Keen frost + a nice sharp calm day. Snow firm for walking but some bits of pavement very slippery. Gave Mrs Mack1 her Christmas present of Silk Pyjamas! Nice letters from John McDougal2 + Wyllys3 + a pamphlet from Rabagliati.4 Saw 10 cases (including …) walking. Got old Minute book of Golf Club + found that the Professional Golf Torn [sic] took place on May 19 1888 + the Club House was opened August 6 1885.5
1 Dr Muir’s good friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946) of Elm Park, Selkirk.
2 John Aymers MacDougall (1844-1928), M.D. Edin., 1865, L.R.C.S. Edin., 1874, medical practitioner, born and sometime in practice at Galashiels but by 1923 living at Balerno, Midlothian. One of Dr Muir’s oldest friends as recorded when James Ramsay died in 1915 and Dr Muir commented “Thus is severed another of the four remaining links between now and my student days. I last heard from “Ram” on 26 December when he signed himself “one of your oldest and most affectionate friends”. McDougal, Brunton and Rabagliati are the only remaining ones.” [diary entry for Thursday 4 February 1915, Heritage Hub SBA/657/18/7]. John MacDougall published an obituary of Sir Lauder Brunton in the Edinburgh Medical Journal 1916 Nov; 17 (5): 345–349.
3 William Edward Wyllys (1846-1931), L.R.C.S. Edin., 1867, L.R.C.P. Edin., 1868, born Somerset, a close contemporary of Dr Muir’s at Edinburgh but living at Belton, Suffolk in 1923 [Medical Register 1923].
4 Andrea Carlo Francisco Rabagliati (1843-1930), medical practitioner and dietician, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., author of ‘Air, Food and Exercises; An Essay on the Predisposing Causes of Disease”, 3rd Edition, 1914. He was a near contemporary of Dr Muir, studied medicine at Edinburgh, had family connections with the Borders and was long-term friend of Dr Muir’s. Also note comment of Dr Halliday Sutherland “Their author was fond of coining new words based on Greek roots, which puzzled the non-classical reader.” [sources include BMJ obituary, 1930, and Bradford Telegraph & Argus, ‘Past Times’, 8 March 2000 ‘Doctor’s veggie way to a long life’].
5 It is not clear what the excitement was about the old golf tournament. The Editor will try to find out when the archives re-open.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 