164 



NA 1 URE 



[August 5, 1909 



the age of fourteen, to the University of Edinburgh. 

 In 1824 he entered for the classes of humanity and 

 Greek; in that year "Richard Owen, Lancaster," 

 was a fellow-student. In 1.S25 Reid " signed on " 

 for the class of chemistry, and thus entered the faculty 

 of medicine; two years later, "James Simpson, Lin- 

 lithgowshire," did the same thing. In 1825 the third 

 Munro was in the chair of anatomy, which he was 

 to occupy for forty-eight years, and William Pulteney 

 .'\lison in that of the " Institutes of Medicine," a 

 subject he taught from 1821-42. From the former, 

 Reid got the least, from the latter the most, inspira- 

 tion which as a student he received from his 

 teachers. 



Early in his studies, Reid showed a preference for 

 anatomy and physiology, and as these formed part 

 of the one and " final " examination for the degree of 

 M.D. (there being no M.B.), Reid dissected from the 

 beginning to the end of his student days. He gradu- 

 ated on August 7, 1830, his Latin thesis being " Dc 

 aneurismate." 



Reid was, therefore, dissecting during 1827 and 

 3828, the very 3'ears in which the Burke and Hare 

 murders were committed. It is believed that " the 

 rooms " both at the University and at Dr. Knox's 

 (Surgeons' Hall) were supplied by the miscreants 

 just named. 



His parents had hoped that Reid would study for 

 the Church of Scotland ; after having graduated, he 

 himself thought of a surgeonship in the Royal Navy ; 

 but neither the Church nor the Navy was to have 

 him whom Science had marked for her own. 



Early in 1833 Reid received an invitation from Dr. 

 Knox to become his assistant at Surgeons' Hall, so 

 large had the classes there become. Prof. Monro's 

 dullness had driven the majority of the students over 

 to Knox's rooms. For three years Reid demonstrated 

 for Knox, and so laid for his subsequent physiological 

 researches that surest of all foundations — a sound 

 knowledge of human anatomy. For the session 

 1835-36, John Reid was one, and J. Y. Sirfipson was 

 the other, of the presidents of the Royal Medical 

 Society, which presidentship has always been regarded 

 as the " blue ribbon " of the Edinburgh Medical 

 Societies. 



Towards the end of 1836, Reid received a most 

 gratifying invitation to succeed Dr. Fletcher, lately 

 deceased, as extra-academical lecturer in physiology. 

 The requisition was signed by no fewer than eighty- 

 si.\ persons, one of them being later the well-known 

 writer on physiology, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, of 

 London L'niversity. They asked him to accept the 

 lectureship, for, by so doing, they said, he would 

 " increase the reputation of this city as a school of 

 medicine." "The zeal and success with which you 

 have hitherto prosecuted ])hysiological investigations 

 being already well known to the public." Reid 

 replied to this flattering invitation in the most modest 

 way, and immediately consulted Prof. Alison. Alison 

 not onlv advised him to take the step suggested to 

 him, which virtually transformed Reid into Alison's 

 own rival, but he proposed him for the Fellowship of 

 the Roval College of Physicians of Edinburgh, into 

 which learned body he was admitted on October 4, 

 1S36. 



During 1835 and 1836 Dr. Reid published papers 

 upon obliteration of the vena cava superior at its 

 entrance into the heart; phlebolites; peculiarities of 

 the foetal circulation ; monsters ; mesenteric glands in 

 the whale; transposition of abdominal viscera; veni- 

 section relieving the heart ; and the anatomy and 

 phvsiology of the heart. 



During the next two years Reid carried out the 

 nnost important of his experimental researches — 



NO. 2075, VOL. 81] 



namely, that into the functions of the ninth, tenth, 

 and eleventh pairs of nerves. Hughes Bennett tells 

 us in his " Memoir " that between 1836 and 1838 he 

 performed upwards of one hundred experiments on 

 animals in order to unravel the functions of the so- 

 called " eighth pair of nerves." A copy of this paper 

 lies before me ; it extends to sixty-two octavo pages, 

 and consists of a thorough investigation into the 

 activities of the glossopharyngeal, the pneumogastric, 

 and the spinal accessory nerves. After giving a full 

 account of the French, German, and Italian 

 literature accessible to him, he details the experimental 

 procedures employed to arrive at an understanding 

 of the functions of the many branches of these three 

 great nerve-svstems. When we consider the technical 

 difficulties under which he worked, having no stimu- 

 lus more satisfactory than the galvanic current cr 

 chemical or mechanical irritation, no anesthetics other 

 than prussic acid and morphia, and the knowledge of 

 no procedures known as antiseptic, we are amazed 

 that he discovered so much and of so elusive a char- ■ 

 acter. This work on the nerves was his magnum ' 

 opus, probablv the last important piece of work in 

 physiology anterior to the introduction of the stimulus 

 of the "Interrupted current " from the laboratories of 

 GermanN'. It is curious to notice the absence of 

 tracings in the paper ; Reid was the last pre-graphic 

 physiologist in Scotland. Amongst other things long 

 since fullv corroborated, Reid showed that the hearl 

 had the double innervation through the vagi and the 

 sympathetic. He came within a very little of dis- 

 covering the cardio-inhibitory functions of the vagus. 

 The memoir was published in full in the Edinburf^Ii 

 Medical and Surgical Journal (No. 139), but an 

 epitome of it had been read at the Liverpool meeting 

 of the B.A. in 1837. 



One or two paragraphs from this admirable paper 

 are worth quoting in the light of to-day : — " It may 

 appear to some that I have repeated many of these 

 ' experiments with unnecessary frequency and a wanton 

 ! sacrifice of animals, but I naturally felt ditTidence and 

 distrust in the accuracy of the results I obtained when 

 opposed to those of more experienced observers, and 

 it was only after repeated and careful examination 

 of the phenomena that I could feel myself justified 

 in calling these in question. It is also sufficiently 

 obvious that nothing is more injurious to the progress 

 of science than hasty and partial observations, and I 

 was anxious to avoid . . . adding to that mass of 

 conflicting evidence which there is already so much 

 reason to deplore." 



" It is obvious that, without the aid of active and 

 intelligent assistants, it would have been perfectly 

 impossible to have proceeded with such an investiga- 

 tion." 



It is interesting to us to be told that one of these 

 assistants was Sharpev. 



Had Reid lived only a little longer, so as to have 

 used the DuBois' Inductorium, he would unquestion- 

 ably have discovered much more; the pity was, he 

 had to cease working "in the rich dawn," physio- 

 logically speaking, " of an ampler day." 



In 183S he was appointed pathologist to the Edin- 

 burgh Royal Infirmary, and a year later super- 

 intendent of the Pathological Department. .As 

 the result of his observations at this time, 

 he compiled " Tables of the Weichts of some 

 of the most important Organs of the Body at different 

 Periods of Life " (published 1S43). In 1839 he 

 brought out a paper, " On the Effect of Lesion of the 

 Trunk of the Ganglionic System of Nerves in the 

 Neck on the Eyeball." 



Dr. Reid had unsuccessfullv contes ed first the chair 

 of medicine, and later the chair of anatomy in the 



