332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
it was not long before he was elected Deacon of the Incorporation, and
consequently became a member of the Town Council. He was at the same
time chosen Convener of the Trades.
Intent on the practice of midwifery, he found it necessary to obtain a
medical degree as a physician before he could be admitted a Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians. This he accordingly obtained, having probably applied
to the University of St. Andrews. The Royal College was founded in 1681,
and according to the charter, every graduate of any of the Scottish Universities
has a right to be admitted, upon paying the fees. He was first admitted a
licentiate, and at a suitable interval chosen a fellow of the College.
In 1775 Dr. Hamilton published his ‘‘ Elements of Midwifery,” which has
gone through several editions, under the title of “ Outlines of Midwifery ;” and
in 1780, he published also a “Treatise on the Management of Female Complaints,”
adapted to the use of families, which continues to be a popular work.
In the same year he was conjoined in the Professorship of Midwifery in the
College of Edinburgh with Dr. Thomas Young; and on the death of that
gentleman in 1783 he was appointed sole Professor,
Dr. Young and Dr. Hamilton gave alternately three courses of instructions
annually to male and female pupils, till the death of the former, when the
whole duty devolved upon the latter gentleman. Being now at liberty to adopt
any improvement in teaching the class he might judge proper, he set about
enlarging the plan of his lectures. His predecessors, though undoubtedly men
of abilities, felt themselves narrowed in the sphere of their exertions, and
. cramped in their endeavours to perform their academical duty to their own satisfaction,
in consequence of the strong prejudices that prevailed against the system
of tuition. In his own time, these prepossessions were beginning to give way;
but he completely effected what was obviously wanting in the scheme of medical
education at the University of Edinburgh, by giving a connected view of the
diseases peculiar to women and children. Still, however, the midwifery: class
was not in the list of those necessary to be attended before procuring the degree
of Doctor of Medicine. IIis son has succeeded in accomplishing this object,
after encountering a great deal of opposition.
Upon the 29th March 1797, the Magistrates of Edinburgh, who are the
patrons, had resolved that it should not be in the power of any Professor to
appoint another to teach in his room without their consent ; but, upon application,
Dr. Hamilton was allowed, on the 25th December 1798, to employ his
son as his assistant, and this office he discharged for two years. The Doctor
resigned his professorship upon the 26th of March 1800, and on the 9th of
April, his son was unanimously elected to the chair.
Dr, Hamilton married Miss Reid of Gorgie, by whom he had a numerous
family. He died upon the 23d of May 1802, in the sixty-fourth year of his
age.
Their being placed
there is a fancy of the artist, in allusion to the profession of the Doctor.
The figures of two ladies in the Print are not Portraits.
