737 
of Edinburgh, Session 1881-82. 
and while in this position his perseverance and acute powers of 
observation enabled him to make a series of interesting experiments 
on the communicability of cholera to the lower animals. These re- 
searches attracted considerable notice in the medical papers both at 
home and abroad. 
Dr. Lindsay thereafter entered the Crichton Eoyal Asylum, Dum- 
fries, as Assistant Physician, his chief being the able and genial Dr. 
W. A. P. Browne, the brother-in-law of his botanical patron. This 
seems to have been the turning-point in his career, as it is unlikely 
he would have left the arena of pure science if there had not been 
a paucity of suitable appointments in the botanical or other depart- 
ment. While doing duty in his new office in a manner that gained 
him much approbation, he received, at the instigation of the late 
Dr. Malcolm of Perth, the appointment of Eesident Physician to 
Murray’s Eoyal Asylum, Perth, at the end of 1854; and for a 
quarter of a century he laboured with unflagging zeal to promote 
the welfare of his patients and the interests of the institution, 
until failing health compelled him to resign at the end of 1879. 
Few physicians in our country have been gifted with a pen so 
facile, an intellect so varied, and a perseverance so unbroken as that 
of Dr. Lauder Lindsay. The mere list of his literary and scientific 
publications would form a considerable pamphlet, the chief articles 
grouping themselves under the heads of Botany, Medicine, and 
General Literature. It must be remembered, also, that his scientific 
work was accomplished after his energies had been spent in con- 
tinuous and responsible duty, and at a distance from scientific aid 
and encouragement. His medical writings, including his laborious 
work on Pensions to Asylum Officers , and the collection of incidents 
massed in his Mind in the Lower Animals , have already received 
notice in various Journals (e.g. the Edinburgh Medical Journal for 
January 1881), so that on the present occasion attention will be 
directed to his more strictly scientific labours. 
Eager to add to existing botanical knowledge, he very early in 
his career, at the suggestion of Professor Balfour, chose the Lichens 
as a suitable subject for investigation, and soon after graduation he 
published a Popular History of British Lichens , illustrated by 
many plates/ This little work received very favourable notice, and 
is still a useful guide on the subject. A series of structural and 
