A Question to Society: "Whether the Art of Medicine as it Has Been Usually Practiced Has Contributed to the Advancement of Mankind"

Abstract

Prior to the medical and public health revolutions of the nineteenth century, Scotland’s rudimentary healthcare system consisted of little more than corrupted physicians, overcrowded hospitals, and ineffective treatments for a small percentage of the population. In his written abstract to the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, Dr. John Gregory attributes these problems to a flawed Scottish medical education. This abstract formed the basis of Gregory’s larger publications which introduced the concept of bioethics to Britain. My study analyzes how Gregory uses a rhetoric of sensibility to characterize the proponents and barriers to medical advancement. Analyzing Gregory’s abstract contributes to our understanding of how the Scottish Enlightenment provided venues for medical professionals to critique society and define rhetoric of the era.