Aprit 1907.] PATRICK BLAIR, SURGEON APOTHECARY. 265 
LIBRARY BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF St. ANDREWS. 
No.-T. July 1902. Wol Te 
(THE STORY OF A SKELETON.) 
Library Annals. ; 
1707, Jan. 30. The University being met, appointed Mr 
Scrimsour (the receiver of the Library money) to give four 
doliars of the Library money to the Rector, to be given by him 
to Mr Arnot, chirurgeon, for his assisting at the dissection, and 
an extract of this shall be his warrant. 
University Minutes, vol. ii. p. 151. 
1707, Feb. 17. The University appointed Mr Scrimsour to 
advance, out of the Library money, six fourteins shilling pieces, 
for transporting the bones of the scelet to Dundee. 
University Minutes, vol. ii. p. 152. 
1707, May 22. The University being met, and it being pro- 
pos’d that Mr. Blair, having now brought over the sceleton, should 
be pay’d for the same, which was judg’d reasonable, and therefor 
they appointed Mr. Alexander Scrimsour, Library Questor, to 
advance ane hundred merks Scots out of the Library money 
for the said Mr. Blair, his pains and expences for making the said 
skeleton and bringing it over, and three pounds Scots to his 
servant of drink money, and to give out two pounds sixteen 
shillings Scots upon incidental expences, and this act to be his 
warrand., 
University Minutes, vol. ii. p. 156. 
Mr. Maitland Anderson, the St. Andrews University 
Librarian, who drew my attention to this incident, said his 
impression was the “sceleton” was still in the University ; 
but Dr. Jas. Tosh, of the Natural History Department, assures 
me he can find no trace of it, which perhaps is not surprising, 
seeing the bigger preparation has disappeared, not to speak 
of the “ Hall of Rarities” itself.» In the account of the town 
of Dundee, prepared by Dr. Robert Small, the parish minister 
in 1792, for Sinclair’s “ Statistical Account of Scotland,” it is 
stated that the skeleton was in existence a few years before, 
but all search for it has been fruitless. In 1825 a letter of 
inquiry appeared in the “ Dundee Advertiser,” but practically 
there was no answer. except that someone had heard that some 
proverbially thrifty townsman had had the bones ground down 
