So HISTORY' of the SOCIETK 



sir C AS. Dick, moufly chofen Prefident of the College j and as his fellow- 

 members were fully convinced of his zeal, as well as of his 

 abilities, they afterwards elected him to that office for feven 

 years fucceffively. It was their earned wiih that he fhould have 

 continued flill longer as their head ; but this he positively de- 

 clined, as he thought that he fhould thus deprive other gentle- 

 men of a dignity, to which, from their merit, they were well 

 entitled. But after his refignation of the office of Prefident, 

 his attachment to the College, and his earnefl endeavours to 

 promote its interefl, continued unabated. He not only contri- 

 buted liberally towards the building of a hall for their accom- 

 modation, but flrenuoufly exerted himfelf in promoting every 

 undertaking in which he thought that the honour or interefl 

 of the College was concerned. As a teflimony of the fenfe 

 which his fellow-members entertained of his fervices, a portrait 

 of him was, by their unanimous fuflxages, hung in their hall ; 

 a mark of diftinction which has never been beftowed, either 

 before or fince that time, upon any other member. 



But the College of Phyficians were not the only fet of men 

 who were benefited by his exertions. He was long diflinguifhed 

 as a zealous and active member of the Philofophical Society of 

 Edinburgh. And when they refolved to join their influence as 

 a body, in feconding an application to the Crown from the Uni- 

 verfity, for the eflablifhment of a new Society under Royal 

 patronage, and on a more extended plan, having for its object 

 the cultivation of every branch of fcience, erudition and 

 tafle, he had an active hand in procuring the eflablifhment 

 of this inflitution. And accordingly, when his Majefly was 

 gracioufly pleafed to grant a charter for incorporating the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, the name of Sir Alexander Dick 

 {lands inrolled as one of the firft in the lift. For many years, 

 he difcharged the duties of a faithful and vigilant Manager of 

 the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. It was his conflant endea- 

 vour to render that eflablifhment at once fubfervient to the re- 

 lief 



