Dr. John Goodsir (1746-1816): A Healer of Souls and Healer of Bodies

Two centuries ago Dr. John Goodsir was among the best known men in the East Neuk of Fife. According to the Glasgow Herald Newspaper dated Saturday, 26 December 1868: "Dr. John Goodsir was a well-known and popular man. 'The customs of the period' in which he lived were primitive and curious, and the practice of the healing art in rural district was carried on in pack-saddle fashion and regularity. Dr. Goodsir would start from Largo on Monday, caparisoned for the week with drugs and surgical appliances and not return home till Friday as itinerant with his physic as the ancient Peripatetic with his philosophy..." Thus was the daily routine of one of Fife's earliest medical doctors spanning over 40 years.