2 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Monday , §th December 1869. 
The Hon. Lord Neaves, Vice-President, read the 
following Address : — 
I have been deputed by your President to address you to-night 
from this chair, and so to attempt a task which would have been 
much better performed by one who possesses all the requisite 
scientific acquirements which I want, and without which, I fear, 
justice can only be imperfectly done to the work which I have 
undertaken. 
It is usual at this meeting to give some notice of those of our 
Members who have died during the preceding year, and the list on 
this occasion contains so many, and some of them such distin- 
guished names, that it will leave me no space for touching on other 
topics. 
I cannot mention the name of Dr James Begbie to an audience 
like the present without feeling that it recalls to them pleasing 
remembrances and painful regrets connected with one who was so 
highly esteemed among us as an eminent physician and an excel- 
lent man, and who, but a little while ago, seemed likely for some 
years to continue his course of usefulness and success. 
To myself the subject is specially calculated to communicate 
such feelings. Dr Begbie was my early school-fellow and friend, 
and in that relation, and also in my resort to him as a medical 
attendant in whose anxiety and skill I had the utmost confidence, 
there were many years, more than half a century, of cordial inter- 
course between us. 
Dr Begbie was born in Edinburgh in October 1789. He was 
educated at the High School and at the University of Edinburgh, 
and early betook himself to medical studies. According to the 
system then established, but now I understand wholly or almost 
wholly discontinued, he became an apprentice with Dr Abercrombie, 
and was afterwards his assistant; in which capacity he had excellent 
opportunities of learning his profession, and of practically applying 
