242 Eminent Living Geologists — Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S. 



shells. Here his interest was vastly aroused by the fossils which the 

 good lady had for sale, and as soon as possible he procured a copy of 

 Page's "Introductory Textbook of Geology", borrowed a copy of 

 McLaren's "Geology of Fife and the Lothians ", and armed with 

 a hammer set out on Saturdays and holidays to teach himself field 

 geology as well as to collect all the fossils he could come across. 



When hammering one day among the ironstone nodules contained in 

 the Lower Carboniferous shales deposited on the shore at Wardie, near 

 Edinburgh, he came on a portion of a Palaeoniscid fish, a wonderful 

 find(!), though the bones of the head were much crushed and broken, 

 but this only stimulated all the more his curiosity to know how they 

 were conformed and arranged. Impelled by this desire for knowledge, 

 he diligently searched for more specimens, but though better ones did 

 turn up, the craniological problem remained unsolved, and he was 

 content to wait for the time when as a University student he would 

 have access to Agassiz's great work, of which he had already heard, 

 and from which he expected all the enlightenment which he craved. 

 He was blissfully ignorant of the fact that the knowledge of the 

 cranial osteology of fossil fishes was as yet only in its infancy. 



As he was approaching the age of 17, the time for the choice 

 of a profession had arrived. He had for years cherished the idea of 

 devoting his life to research in the field of natural history, but as it 

 was necessary to have some means of living to fall back on, he chose 

 medicine as offering likewise an admirable training in biological 

 science. Indeed, at that time the doctorate of Medicine was the 

 only University degree in Scotland which testified to such a training. 

 Accordingly, in November, 1857, having passed his preliminary 

 examination, he entered the University of Edinburgh as a student in 

 the Faculty of Medicine. The first thing he did on finding himself 

 entitled to the privileges of a " Civis Academise Edinensis Jacobi 

 Sexti " was to rush to the library and demand a sight of Agassiz's 

 " Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles", but, alas! he did not find 

 there the much desired light on the cranial structure of Carboniferous 

 fishes. That was evidently a subject for future research. 



During the next five years Dr. Traquair applied himself to his 

 medical studies and stood well in his classes, although he had 

 resolved not to go in for practice if he could find an opening in the 

 direction of pure science. His favourite subjects were anatomy and 

 zoology, and in holiday time he continued to collect fossils, paying of 

 course especial attention to those of a fishy description. The skill 

 which he acquired in the art of dissection brought him under the 

 notice of the Professor of that subject, the eminent John Goodsir, by 

 whose advice he took up the subject of the Asymmetry of the Flat- 

 fishes for his thesis, for which on Graduation Day, August, 1862, 

 he was awarded a gold medal by the Faculty of Medicine. 



In 1862-3 Dr. Traquair acted as Prosector to Professor Goodsir, 

 and was employed in making comparative anatomical preparations. 

 From 1863 to 1866 he was Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University 

 of Edinburgh under Professor Goodsir, and he published his thesis on 

 the Asymmetry of the Flatfishes in the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society in 1866. In the latter year he was appointed Professor of 



