In the nineteenth century, the Highlands of Scotland provided many people to the medical profession. One such person, Dr JGS Coghill, served in the Crimean War, was an early European doctor and traveller in China and Japan, had a brief association with Sir JY Simpson and obstetrics, and finally served the Royal National Hospital for Consumption, Ventnor, in the field of tuberculosis until his death. Four members of his family also became doctors, two of whom served overseas.