122 DR seller's memoir OF THE 



puted point of science the great Maclauein always appealed to him as to a 

 living library ; and yet so great his modesty, that he spoke to young audiences, 

 upon a subject he was perfectly master of, not without hesitation." Plummer 

 died the year after Cullen was appointed his successor. In 1756, as Dr Ruther- 

 ford's health began to decline, he gave up the chemical lectures, which were 

 then divided between Monro Primus, Whytt, and the new Professor of Chemis- 

 try. In the same year Dr Thomas Young was appointed Professor of Midwifery 

 in the room of Mr Robert Smith, who in 1739 had succeeded Mr Joseph Gibson. 

 Dr Young Avas unquestionably the founder of the celebrity of the Edinburgh 

 School of Midwifery. 



The lectures, with the exception of the lectures on anatomy, were still de- 

 livered in Latin, in which language some of the professors are said to have displayed 

 great excellence. Somerville, in " My Life and Times," bears testimony to the 

 great eloquence in that language of Sinclair, and also of Pringle, when Profes- 

 sor of Moral Philosophy, whose Latin lecture once a week was, he says, much 

 run after. Whytt is also reported to have shone in that language. In 1759, 

 Adam Ferguson became Professor of Natural Philosophy, nor was he appointed 

 Professor of Moral Philosophy till ten years later. In 1760, Blair became Pro- 

 fessor of Rhetoric; in 1761, John Hope was appointed Professor of Botany in 

 the room of Alston, who died at an advanced age in the previous year. In 1762, 

 Robertson, the Historian, was appointed Principal in the room of Goldie, who 

 had succeeded the younger Wishart in 1736. In 1764, Whytt's brother-in- 

 law, James Balfour of Pilrig was appointed Professor of the Law of Nature 

 and Nations; he appears to have held this Professorship along with that 

 of Moral Philosophy for a few years, or until Adajm Ferguson was made Pro- 

 fessor of Moral Philosophy in 1769 ; the other chair he held till 1779, but lived 

 till 1795. 



Whytt's greatest practical work is his book, " On Nervous, Hypochondriac, 

 or Hysteric Diseases, to which are prefixed some remarks on the Sympathy of the 

 Nerves." This work was published first in the year 1764. While it is a practi- 

 cal work of much value, it is at the same time an extension of the views exhibited 

 in the " Essay on Animal Motions," and an able commentary thereon. In the 

 preface to his work he says, " The design of it is to endeavour to wipe ofi" the 

 reproach, that the name nervous has been bestowed by physicians on all those 

 diseases of the nature and causes of which they are ignorant ; and at the same 

 time to show how far the principles laid down in his essay on the vital and 

 other involuntary motions of animals may be of use in explaining the nature of 

 several diseases, and consequently in leading to the most proper method of 

 cure." 



The doctrine of sympathy which he lays down in the preliminary dissertation, 

 " On the Sympathy of Nerves," is a corollary to the conclusions of his work on 



