30 
Proceedings of the Boyal Society 
performed. It will be long before we see supplied the place of 
one who bad so many high attainments and so amiable a character 
—so many solid and so many agreeable qualities. 
James Wardrop, one of our oldest members, and long known as 
a very eminent surgeon, was born, in August 1782, at Torbanehill, 
a small property which had been long in his family, and which has 
since earned a marked reputation in a mineral and chemical as well 
as a forensic point of view. He commenced the study of medicine 
under the care of his uncle, Dr Andrew Wardrop, an eminent surgeon 
in Edinburgh. He became assistant to Dr Barclay, the celebrated 
anatomist, and was for some time house-surgeon in the Royal Infir¬ 
mary here. He afterwards went to London, to prosecute his studies 
in the lecture-rooms and hospitals of the metropolis ; and afterwards 
passed over to Paris, though by this time the peace of Amiens had 
been broken off, and war had recommenced between France and 
England. Had he been known as an Englishman, he would have 
been detained as a prisoner; but he contrived to elude the vigil¬ 
ance of the police whilst he remained in Paris, and ultimately suc¬ 
ceeded in effecting his transit from France into Germany. He 
attended various lectures at Vienna, and had there his attention 
specially directed to the diseases of the eye, for the treatment of 
which he afterwards attained so high a reputation. On returning 
to Edinburgh, be commenced the practice of his profession, and 
very soon selected surgery as his department. After practising 
here for four or five years, Mr Wardrop left Edinburgh, and settled 
in London as a surgeon. Instead of attending, how r ever, the public 
hospitals there established, he preferred to institute a surgical 
hospital of his own, the wards of which were thrown open to the 
profession gratuitously, and where he had a weekly concourse of 
visitors, when medical topics were made the subject of conversation. 
This hospital he continued to superintend for about eight years, 
when he found the labour that it involved was more than he could 
undertake consistently with his other avocations. In this manner, 
and from surgical lectures which he delivered in London, Mr 
Wardrop’s reputation became well established. In 1818, he was 
appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to the Prince Regent; and when 
the Prince, after his accession to the throne, visited Scotland, Mr 
