Excerpt from Nugae Canorae Medicae: Lays
The collection of songs, which had formed my contributions to the "conviviality of the evening" at the annual dinners of the past and present medical officers of the New Town Dispensary of Edinburgh, was in 1850 printed at the request of the members of that pleasant reunion, on the understanding that the profits of the book, if any, were to be devoted to the Institution in which we were all interested. It was my good fortune to be able in this way to add a little to the funds of the Dispensary - a very inadequate return for the large amount of practical instruction which it had afforded to me, during my ten years' service as one of its acting medical officers.
Since 1850 some additional Nugae, many of which are in no respect Medicae, have been produced on various occasions at the New Town Dispensary and elsewhere, and a few of these are now put in print at the request of those who have been kind enough to listen to them.