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"Letter from John MacLeod"
Morvern Manse, Morvern.
1850.
John MacLeod appears to have been a church minister in Morvern.
Morvern was a peninsula parish in the historic County of Argyle and contained some inhabited islands. There were some successful quarries and many agricultural farms. In 1841, the population was 1781.
[[Letter]]
Morvern Manse January 9th 1851
Sir,
I regret that I have been unable till now to address you on the matter to which you have directed my attention by a printed communication dated from the Royal College of Physicians in November last. I earnestly hope that my silence will not be construed as indicative on my part of any indifference to the deeply important matter on which you and the other parties associated with you desired to be informed. No one can feel more deeply than I do, the evils arising, especially, to the poorer
classes in the Highlands, from the want of Medical aid, and no One has been more anxious to see the attention of a humane public directed to the subject. I rejoice that a movement has been made, which though as you inform me of a limited nature, has I am happy to observe originated under good auspices.
By the returns to your printed queries, which I have no doubt you have received, you will be enabled to perceive the trying disadvantages to which the Inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands are so generally subjected from the want of adequate medical aid – You will ascertain that 1[there are wide districts of country, and remote and populous Islands, without any resident medical practitioner. – For instance, the Island of Coll, in this district of country, with a Population of upwards of 1500 is now, as it has always been, in this trying predicament, and it was only very recently that any stated provision towards affording medical aid was made in the neighbouring Island of Tyree, which contains a population of nearly 5000, and which is distant Twenty five, or Thirty miles from the nearest point of Mull. In this Parish also the evil I refer to is so painfully felt and very often painfully developed. We have no resident medical practitioner. The Parish contains a Population of about 1700 Souls, and comprehends the whole of that rugged district of country, south west of a line drawn or extending from the head of Lochsunart and terminating at the Linnhe Loch, at a point nearly opposite to the Northern extremity of Lismore. From Lochsunart’s side, (the Northern district of the Parish) the people have recourse, as they best can to medical aid when such can be procured in the adjacent districts of Ardnamurchan and Sumart, and here on the South West2 South West coast we are left dependent in this respect on the medical practitioners resident in the opposite Island of Mull. These Gentlemen however are necessitated to extend their practice over a wide extent of rugged country, so that thus even when the ferry to Mull is practicable, and it is often attempted in such Cases when it is so only at extreme risk, it not unfrequently happens that the anxious and impatient messenger for aid, is not only disappointed in finding the practitioner at home, but may be required to journey a distance of Twenty or it may be Forty miles in quest of him. I have known an express sent by myself under circumstances of painful anxiety, for three days in quest of the laborious medical man who usually attends my Family, and I have experienced in the course of many afflictions with which God has visited me, miseries and anxieties arising from delays, uncertainties, and disappointments, in such Cases which I cannot attempt to describe and which I cannot recall to recollection without deep sorrow. [Some years ago an estimable landed Proprietor of this Parish met with a severe accident, having had an eye blown out of the socket by a discharge of Gunpowder, but it was not till the return of a boat sent to Oban, a sea distance of Twenty miles, that he had the benefit of surgical aid] under these circumstances alike trying to himself and to his anxious Family. – [I might multiply cases of this nature that have come under my own observation but I deem it unnecessary to do so. When persons in the upper ranks of life, who can command at all times the services of willing and active emissarries are in such case subjected to so many difficulties in procuring medical aid you can very easily imagine the trials of the poorer classes. In their case much misery occurs from this source almost daily. The medical practitioners of the Highlands are usually humane and in every instance inadequately remunerated, but at the same time the difficulty of procuring their services and affording any remuneration for them, are so great that it is only in very extreme cases that medical aid is usually sought by the Class of persons I here refer to. In such cases, especially when we consider that his stay is necessarily short – that his visits, if repeated at all are so only at distant intervals – and that his prescriptions if administered in his absence, are given unskilfully and3 and partially under much injudicious treatment calculated to counteract their efficacy – the medical attendant can be of little service, and hence, without any regard to these circumstances, the people have but too generally lost due confidence in medical aid, and thus from day to day we the Clergymen of the Highlands, who are necessarily conversant with their condition, see what appeared at the outset but the simple ailment, assuming by neglect inattention and unskilful treatment the aggravated form of the dangerous and it may be fatal disease. In cases of child birth the poor Females of the Country are subjected usually to the most ignorant treatment, left dependent as they generally are on female attendants of their own class, who have rashly assumed a calling in the nature of which they never perhaps have had one hour’s instruction. Indeed I am fully persuaded that due inquiry on this point while it would lead to surprise that so few lives are sacrificed would at the same time unfold details of the most trying and lamentable nature.
On thus consideringthe evils arising fromthe evils arising from the inadequate means of medical relief in the Highlands I am quite willing to admit that much blame rests with the more influential Classes resident in the country. By right co-operation much might be done by them towards remedying the evil; but it ought to be borne in mind that many of the influential parties connected with it, are only partially resident in the country - that such of them as are resident are heavily burdened in relieving the other and many wants of the poor around them, and that no party is willing to incur pecuniary responsibility in behalf of those persons, of whom I regret to say there are many, who though able to aid in this matter are culpably indifferent in regard to it saving when they are themselves personally concerned – Nor ought it to be overlooked that in all their afflictions the poor of the Highlands are allowed ready access to their more affluent neighbours by whom medicines and nourishment are at all times given as the necessities of the case seem to require. The aid thus afforded may or may not be judiciously extended but I trust it is at all times extended under feelings of deep sympathy and pure benevolence.4
How the evils herein referred to, as affecting the Highlands, are to be remedied, or how far they admit of remedy, it is not for me to say, but assuredly I scarce know of any other evil affecting those around me more deserving of the attention of the benevolent, and if an Association for affording medical aid in the poorer districts of the Highlands could be organised it would yield in importance to few indeed of those many Associations which have already conferred so many benefits on a destitute people. [At present also there are many of our Army and Navy Surgeons unemployed and inadequately provided for. Would it not conduce to their advantage professionally, as in other respects, and would it not be satisfactory to the country at large and beneficial to the Highlands in particular, if certain arrangements could be made through parties here and elsewhere, by which certain of these might be induced, if not required, to take medical charge of the poorer districts of the Highlands? I offer this suggestion for your consideration.
I have only to add in concluding this lengthened communication that I know of no Class of persons more inadequately remunerated than the medical practitioners of the Highlands or who obtain a livelihood at a greater sacrifice of time and of labour. Some of them it is true may have evinced a culpable degree of carelessness in advancing in a knowledge of their profession but this is not surprising under the many disadvantages of their position. Some of them also I regret to say have yielded themselves to habits of intemperance but very generally the medical practitioners of the Highlands have been found to evince an untiring zeal and energy in prosecuting their professional duties under peculiar hardships and difficulties which disinterested humanity guided by sound and enlightened principles could alone animate and sustain, and they have thus established a strong claim to the grateful acknowledgements, more especially of those to whom their attentions have been directed.
I have the honour to be
Sir,
Your Obedient Servant
John MacLeod
[[Additional Text]]
Dr. Coldstream
Royal College of Physicians
Edinburgh
Explanatory notes:
1. Square brackets are part of the letter and not a transcription device.
2. The page ends here and the text continues overleaf, repeating the final 2 words.
3. The page ends here and the text continues overleaf, repeating the final word.
4. The page ends here and the text continues overleaf.
Remote & Rural Remedies
