MEMOIR OF JOHN BARCLAY. 23 



of his own strength, went steadily forward, cheered 

 and encouraged by the regular if not rapid increase 

 of his class ; nor was it very long till he reaped the 

 reward of his assiduous perseverance. He generally 

 gave two courses, one in the morning and another in 

 the evening, every winter, commencing early in No- 

 vember and concluding in the latter end of April. 



During the summer months, for several years be- 

 fore his death, he also delivered a course of lectures 

 on Comparative Anatomy, a branch of science 

 which he delighted to cultivate, not only as an ob- 

 ject of curious research, but of real practical utility, 

 and a branch of liberal education of high importance 

 to men of various professional descriptions to all be- 

 longing to the medical profession, whether surgeons 

 or physicians to all naturalists, whose taste may 

 incline them to the study of Zoology to all who are 

 concerned in the health and preservation of valuable 

 animals to the lawyer who attends to the nature of 

 evidence in criminal trials to the moralist and logi- 

 cian, who view the faculties of the mind in the ab- 

 stract, without reflecting upon the powerful re-action 

 of the organs by which it operates, and by which it 

 is often operated upon to the physico-theologist, 

 who is anxious to witness the strongest proofs that 

 are furnished by the works of nature of the exist- 

 ence and power of the Deity, of his omniscience, 

 his omnipresence, his varied operations, and his uni- 

 versal superintendence and lastly, to the inquisitive 

 geologist, who delights in tracing the great physical 

 revolutions of the globe, by studying the fossil re- 



