1920-21.] Obituary Notices. 159 
finally “qualify” till 1867. He was then thirty-two, and had no resources 
behind him save the priceless assets of ability and character. 
His first appointment was as assistant to a busy doctor in a colliery 
district of Ayrshire. He at once became deeply absorbed in his everyday 
duties, utilising to the full the opportunities for instruction which they 
offered. His own description may be quoted : “ The sudden transition 
from a scholastic atmosphere and the teaching of medical science in 
lecture-rooms and well-equipped hospitals to the practice of the healing 
art among a mining population was to me like going into a new world. 
Therapeutic theories and book-learning had to be tested by action there 
and then.” The sound knowledge thus acquired of the origin, progress, 
and correct treatment of disease stood him in excellent stead when he 
aspired to a position of greater independence. This he did after an 
apprenticeship of some two years’ duration. Looking round for an open- 
ing, he decided upon a partnership in Kilmarnock. Before settling down, 
however, he received an invitation to make an extended tour in the 
Near East as companion to the son of a well-known Ayrshire proprietor. 
The offer came at an opportune moment, and he gladly availed himself 
of it. Doubtless he was ultimately responsible for the comprehensive 
itinerary which, beginning with the more important cities of France and 
Italy, led through Sicily and Malta to Egypt and the Nile, the Holy Land, 
Baalbek, Athens, Constantinople, Rustchuk, Budapest, Vienna, and thence 
home by Munich and the Rhine. 
There followed sixteen years of arduous general practice, diversified by 
short holidays abroad. No figure in Kilmarnock was better known in 
those days than Dr Munro’s. His regular patients were as numerous as he 
could wish for, and the reputation he had won during his assistantship 
brought many miners from Cumnock and its neighbourhood to his 
consulting-room. At the same time he was in great demand as a popular 
lecturer on scientific and social subjects, invariably speaking his mind with 
a singularly refreshing frankness. His influence in the community grew 
steadily, and to outsiders it must have seemed as if his highest ambition 
had been satisfied. There was, therefore, general surprise and regret when, 
in 1885, he announced that he had made up his mind to retire. Friends 
came to remonstrate. But he was inflexible : “ I divide my life into three 
periods : during the first I struggled hard for my education, during the 
second I served the public to the best of my ability, and for the rest of 
my life I mean to please myself.” Ten years earlier he had married 
Miss Anna Taylor, a lady of singular charm, who was to be his devoted 
companion for thirty-two years in all, and in 1879 the death of his 
