2 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



University prize-lists. Yet his dexterity in dissection, his 

 knowledge of the natural history of the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, and his steady bearing soon attracted the attention 

 of Prof. Goodsir, and his demonstrators, William Turner and 

 John Cleland. Moreover, continuing the excursions of his 

 schooldays, he visited St Andrews in the autumn vacations 

 with his sisters, gathered shells on the beach, or split ironstone 

 nodules at the East Rocks, as well as made the acquaintance 

 of a local zoologist, Robert Walker, then librarian and 

 quaestor of the University, and of Charles Howie, the author 

 of the Musci Fifcnscs and of The Notable Trees of Fife both 

 ever ready to encourage and aid a young naturalist. When 

 resident in Edinburgh, many a pleasant excursion he made 

 with a congenial companion into the surrounding country, his 

 knowledge of the history of Scotland as well as of its fauna 

 making such most enjoyable. Sometimes these extended 

 as far as Colinton, which in after years was destined to be 

 his last resting-place. His fifth year in the University gave 

 him leisure, for he was not a rapid worker, to elaborate his 

 original Thesis on the Asymmetry of the Pleuronectida?, for 

 which he was awarded a gold medal on graduation day in 

 August 1862. Not only was the University at this time 

 conspicuous in the eminence of its professorial staff, but the 

 fellow-students of Traquair included such talented men as 

 Thomas Annandale (afterwards Professor of Clinical Surgery), 

 Alexander Dickson (Professor of Botany), William Ruther- 

 ford (Professor of Physiology), Thomas Fraser (Professor of 

 Materia Medica), Alexander Crum-Brown (Professor of 

 Chemistry), James B. Pettigrew (Professor of Medicine and 

 Anatomy, St Andrews), William Stephenson (Professor of 

 Midwifery, Aberdeen), besides John Anderson (Professor of 

 Zoology, Calcutta) and Robert O. Cunningham (Professor of 

 Natural History, Belfast) a list it would be difficult to 

 surpass in any given case. 



Though he may not have seriously thought of pursuing 

 the practice of his profession, yet as a student he carried out 

 dispensary practice with diligence and skill occasionally 

 taking over the cases of a friend during his absence at the 

 Christmas recess. During the winter of 1861-62 Dr Traquair 

 also acted as assistant to Professor Sir James Simpson, at 



