476 SIMSON. 



right by presenting Carstairs to them. The grandson, 

 Robert, is said to have been the eldest of seventeen 

 children; and the estate of Kirton Hill, which had 

 been in the family for several generations, being incon- 

 siderable, it was necessary for him, as well as his 

 brothers, to be placed in some profession. The asser- 

 tion is made in one account, written by a son of 

 Professor Millar, and is likely to be correct, that 

 he was intended for the medical profession, and 

 being sent to Ley den studied under Boerhaave. He 

 appears to have been at first intended for the Church, 

 and to have changed his plan. Dr. Traill, however, 

 says, that he was always intended for the Church, and 

 that when the University of St. Andrew's in 1746 

 wished to confer on him a degree, they made him a 

 Doctor of Medicine, because he had studied botany in 

 his youth. Nothing can be more improbable than 

 this story ; for to give him a degree they had only to 

 make him Doctor of Laws, instead of taking a step 

 which for ever threw discredit upon their medical 

 honours. Mr. Millar must have heard the truth from 

 his father and the other professors, who had the 

 honour of knowing Dr. Simson personally, and never 

 could have imagined or invented the circumstance of 

 his studying under Boerhaave.* 



Of his early years we know little ; but that he was 

 always extremely fond of reading is certain ; and he 



* The account which I have seen was in the late Earl of Buchan's 

 possession, and was extended by matters collected when he himself 

 studied at Glasgow. It seems by the mathematical appearance of it 

 to have come from James Millar, himself one of the Professors. 



