WILLIAM BUCHAN: MEDICINE LAID OPEN

Abstract

MEDICAL WORKS for the layman in the eighteenth century reflect the diversity of the contemporary medical doctrines which they implicitly transmitted to the public.These books did however distort the teachings of the schools in a variety of ways: by their use of the vernacular and less technical language; their practical emphasis; through the ingenuity or otherwise of the author; and their tendency to eclecticism.The public acclaim of a particular work did not necessarily indicate the orthodox status of the system it adopted, for example the success of John Wesley's extreme empiricism in his Primitive physic.William Buchan's Domestic medicine was no doubt written for economic reasons as well as for the humanitarian purpose of pro- viding a substitute for the deficiencies of medical care.But besides this, its author saw a useful, even necessary virtue in "laying Medicine more open to mankind".'Considering the vast sales of the book, it undoubtedly laid open a particular view of medicine to a large public in an age anxious for education.This view, though diverse in its origins, was ultimately grounded in the intellectual climate of mid-eighteenthcentury Edinburgh.Domestic medicine was a household guide to diagnosis and therapy.It achieved during its lifespan of one hundred and forty-four years a popularity rivalled only by John Wesley's Primitive physic.First published in Edinburgh in 1769, new editions, reprints and pirated versions appeared every few years in Britain until 1846.There were also several editions in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian and Swedish.In America it enjoyed great longevity, for after the first edition was published in Philadelphia in 1771, Domestic medicine continued to appear from a variety of towns and at frequent intervals until its demise at Boston in 1913.Throughout its many variations the basic form of the book remained unchanged.It consisted of two main parts, a general section on the causes of disease and their prevention, and a detailed description of a wide range of disorders.Diseases were grouped under fairly broad headings; none of the more detailed nosologies of the time was adopted.Domestic medicine was apparently written by two Scotsmen, William Buchan the accredited author, and William Smellie, whose name only appeared as the printer of the first edition.Brief biographies indicate the similar erudition and outlook of these men and help to explain the character of the book.There is little authoritative material for Buchan's life.

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