Dr Charles Morehead MD (Edinburgh),FRCP (1807–1882): Pioneer in medical education

Abstract

Charles Morehead studied medicine in Edinburgh and Paris. Among his teachers were George Jardine (1742–1827) (moral philosophy), Professor William Pulteney Alison (1790–1859) (medicine), Pierre Louis (1787–1872) and René Laennec (1781–1826). He joined as Assistant Surgeon in the Bombay Medical Service of the East India Company and was appointed to the staff of Governor Sir Robert Grant (1779–1838). Grant and Morehead founded the Grant Medical College and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (1811–1877) Hospital in Bombay. Morehead established standards of medical education at these institutions far superior to those in Calcutta and Madras and, in some ways, to those in Britain. His emphasis on discipline, regular attendance, learning medicine at the bedside, the maintenance of detailed records on all patients and thorough evaluation of the progress made by students were salutary. While in London to recover his health, he wrote his classic book Clinical Researches on Disease in India for Indian doctors and those from Britain entering the Indian Medical Services. He lived in Edinburgh after retirement from India but continued to help teachers and students at his institutions in Bombay.