Surg J R Coll Surg E
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Surg J R Coll Surg E · Jun 2005
Historical Article500 years of the College of Surgeons and 300 years of the Chair of Anatomy in Edinburgh.
2005 represents the 500th anniversary of the award of the first Charter to the Guild of Surgeons and Barbers at Edinburgh, and the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, the first Chair in this discipline in Britain. The first Charter of the Incorporation, in 1505, specified that they should dissect the body of one dead condemned criminal each year. Candidates who wished to join the Incorporation were required to be familiar with all of the gross structures of the human body. ⋯ On 1 February 1705, the Surgeons appointed Robert Elliot as their "public dissector of anatomie." He had volunteered to undertake all of the annual public dissections in Edinburgh, and the Members of the Incorporation of Surgeons unanimously accepted his offer. On 29 August 1705, at the request of the Surgeons, the Edinburgh Town Council appointed him their first Professor of Anatomy, and instructed the University's Treasurers to pay him 15 pounds Sterling per annum as his salary. As a result of the activities of the Incorporation of Surgeons and the Town Council, the first Chair of Anatomy was established in Britain, in the University of Edinburgh.