of Edmhurgli, Session 1865 - 66 . 481 
Le discharged with great ability, till his death, which took place 
suddenly, at Caen in Normandy, on 22d September 1865. 
Thomas Herbert Barker, a distinguished member of the British 
Medical Association, was born in 1814. He received his professional 
education at Queen’s College, Birmingham, and at University Col- 
lege, London. He was licensed by the Apothecary’s Company in 
1827, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 
1842, and a Fellow of the same body in 1851. Although he 
obtained great distinction in the different departments of his pro- 
fession, yet his reputation mainly rests upon his investigation of 
the cause of epidemic and endemic diseases. 
In 1858, the Fothergill Gold Medal was awarded to him for his 
essay on Malaria and Miasmata, which was published in 1862, and 
in the course of last summer he received from the British Medical 
Association the Hastings Gold Medal for his essay on Deodorisation 
and Disinfection. Dr Barker is also the author of a valuable work 
on the “ Hygienic Management of Infants and Children,” and of 
various articles in the medical journals. He died at Bedford of a 
severe attack of typhoid fever on the 24th October 1865. 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun was born in June 1813. His 
father, who was an eminent writer to the Signet, died when his son 
was comparatively young. After receiving his elementary education 
at the Edinburgh Academy, he went through the usual curriculum 
of study at the University of Edinburgh, which he w'as destined 
afterwards to adorn. At the end of his course he went to Germany, 
where he acquired that knowledge of its literature which is so con- 
spicuous in his writings. On his return to Scotland he passed as a 
writer to the Signet, but disliking the profession, he was called to the 
Scottish Bar in 1840, and practised for some time in criminal cases 
on the western circuit. His time, however, was devoted principally 
to literature, and, with some exceptions, his earliest productions 
were contributed to Tait’s Magazine, where, in conjunction with 
his friend Mr Theodore Martin, he began his celebrated Bon- 
Gualtier Ballads, which have gone through many editions. In 
1832 Mr Aytoun published his first separate w'ork entitled “ Poiand, 
Homer, and otlier Poems.” In 1833 he made the first contributions 
3 R 
VOL. V. 
