84 CONSERVATOR OF SURGEONS’ MUSEUM [ch. IV. 
calculated to increase the usefulness of it, has 
occupied so much of the Conservator’s time and 
attention, and has been so materially advanced by 
his assiduity and by his judicious arrangements, as 
to merit some species of acknowledgment on the 
part of the College, and with this view the Curators 
recommend to the College to vote him a gratuity of 
twenty guineas, which was unanimously agreed to.” 
In the minutes throughout the remaining six 
years there are frequent references to the condition 
of the Museum, which was always in the perfection 
of order and cleanliness, MacGillivray’s predominat¬ 
ing views with regard to museums being that the 
order should be strictly scientific, and that every¬ 
thing should be kept scrupulously clean. During 
his whole tenure of office he seems to have been 
allowed an almost autocratic privilege in having his 
views carried out; the result always being the 
entire satisfaction of the College. 
At last the termination of his career as 
Conservator of the Museum seems to have come 
about rather abruptly. It is recorded in a minute 
of the College of 16th March 1841, that the 
President had received a letter from MacGillivray, 
informing him that he had heard from the Marquis 
of Normanby that he had been appointed to the 
Professorship of “ Civil and Natural History ” in 
Marischal College, Aberdeen, and that he accord¬ 
ingly resigned the Conservatorship of the Museum 
as from the last day of April following, by which 
time he said he hoped it would be in perfect order 
for a successor. 
