1824-33 ' THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY 5 27 



interest nor yet sufficiently up to date. So Owen 

 was constrained to attend the outside course given 

 by Dr. Barclay on Practical Anatomy and Anatomy 

 and Surgery. Though this was an extra which he 

 could ill afford, still he never regretted it, for of all 

 his teachers at Edinburgh it was to John Barclay 

 that he owed the most. Many times has Owen 

 spoken of the influence that John Barclay had on 

 his early career, and the sincere affection with which 

 he inspired him. In the early part of Owen's 

 residence in Edinburgh, he and Gavin Milroy 

 founded a students' society, which was called, 

 at Owen's suggestion, ' The Hunterian Society.' 

 Little did he think how closely connected he 

 was afterwards to become with John Hunter's 

 work. This society was apparently in existence 

 for some twenty-five or thirty years afterwards, 

 but is now extinct. The University Professors 

 allowed the students the use of one of the college 

 rooms for the meetings of the society. 



Amongst Owen's reminiscences of his student 

 days in Edinburgh was the ceremony connected 

 with the bringing in of the New Year. On New 

 Year's Eve, 1824-25, sallying forth from his 

 lodgings in Nicholson Street, he was met by his 

 friends opposite the Tron Kirk, where they as- 

 sembled to see the New Year in, and to discuss 

 the mysteries of a decoction known as ' Het Pint,' 

 the groundwork of which is understood to be 

 ale (boiled), with an admixture of whisky and 



