xliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
respected by all classes. He died suddenly on the,25th of April 
1861, aged 79, having been a Fellow of the Linnean Society for 
33 years. 
Edward Rigby, M.D., one of the most eminent among London 
obstetrical physicians, was born at Norwich on the Ist of August, 
1804, the son of Dr. Edward Rigby, of that town, who attained 
great celebrity by a valuable “ Essay on Uterine Hemorrhage ”’ and 
other works. 
Dr. Rigby was one of twins, and it is a curious circumstance, 
often adverted to by himself, that he was one of six children born 
at two births, his mother at a subsequent confinement having pro- 
duced four. 
His education was commenced at the Grammar School of Nor- 
wich, then directed by the Rev. Dr. Valpy, and among his school- 
fellows were Sir James Brooke and Sir Archdale Wilson. He was 
afterwards placed with the Rev. James Layton, at Catfield in Nor- 
folk, where, however, he did not remain more than two years, and 
at the age of 17 he attended the practice of the Norfolk and Nor- 
wich Hospital, and in the same year had the misfortune to lose his 
father. He afterwards proceeded to Edinburgh, where he graduated, 
receiving his diploma on his 21st birthday. Subsequently Dr. 
Rigby pursued the study of his profession in Dublin, Berlin, and 
Heidelberg, where, from the kindness of Professor Negeli, he en- 
joyed ample opportunities for improving his knowledge of obstetric 
medicine. Professor Negeli’s instructions and scientific know- 
le dgewere so highly valued by his pupil, that Dr. Rigby undertook 
a translation of the Professor’s pamphlet on “ The Mechanism of 
Parturition,’ which was published in London in 1829. 
In the same year he became a house-pupil at the Lying-in 
Hospital in the York Road, to which Institution he was after- 
wards first junior and then senior physician. In 18381 he passed 
the College of Physicians and commenced practice in London, 
where his professional abilities at once placed him in a prominent 
position. As a teacher, he began as Lecturer on Midwifery at 
St. Thomas’s Hospital, but in 1838 he was appointed to the Mid- 
wifery Chair at St. Bartholomew’s, where he continued to lecture 
for ten years, when the pressure of his professional engagements 
compelled him to retire. For nineteen years he occupied the 
position of Examiner in Midwifery in the University of London, 
vacating it only a few months before his death, which took place 
on the 27th of December, 1860, as a loving biographer in the 
‘Medical Times’ remarks, “scarcely full of years, butfull of honours.” 
