THEIR WORTHY SERVICES. 163 



professor of natural history at Gal way), " to whose 

 remarkable combined knowledge of zoology, compara- 

 tive, human, and morbid anatomy, and powers of minute 

 dissection," Goodsir wrote, " I am indebted for a 

 majority of the finest dissections in the series." He 

 concluded this report by saying that if the work was 

 continued with the same energy as it had been during 

 his two years of conservatorship, "the physiological 

 series of the University Museum would be on a level 

 with the Hunterian Galleries, which contain undoubt- 

 edly the most complete series of illustrations of organic 

 structures in Europe." But the limited funds at the 

 disposal of the authorities have prevented the fulfil- 

 ment of these expectations. 



patient of Liston's, and his observations of the -work done in the Surgi- 

 cal Hospital impressed him with a love of anatomy. Engaged by Monro 

 t> rtius as a class-porter about 1830, his usefulness in the rooms, and his per- 

 suasive method with the students, along with a proved ability of knowing how 

 to do things, and how to get them done, gave him great influence, so that 

 from 1836 to 1S4G he was as much a notability as Lis master Monro. He was 

 eiuitinued in office by Goodsir, with whom he remained till his death in 1S60. 

 With an intelligence and shrewdness that amounted to keen diplomacy, and 

 great skill in anatomical work, he also possessed some of the strong lines of 

 character that marked Goodsir, for whom he had an intense admiration. 

 John's long and obliging Bervices gave him authority in the anatomical depart- 

 ment, so thai in the Professor's absence he appeared to the student, as he 

 himself wished, and occasionally claimed to he, the alter ego of Goodsir. As 

 a memento of " Burke the resurrectionist," who was hanged for wholesale 

 murders in Edinburgh, John carried a tobacco-pouch made of the tanned skin 

 of the villain, to show the date of his connection with the Anatomical Room* 

 In afb he could exhibit the gold watch presented to him by his admir- 



ing friend i , rc'iuirinj t props each year, fell Arthur's death 



very much in 1860. Mr. Stirling, who had been engaged by Goodsir in I 



i,i in the con hip of the Museum, soon got into the Pro- 



it's way, and was \< i y highly esteemed by him ; he is now engaged with 

 lY'h ssor Turner, and reat skill in the preparations of n< i 



structures, as well as in other departments of anatomical work. 



