THE medicine chest of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s personal physician, used at the Battle of Culloden, will go on display for the first time.
The historical box, which includes medicines made from beetles, beaver anal glands and turpentine, will be part of a new exhibition touring the Highlands called Remote And Rural Remedies.
Organised by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE), the display explores the changes which have taken place in Highland medicine in the last 600 years, and uncovers stories behind Jacobite medicines, local healers and famed Celtic physicians such as the Beatons.
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Dr Daisy Cunynghame, curator of the display, confirmed the medicine chest belonged to Jacobite physician Stuart Threipland. It was used during the Battle of Culloden, the climax of the Jacobite Rising, which ran from 1745-46. Fought near Inverness on April 16, 1746, the battle saw the forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart meet a British army led by the Duke of Cumberland.
While Threipland is known for his role medically assisting the Young Pretender, Cunynghame said he was also a “stand-out” previous president of the RCPE.
Also on display will be the original handwritten survey responses from ministers and doctors across the Highlands and Islands from the 1850s, detailing the poverty, sickness and deprivation caused by the potato famine and Highland Clearances.
Highland historians have said the geographical isolation meant that many medical recipes needed to be adapted to include locally available ingredients, including seaweed and fish oil.
They said the regions was also viewed as a potential source of income for charlatans and an influx of travelling quacks – unqualified people who claimed medical knowledge – who streamed across the Highlands in the 1700s and 1800s.
Cunynghame said: “Medicine in the Highlands and Islands is often treated one-dimensionally, as simply a story about folk remedies and strange rituals.
“We made sure when we were developing this exhibition that we looked beyond that, and we’re excited to have uncovered stories about some really important people, and discoveries, in the history of Highland medicine.
“The Highlands and Islands influenced, and in turn was influenced by, developments elsewhere in Europe. This chest and the rest of the exhibition celebrates the uniqueness and the interconnectedness of the history of medicine in the Highlands and Islands.”
The touring exhibition begins on September 16 and will start at the Gairloch Museum before moving to Caithness.
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