Physicians' Gallery Blog

Letters in our archive show that it's been at least 400 years since doctors began discussing the harmful effects of smoking, particularly on young people.  One doctor in the...

The alchemical scrolls which are associated with George Ripley are unusual manuscripts which illustrate the pursuit of the Philosophers' Stone. Ripley was a canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire who...

The RCPE possesses an impressive collection of 72 sculptures, the majority of which are in a neoclassical style and date from the nineteenth century. Most of the pieces appear...

The beginnings of the Pharmacopoeia Edinburgensis are inextricably tied up with the founding of the College itself. What was it for? Before the existence of the Pharmacopoeia, there were...

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were, for medicine, notable for their great plurality.  There were all kinds of treatments on offer – healers, quacks, wise women, and itinerant sellers...

The College had twenty-one original Fellows (the most senior level of associate) when it was formed in 1681. College Fellowship served a very practical purpose – you needed to...

The College decided by the 1880s that as well as focussing on regulation of the profession, they should also pursue a stronger line in research.  By 1887 they had...

Part of the role of the College has always been to regulate the medical profession, to discipline minor infractions and work to keep out the unscrupulous and unethical – by...

As part of the cataloguing of our archive collections, and in commemoration of the centenary of the First World War,  the College has created an online searchable database of the Scottish Medical...

This drawing, from the mid 19th century, comes from a volume titled ‘A Collection of Original drawings by Roshard, A Johnson, Gow etc made to illustrate the works of...

Joseph Bell is probably best known as the model for Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle worked as Bell’s clerk at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he witnessed...