26 DR. ROBERT KNOX. 



known in Britain. A scholar and a man of great 

 ability, lie possessed a self-reliance that never failed 

 him in the lecture-room, within the hall of his 

 college, or the inner circle of the Koyal Society. 

 Anatomy lost its repulsive character to the student, 

 looking at Knox's masterly attitudes — so effective, 

 graceful, and inimitable — and listening to his graphic 

 descriptions and narrative, in which the historical was 

 blended with the figurative and sensational. Knox 

 in his lecture-room carried all before him : his 

 voice, now gentle as a zephyr, or evenly melodious, 

 occasionly rose with characteristic force, to barb the 

 cynical shaft, to heighten the historical figure, or 

 to fan the professional ardour of his class. His 

 wit was keen, flashing, and incisive, highly amusing 

 to the listener, and oft withering to the object of 

 his causticity. As a teacher inspiring youths with 

 a love of biology, he had no rival, nor was he less 

 grand in discomfiting the charlatanisms, the royal 

 roads, and trade-following of physic. Pertinent in 

 description, and ever rich in illustration and critical 

 acumen, Knox revelled in variety of work, from 

 the examination of a tissue to the broadest general- 

 izations and occasionally became prophetic of types 

 and homologates.* If his lectures did not fathom all, 



* Whilst Dr. Knox and the writer (Nov. 1840) were arranging a series 

 of humeri for lecture, a marked point of bone at the lower third of the 

 inner surface of one of the specimens was observed, and, on further examina- 

 tion of the entire collection, other humeri presented more or less of a bony- 

 eminence, not, however, of such a character as to attract attention. After 

 some thought, Knox said — "This is a rudimentary structure, Dr. Lonsdale, 

 and rest assured you will some day find in man a supra-condyloid foramen 



