of Edinburgh, Session 1869 - 70 . 
27 
knowledge and abilities available in a form which generally brings 
to those who adopt it less honour than its usefulness and its in¬ 
trinsic merit truly deserve. He opened a house for the reception 
of medical students as boarders during the College session, and 
instituted classes for preparing such students for their examina¬ 
tion. It is not impossible that the department thus chosen by him 
formed some impediment to his success as a medical practitioner; 
but no one who knew Dr Seller, or watched his conduct, could fail 
to see, both in his choice and in the manner in which he followed 
it out, proofs of his manly independence, and of his earnest desire 
to promote medical science and maintain the dignity of his pro¬ 
fession. His lectures and lessons, we believe, were admirably 
adapted for that purpose, delivered in the most kindly and con¬ 
ciliatory tone, and skilfully framed to lead his pupils by easy 
gradients to the most commanding views of medical knowledge. 
His general learning and accomplishments were at the same time 
suited in an eminent degree to illustrate and adorn medical 
studies. He was an excellent classical scholar; he was profoundly 
acquainted with the intellectual and moral sciences, for which he 
had early shown a strong predilection ; and he was a proficient in 
those physical sciences which were most closely connected with his 
own professional subjects. The extent and accuracy of his infor¬ 
mation were only equalled by his readiness in communicating it 
and his modest estimate of his own acquirements. 
His last book, which he published in conjunction with Mr Henry 
Stephens, on “ Physiology at the Farm,” will illustrate at once, to 
those who are capable of appreciating it, the extent and variety of 
his scientific knowledge, and some defects at the same time which 
attended his mode of conveying instruction in this form. 
In that volume there is a marvellous exposition of all the most 
important facts and principles connected with the subject of animal 
growth and nutrition, particularly as applicable to the rearing and 
feeding of stock; and the ground there travelled over in physiology, 
anatomy, chemistry, and botany is so extensive, that no one who 
was not thoroughly master of all these subjects could do them the 
justice which has there been dealt to them. The only fault in his 
dissertations is that they are too profound, and that it may be 
necessary to find an interpreter to stand between the man of science 
