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DAVID JAMES HAMILTON", 1849—1909. 



After protracted illness, the death of Prof. David James Hamilton, M.B., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., F.E.S.E., F.R.C.S.E., took place at his residence in Aberdeen on 

 February 19, 1909. 



The subject of this memoir was born sixty years ago at Falkirk. He 

 received his medical education at Edinburgh University, from which he 

 graduated as M.B. in 1878. He subsequently held several clinical appoint- 

 ments : two in Edinburgh, where he acted as House Surgeon in the Eoyal 

 Infirmary, then as Resident in' the Chalmers Hospital ; a third in Liverpool, 

 where he held a Resident Surgeoncy in the Northern Hospital. Even at this 

 early period of his career he was strongly attracted towards pathological 

 problems, for the study of which his thorough acquaintance with the 

 physiology of that period formed an all-important basis. This predilection 

 for a branch of medical science at that time much neglected, was happily 

 confirmed when the Triennial Astley Cooper Prize was awarded him for 

 a thesis dealing with " The Diseases and Injuries of the Spinal Cord," in 

 which the result of much careful observation and research was embodied. 



This mark of appreciation effectually determined Hamilton's path in life, 

 and in order to acquaint himself more thoroughly with the thought and 

 technique of other schools, he proceeded to the Continent, visiting Strassburg, 

 Munich, Vienna, and Paris in succession. After thus spending two years in 

 close contact with the leading European pathologists of the time, he returned 

 home in 1875 on his appointment as Assistant to the late Prof. Sanders in 

 Edinburgh University. Somewhat later he became pathologist to the Royal 

 Infirmary, a post which furnished him with ample facilities for the prosecution 

 of observation and research. At this time he organised a course on morbid 

 histology, which was largely attended, mainly by young graduates, who were 

 not slow in recognising the vigour, resource, and thoroughness of their teacher. 



An even wider opportunity for studying the most effective methods of class 

 instruction presented itself in the winter of 1880-1, when, owing to the 

 ill-health of Prof. Sanders, necessitating the appointment of a temporary 

 substitute, Hamilton found himself entrusted with the entire duties — 

 educational and administrative — of the University Pathological Department. 



Before the endowment of the Erasmus Wilson Chair in 1882, the 

 University of Aberdeen had no teacher in pathology apart from the 

 professors of Practice of Medicine and of Surgery, who did what the dis- 

 charge of their more obvious duties permitted to remedy the deficiency. 

 On his election as the first occupant of the Chair of Pathology, Hamilton 

 naturally found that his resources were limited ; it may be said that they 

 were non-existent, for he inherited no department and but the scantiest 

 equipment. But his enthusiasm and determination of purpose, coupled with 

 exceptional physical vigour, fully qualified him to deal with the difficult 

 VOL. lxxxi. — B. a 



