244 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
had, in addition to his father’s training, the advantage of the help of 
Mr Adam Lang, M.A., Aberdeen, and of M. Henri Mouron, a cultured 
Swiss gentleman, from whom he gained the knowledge of French which 
was of interest and use to him ever afterwards. 
Thus equipped, doubtless with the added responsibility of being the 
eldest son of the manse with brothers to follow, he proceeded in his 
sixteenth year to the University of Edinburgh, where he began his 
studies in 1861 in the Faculty of Arts, and graduated as M.A. There- 
after he entered the Faculty of Medicine, and after a distinguished 
course graduated in 1868 as M.B., C.M., taking the first place in First 
Class Honours. 
Sir Halliday Croom, in an admirable obituary notice in The British 
Medical Journal of February 1918, says: “Those who remember him 
recall him as a keen student, fond of all sorts of scientific problems, care- 
ful and exact in argument, and ready of speech.” 
Among the eminent Professors of his time Goodsir influenced him 
most, and it was to Anatomy that he attached himself after graduation, 
acting as Demonstrator under the late Sir William Turner, and rising to 
the post of Senior Demonstrator before demitting office in 1876. 
During part of this time he became famous as a “ coach ” for the 
professional examinations, few of his students being known to fail. 
Recognition of his eminent qualifications as an anatomist and teacher 
was shown by the offer to him of a professorship of Anatomy in New 
Zealand in 1874. This, however, he did not see his way to accept. 
Although in 1875 he was an applicant for the Chair of Medicine and 
Anatomy in St Andrews — an unsuccessful one, fortunately, for the future 
of Edinburgh, — there are clear indications that Anatomy was too exact a 
science, and presented too limited a field, to satisfy the wide and varied 
interests of his mind. In a letter dated 14th May 1874 he writes: “I 
am working two hours a day in the Chemical Laboratory this summer. 
Turner lets me away for that time. I wish to qualify for getting an 
appointment of Officer of Public Health should a chance turn up.” 
To enable him to carry out this wish he graduated in 1875 as B.Sc > 
in Public Health with First Class Honours — the first B.Sc. in that 
department. 
While Demonstrator of Anatomy he kept in touch with Medicine and 
Surgery by attending clinical lectures in the Royal Infirmary. In an 
interesting letter to a medical friend he showed how clearly he grasped 
the principles of antiseptic surgery and realised the revolution in the 
treatment of wounds that had begun with Lister. 
