31 
of Edinburgh, Session 1862 - 63 . 
at. Kirkwall, in Orkney, of which place his father was minister. 
Throughout his life he retained a most affectionate interest in his 
native islands. “ He was,” as we read in a contemporary notice, 
“ Orcadiensihus orcadiensior, and his face lighted up, and his hand 
gave an extra grip, when he met with a man whose young eyes had 
seen the Old Man of Hoy, and who had heard the roar of the Pent- 
land Firth from the south.” 
He graduated in medicine in the University of Edinburgh in 
1802, where he had been the fellow-student of Lord Hrougham, 
Sir David Brewster, Principal Lee, and other eminent persons. 
He is believed to have settled in Liverpool in ISOl, where he con- 
stantly resided as a physician in good practice until 1832. He 
was highly esteemed, professionally and personally, in that great 
mercantile city, and formed intimate friendships with its leading 
men. He promoted warmly the societies founded there for the 
diffusion of literature and science, especially the Koyal Institution 
of Liverpool, of which he was one of the founders and the first 
secretary. He maintained throughout life an intimacy with Lord 
Brougham, having a common interest with him in many philan- 
thropic objects. In 1832, he was appointed to the Chair of Medical 
Jurisprudence in this University, which he filled until his death 
thirty years later. He took great pleasure in lecturing. Chemistry, 
mineralogy, and meteorology, were his favourite sciences. In 1804, 
he delivered a popular course on chemistry for a benevolent object 
in Kirkwall. This is said to have been the first course of the kind 
given in Scotland. He lectured frequently in Liverpool; and 
after he became a professor in Edinburgh, he not only delivered 
his own course of lectures, but also repeatedly that of Professor 
Jameson on natural history ; and once at least he lectured for a 
session in the chemical class, during Dr Hope’s decline. 
He was a diligent attender on this Society, and for many years 
curator of the library, with a seat in the Council. He contributed 
a great many papers to our Proceedings, and some are printed in 
the Transactions.* They are not always of an important class, 
but are of a kind very serviceable in promoting the interest of 
^ In volume ix., “ Account of a Mineral from Orkney,” and “ Electro- 
magnetic Observations and Experiments.” Vol. xiv., “ On a New Writing 
Ink.” Vol. XV., “On Fossil Fishes found in the New Ked Sandstone of 
