190 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
that tradition of high ideals and of exacting standards of duty which were 
characteristic of all his work. 
A break occurred in his teaching in the school during 1898, when he 
went to India to act as president of a commission appointed to inquire 
into the whole question of bubonic plague, its origin, transmission, and 
treatment. His capacity and accuracy in detail made itself manifest at 
once, and a voluminous report was issued in 1901 which threw considerable 
light on the subject of inquiry. 
In addition to his academic work, Professor Fraser filled many important 
positions in the scientific world, and even before he received his commission 
to the Edinburgh chair he was engaged, at the request of the Admiralty, 
as a member of the committee to inquire into and report on the causes 
of scurvy which broke out in Sir G. Nares’ Arctic expedition. On a 
subsequent occasion he acted as president of the section of materia medica 
and pharmacology at the London meeting of the International Congress. 
It was natural that a man of Sir Thomas Fraser’s clear thinking and 
business capacity should become interested in professional matters outside 
the duties of his chair, and we find that he occupied many responsible 
positions where his powers in this direction could find scope. For twenty 
years, from 1880 onwards, he acted as Dean of the Medical Faculty in 
Edinburgh University. He was also a member of the University Court 
from 1904 to 1913, and in 1905 he became University representative on the 
General Medical Council, of which body he remained a member for ten 
years ; and during that time, amongst other tasks, he took an active part 
in the 1914 issue of the British Pharmacopoeia. For many years he was 
the valued principal medical adviser of the Standard Life Assurance 
Company, and in that capacity his sound judgment and keen critical 
instincts made him a more than usually competent guide in the difficult 
problems which constantly emerge in such work. He also discharged for 
nearly twenty-four years the duties of consulting medical adviser to the 
Prison Commissioners for Scotland, in which capacity his tact and judgment 
repeatedly proved of great service. 
His distinguished career as a research worker also brought him many 
well-earned honours. At an early age, even before he had obtained a 
chair in Edinburgh, he had been elected a member of the Royal Societies 
of Edinburgh and London, and had been laureated by the Institute of 
France. At subsequent dates he received the recognition of the Turin 
Academy of Medicine and of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 
He was created an Honorary M.D. of Dublin, an Honorary Sc.D. of 
Cambridge, and received the degree of LL.D. from the Aberdeen and 
