282 Ohitnary Notice. 



mot, liowover, men of very varied opinions at his hospital board, 

 and on rare occasions some of the more advanced (I would call it 

 retrograde school) so far forget themselves, foolishly estimating 

 their knowledge on all subjects by their acknowledged attainments 

 in science, as to assail the impregnable fortress of our Christian 

 beliefs, whose bulwarks are surely founded on historic events, the 

 truth of whicli cannot be gainsaid. On such occasions Sir Wyville 

 never by word or assent gave countenance to such assaults." 



Obituary Notice of Professor George Stoddart Blackie, M.I). 

 By John Sibbald, M.D., F.E.S.E. 



(Read 9th Februcary 1882.) 



Dr Br^ACKiE was born on the 10th of April 1834 in 

 Aberdeen. He was one of a family of fifteen children, 

 five of whom survive. One of these, a half brother to the 

 subject of this notice, is the distinguished Professor of 

 Greek in Edinburgh University. 



Dr Blackie studied medicine in Edinburgh University, 

 and received the degree of M.D. in 1855, distinguishing 

 himself at the time by taking one of the gold medals 

 awarded to the best theses. At the commencement of his 

 curriculum he showed a fondness for botanical studies, 

 and gained the gold medal for the best herbarium in 

 Professor Balfour's class in 1850, when he was only sixteen 

 years of age. 



In 1851 he spent the summer in Bonn on the Rhine, 

 and there he prepared a catalogue of flowering plants and 

 ferns observed within fifteen miles of that town, during the 

 months of May, June, and July. 



He was elected a Fellow of this Society in June 1851, 

 and during the time he was resident in Edinburgh he was 

 one of the most active of our members. In 1851 he read 

 a paper on " The Discovery of Saxifraga nirmihis.^ near 

 Walston, Lanarkshire," one on " A List of Plants found in 

 Peeblesshire," and a third on " The Flora of the Ehine." 

 This tour was undertaken during the summer of 1853. 

 I had spent some weeks with Dr Blackie in Bonn, and 

 afterwards we made a tour of two months' duration, chiefly 

 pedestrian, through South Germany and Switzerland. 

 ]\Iuch of the advantage that I reaped from that tour was 

 due to Dr Blackie's mastery over the German language, 



