Art and literature

This post was written in relation to the College’s Physicians' Flowers exhibition.

The Art of Botanical Illustration

These sketches and letters are the work of William Blacklock, created after he was admitted to the Crichton asylum in Dumfries. Blacklock was born in London in 1816 and, when he was two years old, his family relocated to Cumberland.

The original source of the phrase ‘bruised reeds’ is Biblical, referring to the kindness of Jesus…

 He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
      nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
 a bruised reed he will not break,
      and a smouldering wick he will not quench

Gin cursed Friend, with Fury fraught,
    Makes human race a Prey;
It enters by a deadly Draught,
    And steals our Life away.
Virtue and Truth, driv'n to Despair,
    It's Rage compells to fly,
But cherishes, with hellish Care,
    Theft, Murder, Perjury.

Damn'd Cup! that on the vitals preys,
    That liquid Fire contains
Which madness to the Heart Conveys
    And rolls it thro' the Veins.

The College library has various works by Dr James Currie, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh who was Robert Burn’s first editor and biographer.

Most of the portraits we hold include specific objects and visual references that relate to the careers of the medical practitioners (and other scientific professionals) that they depict. Many of the accoutrements used in this kind of professional portrait share common traits and themes, which remained consistent over much of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

In his biography of John Baron, Joseph Pettigrew quotes Baron’s description of his first meeting with Edward Jenner in 1808: ‘he was dressed in a blue coat, nankeen breeches and white stockings’. Pettigrew notes in an appendix that ‘we are grateful to him who told us that Milton wore big buckles... and in some future day the curious reader may be thankful for such particulars descriptive of the habits of Jenner’.