THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 



PHILOSOPHICAL JOUKNAL, 



Biographical Account of the late William Macgillivray, 

 A.M., LL.D., Regius Professor of Natural History in the 

 Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. Com- 

 municated by Alexander Thomson, Esq. of Banchory, 

 Aberdeen. 



This distinguished naturalist and most worthy man, died 

 at Aberdeen on 5th September last, at the early age of 56. 



He was a native of Old Aberdeen, and studied and took 

 the degree of A.M. in King's College and University. 



Like many of his countrymen, he had a hard struggle 

 through life with the res angusta domi; and it is to his friends, 

 a striking and a remarkable dispensation of Providence, that 

 he has died just at the time when he had all but overcome 

 the difficulties with which he had so long contended, and 

 when he had the prospect before him of more usefulness and 

 greater comfort than he ever had enjoyed before. He was 

 enabled by his steady perseverance as a youth, to procure 

 for himself a sound education ; and the same perseverance 

 enabled him to build his future fame upon the foundation 

 thus acquired. 



After passing through the usual undergraduate curricu- 

 lum, he resolved to study medicine as a profession, and at- 

 tended, withjthis view, the usual medical classes in Aber- 

 deen, studying more especially under the late Dr Barclay, 

 with whom he served a regular apprenticeship. He after- 



VOL. LIV". NO. CVI1I. — APIUL 1853. 



