276 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
pass regulations for the granting of medical licenses in the United 
Kingdom. He continued for several years to take part in the 
public discussion of this question. His views were very generally 
approved of, and, I believe, formed the basis of much of the 
Legislation which has since taken place. 
Another subject of much local interest in Edinburgh, which 
engaged Professor Syme’s attention, was the best site for a new 
Infirmary. At first he advocated the old site ; but, on farther con- 
sideration, he confessed he was in error, and ultimately ener- 
getically assisted those who wished the new hospital to be built in 
the suburbs of the town, where purer air for the patients would be 
secured. 
During the winter of 1868-9 Mr Syme’s health was not what it 
had been. Fie was less able for the fatigues of lecturing. He 
was also much harassed by the frequent meetings he had to attend 
about the new Infirmary, and he was greatly annoyed and irritated 
by a disagreeable professional controversy in which he was in- 
volved. The spring of 1869 also brought heavj domestic afflic- 
tion. On the 6th April, after performing an operation in the 
Infirmary, he had a bad attack of paralysis, which, however, left 
his mind unclouded. He so far recovered that he was able once 
or twice to walk from his villa of Millbank to see patients in his 
consulting rooms in Edinburgh, and even to give advice in the 
Infirmary as a consulting surgeon. He resigned his chair in July 
1869. In the spring of 1870 he still continued to see patients, 
but another worse attack of paralysis occurred in May, and he died 
on the 26th of June. He was interred in St John’s Episcopal 
Church, of which he had long been a member, followed to the grave 
by very many of his old friends and pupils. 
I will of course not attempt any account of the services ren- 
dered by Professor Syme to the special branch of the medical art 
to which he attached himself. All authorities concur in saying 
that, in virtue of the many important discoveries made by him, his 
skill as an operator, his diagnostic sagacity, and his accurate 
teaching, he was the greatest surgeon of his time. His services 
were twofold. He abolished, or assisted to abolish, many bad 
practices in surgery, and he was the means of introducing many 
new practices which have been generally adopted. Among this 
