34 President's Address. 



He began his medical studies in Aberdeen in May 1846, 

 but soon removed to Edinburgh, and in November of 

 that year we find him a student in our University, where 

 he most successfully prosecuted his studies, carrying off 

 prizes and medals in many classes, and obtaining at the 

 end of his career the gold medal for his Graduation Thesis 

 in 1851. As a student of botany I remember his ardour 

 and devotion to that science, and how he astonished us all 

 in 1848, when he handed in the beautifully and accurately 

 executed dissections of certain natural orders, which now 

 adorn the museum at the Botanic Garden and will hand 

 down his fame as a laborious and able student. I should 

 have mentioned that in the previous year (1847) he 

 obtained three botanical prizes at the University, and was 

 elected a member of our Society. In 1849 he was chosen 

 a member of our Council, when only nineteen, years of 

 age, which shows the high esteem in which he was held 

 as a botanist. In 1848 he contributed a paper to our 

 Society (Dec. 14) " On certain Glandular Bodies occurring 

 in the Epidermis of Plants," and in 1851 he supplied 

 another " On certain Monstrosities of Leontodon taraxacum 

 and Trifolium repens." 



After obtaining his degree he was for a short time 

 Physician to the British Embassy at Turin, and again 

 returned to Edinburgh and acted as resident Physician in 

 the Royal Infirmary, and then passed a few months in the 

 Maternity Hospital here, and thereafter went and studied 

 at Paris. In January 1853 he entered the Honourable 

 East India Company's service, and in the same year was 

 appointed to act as Professor of Chemistry in the Medical 

 College at Calcutta. The whole current of his after life 

 might have been changed, and we might now have been 

 recording his achievements in chemistry and his extension 

 of the boundaries of that science rather than those of 

 medicine, had not some difficulties in regard to the 

 Medical Department in Burmah, where great sickness 

 prevailed, rendered it needful that he should be sent 

 thither, and accordingly in compliance with the call of 

 duty (but much against his own inclination) he left 

 Calcutta ; while in Burmah he was not inactive, but sent 

 valuable papers on the climate and diseases there, which 



