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.18

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 Bell 19 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.

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

18 Professor Struthers' Historical Sketch of the Edinburgh Anatomical School, Pp. 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., p. 43.

19 Born in 1774; died in 1842.

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." 20

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 Infir mary of Edinburgh in 1790. In 1798 his edition of Fourcroy's Elements of Chemistry and Natural History appeared. Lord Lauder

20 Sir R. Christian's Recollections.

dale 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 collec

tion 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.21

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 homoeopathic conception of medicine; and in 1845 published his Enquiry into the Homeopathic Practice of Medicine. He then commenced business as a homoeopathic 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.

21 Memoir of Dr. Thomson, prefixed to second edition of Life of Cullen,