A POPULAR VERDICT. 543 



inent, place as a student of large acquirements, and twice occupied the 

 presidential chair of the Royal Physical Society before his graduation. 

 On his first examination for the M. D., Knox was " plucked" in anat- 

 omy. Thrown upon his metal by this untoward circumstance, he took 

 hold of the subject so thoroughly that he became profoundly interested, 

 was captivated by it, and chose it as the work of his life. He became 

 an able physician and surgeon, and was sent to Brussels by the gov- 

 ernment, to render aid to the wounded of Waterloo. He joined the 

 army in 1817, and spent three years in Africa engaged in hospital- 

 jjractice. But, with a capacity for wide observation, he occupied him- 

 self with physical geography and meteorology, and more especially 

 with natural history and ethnology. He collected and dissected speci- 

 mens from every division of the animal kingdom ; but man being his 

 chief study, he took every opportunity of dissecting the natives whose 

 bodies fell in his way through the contingencies of war ; and thus 

 added much to what was known of their peculiar anatomical charac- 

 ters and physiological traits. He was a skillful horseman, an intrepid 

 hunter, and an excellent shot. Long after his sojourn among the 

 colonists of the Cape of Good Hope, he was remembered with admira- 

 tion, and spoken of as a man of transcendent abilities and accomplish- 

 ments. He returned to England in 1820, and, after receiving the 

 thanks of the army medical department for his " industry, zeal, and 

 talents," he got leave of absence for a year, to study in the medical 

 schools of the Continent. In Paris he made the acquaintance of 

 Cuvier, De Blainville, Larrey, and St.-Hilaire ; and to the views of the 

 latter on the higher anatomy he became a convert. A man of great 

 industry and originality, he produced memoirs on a wide range of 

 subjects, which were published in the Transactions of various societies. 



In 1824, Dr. Knox submitted to the Edinburgh College of Sur- 

 geons a plan for the formation of a museum of comparative anatomy, 

 which was accepted ; the scientific arrangement and active manage- 

 ment of the establishment devolving upon the proposer. He pur- 

 chased Sir Charles Bell's collection for 3,000, and brought it from 

 London to Edinbur<2:h. He was conservator of the. museum thus 

 formed, and classified, catalogued, and extended the collection, so as 

 to make it most valuable for anatomical, surgical, and pathological 

 students. After seven years' work, he left it one of the most extensive 

 and valuable collections in Europe. 



Edinburgh was at that time a prominent centre of medical study. 

 The fame of its professors drew crowds of students to the university. 

 But the teaching of anatomy was mainly an outside affair ; that is, it 

 was conducted in private institutions, independent of the university. 

 Several eminent anatomists had lectured to preparatory classes in 

 these schools, and in 1825 the leading man in this field was Dr. John 

 Barclay, a thorough anatomist and accomplished lecturer, who had a 

 laro-e class of students. Dr. Barclay was the author of many valu- 



