Brachymetacarpia is a medical condition in which the metacarpals of the hands are shortened, the foot equivalent to this condition is brachymetatarsia. This condition is one of the causes of brachydactyly.
Of these one, Benjamin Bell (1749-1806) was to achieve international fame largely through the success of his best selling textbook A System of Surgery first published in 1783. Hill’s early writing
Hill a number of articles for the medical journal Medical Essays and Observations which had been launched in 1733 by the Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, which would eventually become the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This was one of the earliest regular medical journals and it provided a vehicle for case reports and other types of article. Hills articles give an insight into the range of conditions with which he dealt as a surgeon-apothecary, and his understanding of their causes and treatment. He contributed a case report about a patient who was temporarily ‘cured’ of syphilis by a ‘mercurial suffumigation’. After various therapies including laudanum, tonics, claret and Dr Plummers pills were unsuccessful, he resorted to mercury,  a recognised treatment for syphilis and fumes were thought to be the fastest mode of delivery. The symptoms eventually and she survived for more than a year. This report demonstrates that surgeons in Scotland at this time truly acted as surgeon-apothecaries. His report on two cases of hydatid disease describes one patient discharging hydatid cysts via a chronic cutaneous fistula from the liver and the other discharging cysts in the sputum. Both recovered without active treatment.