158 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
Robert Munro, M.A., M.D., LL.D. By Dr George Macdonald, C.B. 
(MS. received July 4, 1921. Read October 24, 1921.) 
Robert Munro was born at Assynt, in the Ross-shire parish of Alness, 
on 21st July 1835. After spending some years at the Free Church School 
of Kiltearn, he was sent to finish his education at the Royal Academy, Tain. 
Though he was alert and observant from the first, his intellectual powers 
seem to have developed somewhat slowly : it was not until his career at 
Tain was drawing to a close that his capacity for University work was 
realised. The financial difficulty was serious. But his own mind was 
definitely made up, and with characteristic determination he set himself to 
overcome all obstacles. As a means to the end, he took to teaching, and in 
1860 he found himself a graduate in Arts of the University of Edinburgh. 
His original intention had been to proceed to the New College, with a view 
to entering the Church. In 1859, however, his whole outlook in life had 
been changed by the appearance of Darwin’s Origin of Species, which he 
read with avidity, and which made an immediate appeal to his scientific 
instincts. In the Free Church of those days there was no room for a 
Darwinian, and there was nothing for it but to abandon all thought of 
the profession at which he had been aiming. 
For two years after obtaining his degree he remained doubtful as to 
how he should shape his future. Ultimately, with great courage and also 
(as the event proved) with great wisdom, he resolved to face the discipline 
of the medical curriculum. In 1862, at the age of twenty-seven, he 
matriculated once more at Edinburgh. Even then his course was not 
destined to proceed on normal lines. What should have been his third 
winter of medical study was spent on the Riviera, in charge of a semi- 
invalid. At his time of life the interruption might well have seemed 
serious. But he never saw reason to regret it. His receptive mind derived 
real profit from his sojourn abroad. The fauna, the flora, and the geology 
of the Mediterranean all had an interest for him. And in various other 
ways his horizon was appreciably widened. If, however, the interlude was 
educationally valuable, it had the incidental effect of postponing for a 
whole year the accomplishment of his immediate purpose. He did not 
