The paper from which this article derives was prepared for the Fifth British Legal History Conference. Concerned as it was primarily with the use of Roman law in nineteenth-century Scottish cases it did not at first seem likely to have much bearing on the main theme of the Conference, law and social change in British history. In fact the initial expectation proved false in more than one respect. More particularly it proved false in that the course of investigation led to the fascinating case of Jex-Blake v The Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh which raised the important question whether women were entitled to be admitted to the Scottish universities and to graduate there from.

This case arose out of the efforts of Sophia Jex-Blake and other women to obtain a qualification entitling them to become registered medical practitioners. The Medical Act 1858, which was designed to improve control over the medical profession, set up a general medical council and introduced a system of registration of those practising medicine. By section 15 it provided that for the future any person wishing to be registered under the Act and so obtain the important privileges resulting from registration had either to hold a qualification from one of the professional bodies in the United Kingdom, such as the Royal Colleges of Physicians or of Surgeons of London or of Edinburgh, or to be “a doctor or bachelor or licentiate of medicine or master in surgery of any university of the United Kingdom”. In 1869 when the story begins none of the professional bodies referred to admitted women to membership.