Obituary Notice of Dr Heddle. 71 



at this stage of his career that he seems to have begun to 

 develop that propensity for collecting which became his 

 most dominant characteristic in after life. He began, it is 

 said, by collecting shells ; and in the end he acquired, by 

 this means, no inconsiderable knowledge of conchology. 

 He also got together the materials for a good herbarium. 

 It was an incident connected with this latter which deter- 

 mined in what direction his collecting instincts should lead 

 him in after life. It is said that he had one day lent this 

 herbarium to a friend, who, by an unfortunate accident 

 while out driving, dropped the herbarium while he was 

 crossing a stream, whereby the results of several years' 

 work were utterly ruined. Heddle made up his mind, 

 after this untoward accident, to collect no more things 

 which could be so easily destroyed, and then straightway 

 began to collect stones in their stead. The commencement 

 of his geognostical work may be said to have dated from 

 the period when that resolve was made. 



About this time he entered as a medical student at the 

 University of Edinburgh, and underwent that course of 

 training which has always constituted one of the very best 

 possible foundations for scientific work of almost any kind. 

 At the conclusion of his medical course, he went to Germany 

 to study Chemistry and Mineralogy, going first to Clausthal 

 and then to Freiburg. Eegarding Heddle in after-life as a 

 geognoser, one cannot fail to perceive how the influence of 

 the particular kind of teaching imparted to him at these 

 seats of learning pervades much of what he thought and 

 wrote. He returned to Edinburgh, and graduated as M.D. 

 in 1851, taking as his graduation thesis " The Ores of the 

 Metals." 



Soon after taking his medical degree, he commenced 

 practice in Edinburgh, somewhere in the neighbourhood 

 of the Grassmarket. His reminiscences of this part of his 

 life do not appear to have been altogether pleasant, and who 

 that knows the neighbourhood and the people can wonder 

 at that ? The dismal and squalid nature of his surroundings, 

 the low intellectual grade of the people amongst whom his 

 lot, for the time being, was cast ; the absence of any prospect 



