A press and PR officer at Edinburgh University, Tara Womersley, is co-author of a new book celebrating the famous pioneering work of the Scots in Edinburgh in the field of medicine.
‘Bodysnatchers to Lifesavers’, which Womersley, a former journalist on The Scotsman, has co-written with Professor Dorothy H. Crawford, of Edinburgh University, tells the story of 300 years of medicine in Scotland’s capital city, and the figures who helped shape developments which have helped millions around the world.
Centered on the 280-year history of Edinburgh Medical School, it showcases famous Edinburgh medical alumni through the ages, including Robert Knox and others like Charles Darwin and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who studied medicine in Edinburgh but went on to make their names in other fields.
Womersley told The Scotsman, in a recent major feature: “For centuries Edinburgh has been pioneering new ways to provide medicine. Yet, while discoveries such as chloroform and antiseptics are well known there is also so much more to tell.
”Fascinating stories range from James Barry, Britain’s first female doctor who was discovered to be a woman after his death in 1865, to the cloning of Dolly the Sheep in 1996.”
The book is published by Edinburgh-based Luath Press, and is priced at £16.99 in hardback.
