1909 - 10 .] 
Obituary Notice. 
569 
OBITUARY NOTICE. 
Daniel John Cunningham. By Professor C. G. Knott. 
(MS. received 7th December 1910.) 
Daniel John Cunningham was born at Crieff on April 15, 1850. He was 
a son of the manse, and his father, the Rev. John Cunningham, subsequently 
became Principal of St Mary’s College, St Andrews University. His 
mother was descended from a brother of Captain Porteous, of the Porteous 
Riot fame. 
Daniel Cunningham was first educated at a small private school started 
by the heads of six families, who engaged a teacher for their boys. Ere 
long, however, Crieff Academy was organised, and to it the younger 
scholars were transferred. Cunningham received the simple, strong educa- 
tion of which Scotland was proud in those days, an education which fitted 
a promising boy for any walk in life. His first intention was to enter on a 
business career, and with this object in view he spent a year or two in 
Glasgow. When, at the age of twenty, he decided to follow medicine, he 
began his university studies with a more matured experience of life than 
was possessed by the majority of his associates. His business training had 
taught him the value of method, and, although a little out of touch with 
recognised methods of book study, he very quickly showed himself to be a 
man of marked ability. He proved an excellent all-round student, and 
specially distinguished himself in the classes of anatomy, physiology, 
materia medica, and surgery. After his graduation as M.B. and C.M. in 
1874, he commenced practice as a physician in Glasgow. 
The bent of his mind was, however, towards scientific studies. This he 
had already indicated by publishing in 1873 a short paper in the Journal 
of Anatomy and Physiology while he was still an undergraduate. The 
paper was called “Observations on the Distribution of some of the Nerves 
of the Head and Neck,” and will be found in vol. vii. of the Journal, 
pp. 94-97. 
A much stronger evidence of his scientific leanings was given by his 
M.D. thesis on the Anatomy of the Cetacea, for which in 1876 he received 
a gold medal. The same year, on the invitation of Sir William (then 
Professor) Turner, Cunningham returned to Edinburgh University as 
