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/ > >

Another great topic that would make a fine article for CaribbeanGenWeb. Any volunteers? To add to the discussion, a great book on the history of medicine in Trinidad is Surgery in Trinidad by the prolific Fr. Anthony de Verteuil. The full citation from the US Library of Congress is: Surgery in Trinidad / Anthony de Verteuil. Port of Spain, Trinidad : A. de Verteuil, 1996. I'll start another thread for the Scots. Dean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Allicock" <richwyn@idirect.com> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 4:22 AM Subject: Doctors of Physic and Surgery in the British West Indies <SNIP> > > 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. > <SNIP> > ----- 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 > <SNIP> > > > > 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 > > --