Chapter XLV (2)

During the greater part of the period under review, there was much extra-mural teaching in Edinburgh, and sometimes very able men engaged in it; I can only, however, notice a few of them. The elder Dr. Duncan, noticed in a preceding page, was among the first extra-mural lecturers on medicine in Edinburgh. He commenced lecturing extra-murally on medicine in 1775, and continued it for fifteen years, and attracted a considerable number of students to his class. John Bell, a distinguished anatomist and surgeon, was born in May, 1763. After finishing his medical education in Edinburgh, he travelled for some time in Russia and the north of Europe, but returned to Edinburgh in 1786, and was entered as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1787, he commenced lecturing on surgery and midwifery, and his lectures were numerously attended. But it seems that some jealousy existed among a few of the professors of the University towards the lecturers of the Surgeons’ Hall; accordingly Bell was vehemently assailed by pamphlets and squibs spread over the city. The assailants, as often happens, had greatly under-estimated the powers of their enemy; for in his replies to their attacks he wielded his weapons with such force and effect that his blows staggered some of them and surprised them all, insomuch that on the main issue he won the day. Bell continued to teach anatomy and surgery till the last year of the eighteenth century, when he was deprived of his connection with the Surgical Hospital; he then retired and devoted himself to practice, and to the composition of his works. As a practitioner he attained the position of the leading operating and consulting surgeon of his time in Edinburgh; and his reputation drew patients from all parts of Britain and the Continent. He was also a cultured man, well versed in ancient and modern literature, a good musician, and skilful artist, while as a teacher, he was a ready and polished speaker, and master of a bold and vivid style. He died at Rome in 1820, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.¹

¹ Professor Struthers’ _Historical Sketch of the Edinburgh
Anatomical School_, pages 39‒42. “He was the reformer of
Surgery in Edinburgh. He was not only a bold and dexterous
operator, but combined all the qualities, natural and
acquired, of a great surgeon to an extraordinary degree;
he was original and fearless, and a thorough anatomist; he
had intellect, nerve, and also language――was master alike of
head, hand, and tongue or pen; and he was laborious as well
as brilliant.”――_Ibid._, page 43.

His chief works are:――1. _The Anatomy of the Human Body_, published in 1793‒97, in three volumes, which contained the most complete view of the progress and discoveries in anatomy up to the date of its publication. 2. _Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints_, illustrating the first volume of his _Anatomy of the Human Body_; they were drawn and engraved by himself, and appeared in 1794. 3. _On the Nature and Cure of Wounds_, 4. _Principles of Surgery_, 1801‒8, in three volumes.

He taught his younger brother Charles Bell¹ anatomy and surgery; and when John retired he continued to instruct his class for several years. But Charles Bell went to London in 1804, to seek his fortune in a wider sphere, and for years he had to struggle with many difficulties. He began to teach in London with three of a class, and it was long ere it reached the number of forty. In 1811, he became one of the lecturers in the Hunterian School of Anatomy in Windmill Street, and in 1814 he was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. At length he attained a high reputation in London both as a teacher and man of science. In 1836, the Chair of Surgery in the University was offered to him, and he accepted it and returned home.

¹ Born in 1774; died in 1842.

A Chair of Clinical Surgery was instituted in the University of Edinburgh, 1803; at the same time the College of Surgeons established a Chair of Surgery. But the Chair of Surgery in the University was reconstituted in 1831, and the same year a Chair of Pathology was established. Thus Sir Charles Bell was the second Professor of Surgery in the University, after a separate Chair was assigned to it, although a Chair for Military Surgery was established in 1803, it was abolished in 1823. During the reign of the Munros they claimed the exclusive right of being Professors of Surgery as well as Anatomy within the walls of the University, and this delayed the establishment of a Chair of Surgery.

Sir Charles Bell discharged the functions of the Chair of Surgery with marked ability and success for five years; and also worked at his writings and researches. He died on the 27th of April, 1842. He was among the greatest men that have ever taught in this University, and the only regret is, that it was so long of securing his service. His researches and discoveries touching the nerves and the nervous system are well known, and were recognised throughout Europe long since. He was not only great in the science of the human organism in all its branches, but also a cultured and accomplished gentleman, skilled in the highest and most delicate operations of mind and hand.

Sir Charles’ works are:――(1) _System of Dissections_, in three volumes, 1798‒1803; (2) _Engravings of the Arteries_, 1801; (3) _Engraving of the Nerves_, 1801; (4) _Engravings of the Brain_, 1802; (5) _The Anatomy of Expression in Painting_, 1806; (6) _System of Operative Surgery_, in two volumes, 1807‒9; (7) _On Diseases of the Urethra_, 1810; (8) _Engravings of Specimens of Morbid Parts_, 1813; (9) _Gunshot Wounds_, 1814; (10) _Surgical Operations_, in two volumes, 1816‒18; (11) _On the Forces which circulate in the Blood_, 1819; (12) _On the Nervous System_, 1821; (13) _Illustrations of the Great Operations in Surgery_, 1821; (14) _Treatise on the Diseases of some of the Internal Organs_, 1822; (15) _Observations on Injuries of the Spine, and of the Thigh Bone_, 1824; (16) New edition of John and Charles Bell’s _Anatomy and Physiology_, 1829; (17) Bridgewater Treatise, _On the Hand_, 1833; (18) _Institutes of Surgery_, arranged in the order of lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh, in two volumes, 1838; (19) _Practical Essays_, in two volumes, 1841; (20) Letters to the Members of Parliament for the city of Edinburgh, on two Bills before Parliament, for improving the medical profession.

Regarding other extra mural lecturers, Dr. John Barclay lectured on anatomy in Edinburgh from 1797 to 1825, and by his attention and marked ability attracted a considerable number of medical students. From 1804 onward he had a class of about three hundred. He also published several treatises on anatomical and physiological subjects. Barclay was a wit as well as a man of science, of which the following is a characteristic specimen:――“Gentlemen, while carrying on your work in the dissecting room, beware of making anatomical discoveries, and above all beware of rushing with them into print. Our precursors have left us little to discover. You may perhaps meet with a trifling supernumerary muscle or tendon, a slight deviation or extra branchlet of an artery, or perhaps a minute stray twig of a nerve, that will be all. But beware; publish the fact, and ten chances to one you will have it shown that you have been forestalled long ago. Anatomy may be likened to a harvest field. First come the reapers, who, entering upon untrodden ground, cut down great stores of corn from all sides of them. These are the early anatomists of modern Europe, such as Vesalius, Fallopius, Malpighi, and Harvey. Then come the gleaners, who gather up ears enough from the bare ridges to make a few loaves of bread. Such were the anatomists of last century, Valsalva, Contunnius, Haller, Winslow, Vieg d’Azyr, Camper, Hunter, and the two Monros. Last of all come the geese, who still continue to pick up a few grains scattered here and there among stubble, and waddle home in the evening, poor things, cackling with joy because of their success. Gentlemen, we are the geese.”¹

¹ Sir R. Christian’s _Recollections_.

Dr. Gordon lectured on anatomy in Edinburgh from 1809 to 1819, and he was the author of several treatises. In the second quarter of the present century, Dr. Knox, the morphological anatomist, attained great celebrity as a lecturer on anatomy. To his dissecting room the victims of Burke and Hare were brought as subjects, but without any connivance of foul play on his part. For some time his class reached five hundred students. So much touching extra mural lectures.

Dr. John Thomson, a son of a silk weaver of Paisley, was born in 1765. His father wished him to enter into business with himself, but his mental faculties and aspirations rose above such employment. He privately acquired some knowledge of Latin, and his father allowed him to become an apprentice to a local medical practitioner. In 1787 he attended the medical classes at Glasgow, and afterwards he studied under Munro and Blackwood at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed assistant-apothecary to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1790. In 1798 his edition of Fourcroy’s _Elements of Chemistry and Natural History_ appeared. Lord Lauderdale came to Edinburgh in 1799 to study chemistry, and Thomson assisted him, and a warm friendship arose between them. He continued to practise surgery attentively, and was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1800 he issued a pamphlet entitled “Outlines of a Plan for the Regulation of the Surgical Department of the Royal Infirmary.” He was then appointed one of the Surgeons of the Infirmary, and commenced to deliver clinical lectures, and also courses of systematic surgery in a private theatre. In 1804 he was appointed Professor of Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons; while in 1806 he was encouraged by Lord Lauderdale to apply for a Commission to be Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. The Great European war had created an unusual interest in this subject. Lord Spencer, the Home Secretary, after an interview with Thomson, created the Chair, and appointed him as the first Professor. As mentioned in a preceding page, the Monros claimed a monopoly of teaching surgery in the University, and consequently it was treated as a mere appendage to anatomy, and not systematically taught. Thus Thomson introduced a very important innovation in the Edinburgh School. He admitted students without fee to his lectures, and in one session about two hundred persons embraced this privilege. In 1813 his Lectures on Inflammation appeared, which exhibited the pathological and practical doctrines of medical surgery. This work was widely circulated, and translated into German, Italian, and French. At the close of the war in 1814, he made a tour among the hospitals and medical schools of the Continent; while the following year, immediately after the battle of Waterloo, he was commissioned to inspect the condition of the wounded soldiers in Belgium. He performed this duty with the utmost care, and rendered much assistance to the Army-Surgeons at Brussels. During the following winter his lectures in Edinburgh were well attended, as the class numbered two hundred and eighty, of whom eighteen medical officers of the army and sixty-two of the navy were admitted gratis. It was recorded that his lectures were animated and eloquent, and excited much discussion touching the different modes of surgical treatment. His lectures were not limited to surgery, but also embraced medical pathology. Before 1820 he began to collect coloured pathological delineations, and engaged Mr. Carswell, who visited a number of hospitals and museums at home and abroad, to make water-colour drawings of morbid structures. This resulted in a valuable collection of pathological diagrams, which is still in the possession of the University, and was the first of its kind ever made.

On the death of Dr. James Gregory in 1821, Dr. Thomson became a candidate for the Chair of the Practice of Physic; but he was unsuccessful, the Chair was given to Dr. James Hope. After this he resigned the Professorship of Military Surgery and commenced to deliver extra-mural courses of lectures on the practice of physic and pathology. He was invited to give evidence before the Universities Commission of 1826, and embraced the opportunity of strongly urging the necessity for a separate Chair of Surgery and one of Pathology in the University. He addressed a memorial to Lord Melbourne in 1831, pointing out the great advantages of the establishment of a Chair of General Pathology. Such a Chair was founded by the Government, and Thomson was appointed by the Crown as the first Professor of General Pathology. At the same time a Chair of Surgery was established in the University. Although Dr. Thomson was advanced in years, yet he commenced the work of his new Chair with remarkable vigour, and his teaching for several years was very efficient. But in 1835 his strength began to fail, and his lectures were delivered by an assistant till 1841, when he resigned the Chair. In his time, he had executed much useful and important work. He issued his edition of Cullen’s works in 1827; the first volume of his _Life of Cullen_ appeared in 1832, and the second completed by his son in 1859. Dr. Thomson died in 1846, at the advanced age of eighty-one.¹

¹ Memoir of Dr. Thomson, prefixed to second edition of _Life
of Cullen_.

On the resignation of Professor Thomson, Dr. William Henderson was appointed to the chair of general pathology. In 1835‒37 he had published a series of papers on the “Diseases of the Heart and the Larger Blood-Vessels.” He was an expert stethoscopist, and used the microscope in pathological histology. Henderson, however, became heterodox, and embraced the homœopathic conception of medicine; and in 1845 published his _Enquiry into the Homœopathic Practice of Medicine_. He then commenced business as a homœopathic practitioner, and proposed to follow this theory in his clinical ward in the Infirmary. This caused a great stir among the Medical Faculty in the University and the College of Physicians. Henderson resigned his post as a clinical teacher of medicine; but continued his lectures in the chair of pathology. He obtained a large private practice, though several of his colleagues treated him bitterly. Owing to failing health, he resigned his chair in 1869; and died in 1872.

Dr. William R. Sanders was appointed to the chair of pathology in 1869. He had a high reputation as a physician, and a large consulting practice. He contributed a number of important papers to the _Edinburgh Medical Journal_; and had delivered lectures on the institutes of medicine in the extra-mural school. As professor of pathology, he introduced practical teaching, and trained the students to observe for themselves. The practical classes were instructed by Sanders’ assistant, Dr. Hamilton, and the teaching of pathology in Edinburgh was raised to a higher stage. Professor Sanders died in 1881, at the age of fifty-three.

Shortly after Dr. Thomson resigned the chair of military surgery, Dr. George Ballingall was appointed professor of the subject. He was born in 1780, a son of the minister of the parish of Forglen in Banffshire. At an early age he went through the arts course at the University of St. Andrews; and subsequently studied medicine at Edinburgh, graduating as M.D. in 1803. In 1806 he entered the army as an assistant-surgeon, and saw service in India and other countries. He was at the capture of Java in 1811; and in 1815 he was with the army of occupation at Paris. He retired on half-pay in 1818, and commenced practice in Edinburgh. In 1823 he was appointed to the vacant chair of military surgery. After the accession of William IV., he received the honour of knighthood, and became Sir George Ballingall; he was surgeon to the Queen in Scotland, and had other honorary titles. He was an able professor, well informed, an excellent expositor, and a favourite with the students. He was the author of the following works:――_A Treatise on Fever, Dysentery, and Liver Complaints_; _Introductory Lectures to a Course of Medical Surgery_; and _A Treatise on Military Surgery_. He died in 1856. The chair of military surgery was then removed from Edinburgh.

Dr. William P. Alison was a son of the Rev. A. Alison, the author of the _Essay on Taste_, mentioned in a preceding chapter. He was educated in the University of Edinburgh, and was a great admirer of the writings of Dugald Stewart. He was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine in 1821; and he discharged the functions of this chair till 1842. In 1831, he published his _Outlines of Physiology_, and in 1833, _Outlines of Physiology and Pathology_. He was a successful teacher. In 1842, he was appointed to the chair of the practice of physics, and shortly after he published his _Outlines of Pathology and Practice of Medicine_. He took a keen interest in the condition of the poor in Scotland; and in 1840, he published his _Observations on the Management of the Poor_. He advocated the introduction of a systematic poor-law act for the relief of the destitute. He was a kind, generous, and sympathetic gentleman, and devoted much of his means to charitable objects. His health failed and he resigned his chair in 1855, and died in 1859.

James Syme¹ was educated in the High School and the University of Edinburgh, and became assistant and demonstrator to Barclay, the extra-mural lecturer on anatomy. Afterwards he specially directed his attention to surgery, and studied for a year in Paris, practising surgical operations under Lisfranc. He returned to Edinburgh, and opened an extra-mural class in surgery, and his abilities and ♦perseverance soon commanded success. In 1833, he became professor of clinical surgery in the University, and introduced a better method of instructing the students in the principles of treatment. He was a successful teacher, and attained a reputation as an operator. His chief work is his _Principles of Surgery_, which appeared in 1833; while he wrote upwards of two hundred papers on various points connected with his subject. He died in 1870, having held the chair for thirty-six years. His successor, Joseph Lister, introduced the antiseptic system.

¹ Born in 1799; died in 1870.

♦ “perseverence” replaced with “perseverance”

Dr. Alexander Hamilton was professor of midwifery from 1780 to 1800. He was the author of several treatises on _Midwifery and the Management of Female Complaints_, which were translated into German. He was succeeded in the chair by his son, Dr. James Hamilton, who was a man of great energy, and an excellent professor. He had great experience and a vast store of information, thus his means for teaching were ample, and his class was well attended by students. In 1839 his work entitled _Practical Observations_ appeared, which was recognised as an important book. He died in November 1839.

James Y. Simpson, the distinguished introducer of chloroform, was born at Bathgate, the youngest son of a small tradesman. It was resolved to give him a better education than the rest of the family. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen, and obtained a small bursary, attended the greater part of the arts course and the medical classes, passed the examination of the College of Surgeons in his nineteenth year, in 1830, and received his degree in medicine in 1832. Dr. Thomson, the professor of pathology, then appointed Simpson as his assistant; and on Thomson’s advice he afterwards directed special attention to midwifery. In 1838, he became a lecturer on midwifery in the extra-mural school; and in 1840, was elected professor of midwifery in the University of Edinburgh.

Simpson was in every respect a successful and enthusiastic professor, and many of those who attended his class have risen to distinction. He first tried the effect of chloroform by inhalation in 1847. Shortly afterwards operations were performed under chloroform in the Infirmary of Edinburgh; and it soon came into general use. But Dr. Duncan, in a short treatise entitled _On the Mortality of Childbed_, 1870, argues against its use in childbed, except in extreme or particular cases; and he struggles hard to make out a case against Simpson’s view of its application in this connection, but notwithstanding a parade of statistics his arguments are not conclusive.

He obtained a large private practice, and throughout his career he was incessantly occupied. Still he sometimes worked to good purpose outside of his profession. Archæology was a favourite subject of his, and his essays and papers in this department of research are admirable specimens of workmanship and style. He was knighted in 1866, and received honorary titles from Academies and Societies from the four quarters of the globe. After a short illness, he died in 1870, having occupied the chair of midwifery for a period of thirty years. He shed new lustre on the University of Edinburgh, and conferred a blessing upon the human race.

Robert Christison was appointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in 1821, and he has himself recorded that he was so ashamed of his first course of lectures that he destroyed them. He held this Chair twelve years, and, in 1832, was elected to the Chair of Materia Medica. Christison became an able and successful teacher, and altogether he was a Professor in the University for fifty-five years. He died in 1882. In 1829, his valuable _Treatise on Poisons_ appeared; his _Dispensatory_ was published in 1842, and he prepared the last edition of the _Edinburgh Pharmacopœia_. He is also the author of many papers on medical subjects.

There were other professors of the medical school of Edinburgh, whom I should have been happy to notice, but space is limited, and I can only add that the great reputation which this school has so long enjoyed is likely not only to continue to be maintained, but also to rise still higher as time rolls on. The number of students in the faculty has been rising from year to year, and in the session of 1885‒86 the number of matriculated students in the faculty of medicine was 1635.

In the preceding volumes some account was given of the University of Glasgow. It has passed through many vicissitudes. At the Reformation it was nearly extinguished, and after the Restoration it suffered so much for want of funds that three out of its eight Chairs had to be given up, and no relief came till after the Revolution of 1688.

At the opening of the second quarter of the eighteenth century the medical faculty of this University consisted of the following Chairs:――(1) Anatomy, founded in 1718, with which Botany was at first associated; (2) Practice of Medicine, revived in 1712. But even with its two Chairs several of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of the eighteenth century received the elements of their medical instruction in this University, and they have left memorable evidence of their gratitude for the early instruction which they had there received. After maturing his medical knowledge and gaining experience, Cullen returned to Glasgow in 1744, and by the exercise of his great talents and the force of genius led to the establishment of the Chair of Chemistry, and to the creation of lectureships in several other branches of medical science; while by his noble efforts, well seconded by his colleagues, in a comparatively short time he raised the standard and established the reputation of the medical school of Glasgow. Dr. William Hunter, after a distinguished and honourable career in London, bequeathed his museum, books, and manuscripts to his Alma Mater. In a word, from the middle of the eighteenth century the medical school of Glasgow has continued to advance.

In the present century, the following chairs in this faculty have been instituted:――(1) Natural History, in 1807; (2) Surgery, in 1815; (3) Midwifery, in 1815; (4) Botany, in 1818; (5) Materia Medica, in 1831; (6) Physiology, in 1839; (7) Forensic Medicine, in 1839; (8) Clinical Surgery, in 1874; (9) Clinical Medicine, in 1874. Thus the faculty of medicine in the University of Glasgow now consists of twelve Chairs and a Lectureship on Diseases of the Eye.

But in this great city, medical science is also successfully taught by a body of extra-mural lecturers. Those in Glasgow whose lectures have been recognised by the University Court of the University of Glasgow, for the purpose of graduating in medicine, are twenty-six in number; and these twenty-six gentlemen lecture on all branches of medical science, and many of them are highly distinguished teachers.

Before the middle of the present century measures were taken for the removal of the University to more extended buildings, and for this purpose the lands of Gilmorehill were secured――a fine elevated space of ground in the western part of the city. The new buildings were designed by the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott; and on the 8th of October, 1868, the foundation stone of these buildings on the Gilmorehill was laid by the Prince of Wales amidst manifestations of joy and rejoicing. They were opened for the classes in 1870.¹ These buildings have an imposing appearance to the eye; but the interior accommodation, and also the workmanship, are far superior to what one would imagine by simply looking at the outside of the buildings. The principal and a number of the professors have residences within the buildings; while each faculty has a special or main division of the buildings for itself, with splendid class-rooms and every other requisite of accommodation for effective teaching. The large room for holding examinations, the Senatus meeting-room, and the chapel are all that could be desired. The space of the buildings in which the large and valuable library is located has been calculated to be sufficient to hold the annually increasing number of volumes for many generations to come. The large, interesting, and valuable Hunterian Museum occupies the north side of the eastern quadrangle, and consists of two halls, the upper one being galleried; and it has been intimated that “visitors desirous of consulting in the Museum should, if possible, arrange to come between 2 and 4 P.M. Numismatists desirous of consulting the cabinet of medals should communicate with the keeper a few days before the date of their proposed visit.”

¹ The tower, however, for want of funds was not finished at
first; but it was completed in 1888 by the Marquess of Bute,
K.T., and is one of the highest towers in the kingdom.

The foundation-stone of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was laid on the 18th of May, 1792,¹ and it was opened for the reception of patients in 1794. Clinical lectures are given in it by the surgeons and physicians. Shortly after the opening of the New University buildings, the Western Infirmary was erected, a large building measuring 500 feet by 240. It is situated in a fine, airy and open locality, and it has been authoritatively declared to be one of the best establishments of the kind in Britain. It contains 400 beds for medical and surgical patients, including wards for skin diseases, and one for diseases peculiar to females; it has also a full staff of physicians and surgeons. Several courses of clinical instruction are given. There are also in Glasgow an Eye Infirmary; Dispensaries for Diseases of the Skin and Ear; and in the Royal Lunatic Asylum, at Gartnavel, clinical instruction on insanity is given.

¹ On occasion of laying the foundation, a religious service
was held in St. Andrews Church, at the close of which a hymn
written for the occasion was sung, and concluded thus:――

“Then let us join with heart and hand,
To raise this glory of our land,
Which shall to latest times declare,
To ease the wretched was our care.”

In short, Glasgow possesses all the requisites of a great medical school in an ample degree. In the session of 1884‒85, the number of matriculated students in the faculty of medicine was 679; and with its many and invaluable advantages, this school should have a great and beneficent career before it.

The medical school of Aberdeen is a recent development. At the opening of the present century there was one professor of medicine in King’s College, and in Marischal College there was one professor of medicine and a professor of chemistry. A chair of anatomy was instituted in 1839, and a chair of surgery the same year; and a chair of medical jurisprudence was established in 1857. In short, the late Dr. Pirrie, the first professor of surgery, the late Dr. Macrobin, Dr. Dyce, and Dr. Francis Ogston, were the founders of the Aberdeen medical school, as they first gave it a reputation in the second quarter of this century.

But it may be said that it was not till after the union of King’s College and Marischal College, which was completed in 1860, that there was a well constituted and organised medical school in Aberdeen. After the union of the Colleges, the buildings of Marischal College were assigned to the classes of the medical faculty and the faculty of law; and though the accommodation for the medical classes was then more than sufficient, owing to the greatly increased number of students attending these classes in recent years, it has now become quite inadequate, and several of the professors experience difficulty in conducting their classes within the existing apartments.

Since this was written, a movement for the extension of Marischal College buildings has assumed a practical form. A plan of new buildings has been sanctioned, consisting of new class-rooms――embraced in the north and south wings of the extension scheme, a grand new graduation hall, heightening of the central tower, and other extensions. A large part of these has been erected.

The hall and the tower are characteristic parts of the new buildings. The most attractive feature of the hall is the fine memorial window in its east end, which is 32 feet in height and 28 feet in breadth. It is designed to illustrate the history of the College by a series of finely coloured heraldic and portrait representations. There are four tiers of panels in it, which are beautifully embellished with the armorial bearings of George Keith, fifth Earl of Marischal, the founder of the College; the armorial bearings of eleven Chancellors of the College; those of thirty benefactors of the College; and the portraits of a number of the distinguished alumni of the College and University. There are other ten windows in the hall――five on each side, which are decorated with various coloured emblems in a fine symmetrical style. The hall is a magnificent structure.

The tower is 248 feet in height. It is in clustered style, well formed, proportionate, and attractive to the eye. The tower and the hall were gifts to the University from the late Dr. Charles Mitchell, Newcastle-on-Tyne, who in all gave £32,000 to the University extension scheme.

At the date of the union of the Colleges four new chairs were established, namely, the chair of institutes of medicine or physiology, the chair of materia medica, the chair of midwifery, and the chair of botany; while the chair of natural history was also renewed. A chair of pathology was founded by Sir Erasmus Wilson in 1882. Altogether there are eleven chairs in the medical faculty of Aberdeen.

Courses of lectures and practical instruction are regularly given by the medical staff of the Royal Infirmary, and other institutions, on the following branches: clinical medicine, clinical surgery, pathological demonstrations, diseases of the skin, diseases of the ear and larynx, dental surgery, the eye and practical ophthalmology, sanitary science, and, finally, insanity.

The body of professors in the medical faculty of the University are able instructors; while the staff of the Royal Infirmary are well qualified and careful teachers of the special branches which they profess. The result is, that within the last thirty-five years the standard and reputation of the Aberdeen medical school has risen rapidly; and it has sent out a large number of admirably qualified graduates, many of whom have taken a front rank among the eminent physicians and surgeons of the time.

Dr. Pirrie was a native of the parish of Gartly, in Aberdeenshire, and was appointed professor of surgery in 1839. He was a successful teacher, a clear and careful expositor of the principles of surgery, and for many years one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary. He had the reputation of being an able operator. He is the author of an elaborate work entitled _The Principles and Practice of Surgery_, the third edition of which appeared in 1873, thoroughly revised and enlarged. The work extends to forty-six chapters, and the whole subject is ably treated in a plain, simple, and clear style. As a very short specimen, the following is from his chapter headed “Injuries of the Brain”――the special point being concussion of the brain:――

“_Causes._――The injury which is termed by British authors concussion of the brain, by French commotion, and in common parlance stunning, is produced by one or other of the three following causes: a blow, or a fall on the cranium itself, or a fall from a considerable height on some other part of the body, as the buttocks, or the feet, by which a sudden shock is communicated to the brain, through the medium of the vertebral column. I lately had under my care a mason, in whose case there were strongly marked symptoms of concussion, caused by his falling from the second floor of a house on his buttocks; and I am at present attending to a female, who, in consequence of the horse becoming restive, jumped from the top of a cart loaded with hay, and alighted on her feet, sustained fracture of one leg and concussion of the brain. The spine in these circumstances is suddenly brought into a state of rest, and the head being still in projectile motion is forcibly struck against the summit of the vertebral column, the sudden jerk thus communicated to the brain occasions concussion.”

The late Dr. Keith was one of the most eminent practical surgeons and lithotomists of his time. He acted for many years as one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary. Dr. Kerr and Dr. Fiddes were also able surgeons.

Dr. Alexander J. Lizars was professor of anatomy from 1841 till his death in 1863. He is the author of a text-book entitled _Elements of Anatomy_, which evinces considerable powers of classification and exposition. The late Dr. Francis Ogston, the first professor of medical jurisprudence in this University, who delivered lectures for a quarter of a century, and retired from the chair in 1883, was a gentleman of vast experience and considerable culture. He published his lectures on medical jurisprudence in 1878, in two volumes; and they contain an able and remarkably clear exposition of the subject. The work has been recognised at home and abroad as a high authority.

In the preceding part of this chapter attention has been directed to those specially engaged in teaching medicine in Scotland, and although my space is almost exhausted, still some notice should be given of a few other Scotsmen who have attained distinction in this profession. Dr. James Douglas¹ was one of the earliest and most distinguished teachers of anatomy in Britain. After completing his studies, he settled in London as a teacher, and attained great success. In 1707, he published his _Specimen of Comparative Anatomy_, and it gave the most correct account of the muscles which had up to that time appeared. In 1715, his _Specimen of Anatomical Bibliography_ was published, in which he gives an account of the various works on anatomy, with sketches of their authors; and in 1726, he published a treatise on lithotomy, under the title of _A History of the Lateral Operation for the Stone_. A second edition appeared in 1733, with an appendix presenting a comparative view of the methods of operating by different lithotomists, and especially that recommended by Cheselden.² Douglas also contributed a number of papers to the Royal Society, on the anatomy of some of the generative organs, and reports of various cases in surgery.

¹ Born in 1674; died in 1742.

² His brother, John Douglas, was surgeon to the Westminster
Infirmary, and the author of several works. In 1736, he
published _A Short Account of the state of Midwifery in
London_, in which he severely criticised the works of
Chamberlen and Chapman; and in another publication he
derided the obstetric forceps invented by Smellie.

Dr. William Hunter was born on the 23rd of May, 1718, at Kilbride, in Lanarkshire. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, which he entered at the age of fourteen, and passed five years studying there. Afterwards he received assistance in the prosecution of his medical studies from Dr. Cullen at Hamilton, and in 1740, he attended the medical lectures in the University of Edinburgh. In the summer of 1741, he proceeded to London, and almost immediately began his great career as an assistant to Dr. Douglas; but Douglas died in 1742. Hunter continued his course, and attained distinction as a lecturer and a practising physician, gained wealth and honour, and collected his remarkable museum, which he finally bequeathed to the University of Glasgow.

Dr. William Hunter’s writings consist of a series of papers on several of the internal organs of the human body; a few of his introductory lectures on anatomy which he left fully written out; but his principal work is _The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus_, which appeared in 1775, and a more complete edition was issued by Dr. Baillie in 1794. As a teacher of anatomy he was deservedly celebrated. “He was a good orator, and having a clear and accurate conception of what he taught, he knew how to place in distinct and intelligible points of view the most abstruse subjects of anatomy and physiology.... He had the talent of infusing much of his ardour into his pupils, and if anatomical knowledge is more diffused in this country than formerly, we are indebted for this, in a great measure, to his exertions.”¹ He died on the 30th March, 1783, in London.

¹ _Account of the Life and Writings of William Hunter, M.D.,
F.A.S., and S.A._, 1783.

William Cruickshanks, the son of an officer in the excise, was born at Edinburgh in 1745. He received the rudiments of his education at the schools of Edinburgh: and went through a complete course of medical study at the University of Glasgow. After devoting his attention for eight years to medical science, he proceeded to London and obtained the office of librarian to Dr. William Hunter. Shortly after Dr. Hunter appointed him as his assistant; and ultimately admitted him as a partner in superintending his establishment in Windmill Street. On the death of Dr. Hunter, the students of the school presented an address to Cruickshanks and Dr. Baillie, requesting that they might assume the superintendence of the school, which they did. ♦Cruickshanks’s work on _The Anatomy of the absorbent vessels of the Human Body_ appeared in 1786, and it has been translated into several languages. He was also the author of a few other papers on points connected with his profession. He was an able anatomist, a skilful surgeon, and an exceedingly generous and benevolent man. He died in 1800.

♦ “Cruickshank’s” replaced with “Cruickshanks’s”

John Hunter, a younger brother of the above, was born at Long Calderwood, in the parish of Kilbride, Lanarkshire, on the 13th of February, 1728. In 1748, he joined his brother in London, and commenced to work in the dissecting-room, under the instruction of his brother’s assistant. In the summer of 1749, Dr. William Hunter obtained permission for his brother to attend at the Chelsea Hospital, under Cheselden, who was thus John Hunter’s first teacher in surgery. In 1751, he entered as a surgeon’s pupil at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, under Pott; in 1754, he entered St. George’s Hospital as a surgeon’s pupil; and two years later he served in the office of house-surgeon to this hospital. At this time he entered as a partner with his brother in the anatomical school, and a portion of the lectures was allotted to him; he had also to take his brother’s place when he was absent. From the year 1759 to 1763 he served as a staff-surgeon in the army.

He then settled down in London, prosecuted his researches in anatomy and physiology, and delivered lectures on anatomy and surgery. In 1776, Hunter was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the King. After a life of incessant research, toil in lecturing, in private practice, and in collecting his museum, he died suddenly on the 16th of October, 1793. His life has been written by Ottley, from whom I shall give a few brief quotations:――“Boldness and independence in the pursuit of truth, one of the striking characteristics of Hunter’s mind, was well exhibited in his lectures. He attached no value to opinions, except they could be shown to be firmly based on fact. Fallacious reasoning he quickly saw through, and instantly demolished; while he was not more indulgent towards his own theories when he discovered them to be erroneous....

“In forming an estimate of Hunter’s professional character, and the influence which his labours have had on the improvement of surgery, we are not, as with ordinary minds, simply to enumerate the various practical amendments of which he was the immediate author. His claims are of a far higher nature; and inasmuch as he was the first who taught us to bring the lights of physiology to bear upon the practice of our art, and by his writings, his teaching, and his example stimulated the minds of numerous able followers to pursue the tract he had pointed out, he justly merits to be considered as the author of a new era in the history of our profession.

“In the character of a naturalist it is impossible for us to form a full estimate of Hunter’s labours, either from his published works or from his incomparable museum as it at present stands. In the course of the numberless dissections which he prosecuted during thirty years of unwearied diligence he necessarily made a great variety of isolated observations, which, though not immediately applicable to the objects he had in view, would doubtless have constituted important contributions to the general stock of knowledge in comparative anatomy. Such observations he always recorded carefully in appropriate volumes; but by Sir Everard Home’s extraordinary destruction of his manuscripts, science has been deprived of these fruits of his industry, of which scarcely the smallest portion now remains in existence. But even in such cases where the records of his researches have been preserved, either in the form of preparations or by means of drawings forming part of his museum, the want of descriptive catalogues has often caused them to be overlooked, whilst more modern naturalists have been reaping the honour of discoveries which were due in the first place to Hunter.

“Nevertheless, though we cannot estimate the full extent of his labours, enough remains to entitle him to a place in the highest rank as a natural philosopher.”¹

¹ Hunter’s _Works_, Volume I., pages 48, 135‒136.

A good edition of Hunter’s works, in four volumes, edited with notes by Mr. James F. Palmer, and illustrated by a volume of plates, in quarto, was published in 1835‒37. John Hunter was probably the greatest physiologist that Britain has produced, taking into account the extensive series of preparations contained in his museum and his writings. In reference to comparative anatomy Richard Owen said in 1837: “It appears to me that he marks a new epoch in its history, and that the historian of the natural sciences has just and sufficient grounds for regarding Hunter as the first of the moderns who treated of the organs of the animal body under their most general relations, and who pointed out the anatomical conditions which were characteristic of great groups or classes of animals; as one, in short, throughout whose works we meet with general propositions in comparative anatomy, the like of which exists not in the writing of any of his contemporaries or predecessors, save in those of Aristotle.”¹

¹ Preface to Hunter’s _Treatise on the Animal Economy_,
Hunter’s Works, Volume IV., page 11.

In conclusion, the rise and progress of medical science in Scotland has been narrated in sufficient detail to indicate what she has contributed to this branch of knowledge; while the gradual development of the three centres or schools of medicine has been shown. The great work for medical science in the future will be sanitary progress and hospital organisation; in short, the exercise of medical knowledge and skill to prevent disease of every description.