SIR ERASMUS WILSON CHAIR OF PATHOLOGY xxiii. 



the approval and assent of the above, he had pleasure in 

 informing the Senatus that he was willing to give this sum to 

 found the much needed professorship. He further added that 

 he gave the money ** as an expression of my regard for the 

 institution in which my father — a native of Aberdeen — received 

 his medical education, and as a recognition of the honour 

 which the University has been pleased to confer on me by 

 granting me the distinguished degree of LL.D." 



The first Professor appointed to the Chair was its present 

 occupant, Professor D. J. Hamilton. After several years 

 occupied in Hospital practice in Scotland and England he 

 gained the Sir Astley Cooper triennial prize of ;^300 for an 

 essay on The Diseases and Injuries of the Spinal Cord, and 

 thereafter resolved to devote his life to the subject of Pathology, 

 although at that time there was but little promise of an opening 

 in this Department of Medicine anywhere in Great Britain. 

 With this view he proceeded abroad, and had the opportunity of 

 studying with some of the most renowned pathologists of the 

 day in Germany and France. He remembers seeing the 

 venerable Rokitansky, the father of Pathology, sitting day by 

 day in the post-mortem theatre of the Vienna Allgemeines 

 Krankenhaus. He worked with Strieker for a winter upon 

 experimental inflammation, and with Schenck on embryology, 

 afterwards in Strassburg with von Recklinghausen, Waldeyer, 

 Hoppe-Seyler and others, and subsequently with Virchow, 

 Koch, and Pasteur. 



He was thus enabled to adopt a system of teaching gleaned 

 from the best models of the time, and to adjust this to the 

 requirements of our own country. 



On returning from the continent he was appointed Demon- 

 strator of Pathology in the University of Edinburgh under the 

 late Professor Sanders. This post he held for seven years 

 before being advanced to the Chair in Aberdeen. While 



