BIOGRAPHICAL. xli 
bring home occasionally huge bundles of plants, and, 
sad to say, have only time to press a few of them ; 
still, what a luxury to a lover of such.” These quota- 
tions show that here is a keen observer of Nature, a 
man with an insatiable love of flowers occupying 
every spare moment in pursuit of his hobbies, until at 
last the strain of confinement, intensified perhaps by 
uncongenial occupation, saps the health, and the need 
is felt for change and rest. Mr Heddle returned to 
his native heaths and sea-girt islands, hoping their 
bracing airs would restore his health, but all in vain. 
He died in Kirkwall on 28th August 1860, at the 
early age of 33 years, and was buried in St Magnus 
Churchyard. He left a widow and one son. Mrs 
Heddle subsequently married Mr John Bruce, Sheriff- 
Clerk, Kirkwall. This biographical sketch of the life 
of Mr Robert Heddle is the story of one who was not 
permitted to outlive the day’s labour, but fell tired 
and wounded on the battlefield. There was for him 
no time of pleasant retirement to look back on the 
strivines of youth, the struggles and victories and 
defeats of maturity, to count up the gains and losses 
and reject the wrong and confirm the right. In the 
full tide of his career, in the full tide of his intellectual 
strength, with more apparently in front of him than 
behind him, he was laid low. 
ALEXANDER RUSSELL DuGutp, M.D. 
Dr Duguid was born at Borrowstounness, or 
Bo'ness, Linlithgowshire, in the year 1798, and was 
the youngest son of the family. Shortly after his 
birth his father, the Rev. John Duguid, was Sai 
