Remote & Rural Remedies

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"Survey return from Coll MacDonald"

Lochshiel, Strontian.

1851.

RCP/COL/4/8/218

Coll. MacDonald was a medical practitioner in Lochshiel.

Lochshiel (also known as Loch Shiel) was part of the parish of Ardnamurchan in the historic County of Argyle. The river Shiel offered much scope for fishing. For further information on the parish, see the entry for Ardnamurchan.

[[Addressee]]
Dr. Coll MacDonald
Lochshiel
Strontian

[[Survey]]
QUERIES

1. How long have you practiced in the locality you at present occupy?

upwards of twenty years

2. What are the ordinary and what the greatest distances which you have to travel in visiting patients?

Five miles and Thirty Five

3. What means of conveyance do you employ in going long journeys?

riding, walking and boating

4. What is the state of the roads in your neighbourhood?

chiefly mountainous and rugged

5. Is the position of medical men in general in your quarter improved, or otherwise, of late years?

owing to the general poverty of all classes medical men
have little income if depending on the people, consequently
the visits attendance and medicines are ineficient¹
and of small benefit.

6. Supposing the people of the Highlands and Islands were generally able to pay for medical
advice, according to rates usually observed in other parts of the kingdom, what extent of
country in your locality would you regard as sufficient to occupy a single practitioner
fully?

The Parish of Ardnamurchan could be divided
into two divisions each containing about three thousand
people and from the extent and nature of the land
would require a Practitioner for each.

7. Mention, if you please, any special hardships incident to your situation, such as you think
might be remedied by some general measure or enactment?

The chief hardship is the want of an income
which disables the Practitioner from having medicines,
instruments, or supplying medical comforts where required,
or a horse when the roads permit which in many
districts they do.

[[Additional text]]

Coll. Macdonald

Explanatory notes:

1. Misspelling of “inefficient”.

"Survey return from Coll MacDonald"

Lochshiel, Strontian.

1851.

Coll. MacDonald was a medical practitioner in Lochshiel.

Lochshiel (also known as Loch Shiel) was part of the parish of Ardnamurchan in the historic County of Argyle. The river Shiel offered much scope for fishing. For further information on the parish, see the entry for Ardnamurchan.

1. Misspelling of “inefficient”.