iv Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



place in the scale of plant life, experiencing also that peculiar pleasure 

 which the field botanist knows when he comes upon a rare wild flower 

 or one growing in unsuspected localities. In such surroundings were slowly 

 forged the links which were to bind him to the study of living phenomena, 

 and make him regard both pathological and physiological phenomena from 

 a biological standpoint. There is little doubt that, with his inclinations, 

 temperament and powers of observation, he possessed gifts which might have 

 made him a great naturalist. 



His father may have recognised the significance of these features of his 

 son's character, as he undoubtedly recognised his ability, but the fame of the 

 boy's great-uncles, Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, inclined him to believe that 

 a legal training would give the lad the best opportunity for their display. 



An event, however, occurred which fixed the boy's own ideas as to his 

 future. Dr. Mortimer Glover, of Newcastle, came to Otterburn to attend 

 the elder brother, who was dangerously ill. Dr. Glover was an exceedingly 

 able man, with a vivid sense of the great possibilities of his profession; 

 he was at the time occupied in the experimental investigation of chloroform, 

 and continued this work in his spare time at Otterburn. There is little 

 doubt that he recognised young Burdon-Sanderson's intelligent interest in 

 biological subjects, and that this friendship suggested to the boy the career 

 of his life. 



When Mr. Burdon-Sanderson discovered that his son's desire was to enter 

 the medical profession, he wisely gave up his own views as to his future, and 

 sent him in 1847 to Edinburgh, where he remained for about four years, 

 taking the degree of M.D. in 1851, and obtaining the Gold Medal. Edinburgh 

 was at this time the chief medical school in the United Kingdom, and the 

 teaching staff comprised men of very great distinction ; two of these seem 

 to have exercised a particular influence upon young Burdon-Sanderson, 

 Goodsir, then Professor of Anatomy, and Hughes Bennett, the Professor 

 of Physiology; this was especially the case in regard to Bennett, who 

 turned his thoughts and efforts towards the scientific and experimental 

 side of medical science. It is somewhat remarkable that his earliest scientific 

 investigations should have been related to subjects which were to employ 

 for many years his mature powers. 



In the Journal of the Eoyal Medical Society (a gathering of Edinburgh 

 students for the discussion of scientific subjects) an entry occurs which states 

 that, in 1850, a dissertation was read by John Scott Sanderson, of Newcastle, 

 on " Vegetable Irritability." In the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medicine 

 of 1851 there is an extensive criticism by John Scott Sanderson of the 

 views held as to the metamorphosis of the red blood corpuscles ; the 

 criticism is founded on numerous experimental observations made by 

 the author upon the blood of the spleen and other organs ; from the title 

 page of this paper, it seems that he was at this time Vice-President of the 

 Physiological Society of Edinburgh. 



It thus appears that, at the age of twenty-three or twenty-four, he had 



