy at that time........ > ............. I fear the BWI up till then (1861) were not on the > cutting edge of medical practice. > Edward Ouch! Seriously though, thank you very, very much! Your suggestions led me in a roundabout way to the following, which contains an amazing number of links for genealogists researching doctors in their families: > http://user.itl.net/~glen/doctors.html Hope this is of interest. I also found the following somewhat interesting: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/MEDICAL-PEDIGREE/2002-03/1015598197 > http://www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms.htm Good wishes, Joan ______________________________