With the demise of the delivery of health-care by the Columban missionaries in the Scottish islands, there evolved a system of medical care by clan officers. These highly educated clan-physicians held office through hereditary tenure. Evidence is strongest for the existence of the Beaton physicians, but other families, including the O'Conachers, MacLachlans and MacLeas, held similar appointments. These hereditary physicians declined in importance with the demise of the clan system, when other physicians, holding patronage from the landlords, came to the islands.
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