Remote & Rural Remedies

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"Survey return from Norman MacAlister"

Kirkabort, by Broadford.

1851.

RCP/COL/4/8/241

Norman M. MacAlister was a medical practitioner in Kirkabort.

Broadford was a market town within the parish of Strath in the historic County of Inverness. At present no additional information about this location is available.

[[Addressee]]
Norman MacAlister Esq.
Surgeon
Kirkabort
by Broadford

[[Survey]]
QUERIES

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

For 27 years –

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

The ordinary distance may be about
ten miles and the greatest about Thirty miles

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

Until within the last six
months I Had no mode of conveyance except a boat or a
saddle Horse, but the road is now just passable for a wheeled
conveyance which I therefore use when I can

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

Very indifferent for several
miles -

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

It is not
improved, but the reverse from the increasing
poverty of the people

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?

I would say a circuit of Twenty miles
or the whole parish in which I reside

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 principal
hardship is, that I seldom or never get fees,
with knowing that people Have no other
Source to apply to for medical aid, I can
scarcely on any occasion refuse to attend them,
but I am not prepared to say How such
a state of things can be remedied unless
it were made compulsory upon He
=ritors¹ to raise an assessment for medical
attendance in the same way that is done for
schoolmasters salary -

[[Additional text]]

Norman M. MacAlister
Surgeon
Strathaird, 4th. Septr. 1851

Explanatory notes:

1. A heritor was a landowner, under Scots Law, whose holdings were sizeable enough for them to be liable for the payment of public burdens such as Poor Law rates, road and bridge assessments and the church minister’s stipend.

"Survey return from Norman MacAlister"

Kirkabort, by Broadford.

1851.

Norman M. MacAlister was a medical practitioner in Kirkabort.

Broadford was a market town within the parish of Strath in the historic County of Inverness. At present no additional information about this location is available.

1. A heritor was a landowner, under Scots Law, whose holdings were sizeable enough for them to be liable for the payment of public burdens such as Poor Law rates, road and bridge assessments and the church minister’s stipend.