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Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
been ascertained in China and India that it is a sovereign remedy 
for dysentery.” It was a native of S. America, and Sir Robert had 
pressed for several years on his students the importance of intro- 
ducing it into India. “Some months ago,” he says, “I wrote to 
Dr Gunning, an Edinburgh graduate, who entered very cordially 
into the scheme. The first consignment of plants has just arrived 
at the Botanic Garden, consisting of roots well preserved in soil. 
.... I have seen to-day in the garden stove-house a hundred 
thriving young plants.” Soon arrangements were made for 
introducing it into India, and he records that “ there is a promise 
of four hundred more from the cuttings of Dr Gunning’s consign- 
ment.” I believe that ipecacuanha is still reared in India, and is 
regarded as a specific in dysentery. Be this as it may, it says 
much for Dr Gunning’s zeal in his profession. Indeed the desire 
to work in its behalf led to that habit of the eye which characterised 
him until blindness overtook him, as it had done his father. One 
could not spend an hour with him without his varied scientific 
attainments coming to the front. The scientific references to 
Brazil were many and valuable, but he had also been a skilled 
observer in the home field. The fluviatile and glacial markings 
of his native district, and its zoology and antiquities, had occupied 
much of his attention in his student life. The so-called ‘ pots and 
pans ’ proofs of fluviatile action in the Kirkbean stream’s course, or 
the history of the Ruthwell Stone, with its form and runes, and 
the value of its verses, were favourite themes. 
There are many other facts which might be stated illustrative of 
His Excellency’s Christian efforts, philanthropic movements, and 
friendly correspondence with members of the Royal families of 
Brazil and Portugal, which might be referred to here ; but to dwell 
on these would be outside of the Society’s intentions in this 
“ Obituary Notice.” I may, however, hark back for a little on the 
benefactions, and specially the “ Jubilee Prizes,” which pass into 
classes that will keep the occasion of their institution ever in 
remembrance, though to-day it is not the sound of the Jubilee 
trumpet but the wailing of the funeral dirge which fills men’s ears 
and touches their hearts.* “ The Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize ” 
was founded in 1887 by Dr R. H. Gunning, and is awarded 
* Written on the day of Her Majesty’s Funeral. 
