
IN MEMORIAM—DAVID ROBERTSON, 23 
labours were also shared, the writing being taken by Robert 
Miller, and the arithmetic by David Robertson. 
The end of the winter session brought with it the close of the 
evening school and the separation of the two student friends. 
Robertson had again to face the problem of ways and means, for 
without some fresh source of income he could scarcely: hope to 
attend college during the summer months. No employment need 
be thought of which would not leave him free during class hours, 
or which would make his clothes unfit to be worn at college. 
After several unsuccessful attempts to get suitable work, he at last 
obtained an engagement with a Mr. Douglas, dyer and renovator. 
The first outbreak of cholera in Glasgow took place about this 
time. Medical students were offered a guinea a week for attend- 
ance on patients, and Robertson offered his services, which were 
accepted. But after considering the great risk to which he would 
expose the family with whom he lodged, and the workers at Mr. 
Douglas’s establishment, he made up his mind not to attend the 
hospital. Soon afterwards he caught fever and erysipelas of a 
bad type, and as the result of these troubles fully a year elapsed 
before he could return to college. 
His certificates of attendance on the medical classes have been 
preserved, and are as follows:—Courses in Anatomy, theoretical 
and practical, at the Andersonian University, under Dr. Robert 
Hunter, from 4th May to 26th October, 1831, from 8th Novem- 
ber, 1831, to 25th April, 1832, and from 8th May to 25th 
October, 1832; lectures on Surgery, under Dr. James Adair 
Lawrie, from 8th May to 30th October, 1832; on Practical 
Chemistry, under Thomas Graham, F.R.S.E., from 8th May to 
Ist August, 1832, and from 5th November, 1833, to 25th April, 
1834; on Materia Medica, at the Glasgow College, under Dr. 
Richard Miller, from November, 1832, to April, 1833; and 
attendance with Dr. Lawrie on his daily visits to his patients in 
the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, for a period of three months prior 
to 1st February, 1835. Besides the course of study above indi- 
cated, he attended the lectures of Dr. Brown, Professor of Mid- 
wifery, and served the required time as a dispenser in Dr. 
Forman’s drug-shop in Bell Street. On one of Dr. Graham’s 
certificates it is noted that his student had “pursued the study 
of chemistry with unremitting assiduity,” but the others contain 
