of Edinburgh , Session 187 0 - 7 1 . 2 7 5 
reserved for acceptance in London society. Hence, though he was 
making rapid progress in surgical practice, he soon began to wish 
he had never left Scotland. It was when in this mood that he 
received a request from the council of the London University to 
deliver lectures on systematic as well as on clinical surgery. 
Thereupon he at once sent in his resignation. In fact, before 
leaving Edinburgh he had stipulated that he should he exempted 
from this additional duty. The month of July 1848 found him 
back again in Edinburgh, after only a four months’ stay in London, 
during which time, however, he had succeeded in acquiring the 
entire confidence and esteem of the medical students ; insomuch 
that, when they heard of his intention to leave them, a committee 
of their number waited upon him, beseeching him to remain, and 
saying that an address was about to be presented, signed by every 
individual student. But he declined the entreaty, flattering though 
it was. He felt he had made a mistake when he left Edinburgh, 
and he was resolved to correct it before it was too late. Fortu- 
nately for Syrne, the Chair of Clinical Surgery in the Edinburgh 
University, vacated by his going to London, had not been filled up. 
He was again appointed to it, and his return to the scene of his 
former success was greeted by general acclamation alike from 
students and old friends. 
In subsequent years Professor Syme, besides teaching his class 
and attending the Infirmary, took part in the proceedings of 
various medical and scientific societies. He became President of 
the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1848. He had pre- 
viously become a Fellow of our own Society, and communicated 
to it a very important discovery, that the formation of bone is due 
to the Periosteum — a discovery which was the subject of a paper 
published in our Transactions. The importance of this discovery 
is great, as it often renders amputation of a limb unnecessary, 
in the case of diseased bones, if the disease be not in the perios- 
teum. 
At a later period, Mr Syme’s active mind led him to pay atten- 
tion to subjects of more general interest connected with the medical 
profession. In the year 1854 he took up the question of medical 
reform, and addressed a letter to Lord Palmerston and Lord 
Elcho, recommending the appointment of a General Council to 
