XV 



afterwards the public mind continued to be excited by the recollec- 

 tion of tragedies unprecedented in the history of mankind, and which 

 scarcely subsided even with the passing of Warburton's ' ; Anatomy 

 Act " in 1832, which made it possible to obtain and dissect the 

 human body in a legal way. In the University of Edinburgh, the 

 third Monro filled the Chair of Anatomy, himself a good anatomist 

 of the old school, who looked upon the new teachers with an easy 

 disregard. But while Sharpey and Allen Thomson's class between 

 1831 to 1836 had increased from twenty-two to eighty-eight, the 

 majority of the students nocked to the brilliant but egotistical 

 lectures of the famous Robert Knox, who in one year about this time 

 had an extra-mural class of over 500 students. With unscrupulous 

 virulence he brought his powers of ridicule and sarcasm to bear on 

 all opponents, so that Allen Thomson and Sharpey came in for their 

 full share.* About this time also a number of men who afterwards 

 became famous were either students or extra-mural teachers, so that 

 there was the keen contest of able intellects, and the rivalry of a 

 noble ambition — the names of John Reid, Martin Barry, the two 

 Goodsirs (John and Henry), Edward Forbes, W. B. Carpenter, John 

 Hughes Bennett, are names which became distinguished in biological 

 science; and in such an atmosphere of thought it is no wonder 

 that Allen Thomson was encouraged to prosecute a purely scientific 

 career, f 



All are gone ; none now remain, and the melancholy death of Dr. 

 Carpenter in 1885 severed the last link which connected them with 

 what was undoubtedly " a brilliant epoch in the history of the Edin- 

 burgh Medical School." 



In L833, Dr. Allen Thomson travelled with his father on the Conti- 

 nent for nearly three months, visiting the principal medical schools in 

 Holland, Germany, Italy, and France. It is interesting to find in 

 Dr. Allen Thomson's brief journal of his travels, now before the 

 writer, such entries regarding museum specimens as he saw might 

 be useful for teaching purposes. In these notes he frequently makes 

 a special memorandum of the preparations which should be made 

 for the use of his class when he had the chance of doing so on his 

 return to Edinburgh. He gives an amusing account of his journey 

 to London by sea in those days. Embarking on board the " Soho," 

 from Newhaven, on the afternoon of Saturday, 6th July, 1833, after 

 two days' sailing he reached Blackwall, whence he drove to London, 

 and " put up at the Burlington Hotel, held by Atkinson Morley, in 

 Cork Street, No. 35." 



* ' Life of Kobert Knox, Anatomist,' by Henry Lonsdale, 1870, p. 2P>2 ; also 

 Memoirs of John G-oodsir,' 1868, vol. i, page 129. 

 f M'Xendrick, he. cit. 



