522 Obituary Notices. [sess. lih. 



ing the Herbarium, became so impressed by the richness, 

 completeness, and taste of the collection as to form a decided 

 opinion that Percy might have gained as great ^dat in 

 this favourite study of his youth, as he subsec^viently did in 

 the special branch entered during manhood. 



Percy was the son of a Nottingham solicitor, and was 

 born in 1817. When in Edinburgh, where he took his 

 degree of M.D., he was a favourite pupil of Sir Charles Bell. 

 He settled for some years as a physician in Birmingham, the 

 while pursuing toxicological and chemico-biological research. 

 In 1851, at the rec[uest of Sir Henry de la Beche, Percy 

 forsook his medical practice to become the first occupant of 

 the Chair of Metallurgy in the newly founded School of 

 Mines. How his name became associated with the rise of 

 this " Age of Steel," how far his researches during the last 

 twenty-eight years led on that surprising advance in engineer- 

 ing so peculiar to this age, is not the province of this notice 

 to narrate. But to the last Percy was regarded as a many- 

 sided man of general culture, as well as the leader in his 

 own specialty, of which his great work. On Metallurgy, will 

 be the literary monument. 



John Percy joined us in 1837, becoming a Non-Eesident 

 Fellow in 1840. He died in June 1889. 



James Smith CiaciiTON, ]\I.D., Arbroatli. By George Bell. 



(Read 14th March 1889.) 



Dr Cricbton, who was elected a liesident Fellow of this 

 Society so recently as 9tli December 1886, was the second 

 son of the late llev. I)r Cricbton, long the revered pastor 

 of Free Inverbrothock (Jhurch, Arbroath. He was born at 

 Cayfield, Arbroath, on 2nd April 1841. He received his early 

 education in his native town, and preparatory to entering on 

 the medical curriculum at Edinburgh University, served an 

 apprenticeship with a local chemist. He passed through his 

 classes with distinction, graduated in 1864, and commenced 

 the active work of his profession as assistant to a doctor in 

 Burnl(;y. He did not stay long there, but returned to 

 Arbroath as coadjutor to iJr Key, who eventually removed 

 to Montrose, where he still practises. After Dr Key left, 

 L>r Cricbton succeeded to his practice. 



