352 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
In 1893 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
England. He served as an influential member of the Royal Commission, 
1881-82, on the Medical Acts. He was President of the Anthropological 
Section of the British Association, and later of the British Association 
itself in 1900. 
Sir William Turner was associated throughout with the movement 
which led to the erection of the New Medical School of the University and 
of the M‘Ewan Hall. The first meeting took place in 1869, and the first 
subscription list was opened 6th April 1874. The amount required to meet 
the first estimates was obtained or within sight, when it was found that 
owing to a rapid increase in the number of students the original estimates 
must be enlarged. Principal Sir Alexander Grant, Bart., the dominating 
spirit of the movement, felt the difficulty of applying to an exhausted 
public, but held a meeting in 1883, when it was resolved to launch a 
Tercentenary appeal. The Tercentenary Festival was celebrated in April 
1884, and then Professor Turner and Mr M‘Ewan, M.P., took the chief 
burden on themselves and tramped city and country soliciting subscrip- 
tions. Principal Sir Alexander Grant, Bart., died in December 1884, and 
Turner took his place as Chairman of the Acting Committee. The New 
Buildings were handed over by the Acting Committee to the Senatus in 
October 1886. 
During their efforts Mr M‘Ewan and Sir William Turner felt the 
hopelessness of raising money for a University Hall, and Mr M‘Ewan 
resolved to present one. The first step consisted in the appointment of 
Mr M‘Ewan, Principal Sir William Muir, Professor Sir William Turner, 
and Mr John Christison, W.S., as trustees, who obtained the Edinburgh 
University Extension Act, 1886, and began the erection of the Hall in 
January 1889. Mr M'Ewan, on behalf of the trustees, handed it over to the 
Chancellor, the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, on behalf of the University, 
3rd December 1897. The chief burden and responsibility as a trustee 
naturally fell upon Turner. 
The late Mr John Barton, Convener of Trades, whose firm was con- 
tractor for the plumbing work of the New Buildings, informed the writer 
that the contractors greatly preferred to work for Turner. He knew his 
own mind, there was no dubiety about his instructions, and he could under- 
stand and allow for things that went wrong. 
Mr Carnegie’s trust-deed for the Universities of Scotland is dated 
7th June 1901, and Sir William Turner (who had been knighted in 1886 
and made K.C.B. in 1901) used his influence so that the new income 
might be applied to the best advantage. 
