The Demography of Royal Navy Surgeons: Some Views on the Process of Prosopography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jwhi.2015.13Abstract
This study is a brief social biography and demography of British naval doctors during the nineteenth century, asking why Scottish-educated surgeons were so prominent. Understanding the demography and changing dynamics of naval surgeons’ labor illuminates the complex relationship among the military, discrimination, and nationalism that shaped this influential labor market. This study reviews how to collect demographic information from multiple types of sources: university archives, matriculation records, digitized medical journals, and student rolls. It also uses chi-square tests to show the significance of the demographic information collected. The results show us the entangled relationship between database conceptualization, data collection, and data analysis.
References
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Addison, W.I., ed. A Roll of the Graduates of the University of Glasgow, 1727-1897. Glasgow: James McLehoe, 1898.
Admiralty, The Navy List. London: 1815-1905.
Alison, Paul D. Missing Data: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002.
Anderson, P.J., ed. Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis: Selections from the Records of the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, 1593-1860. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, 1893.
Anderson, P.J., ed. Officers and Graduates of University and King's College, Aberdeen, 1495-1860. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, 1893.
Anning, S.T. “Provincial Medical Schools in the Nineteenth Century.” In The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain, 121-134. Edited by J.N.L. Poynter. London: Pitman, 1966.
Brockliss, Laurence. “The Professions and National Identities.” In Union of Multiple Identities: The British Isles c. 1750-c. 1850, 9-28. Edited by Laurence Brockliss, and David Eastwood. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Cardwell, M. John. “Royal Navy Surgeons, 1793-1815: A Collective Biography.” In Health and Medicine at Sea, 1700-1900, 38-62. Edited by David Boyd Haycock and Sally Archer. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 2009.
Carus, AW., and S. Ogilvie. “Turning Qualitative into Quantitative Evidence: A Well-Used Method Made Explicit.” Economic History Review 62, no. 4 (2009): 893-925.
Comrie, J.D., and John J. Gairdner. “Biographical Index of Edinburgh Medical Graduates, 1705-1866.” 1933. Research Annex, Edinburgh University Library Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh, U.K.
Curtin, Philip D. The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780-1850. Vol. II. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1964.
Digby, Anne. Making a Medical Living: Doctors and Patients in the English Market for Medicine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Dow, Derek, and Michael Moss. “Medical Curriculum at Glasgow in the Early Nineteenth Century.” In History of Universities. Vol. 8. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 227-257.
Gravetter, Frederick J., and Larry B. Wallnau. Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 6th Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008.
Hardy, Melissa A., and Alan Bryman. “Common Threads among Techniques of Data Analysis.” In The Handbook of Data Analysis, 1-14. Eds. Melissa A. Hardy, and Alan Bryman. London: Sage Publications, 2004.
Headrick, Daniel R. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press 1981.
Jick, Todd D. “Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action.” Administrative Science Quarterly 24 (1979): 602-611.
Jones, Greta. “‘Strike out Boldly for the Prizes that are Available to You’: Medical Emigration from Ireland 1860–1905.” Medical History 54, no. 1 (Jan. 2010), 55-74.
Kaufman, Matthew. The Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, 1806–55. New York: Rodopi, 2003.
Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., ed. Prosopography Approaches and Application. Oxford: Occasional Publications UPR, 2007.
Cohen, G., A. Flinn, and K. Morgan. “Toward a Mixed Method Social History: Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in the Study of Collective Biography.” In Prosopography Approaches and Applications, 211-230.
Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. “Biography, Identity, and Names: Understanding the Pursuit of the Individual in Prosopography.” In Prosopography Approaches and Applications, 139-181.
Verboven, Koenraad, Myriam Carlier, and Jan Dumoyln. “A Short Manual to the Art of Prosopography,” in Prosopography Approaches and Application, 35-70.
Kehoe, S. Karly. “Accessing Empire: Irish Surgeons and the Royal Navy, 1840–1880.” Social History of Medicine 26, no. 2 (2013): 204-224.
MacLeod, Christine, and Alessandro Nuvolari. “The Pitfalls of Prosopography: Inventors in the Dictionary of National Biography.” Technology and Culture 47, no. 4 (2006): 757-776.
Manning, Patrick. Big Data in History. London: Palgrave Pivot, 2013.
McLean, David. Surgeons of the Fleet: The Royal Navy and its Medics from Trafalgar to Jutland. New York: I.B. Tauras, 2010.
Miller, Jane E. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Multivariate Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005.
Miller, Jane E. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Morgan, Alexander. “Matriculates in the Faculty of Medicine.” University of Edinburgh Journal 8, no 2 (1936): 124-125.
Christopher Myers, “Explaining the Socio-Economic Demographics of Victorian Naval Medicine,” Research Report, Joint Centre for History and Economics, Institute for New Economic Thinking, http://www.histproj.org/completed/MYERS.pdf (Accessed February 12, 2015).
Pennington, Carolyn. The Modernization of Medical Education at Aberdeen in the Nineteenth Century. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1994.
Smart, R. ed. Biographical Register of the University of St. Andrews. St. Andrews: St. Andrews University Press, 2004.
University of Edinburgh, ed. List of Graduates in Medicine in the University 1705-1866. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, 1867.
University of Edinburgh. “Medical Class & Matriculation Lists.” Vols. 1802-1867. EUA/IN1/STA/3, University Archives, Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh.
Addison, W.I., ed. A Roll of the Graduates of the University of Glasgow, 1727-1897. Glasgow: James McLehoe, 1898.
Admiralty, The Navy List. London: 1815-1905.
Alison, Paul D. Missing Data: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002.
Anderson, P.J., ed. Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis: Selections from the Records of the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, 1593-1860. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, 1893.
Anderson, P.J., ed. Officers and Graduates of University and King's College, Aberdeen, 1495-1860. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, 1893.
Anning, S.T. “Provincial Medical Schools in the Nineteenth Century.” In The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain, 121-134. Edited by J.N.L. Poynter. London: Pitman, 1966.
Brockliss, Laurence. “The Professions and National Identities.” In Union of Multiple Identities: The British Isles c. 1750-c. 1850, 9-28. Edited by Laurence Brockliss, and David Eastwood. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Cardwell, M. John. “Royal Navy Surgeons, 1793-1815: A Collective Biography.” In Health and Medicine at Sea, 1700-1900, 38-62. Edited by David Boyd Haycock and Sally Archer. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 2009.
Carus, AW., and S. Ogilvie. “Turning Qualitative into Quantitative Evidence: A Well-Used Method Made Explicit.” Economic History Review 62, no. 4 (2009): 893-925.
Comrie, J.D., and John J. Gairdner. “Biographical Index of Edinburgh Medical Graduates, 1705-1866.” 1933. Research Annex, Edinburgh University Library Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh, U.K.
Curtin, Philip D. The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780-1850. Vol. II. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1964.
Digby, Anne. Making a Medical Living: Doctors and Patients in the English Market for Medicine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Dow, Derek, and Michael Moss. “Medical Curriculum at Glasgow in the Early Nineteenth Century.” In History of Universities. Vol. 8. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 227-257.
Gravetter, Frederick J., and Larry B. Wallnau. Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 6th Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008.
Hardy, Melissa A., and Alan Bryman. “Common Threads among Techniques of Data Analysis.” In The Handbook of Data Analysis, 1-14. Eds. Melissa A. Hardy, and Alan Bryman. London: Sage Publications, 2004.
Headrick, Daniel R. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press 1981.
Jick, Todd D. “Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action.” Administrative Science Quarterly 24 (1979): 602-611.
Jones, Greta. “‘Strike out Boldly for the Prizes that are Available to You’: Medical Emigration from Ireland 1860–1905.” Medical History 54, no. 1 (Jan. 2010), 55-74.
Kaufman, Matthew. The Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, 1806–55. New York: Rodopi, 2003.
Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., ed. Prosopography Approaches and Application. Oxford: Occasional Publications UPR, 2007.
Cohen, G., A. Flinn, and K. Morgan. “Toward a Mixed Method Social History: Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in the Study of Collective Biography.” In Prosopography Approaches and Applications, 211-230.
Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. “Biography, Identity, and Names: Understanding the Pursuit of the Individual in Prosopography.” In Prosopography Approaches and Applications, 139-181.
Verboven, Koenraad, Myriam Carlier, and Jan Dumoyln. “A Short Manual to the Art of Prosopography,” in Prosopography Approaches and Application, 35-70.
Kehoe, S. Karly. “Accessing Empire: Irish Surgeons and the Royal Navy, 1840–1880.” Social History of Medicine 26, no. 2 (2013): 204-224.
MacLeod, Christine, and Alessandro Nuvolari. “The Pitfalls of Prosopography: Inventors in the Dictionary of National Biography.” Technology and Culture 47, no. 4 (2006): 757-776.
Manning, Patrick. Big Data in History. London: Palgrave Pivot, 2013.
McLean, David. Surgeons of the Fleet: The Royal Navy and its Medics from Trafalgar to Jutland. New York: I.B. Tauras, 2010.
Miller, Jane E. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Multivariate Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005.
Miller, Jane E. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Morgan, Alexander. “Matriculates in the Faculty of Medicine.” University of Edinburgh Journal 8, no 2 (1936): 124-125.
Christopher Myers, “Explaining the Socio-Economic Demographics of Victorian Naval Medicine,” Research Report, Joint Centre for History and Economics, Institute for New Economic Thinking, http://www.histproj.org/completed/MYERS.pdf (Accessed February 12, 2015).
Pennington, Carolyn. The Modernization of Medical Education at Aberdeen in the Nineteenth Century. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1994.
Smart, R. ed. Biographical Register of the University of St. Andrews. St. Andrews: St. Andrews University Press, 2004.
University of Edinburgh, ed. List of Graduates in Medicine in the University 1705-1866. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, 1867.
University of Edinburgh. “Medical Class & Matriculation Lists.” Vols. 1802-1867. EUA/IN1/STA/3, University Archives, Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh.
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2015-08-28
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Articles: Practice in Historical Databases
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