344 Proceedings of tlie Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
who with Sir William Ferguson of King’s and Sir James Paget of St 
Bartholomew’s found three young surgeons willing to come to Edinburgh. 
They were Frederick W. Sayer, who died of fever after a short period 
of service in Edinburgh ; A. M. Edwards, who had already a year’s ex- 
perience as a demonstrator of anatomy ; and William Turner, M.R.C.S. 1853. 
After serving for a few years in the dissecting-room, Edwards entered on a 
brilliant surgical career in Edinburgh that ended obscurely in Australia. 
Goodsir sent for Turner to his hotel and asked him how he would describe 
Scarpa’s triangle (a favourite test question). Turner indicated how he 
would set about it, and Goodsir promptly appointed him to be senior 
demonstrator. Turner might have been less surprised at Goodsir’s quick- 
ness had he known of Sir James Paget’s letters of recommendation. 
Turner came to Edinburgh in the autumn of 1854 to spend what he 
called the most miserable winter of his life, owing to his lack of experience 
in lecturing on anatomy. It ijiust be remembered that Turner was at 
this time himself a student with examinations to pass. He only took 
his M.B. Bond, in 1857. He had a gold medal and honours in chemistry 
in 1854. 
Turner’s duties as senior demonstrator consisted (1) in giving a daily 
demonstration or lecture on topographical anatomy at 4 p.m., in which he 
also explained the relation of a knowledge of the parts described to the 
practice of medicine and surgery ; (2) in giving a course of demonstrations 
on microscopic anatomy ; (3) in superintending the work of the dissecting- 
room ; (4) and also, in summer, in giving a course of advanced lectures on 
some special department of anatomy. Goodsir himself gave the formal 
scientific lecture at one o’clock, when the facts of human anatomy were 
illustrated from comparative anatomy or other sciences. The students 
paid a fee for the four o’clock demonstration, but received no credit from 
the University for their attendance, as it was not compulsory ; and yet the 
room was always filled. 
As Goodsir’s health gradually failed he transferred more and more of 
the duties of the chair to Turner, who had gained his full confidence and 
highest esteem. After thirteen years’ service as demonstrator, Turner was 
appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in 1867 on Goodsir’s death, and held 
the appointment for thirty-six years until he became Principal in 1903. 
While demonstrator he had several notable juniors, among them H. S. 
Wilson, John Cleland, Joseph Bell, Thomas Annandale, Ramsay H. Traquair, 
John Chiene. Of these, Emeritus-Professor Cleland of Glasgow, upon whom 
Goodsir’s mantle as a philosophical anatomist chiefly fell, and Emeritus- 
Professor Chiene, C.B., of the Chair of Surgery at Edinburgh, alone survive. 
