The Greenock medical martyrs of 1864-65.

In the nineteenth century it was not uncommon for doctors to die from infectious diseases, but the death of five young physicians in Greenock--one third of the medical profession in a medium-sized Scottish town--from epidemic typhus, during four consecutive months in 1864-65, was an unusual event. This paper describes the lives and backgrounds of these five doctors, whose deaths in the line of duty earned them the description 'medical martyrs'.