Dr. Archibald Cameron.

AMONG TE lives of the many men and women who have been qualified to practise the art of medicine are a number who have moved from that discipline into others where they have made a name and reputation for themselves which they might not have attained to had they remained loyal to their first choice: yet they have brought to their other work something which they learned in the days when their first choice was still their main strength. There are others who, because their lives became involved in the march of events, in a way which they never could have suspected, have acquired a fame and a historical importance which has nothing to do with their innate involvement of their skill in their chosen profession. Among these can be cited Archibald Cameron. Until the age of thirty-eight he was, as far as one can tell, a hard-working and successful practitioner in Lochaber. In 1745 he was caught up in the whirlwind of the Jacobite rebellion and until his execution eight years later worked as a professional soldier, moved in a minor way in politics and was an active agent in the Jacobite cause: for this latter he has the unenviable reputation of being the last person to suffer execution for loyalty to the House of Stuart. It may be asked, with some justification, whether such a man has any place in medical history: the answer must be, surely, that he has. Medicine is one of the oldest arts practised in the world today: it has been enriched and fertilized by the personalities of its many practitioners. Archibald Cameron may not have been a very great doctor, he certainly contributed nothing to the advances of medical knowledge. Yet by his courage and loyalty he has set an example which many could with benefit follow and for this he is entitled to a place among that great number of doctors who have contributed, by their example, something which is of value to the whole structure of medical practice in the world today. Archibald Cameron was born in 1707, the fourth son of John Cameron, chief of the clan Cameron. The Camerons were a large clan with extensive lands in the west of Scotland, their chief was known as the Laird of Lochiel whose family home was at Achnacarry, near the eastern end of Loch Arkaig. The Camerons were described as 'a very potent clan in Lochaber-the Laird of Lochiel is their chief, who . . . has a good competent estate.... He can bring out 800 men.' John Cameron was living in exile in Paris for his share in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Archibald, we may presume, was brought up at Achnacarry, but the records of his early days are meagre. At some stage in his life he decided to become a doctor: although this may seem to be unusual for the son of a powerful, though exiled, Highland chief, yet it was not uncommon for the younger sons of Highland gentry at that time to enter the medical profession: a frequent alternative was the profession of innkeeper, some, in fact, combined the two. After Cameron's death, a short