Eighteenth century Scotland was a difficult time for the children of all classes as medical knowledge and treatment of childhood diseases was as at best primitive. Although there had been success eradicating plague and typhus had declined there was still malaria until the late eighteenth century which took its toll of debilitated children. But it was smallpox which was the worst killer of small children and which had to await nationwide innoculation and vaccination to contain it.

Edinburgh and Glasgow were the centres for medical training in the whole of Britain and were held in great respect throughout the world. But the number of graduate doctors produced by the universities was woefully short of the needs of Scotland and many of the new graduates immediately went to England or abroad to practice.

Fortunately, there came on the scene some pioneers of medicine whose contributions to the health of the country is often overlooked. There was for example William Smellie of Lanark who published papers about midwifery in 1752 and 1763 and gave much needed advice about containing the dreaded puerperal fever and the need for cleanliness. But the doctor whom I believe made the greatest impact was Dr. William Buchan.

Born in 1729, William Buchan studied medicine in Edinburgh and on graduation worked for some time in Yorkshire. He settled in Edinburgh in 1766 and for 12 years was face to face with the poverty and the ignorance of people about such simple things as hygiene.

In 1778, with a growing reputation and list of publications, he moved to London where he continued to produce revisions and additions to his works until his death in 1805. A grateful nation rewarded him with burial in Westminster Abbey.

Dr. Buchan's contribution was to promote simple hygiene particularly amongst the poor and provide the first "modern" advice on self-care. Hitherto medicine had been a closed art with a whiff of mystery about it, while published advice was sparse and pretty well along the lines of witchcraft. T. C. Smout, in his History of the Scottish People 1560 - 1830, quotes from "The Poor Man's Physician", by John Moncrief (1712).

"...take a little black sucking puppy choke it, open it and take out the gall .. give it all to the child ... with a little tiletree flower water..."

Dr. Buchan first published work was a thesis he presented in Edinburgh entitled "Infantum Vita Conservanda" in which he observed that about half the children born in Britain die before their twelfth birthday.

In 1769, he published his "Domestic Medicine" which was to become the standard work of reference for family medicine and ran to no less than 22 editions. The full title of some of his publications illustrates the simplicity of his advice:

"Domestic Medicine: or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an Appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. " (1794)

"Domestic Medicine: or , The family physician: being an attempt to render the medical art more generally useful, by shewing people what is in their own power, both with respect to the prevention and cure of diseases." (1802)

"Advice to mothers on the subject of their own health; and on the means of promoting the health, strength, and beauty of their offspring." (1803)