16 "can this be our jock?" 



abilities to engineering work or the construction of 

 mechanical apparatus. With the aid of a school- 

 fellow he got up a turning-lathe ; he also studied 

 the steam-engine, and made experiments in chem- 

 istry. In May 1829 he heard a lecture of Professor 

 Christison's in Edinburgh, which gave fresh zest to 

 his efforts in chemical manipulation and inquiries. 

 His desire to work by himself created enemies among 

 his school-fellows ; and his younger brothers, excluded 

 from the improvised laboratory, vented their anger 

 in the same vernacular form as Dr. Cullen's famous 

 "Can this be our Jock?""" — by calling from the 

 outside, " Mathematical-Chemical Jock !" The young 

 chemist had ample reward for his industry, and for- 

 got all the taunts of his companions when Professor 

 Syme, called to a patient of his father's at Anster, 

 and seeing the lad John handling some calculi, 

 asked him their nature, and being told correctly, 

 bestowed no small amount of commendation on his 

 chemical skill — a pleasant episode in his juvenile 

 history that was never effaced from his mind. 



Anstruther, like all sea-side places, afforded play 

 to the playful, and much of an interesting nature to 

 observing lads. Of the numerous belongings there 



* Dr. John Brown, the assistant of the famous Cullen of Edinburgh, feel- 

 ing himself aggrieved by the Professor's treatment, sought a Mastership in the 

 High School of the city. Cullen heard of this, and vented his indignation by 

 asking those who spoke of Brown's application "Can this be our Jock?" 

 Brown took his revenge and wrote Elementa medicincc hoping to crush 

 Cullen's theory of physic ; but "the Brunonian system," as Brown's views 

 were termed, though favoured in Germany and Italy, gained small ground in 

 Britain. 



