Sir Archibald Stevenson, his ancestry, and the riot in the College of Physicians at Edinburgh.

THi Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh was founded in 1681. At the time of its foundation there were twenty-one founder fellows. Among the original fellows were Robert Sibbald, already a distinguished physician and man of science; Thomas Burnet of Crimond, Physician to the King in Scotland and author of the popular Thesaurus Medicinae Practicae;11 Andrew Balfour who, with Sibbald, had founded the Physic Garden in Holyrood Abbey and was himself a botanist of distinction;2 James Halket, four years later to become one of the first professors of medicine in the University of Edinburgh;3 and Archibald Pitcairn, not only a future professor of medicine in Edinburgh, but in Leyden also. It might have been expected that the first President of the College would have been chosen from among this distinguished group, but when the fellows of the College met for the first time the physician elected to fill the office of President was none of these, but Dr. Archibald Stevenson. The choice of Dr. Stevenson as President would appear to have been quite a determined one, and no empty honour, for he was re-elected President in subsequent years, and remained in office until the election of 4 December 1684 when he was succeeded by Sir Robert Sibbald.4 To succeeding generations Stevenson is rather a shadowy figure. Unlike Sibbald, Pitcairn, or Burnet, he left no published works behind him upon which his theoretical beliefs can be judged, and nothing is known of his practical skills. In January 1684 however he delivered the first of the monthly discourses to be given before the College on the Polypus Cardis 'to the great satisfactione of the Colledge,'5 and some nine years later gave another upon Diabetes.6 To give 'great satisfactione' to an assembly of critical colleagues suggests that his views were at least sound and orthodox, and such evidence as exists of material prosperity suggests that patients viewed his therapeutic skills with favour. In the Edinburgh Stent Roll of 1699 the value of his property is given as being £160 scots, twice the amount paid by Pitcairn, and exceeding that of the other established physicians such as Olyphant, Smelholme, Eccles, and Trotter, though much less than the sum paid by Sibbald who was rated at £350 scots.7 Generally he must have been considered one of the Edinburgh physicians of reputation. In July 1681, when the Court of Session was required to adjudicate in a cause between the apothecaries and the surgeon apothecaries of Edinburgh, the Judges resolved to seek the advice of four Edinburgh physicians before reaching a decision,