100 DR seller's memoir OF THE 



But if the sum of Whytt's doctrine be that an impression conveyed by nerves 

 to the central nervous organs excite involuntary animal movements, by a physi- 

 ological necessity, without reason, intention, or consciousness, what is that doc- 

 trine but a comprehensive expression for the reflex action of the spinal cord and 

 brain, if it be not also an approach to the still larger generalization which repre- 

 sents an organic body as consisting essentially of two layers, an outer for the 

 reception of impressions, and an inner for the origination of movement ? " Quod 

 autem est animal id motu cietur interiore et suo,'" is the quotation from Cicero 

 prefixed to Whytt's earlier work on this subject — words which, as used by him, 

 seem to embody the rudiment of this last idea. 



But enough of preface. 



Robert Whytt was born at Edinburgh, September Gth, in the year 1714. 

 His father was Robert Whytt of Bennochy, a member of the Scottish Bar. He 

 was a posthumous child, brought into the world six months after his father's 

 death. He was still under seven years of age when he lost his mother. His 

 mother's name was Murray. She was the daughter of Antony Murray of 

 Woodend, in Perthshire. The Whytts of Bennochy were sprung from an old 

 Fifeshire family, the Whytts of Ma we and Kilmaron. Whytt's father was the 

 grandson of the first possessor of Bennochy. The genealogy of the family is to 

 be found in Burke's " Landed Gentry," under the head " Whyte Melville," for 

 a reason to be afterwards stated. 



At an early age Whytt was sent to the University of St Andrews, where, by 

 his application to stud}^, he appears to have distinguished himself among his 

 fellows. Having obtained the degree of ^Master of Arts at the age of sixteen, 

 he repaired to Edinburgh to engage in the study of medicine. Two years before, 

 by the death of his elder brother, he had succeeded to the family estate. In the 

 year 1730, when he commenced medicine, the ]\Iedical School of the University of 

 Edinburgh was but recently founded. From the j^ear 1720 the first Monro had 

 delivered regular courses of lectures on anatomy to still increasing audiences. 

 Some years before Whytt began his studies, the Town Council of Edinburgh 

 (1726) had commissioned four Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, namely, 

 Rutherford, Sinclair, Plummer, and Innes to teach medicine. Two years 

 earlier, Porterfield had been appointed by the same authority to the Professor- 

 ship of the Institutes and the Practice of Medicine, but it is not certain that he 

 ever delivered lectures. Soon after (1730), the Senatus Academicus recognised 

 five professors as a Medical Faculty. About the same time, the Town Council 

 instituted also a professorship of Midwifery in favour of Mr Joseph Gibson, sur- 

 geon, known as the City Professor. 



Whytt devoted himself in particular to the study of anatomy under Monro. 

 He appears to have spent three or four years in Edinburgh, engaged in the acqui- 

 sition of medical knowledge. 



