VlRl ILLVSTRES 
 
 n^:s£i£i.J33S 
 
 Capio lumen. 
 
 ACAD.JACOB.SEXT.SCOT.REG 
 ANNO CCO^^ 
 
 BR 
 1700 
 ,G43 
 1884 
 
 * EDINBVRGI: 
 
 id Y. J. PENTLAND. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIV. 
 
6 . / V . 5 : 
 
 Srom t^ fei6rari^ of 
 
 Q^equeaf^eb %'^ ^im to 
 f ^ feifirari? of 
 
 (Princeton J^eofogicaf ^eminarg 
 
 BR 1700 .G43 1884 
 Geddes, Patrick. 
 Viri illustres 
 
VIRI ILLUSTRES. 
 

 ■"S^ 
 
VIRI 
 ILLVSTRES 
 
 ACAD.JACOB. SEXT.SCOT. REG 
 ANNO CCO^^ 
 
 EDINBVRGI: 
 
 Apud Y. J. P E N T L A N D. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIV. 
 
Let us now praise famous men^ and our fathers ivhich 
 begat us. 
 
 aTTOtfavMV en AaActTat, 
 
 Inque brevi spatio mutantur scBcla animantum 
 Et quasi cursores vitai lambada tradunt. 
 
 Quivi mi fur mostrati gli spiriti magni 
 Che di vederli in me stesso m^esalto. 
 
 Denn wer den Besten seiner Zeit ge?iug 
 Gethan^ der hat gelebtfiir alle Zeiten. 
 
 This man elected to do^ not be- 
 
DEDICATIONS, 
 I. 
 
 VIRI ILLUSTRES.' 
 
 Three hundred yem's ! As on a hill lue stand 
 Face towards the level of the shadowy past, 
 We see the battle spreading huge and vast, 
 The forlor7t hopes in silejit order piami^d. 
 Truth holds a standard that, within her hand 
 Waves o?tward, strea7ning far above the blast; 
 And round it, fighti?ig to the very last. 
 Die those who listen to her ste?'n coimnand. 
 
 They pass, yet passing, mould the world, and Fame, 
 
 Lifting the battle-roll with stern proud eye. 
 
 Reads with a quiver on her Up each naine; 
 
 Then pausing, lo, the sad Years make reply — 
 
 " Dead on the field of honour— but to-day 
 
 Their Spirit is here, though they have passed away:'' 
 
//. 
 
 MAGNI MORTUORUM CHORI ! 
 
 And ye^ ye dead^ who nameless hccve gone down 
 In that dark sea, wherein we all ?nust sink. 
 The pitiless deep of Death that yet shall drown 
 The lustiest mariner, nor on the brink 
 Perchance upcast one relic that fnight link 
 His name with those Inwiortals ; still a crown, 
 O shades august, to you is due, we think ! 
 
 O sacred youth the gods have loved too well, 
 
 Struck when the blossom white?ied your fair boughs ; 
 
 Ye, too, whofn so?fie o er-mastering fate befel. 
 
 That snatched the laurel from your bard-like brows ; 
 
 Ye hearts benign, ivhose kindling thoughts could rouse 
 
 The sons of genius, lacking yet the spell. 
 
 Yourselves to win the fame the wo7-ld alloivs : 
 
 Ye souls magnanimous, who let go past 
 Ambition's cup untasted, yet sustained 
 Pure lives, high converse, so within the vast 
 And salt Life-sea, sweet fountains ye ?-emained / 
 Great ?iames ifi deep Forgetfulness enchained 
 For ever, on your 7iameless grave at last 
 We lay, with reverent tears, a wreath unstained ! 
 
III. 
 
 GIVES HODIERNI TEMP ORIS! 
 
 They kept their torches lit amid the gloom, 
 Where scowling Bigotry sat down beside 
 His faggots, a7id Superstition, narrow-eyed. 
 Made heaven a torture, and this life a to?nb. 
 Theirs was the mighty task to re-ilhmie 
 Truths that were born with time; to check the stride 
 Of Ignorance in his triple,jnail of pride j 
 To keep Humajtity fro7n utter doom. 
 
 As in the race of old— O ye who stand 
 To-day on better vantage ground than they. 
 Take, in all reverence, from each spirit-hand 
 The torch they lit before they passed away. 
 And bear it onward, till in every land 
 The scattered lights become a Milky Way f 
 
Three hundred years / What gain 
 From all her toil appears f 
 
 Say^ has she lived in vain 
 Three hundred years ? 
 
 Away with faltering fears / 
 
 Not hers to waste and wane, 
 And withering wait the shears. 
 
 But like the hills remain — 
 And meet with lustier cheers, 
 
 When she has lived again 
 Three hundred years I 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 '^ i ^ HE essence of our Tercefitenary Celebration lies 
 -/ neither in pageant^ feast, nor holiday, neither 
 in the distribution of academic honours, nor iji theinte?'- 
 national congress of illustrious men, natural and fitting 
 accompaniments though all these are ; but wholly in 
 the commemoration of the Past, in the reverent 
 re7nembrance of the lives and labours of those bygone 
 generations, to whom, seldom though we acknowledge 
 it, we owe, alike for our institutions and our culture, 
 a debt so infinitely vaster than to our own. 
 
 And such co7?imemoration is all the i?iore needful 
 in these times of sternest criticism and impending 
 chafige, when no 7nere general claims of wealth, or 
 dignity, or age, exempt fro7n trial and question. It is 
 well, therefore, at this time to su7n up such evidence as 
 we may of past efficiency, to show for our University 
 " 7vhat gain fro7n all her toil appear s,^^ and out of the 
 records of th7'ee centuries to 7)iake up at once ojir Roll 
 of Honour and our Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Hence this little book., which though all too hastily 
 prepared in lack of any more formal catalogue^ yet 
 honestly aims »at giving a terse account of each of the 
 University's most illustrious sons^ and of their con- 
 tribution to the world^s progress. In few departments 
 have these contributions been small., in some unnumbered 
 and inestimable. 
 
 For the progress of literature and history from Row 
 and Drummond to Scott a?id Carlyle, of philosophy 
 from Ferguson to Hu7ne^ or of sciefice from Maclaurin 
 to Maxzvell, Hutton to Murchison., Darwin to 
 Darwin., cover's not merely the intellectual evolution 
 of our university or even country., but well-nigh spans 
 that of mankind. 
 
 Hence the names are arranged in approximately 
 historical order., without reference to the archaic 
 Faculties., much less to personal rank or success., whether 
 academic or social., but accordifig to the great movements 
 which they mainly influenced ; and these again are 
 thrown into three series — Science and Philosophy., Art, 
 and Public Life — an arrangeffient which though perhaps 
 not strictly philosophical, was found to present fewest 
 difficulties in practice. The list includes none whose 
 relation to the University has been merely honorary, 
 but any {eve?i though their connection with other seats 
 of learning may have been more pe7'manent), 7vlw have 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 for a season either drunk of her springs or dispensed its 
 waters. 
 
 But the world-saturating influence of a great 
 University is not wholly^ perhaps not even mainly 
 measured by that of her great me7t, but rather by those 
 unnamed thousands of her humble scholars whom she 
 has sent forth throicghout all times and lands to teach 
 and govern^ to work and heal. Hefice 7ve, who seek 
 only to follow in their steps., would commemorate not 
 only the few greatest ivhom she has in varying measure 
 schooled for the service of Hujnanity., but the unnum- 
 bered niultitude of faithful men, whose voices have 
 swelled the Choir Invisible. Our Festival then, is not 
 only an All Saints\ but an All Souls Day ; the Past 
 is lighted up not merely by a thin line of flari7ig torches, 
 but by the calmer radiance of a mist of stars ; it rever- 
 berates not only with the ^nighty ti'ead and pealing voices 
 of the Heroes, but with the Chorus mightier march 
 and song. 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY 
 
MATHEMATICIANS AND ASTRONOMERS. 
 
 James Gregory. — Aberdeenshire, 1638 — Edin. 1675. 
 
 Student in Aberdeen and Padua. Professor of Mathematics 
 in St. Andrews (1668), and in Edinburgh (1674). 
 
 To him we owe one form of the reflecting telescope. He 
 investigated the transformation of curves and the measurement 
 of their solids of revohition, and vvrote on optics and on purely 
 mathematical subjects, e.g. Vera Circuli et Hyperbohc Qiiad- 
 raHira. 
 
 David Gregory. — Aberdeen, 1661 — ^Maidenhead, 1710. 
 
 Student and Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh, and 
 Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford. 
 
 His greatest work Astronomicc Physiccc et Geoinetricx Elementa 
 was esteemed by Newton himself as a most excellent illustration 
 and defence cf his system. He taught the Newtonian doctrines 
 in Edinburgh before they were taught in Cambridge or else- 
 where, and published a complete edition of the works ascribed 
 to Euclid. 
 
 Colin Maclaurin. — Kilmodan, 1698 — Edin. 1746. 
 
 Student in Glasgow, Professor of IMathematics in Aberdeen 
 and in Edinburgh (1725). 
 
 He wrote A Treatise of Fluxions, in which he answered 
 Berkeley's attack by founding the method on geometrical 
 demonstration. He also applied the method to various physical 
 problems, such as that of the motion of the tides. His theory of 
 the attraction of an ellipsoid of revolution, Lagrange describes as 
 " un chef d'oeuvre de geometrie qu'on peut comparer a tout ce 
 qu 'Archimede nous a laisse de plus beau et de plus ingenieux." 
 
 A 
 
MATHEMATICIANS AND ASTRONOMERS. 
 
 He deserves also to be remembered as the friend of Newton, 
 whose Principia he expounded in a vahiable treatise, and the 
 author of Geometria Organica. He was charged with the 
 defences of Edinburgh Castle against the Pretender in I745. 
 
 Matthew Stewart. — Rothesay, 1717 — Edin. 1785. 
 
 Student in Glasgow, and Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh 
 
 <^747)- . . , ^ 
 
 Essentially a geometer, he published in 1746 a book of 
 
 General Theorems, all except the first five without proofs ; and in 
 
 1763 a Collection of Geometrical Propositions," demonstrated in 
 
 the manner of the ancients." 
 
 William Wallace.— Dysart, 1768— Edin. 1843. 
 
 Student, and Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh ( 1 8 1 9- 1 838) . 
 
 He wrote numerous mathematical and astronomical papers, 
 £.g.y on Geometrical Porisms, on the Computation of Logarithms, 
 on the Analogous Properties of Elliptic and Hyperbolic Sectors, 
 two Elementary Solutions of Kepler's Problem by the Angular 
 Calculus, etc. 
 
 Thomas Henderson. — Dundee, 1798 — Edin., 1S42. 
 
 Astronomer Royal and Professor of Astronomy. 
 He determined the parallax of a Ccntauri. 
 
 Philip Kelland. — Dunster, 1809 — Bridge of Allan, 1879. 
 
 Studied at Cambridge, and Professor of Mathematics in Edin- 
 burgh (1838-1879). 
 
 His most important researches were in the department of 
 pure mathematics, c.g.^ his clear and elegant papers on General 
 Differentiation, on the Theoiy of Parallels. He also investi- 
 gated such problems as those of the aggregate effect of interfer- 
 ence and of wave motion. A distinguished teacher. 
 
 John Playfair, Professor of Mathematics, 1785 ; Sir John 
 Leslie, Professor of Mathematics, 1805 ; and Thomas Carlyle, 
 Translator of Legendre's Geometry, and author of an essay on 
 Proportion, are commemorated under other heads. 
 
PHYSICISTS AND CHEMISTS. 
 
 Joseph Black. — France, 1728 — Edin. 1799. 
 
 Studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Successor to Cullen in 
 the Chair of Chemistry at Glasgow (1756) and Edinburgh (1766). 
 
 His name is ever associated with two great discoveries — one 
 in Chemistry, the other in Physics. The former is his discovery 
 of Carbonic Acid gas, whose relation to the caustic alkalies he 
 clearly demonstrated. By this discovery, he refuted the supposi- 
 tion that limestone on being burned became caustic in virtue of 
 something which it obtained from the fire ; and showed that its 
 altered property was due to the escape of carbonic acid, so giving 
 the death-blow to the Phlogiston theory, and demonstrating the 
 value of quantitative analysis. Not less important and valuable 
 to science was the beautiful series of investigations which resulted 
 in his exposition of Latent Heat, and placed the subject much 
 in the position it holds at the present day. 
 
 John Robison. — 1739 — 1805. 
 
 Student in Glasgow (1766); Professor of Chemistry in Glas- 
 gow, and of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh (1774). 
 
 He made many contributions to the science of mechanics ; was 
 an intimate friend of James Watt, and it was probably at his 
 suggestion that Watt directed his attention to the improvement 
 of the ste^m engine. 
 
 Daniel Rutherford. — Edin. 1749 — 1819. 
 
 M.D., 1772. Professor of Botany. 
 
 His doctorial thesis contains his discovery of nitrogen. 
 
 Thomas Charles Hope. — 1766 — 1844. 
 
 Professor of Chemistry, Glasgow and Edinburgh. 
 Discovered the metal strontium. 
 
PHYSICISTS AND CHEMISTS. 
 
 Sir John Leslie. — Largo, 1766— Largo, 1832. 
 
 Student, vSt. Andrews and Edinburgh, Professor of Mathe- 
 matics (1805), and of Natural Philosophy (1819), Edinburgh. 
 
 He deserves to be remembered for his investigation of the 
 Principles of Radiant Heat. His results were published in his 
 ^'' Experimental hujtdry into the Nature of Heat.'''' He showed 
 that light heats the bodies which absorb it, and constructed a 
 photometer on this principle. Inventor of the differential ther- 
 mometer, a hygrometer, etc., and author of the famous experi- 
 ment of freezing water by the cold resulting from its own evapora- 
 tion. He wrote also several mathematical works. 
 
 Thomas Young. — Somersetshire, 1773 — London, 1829. 
 
 Studied in Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Gottingen. 
 
 Shares with Fresnel the honour of establishing the undulatory 
 theory of light, and propounded the theory of interference. A 
 learned Egyptologist, he was the first to discover the phonetic 
 nature of hieroglyphics, and to decipher inscriptions. 
 
 James David Forbes. — Edinburgh, 1S09 — Clifton, 186S. 
 
 Student, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh 
 (1833), and Principal of St. Andrews (i860). 
 
 A voluminous contributor to the literature of Natural Philo- 
 sophy, he made important researches as to the polarisation, 
 absorption, reflection, etc., of radiant heat and light, and proved the 
 identity of thermal and luminous vibrations. He investigated the 
 conductivity of metals, rocks, etc., and showed that the conduc- 
 tivity of a body for heat diminishes as its temperature increases. 
 He first explained the motion of a glacier as that of a viscous 
 body, and made many other important contributions to Geology. 
 
 Sir David Brewster.— Jedburgh, 1781 — Melrose, 1868. 
 
 Studied in Edinburgh. Principal of St. Andrews (1S38), and 
 of Edinburgh (1859). 
 
 Devoting himself from the first to the study of physical optics 
 he obtained results of fundamental importance. His memory is 
 immortalised by his many beautiful experimental researches in 
 which he investigated the laws of polarisation, metallic reflection, 
 and absorption of light, etc. Pie showed that the majority of 
 non-isotropic substances are doubly refractive and in general 
 
PHYSICISTS AND CHEMISTS. 
 
 biaxial, and that double refraction can ])e induced by strain and 
 by unequal heating. Besides inventing the kaleidoscope, stereo- 
 scope, etc., and making numerous improvements in optical 
 apparatus, he introduced the dioptric system of lighthouse 
 illumination. No less brilliant were his powers as an expositor 
 of science, and besides a vast number of memoirs, he wrote 
 many well-known popular works. 
 
 Thomas Graham. — Glasgow, 1804 — 1869. 
 
 Studied in Glasgow and in Edinburgh. Professor of Chemistry 
 in Glasgow and London (1S37), and Master of the Mint (1855). 
 
 His numerous and beautiful researches centre round the 
 problem of molecular motion. He investigated the laws of the 
 diffusion, transpiration, and absorption of gases, and established 
 the famous law that the diffusion rate of gases is inversely as the 
 square root of their densities. His other contributions include 
 researches on the transpiration and diffusion of liquids, on the 
 constitution of salts as illustrated by the case of those of phos- 
 phoric acid, and on other more technical subjects, and were all 
 characterised by experimental originality and simplicity. 
 
 James Clerk Maxwell.— 1831—1S79. 
 
 Edinburgh (1847-50) and Cambridge (1850-54). Professor of 
 Natural Philosophy, Aberdeen (1856-60) ; King's College, 
 London (i860) ; Cambridge (1871). 
 
 His importance lies (i) in his mathematical treatment of 
 physical problems, see 1?.^^. his Memoirs on Faraday's Lines of 
 Force, on the Stability of Saturn's Rings, on the Kinetic Theory of 
 Gases, and greater works on Heat, Electricity and Magnetism : 
 (2) in his experimental power. His work on Electricity and 
 Magnetism^ 1873, i^ said to be "one of the most splendid monu- 
 ments ever raised by the genius of a single individual." Pie 
 provided a physical theory- of electro-magnetism, overthrowing 
 the conception of action at a distance, and reducing all electric 
 and magnetic phenomena to the stresses and motions of a 
 material medium. He also made contributions to pure mathe- 
 matics, e.g.., on the transformation of surfaces by bending. 
 
 Andrew Ure, George Wilson, Samuel Brown, W. J. 
 M. Rankine, and John Scott Russell are commemorated 
 elsewhere. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORERS. 
 
 James Bruce. — Perthshire, 1730 — 1794. 
 
 African Traveller. Educated at Harrow and studied civil law, 
 etc., in University (1747). Travelled in Portugal, Spain, etc. 
 (1757, etc.); became Consul-General at Algiers ; set out for the 
 sources of the Nile in 1768, and returned to England in 1774. 
 
 Though Bruce cannot be called the discoverer of the Head of 
 the Nile, he at least traced to its source the Blue Nile — the main 
 factor in the inundations which give much of its character and 
 historic importance to the River of Egypt The accuracy of his 
 statements (roundly scouted in many cases as lies by his time- 
 fellows) has been abundantly proved. See Murray's Life pre- 
 fixed to the 1805 ed. of Bruce'' s Travels iti 1768- 1773; and 
 Playfair's Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce. 
 
 Mungo Park. — Selkirkshire, 1771 — 1805. 
 
 One of the heroes of African travel. Educated at Selkirk 
 Grammar School and at University. As gardener at Hammer- 
 smith attracted the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, and after serving 
 as assistant surgeon on board an East Indiaman was sent out by 
 the African Association. In 1796, he reached the Niger at Sego, 
 but after much hardship and danger had to return to England in 
 1797. On a second expedition, in 1805, he succeeded in making 
 his way down the river from Sansanding to Bussa, where he was 
 slain by the natives. 
 
 No progress of discovery will put out of date Park's Travels 
 in the Interior Districts of Africa (1799), which, eagerly read at 
 the time for their new facts, are no less attractive still for their 
 ever new human interest. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORERS. 
 
 "William Balfour Baikie. — Kirkwall, 1820 — 1864. 
 
 M.D. Surgeon in R. N. (from 1848) and African Explorer. 
 
 On death of Consul Beecroft (1854) took command of the 
 *' Pleiad" expedition to the Kworra and Benue, and afterwards 
 commanded the Niger expedition of 1857, and had charge for 
 several years of the Government Experimental Settlement at 
 Lukoja. He made numerous contributions to African geography 
 and philology. 
 
 William Scoresby. — Whitby, 1790 — Torquay, 1857. 
 
 Artie Explorer. Went to sea in his father's ship as a boy, 
 spent winters in study at the University ; after retirement from 
 sea entered the church, D.D., Cambridge. He surveyed a 
 large portion of coast of Greenland, made classical studies of its 
 glacial phenomena, besides valuable observations on magnetism, 
 meteorology, etc. 
 
 Sir John Richardson. — Dumfries, 1787 — Grasmere, 1865. 
 
 Arctic Explorer and Naturalist. Graduated as M.D. (1816) 
 at University ; was Surgeon and Naturalist under Franklin in 
 the 1819-22 and 1825-27 expeditions; and in 1847-49 com- 
 manded a Franklin search expedition. 
 
 Contributed natural history material to the account of 
 Franklin's expeditions, and other works of Arctic travel ; and 
 wrote Fazma Borcali Amcricatia (1831-37). 
 
 Charles Darwin and other travellers are commemorated 
 elsewhere. 
 
GEOLOGISTS. 
 
 James Hutton. — 1726— 1797. 
 
 M.D. He early abandoned medicine for agriculture, and 
 devoted the last thirty years of his' life to geological and meteoro- 
 logical studies, the outcome of which was the publication of his 
 famous Theory of the Earth and a Theory of Rain. Hutton 
 taught that all geological phenomena had been the result of 
 forces still in action, by which the crust of the globe would 
 continue to be modified in the future. He deprecated all appeals 
 to imaginary agencies, and maintained that the only sure method 
 of unravelling the past was by first studying the present. He 
 showed that most of the rock-rnasses visible at the earth's 
 surface must have been deposited in the form of gravel, sand, 
 and mud at the bottom of the sea ; that they had not been 
 accumulated continuously, layer above layer, like the coats of 
 an onion, but that now and again the bed of the sea had been 
 elevated, the strata contorted, fractured, and denuded, and 
 again submerged and covered with newer deposits formed out of 
 the debris of older accumulations. He was the first to establish 
 the former molten condition of granite and many other crystal- 
 line rocks ; and he further held that sedimentary strata deeply 
 buried in the earth's crust might, by the combined action of 
 heat and pressure, be converted into crystalline masses, and 
 such, he maintained, was the origin of the crystalline schists of 
 the Highlands, etc. Hutton taught further that the present 
 configuration of the land was due directly to the denuding action 
 of the subaerial forces — rain, frost, rivers, etc. "The moun- 
 tains," he said, "have been formed by the hollowing out of the 
 valleys, and the valleys have been hollowed out by the attrition 
 of hard materials coming from the mountains." Hutton is 
 therefore justly regarded as the founder of the ir.odern system of 
 Geology. 
 
GEOLOGISTS. 
 
 John Playfair. — 1748— 1819. 
 
 Educated for the Church at St. Andrews ; for some time a 
 minister ; in 1785 Joint-professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh ; 
 in 1805 Professor of Natural Philosophy. 
 
 In his famous Illustrations of the Hutto7iian Theory he sets 
 forth the geological views of Hutton, and supports them with 
 much originality and acvmien, so giving a great impetus to the 
 study of physical geology. His style, clear and incisive, vigorous, 
 but always under control, vivacious but refined, is a model which 
 later writers on scientific subjects Irave seldom approached and 
 never surpassed. He discerned the glacial origin of the large 
 erratics from the Alps which are scattered over the J^ua, thus 
 anticipating the later generalisations of glacial geology. 
 
 Sir James Hall. — 1761 — 1832. 
 
 Author of a work on Gothic Architecture, but best known by 
 his Papers on Experimental Geology in the Trans, of the Roy. 
 Soc, Edinburgh. By ingenious physical experiments, he cor- 
 roborated some of the most disputed doctrines taught by 
 Hutton. His work is still highly appreciated, especially by 
 foreign geologists, by whom he is considered the founder of 
 Experimental Geology. 
 
 Robert Jameson. — 1774 — 1834. 
 
 Studied Natural History under Walker in Edinburgh, and 
 subsequently spent two years in Freyberg under the tuition of 
 Werner. In 1804 was appointed to the Chair of Natural History. 
 
 Was an enthusiastic follower of Werner, and an excellent 
 teacher. Although a disciple of Werner, and opponent of 
 Hutton, he yet modified some of the views held by his master, 
 maintaining that in determining geological formations the evidence 
 supplied by fossil organic remains was as essential as that 
 furnished by mineralogical and petrological characters. He was 
 joint founder with Brewster, and Editor of the Edinburgh 
 Philosophical Magazine, and also founded the Wernerian Society. 
 
 John MacCulloch.-— 1773— 1835. 
 
 M.D. Chemist to the Board of Ordnance in 1803. 
 The results of prolonged investigation into the Mineralogy and 
 Petrology of the Western Islands of Scotland placed MacCulloch 
 
 B 
 
lo GEOLOGISTS. 
 
 in the fronl rank of his geological contemporaries. In 1826, he 
 N\ as commissioned by Government to prepare a Geological Map 
 of Scotland, which was completed, but not published till after his 
 death. He will always be remembered from the fact that he 
 was the first to trace out the distribution of the various rock- 
 masses of Scotland with some approach to accuracy. 
 
 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder.- 1748— 184S. 
 
 Author of a Paper On the Parallel Roads of Glenroy and of the 
 well-known Account of the Great Moray Floods of i2>2g, a work 
 still frequently referred to by writers en Physical Geology. 
 
 Sir William Logan. — Montreal, 1798 — Llechryd, 1875. 
 
 Studied at High School and University. Associated with Sir 
 Henr}'- de la Beche in the Geological Survey of South Wales 
 Coalfield. Appointed in 1842 to be Director of the Geological 
 Survey of Canada. 
 
 Author of numerous papers, etc., on Geological subjects. 
 Was the first to point out that the underclays upon which coal- 
 seams rest are ancient soils ; recognized the true position of the 
 Huronian strata, and showed that these are later than a great 
 series of metamorphic rocks, which he designated the Latircntian; 
 was the first to recognize the organic origin of Eozoon Cana- 
 dw-nse ; and in 1871 endowed the Logan Chair of Geology in the 
 M'Gill University. 
 
 Hugh Falconer. — Forres, 1808 — London, 1865. 
 
 King's College, Aberdeen, M.A., 1826; Edinburgh, M.D., 
 1829. In 1830 went to India as an Assistant-Surgeon in 
 II. E. I. C. S. In 1832 Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens 
 at Suharunpoor. In 1847 Professor of Botany in the Calcutta 
 Medical College. 
 
 Author of many botanical papers relating chiefly to the flora 
 of India. His most important work was the discovery and 
 description of the organic remains of the Sewalik Hills ; was dis- 
 tinguished for his researches on the Quaternary Mammalia of 
 Europe ; and was the foremost palaeontologist of his day in 
 Britain. The Falconer Fellowship was founded in his memor}'. 
 
GEOLOGISTS. ii 
 
 Thomas Oldham. — Dublin, 1816 — Rugby, 1878. 
 
 Studied at Trinity College and Edinburgh, 1832-1838. 
 Joined Geological Department of the Ordnance Survey of Ire- 
 land in 1839. Director of the Irish Geological Survey in 1846. 
 In 1845 Professor of Geology in the University, Dublin; in 1848 
 President of the Geo). Soc. of Dublin. In 1850 went to India 
 as vSuperintendent of the Geological Survey there. 
 
 Oldham's most important works are the reports published by 
 the Geological Survey of India, some of the memoirs in which 
 were personally contributed by him, such as one On the Fossil 
 Flora of the Raj mahal Series^ and his Essay On the Coal Resource's 
 cf India. 
 
 Edward Forbes. — Isle of Man, 1815 — Edinburgh, 1854. 
 
 Matriculated in Edinburgh University in 1S31. Author of 
 many papers and works on Natural History. Appointed 
 Paleontologist to the Geological Survey in 1844, and obtained 
 the Chair of Natural History in Edinburgh University in 1854. 
 
 Forbes's work has greatly influenced the progress of Geology. 
 Girted with a fine imagination and conspicuous for the philo- 
 sophical breadth of his conceptions, he brought his great stores 
 of zoological and botanical knowledge to bear upon many 
 questions in historical geology. His admirable work on the 
 Fhivio-viarine Tertiaries of the Isle of Wight established the 
 order of succession of those deposits, and formed a model for 
 subsequent investigation. But it was by his paper On the Con- 
 nection between the Distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora 
 of the British Islands and the Geological Changes zvhich have 
 affected this area, that Forbes will continue to be best known to 
 geological inquirers. Some of the views advanced in this 
 celebrated memoir have been set aside by later observations, 
 while others have been more or less modified, but the lines of his 
 inquiry, his m.ethods of investigation, the boldness and origin- 
 ality of his conceptions, the philosophical breadth of his general- 
 izations — in a word, his insight into the working of nature are 
 instinct with genius, and will ever be suggestive to those ardent 
 minds, whose instincts impel them to be something more than 
 mere collectors of dry facts. 
 
 Robert Harkness. — Ormskirk, 1816 — Dublin, 1879. 
 
 Student, 1833-4. Professor of Geology, Queen's College, 
 Cork, 1853. 
 
12 GEOLOGISTS, 
 
 His chief papers, published in the Quart. Journ. of the Geol. 
 Soc, relate to the Palaeozoic rocks of the north of England, and 
 the southern uplands of Scotland. He was distinguished for his 
 power of rapidly unravelling the geological structure of a region. 
 
 Sir Roderick Irnpey Murchison.— Tarradale, Ross-shire, 
 1792 — Lor don, 187 1. 
 
 Studied at the Royal Military College, (-veat Marlow, and for 
 a short time at Edinburgh. Became a geologist in middle age. 
 Director-General of the Geological Survey in 1855. 
 
 Author of more than a hundred papers on Geology, His 
 most important works are The Silurian System^ 1S39 ; The 
 Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains^ 1845 ; and Siluria, 
 1854. He defined the Silurian System ai:d the Permian System, 
 and established the fact of a graduated transition from secondary 
 to tertiary rocks in the South-east Alps, etc. ; was the first to 
 recognise that the gneissic rocks of the North-west Highlands of 
 Scotland are the oldest in Britain ; and inferred the presence of 
 auriferous deposits in Australia long years before their actual 
 discovery. Murchison was pre-eminent for the skill with which 
 lie could read the geological structure of a country. Founded 
 the Murchison Chair of Geology and Mineralogy. 
 
 David Forbes. — Douglas, Isle of Man, 1828— London, 1876. 
 
 Author of many papers and lectures on Metallurgy, Mineralogy 
 and Geology. His geological papers deal largely with the phy- 
 sico-chemical changes in rocks ; those relating to the origin of 
 foliation being especially suggestive, Forbes travelled much in 
 S. America (1857-1S60), and afterwards published his important 
 paper On the Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru, in which 
 amongst other interesting conclusions he shows that vast masses 
 of rock have been metamorphosed, and delineates '*the grand 
 cycles of physical and chemical changes which accompany the 
 evolution of mountain-ranges on the grandest scale," 
 
 John Allan Broun, T. Makdougall Brisbane, 
 John ^Welsh, and other Meteorologists, are also worthy of 
 remembrance. 
 
 Charles William Wells, James David Forbes, and 
 Charles Darwin arc commemorated elsewhere. 
 
ZOOLOGISTS AND BOTANISTS. 
 
 Erasmus Darwin. — Elton, Nottinghamshire, 1731 — Derby, 
 1802. 
 
 Studied Arts in Cambridge, and Medicine in Edinburgh. 
 
 Endowed with the most extraordinary insight and originality, 
 in his works entitled Zoonomia, or Lazvs of Organic Life and 
 The Botanic Garden^ he anticipated many modern opinions on 
 physiological and pathological questions, predicted the impor- 
 tance of microscopic studies, and gave many other instances 
 of speculative genius and prophetic capacity, contemptuously 
 termed " Darwinising " by his contemporaries. He propounded 
 independently views like those of Goethe and Lamarck, 
 emphasizing the modification of species through function, habit, 
 environment, and heredity, and was the great forerunner of his 
 grandson. 
 
 His eldest son, Charles (stud. med. 1775-8), died of a dissecting 
 wound at the outset of a career of the most brilliant scientific 
 promise. 
 
 Charles 'Wm. 'Wells.— Charleston, 1757— London, 1817. 
 
 M.D., Edinburgh. 
 
 Chiefly memorable for his classical essay on Deiv, termed by 
 Herschel "one of the most beautiful specimens of inductive 
 experimental inquiry." One of his papers contains an anticipa- 
 tion of the theory of natural selection. 
 
 Robert Kaye Greville. — Bishop Auckland, 1794 — Edin. 
 1866. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh and London. 
 
 As collector, systeriiatist, and artist, he added greatly to our 
 knowledge of the cryptogamic lloro, and is commemorated by 
 "Grevillea." 
 
14 ZOOLOGISTS AND BOTANISTS. 
 
 Robert Brow^n. — Montrose, 1773 — London, 1858, 
 
 Student, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Keeper of the Depart- 
 ment of Botany, British Museum. 
 
 His first great contribution to science was an account of the 
 Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, which he had 
 visited as exploring naturalist. This and succeeding works 
 began a new era in systematic botany, disclosinsj; the hitherto 
 undetermined affinities of various groups, and finally establishing 
 the Natural System. Uniting power of patient special research 
 with that of broad generalisation, "he unravelled with true 
 morphological insight many structural complexities, such as 
 those of Conifers and Cycads, Orchids and ProteacccC ; and by his 
 anatomiical researches, e.g. on fertilisation, and on the structure 
 of the ovule, and his demonstration of the affinities of the 
 Gymnosperms, earned Humboldt's famous eulogium ■' facile 
 princeps botanicorr.m.' " 
 
 Robert Grant. — Edin. 1793 — London, 1874. 
 
 M.D., Edinburgh; Prof. Comp. Anat. and Zool., Univ. Coll., 
 London. 
 
 He is best known for his researches on the structure and 
 economy of the Sponges. From the first an evolutionist, he 
 taught as early as 1826, that species are descended from other 
 species by persistent modification. 
 
 Kdward Forbes. — Douglas, Isle of Man, 1815 — Edin. 1S54. 
 
 Student, Edinburgh and Paris, Prof. Nat. Hist., School of 
 Mines, London, and in Edinburgh. 
 
 His early labours consisted in the investigation of the fauna 
 and flora of various regions which he visited, such as Algiers, 
 Styria, Aegean Sea, Lycia, etc. His observations were those of 
 a naturalist in the widest sense, and were ever united with 
 generalisations as to the influence of climate, environment, and 
 geological changes on the organisms discussed. He first investi- 
 gated systematically the bathymetrical range of marine organisms, 
 and was one of the earliest and most important students of dis- 
 tribution. As a geologist, he is separately commemorated. 
 
ZOOLOGISTS AND BOTANISTS. 15 
 
 Sir C. 'Wyville Thomson. — Linlithgow, 1830 — 1882. 
 
 Professor in Aberdeen (1851) ; Cork (1853) ; Belfast (1854) ; 
 and Edinburgh (1870). 
 
 Known by researches on Echinoderm embryology, but specially 
 identified with that series of investigations of the fauna of the 
 deep sea, which culminated in the voyage of the Challenger, 
 1 872- 1 876, Of this expedition he was Scientific Director : wrote 
 accounts of this and former cruises, and was engaged up till his 
 death in editing the " Scientific Results."' 
 
 Charles Robert Darwin. — Shrewsbury, 1809— Down, 
 Kent, 1882. 
 
 Student of Natural Science in Edinburgh (1825-27), and in 
 Cambridge (1827-30). Member of the University Plinian 
 Society, to which he contributed his earliest papers. 
 
 The results of that circunmavigatory voyage in the " Beagle," 
 which he made in 183 1 -6, were embodied in the imperishable 
 Naticralisf s Voyage and in a series of geological and zoological 
 works, among which may be mentioned The Structure and Dis- 
 tribution of Coral Reefs, Geological Observations in South America, 
 and Monograph of the Cirripedia. In 1859 he published the 
 Origin of Species, in which he finally excluded the Linnoean dogma 
 of the constancy of species, and with it the special creation hypo- 
 thesis, shewed systematically that evolution is the niodal explana- 
 tion of the origin of organic beings, and defined the action of 
 various factors in the process, laying special emphasis on Natural 
 Selection. Referring evolution mainly to the interaction of the 
 laws of variation and heredity, he illustrated on the one hand 
 the influence of function and environment in producing modi- 
 fications, and on the other, the operation of natural and sexual 
 selection in preserving and perpetuating them. "All the 
 previously unco-ordinated and often divergent lines of biological 
 research and generalisation were now unified ; all the enigmas 
 of structure and function which refused to be harmonised by 
 the ' type theory ' were solved ; the labours of the systematist, 
 palaeontologist, and the embryologist alike acquired new meaning 
 and importance ; ontogeny found its explanation and complement 
 in phylogeny ; and indeed the whole of biology crystallised around 
 a new centre. " 
 
 In his later works he extended and applied this supreme 
 generalisation to almost all departments of the natural histor)' 
 sciences. His contributions to botany include not only 
 
1 6 ZOOLOGISTS AND BOTANISTS. 
 
 important physiological monographs, such as those on Insect- 
 ivorous Plants and on Plant-Movements, or those researches on 
 Flower Fertilisation in which he resuscitated the forgotten 
 labours of Sprengel, and shewed how the forms of. flowers largely 
 result from the various methods of their fertilisation, but those 
 revolutionising conceptions of development and distribution 
 which he applied to vegetable as well as to animal organisms. 
 In his Descent of Man and Variation of Plants and Ajiimals 
 under Domestication, he followed out with the greatest detail 
 certain other lines of research indicated in the Origin of Species^ 
 while in his work on The Expression of the Emotions the far- 
 radiating influence of his doctrines was illustrated in relation to 
 Psychology. 
 
 Plis works not only furnish a model of patient observation 
 and scientific method, of the minute analyses and vast syntheses 
 which distinguish an ideal naturalist, but have led to that entire 
 change in our conception of the past and future of the world's 
 history which is suggested by the term Evolution. 
 
 Among others, the following are also of honourable memory: — 
 
 Sir Robert Sibbald {d. 1712). Founder of the Botanic 
 Garden. 
 
 Sir James E. Smith {d. 1828). Systematist, and Founder 
 
 of the Linnsean Society. 
 
 John Fleming {d. 1851). Author of the Philosophy of 
 Zoology. 
 
 "W. Macgillivray [d. 1852). Author of the History of British 
 Birds. 
 
 H. D. S. Goodsir. Naturalist, lost with Sir John Franklin. 
 
 George Johnston {d. 1855). Zoologist, Author of History 
 of British ZoopJiytes. 
 
 George 'Walker Arnott {d. 1868). Cryptogamist and 
 Systematist. 
 
 Thomas Anderson (</. 1870). Botanist, and initiator of 
 quinine-growing in India. 
 
 William Baird ((I. 1872). Carcinologist. 
 
ZOOLOGISTS AND BOTANISTS. 17 
 
 Sir "William Jardine {d. 1874). Ornithologist, and Editor 
 of Naturalist'' s Library. 
 
 T. Strethill Wright {d. 1876). Investigator of the Coclen- 
 terata. 
 
 Andre^w Murray {d. 1878). Entomologist, Botanist, and 
 Distributionist. 
 
 Hevs/'ett Cotrell "Watson. Topographical and Geogra- 
 phical Botanist. 
 
 George Dickie [d. 1S82). Algologist. 
 
 "Wm. Lauder Lindsay {d. 1883). Lichenologist and 
 Animal Psychologist. 
 
 John Hutton Balfour {d. 18S4). Teacher and Syste- 
 matist. 
 
ANATOMISTS x\ND PHYSIOLOGISTS. 
 
 Alexander Monro. — London, 1697 — 1767. 
 
 Generally known as Monro privnis. The son of John Monro 
 (a retired Army Surgeon, Deacon of the Incorporation of 
 Surgeons in 17 12-13, ^°<i generally regarded as the true founder 
 of the University Medical School). Studied in Edinburgh, and 
 afterwards with Cheselden in London, Bouquet in Paris, and 
 Boerhaave in Leyden. Appointed Professor of Anatomy, 1720, 
 and resigned in 1759. 
 
 As a teacher of Anatomy he was widely celebrated, and his 
 published works are "full of thought and fact." His great 
 work on Osteology went through eight editions in his life-time, 
 and was translated into most European languages. It has been 
 truly said of him : " He had to do a new thing in Edinburgh, to 
 teach Anatomy, and to provide for the study of it, in a town of 
 then only thirty thousand inhabitants, and in a half-civilised and 
 politically disturbed country; he had to gather in students, to 
 persuade others to join with him in teaching, and to get an 
 Infirmary built. All this he did, and at the same time esta- 
 blished his fame, not only as a teacher but as a man of science, 
 and gave a name to the Edinburgh School, which benefited still 
 more the generation which followed hiin. This really great and 
 good man, therefore, well earned the title often given him of 
 Father of the Edinburgh Medical School. " 
 
 Alexander Monro. — 1733 — 1817. 
 
 Son of the preceding, commonly known as Monro sccimdus. 
 Vv'hen twenty-one years of age appointed colleague and successor 
 to his father, on the understanding that he was specially to study 
 Anatomy abroad. After graduating the following year, he 
 accordingly spent three years in study with William Hunter in 
 London, with Albinus in Leyden, and with Meckel in Berlin. 
 
ANATOMISTS AND PHYSIOLOGISTS, 19 
 
 He became sole Professor of Anatomy in 1759, obtained his 
 son as colleague and successor in 1798, and retired in 1808. 
 
 Successful and famous both as teacher and discoverer, and 
 author of numerous works on Human and Comparative Anatomy, 
 still frequently referred to. 
 
 Sir Charles Bell. — Edin. 1774 — 1842. 
 
 Was trained to Anatomy and Surgery by his brother, John 
 Bell. He entered the College of Surgeons in 1799, and taught 
 Anatomy there till 1804, when he went to London, Professor 
 of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surger}', R.CS., Eng. In 1836 
 he accepted the Edinburgh Chair of Surgery. 
 
 Distinguished alike as an Anatomist and as a Surgeon, he is, 
 however, most renowned as a Physiologist. To appreciate fully 
 the importance of his discoveries, it would be necessary "to 
 imagine ourselves ignorant not only of all we know cf the 
 functions of the various cerebro-spinal nerves, but even of the 
 fact that there are distinct nerves for motion and for sensation." 
 His works were numerous, among the more famous being The 
 Anatomy of Expression (1806) ; The Bridgezuatcr Treatise on the 
 Hand (1835) ; and many on the Nervous System. 
 
 John Barclay. — Perthshire, 1760 — Edin. 1826. 
 
 Educated for the ministry, but afterwards studied medicine, 
 graduating in 1796. 
 
 The contemporary and rival of Monro sectindiis and the two 
 Bells, he was the first to devote his whole time to Anatomy, and 
 attained considerable success as a teacher. Single handed he 
 formed an important museum, still preserved by the College of' 
 Surgeons, and wrote several works, of which the most important 
 are The Aluscular Movements of the Hii/na7i Body (1S08) ; and a 
 Description of the Arteries (1812). 
 
 Robert Knox. — Edin. 1791 — London, 1862. 
 
 M.D., 1814. For a time a Surgeon in the Army; he after- 
 wards studied in Paris, and finally settled in Edinburgh in 1820, 
 where he became the successor of John Barclay as Teacher of 
 Anatomy. Afterwards removed to London. 
 
 He was a brilHant teacher and writer; and, endowed with true 
 morphological insight, he rendered great service by his systematic 
 application of Comparative to Human Anatomy. 
 
20 ANATOMISTS AND PHYSIOLOGISTS. 
 
 Marshall Hall. — Nottingham, 1790 — Brighton, 1838. 
 
 Student in Edinburgh, and on the Continent. Pres. Roy. Med. 
 Soc. (1811-12). M.D. 1812. He removed to London in 1826. 
 
 His researches on the General Physiology of the Nervous 
 System, and especially on Reflex Action, were of especial 
 importance. He was the author of numerous important works 
 on these and kindred subjects. 
 
 John Reid. — Bathgate, 1S09 — St. Andrews, 1849. 
 
 M.D., 1830. Afterwards Professor of Anatomy in St. Andrews. 
 
 He investigated the spiral fibres of the heart, and demonstrated 
 their m.ode of action. He was the able advocate and defender of 
 Kellie's views on the cranial circulation ; he studied the pheno- 
 mena of asphyxia ; but his life-work was the elucidation of the 
 functions of the glossopharyngeal and pneumogastric nerves. 
 He embodied his discoveries in his Experimental Investigations 
 of the Nerves. 
 
 Martin Barry. — Hampshire, 1802 — Suftblk, 1855. 
 
 M.D., 1833. Pres. Roy. Med. Soc. along with John Reid 
 and James Young Simpson. 
 
 Worked at microscopic anatomy, with great success, investiga- 
 ting, among other subjects, the structure of the blood corpuscles 
 and the nature of cilia. But it is as an Embiyologist that he is 
 chiefly memorable, for to him we owe our knowledge of the 
 development, structure, and fertilisation of the mammalian ovum. 
 
 John Goodsir. — Anstruther, 1814 — Edin. 1867. 
 
 Student under Knox and Jameson in Edinburgh, and Professor 
 of Anatomy. 
 
 Besides numerous anatomical and physiological and zoolo- 
 gical researches, e.g.^ on the Thymus, Thyroid and Suprarenal 
 i)odies, on glands, on Amphioxus, etc., he investigated the 
 development and structure of teeth. A profound and specu- 
 lative thinker in all departments of biology, he was among the 
 first to interest himself in promorphological inquiries, to 
 emphasize the persistence and essential character of the nucleus 
 as a ''centre of nutrition," and to apply the nascent "cell- 
 theory " lo Pathology. 
 
ANATOMISTS AND PHYSIOLOGISTS. 21 
 
 "Williara Sharpey. — Arbroath, 1802 — London, 1880. 
 
 Student, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Berlin, and Prof, Anat. 
 and Physiol. Univ. Coll. London. 
 
 He first defined the nature, use, and distribution of Cilia, and 
 investigated the minute structure and growth of bone ; but is 
 especially memorable for the extraordinary personal influence 
 and power of organisation which have given so great impulse to 
 physiological studies in Britain. 
 
 Allen Thomson. — Edin., 1809 — London, 1884. 
 
 Studied at the High School ; M.D., 1830; Lecturer on Ana- 
 tomy, 1831 ; Professor of Anatomy in Aberdeen, 1839; of 
 Physiology in Edinburgh, 1842 ; of Anatomy in Glasgow, 1848- 
 
 1877. 
 
 From his student days he gave great attention to Embryology, 
 and largely contributed to the progress of that branch of Biology. 
 As a teacher, he occupied a foremost place, and to the descriptive 
 side of Anatomy he made many additions. 
 
 John Bell and other distinguished Anatomists and Physio- 
 logists are commemorated elsewhere. 
 
HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 
 
 David Calderwood. — 1575— Jedburgh, 1650, and 
 
 John Row. — Perth, 1568 — 1648. 
 
 Each was author of a History of the Church of Scotland, and 
 accumulated a vahiable store of materials for subsequent refer- 
 
 Sir George Mackenzie. — Dundee, 1636 — Westminster, 
 1 69 1. Buried in Greyfriars, Edinburgh. 
 
 Named *' Bluidy Mackenzie," for his share in the administration 
 of Charles II. 
 
 As Dean of Faculty of Law, he gave the Inaugural Address at 
 the foundation of the Advocates' Library. A light and graceful 
 essayist and poet, and author of works of great historic value. 
 Of these the best known are his Discourse upon the Laivs and 
 Customs of Scotland in ?natters Criminal (1678), Observations 
 upon the Acts of Parliament (1686), A Vindication of the Govern- 
 ment of Scotland ufider Charles II., and the Jus RegiuJUy A 
 Defence of the Doctrine of Prerogative. 
 
 ^William Robertson — Borthwick, 1721 — Edin. 1793. 
 
 Student (1733) ; Principal (1762). One of principal founders 
 of the Royal Society. 
 
 His History of Scotland {i'j^()) displayed wide research, great 
 skill in handling details, and considerable graphic power. Of 
 his principal remaining works, A History of Charles V., A History 
 of America, and a Treatise upon India, his introduction to the 
 first named is of especial value, as giving a general survey of the 
 institutions and growth of mediaeval society. He is best denned 
 as one of the precursors of the scientific treatment of history, 
 and the immediate forerunner of Gibbon. 
 
HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 
 
 Adam Ferguson. — Logierait, Perthshire, 1723 — St. 
 Andrews, 1 8 16. 
 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy (1759), and of Moral Philo- 
 sophy (1764). 
 
 In various ethical works he endeavoured to frame a vague 
 eclecticism from the theories of Hobbes, Hume, Hutcheson, 
 Smith, and Montesquieu. His more important works are his 
 Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), and a History of 
 the Progress ajtd Termiiiation of the Roman Republic (1784), 
 the former a work of considerable merit. 
 
 Lord Hailes (Sir David Dalrymple). — Edin. 1726 — 
 1792. 
 
 An eminent lawyer and historian. 
 
 More careful in the accumulation than in the literary treatment 
 of facts. Chief works: Afinals of Scotland from Malcohfi Can- 
 more to Accession of Hotise of Stuart (1776- 1779), several volumes 
 on Christian Antiquities^ some editions of the Fathers, a 
 Criticism of Gibbon'' s Secondary Causes, etc. 
 
 James Boswell. — Edin., 1740 — London, 1795. 
 
 Studied at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Utrecht. 
 
 From his earliest days betrayed a weakness for meeting great 
 men, and became a member of the famous literary club which 
 Johnson founded. To his hero-worshipping propensities we 
 owe the work which has conferred upon him lasting fame. His 
 Life of Johnso7i, as it was the first biography of its kind, so is it 
 still the best. Boswell had the rare gift of allowing his char- 
 acters to speak for themselves, yet of connecting these by a 
 thread of narrative, which gave his work its artistic unity. He 
 is the prince of biographers.- 
 
 Alexander Fraser Tytler. — Edin. 1747 — 1813. 
 
 Student and Professor. 
 
 A universal historian of some merit, and author of several legal 
 and critical treatises. His father, William Tytler, and son, 
 Patrick Fraser Tytler, also gave evidence of historiographic 
 ability, the former in his defence of Queen Mary, the latter in his 
 History of Scotland, Biographies of Crichton, Craig, Raleigh, 
 Henry VII., etc. 
 
24 HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 
 
 James Currie. — Ecclefechan, 1756 — Sidmouth, 1805. 
 
 M.D. Student of medicine at Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
 Became acquainted with Burns, 1792. 
 
 Edited Burns' Works and wrote his life, for the benefit of the 
 poet's widow and family. According to Carlyle, "the first and 
 kindest of all our poet's biographers." 
 
 Malcom Laing. — Mainland, Orkney, 1762 — 1818. 
 
 Author of a History of Scotland hoxa. the accession of James 
 VI. to the reign of Queen Anne, and editor of the Ossianic 
 Poeins. 
 
 Thomas M'Crie. — Duns, 1772 — Edin. 1835. 
 
 Student, 1788. First dissenter to receive degree of D.D. 
 
 His chief work, The Life of Joh7i Knox, is full of hearty 
 sympathy with the hero's deeds and character, displays wide 
 research into contemporaneous history combined with skilful 
 handling of materials, though somewhat one-sided in its critical 
 estimates of men and events. In the controversy between M'Crie 
 and Sir Walter Scott concerning the portraiture of the Covenanters 
 in "Old Mortality," the great novelist is generally allowed to 
 have come off second best. 
 
 Barthold Georg Niebuhr. — Copenhagen, 1776 — Bonn, 
 1S31. 
 
 Studied at Kiel, 1794-96; at Edinburgh, 1788-89. He 
 lectured at Berlin in 1810 ; Prussian Ambassador at Rome in 
 1816-23 ; Professor at Bonn thereafter. 
 
 He was one of the most acute and influential of modern 
 historians and critics, and his great work on Roman history 
 created an epoch throughout the field of historical investigation. 
 
 Henry Dundas Cockburn. — Edin. 1779 — Edin. 1854. 
 
 Student, Member of Speculative Society, Solicitor-General of 
 Scotland (1831), and Judge in Court of Session (1834). 
 
 Biographer of Lord Jeffrey (1852), and author of Memoirs of 
 my Times ^ published posthumously in 1856. 
 
HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 25 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison— Kenley, Shropshire, 1792— Glasgow, 
 1867. 
 
 Author of a History of Etii'ope from the time of the French 
 Revolution — a work of some research and interest. Also author 
 of works on the Principles of Population, and on Criminal Law ; 
 Biographer of Marlborough, Castlereagh, etc. 
 
 John Gibson Lockhart. — Lanarkshire, 1794 — 1854. 
 
 A leading contributor to Blackwood, and Editor of Quarterly 
 Review. Translator of Spanish Ballads into stirring English 
 verse, and able Biographer of Napoleon 1829, Burns 1838, 
 and Sicott 1836-8. The last a permanent classic. 
 
 Cosmo Innes. — Durris, 1798 — Killin, 1874. 
 
 Professor of History, 1846. 
 
 As a laborious student of public records and contemporary 
 documents, he accumulated materials of great historic value. 
 He was one of the first authorities on Scottish Legal Antiquities, 
 and author, amongst other works, of Scotland in t/ie Middle 
 Ages, and o( Sketches of Early Scottish History. 
 
 J. F. M'Lennan. 
 
 Anthropologist, and author of Primitive Marriage. 
 
 "William Mure of Galdvsrell. — 1799— 1860. 
 
 Educated at Westminster, Edinburgh, and in Germany, His 
 travels in Greece quickened his classical knowledge. 
 
 His life-work — A Critical History of the Language and Litera- 
 ture of Ancient Greece, 5 vols. By the author's death it was 
 left unfinished, the 6th vol. bringing his survey down to the 
 Attic Drama. He entered fully into the Homeric Question, and 
 after an exhaustive analysis remained convinced of the substan- 
 tial unity of the Homeric Poems as we now have them. The 
 work commended itself to scholars by its acute and cogent 
 reasoning, its fresh treatment of world-old theories, its bright 
 and animated style. 
 
 D 
 
26 HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 
 
 George Finlay. — Faversham, Kent, 1799 — Athens, 1875. 
 
 Failing in the forcible attempt under Byron to remedy the 
 condition of modern Greece, he took upon himself what he terms 
 " the sterile task of recording its misfortunes." 
 
 Chief work — History of the Greeks under Foreign Dofnina- 
 tion, and of the Greek Revolution, 7 vols. Finlay is a recognised 
 authority on the history of mediaeval and modern Greece. His 
 work gives evidence of wide and accurate scholarship, while 
 through it all there breathes warm sympathy with the struggles 
 of the Greeks for independence. 
 
 John Hill Burton. — Aberdeen, 1809 — Edin. 1882. 
 
 M.A., Aberdeen. Admitted to Scottish Bar, 1831. Soon 
 abandoned law for the more congenial field of letters. Historio- 
 grapher Royal for Scotland. 
 
 His ?nagnum opus is his Hist07-y of Scotland from Agricolas 
 Invasion to the Revolution of 1688 — a work of classic rank, 
 acknowledged on all hands to be the History of Scotland, not 
 likely to be superseded for many years to come. To the accom- 
 plishment of his great task. Hill Burton brought the rare com- 
 bination of scrupulous research into the minutest details, a well- 
 balanced and judicial mind, and a gift of style at once picturesque 
 and dignified. His other works of note are The Book Hunter, 
 full of genial "quips and cranks," The Scot Abroad, and the 
 interesting and invaluable Life and Co7-respondence of David 
 Hume, also a History of the Reign of Queen Amu. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. — Ecclefechan, 1795 — Chelsea, 1881. 
 
 Studied arts here, 1809-15; divinity afterwards; and law, 
 1818-19; Lord Rector, 1865-68. 
 
 At once essayist, biographer, historian, and moral teacher, 
 Carlyle stands foremost amongst the English writers of the nine- 
 teenth century. As historian, he made it his task to disentangle 
 from the chaos of incidents the vital forces that mould life and 
 make history. To this work he brought a power of thorough 
 and laborious research, a profound and keen insight, a faculty 
 of sympathy or disapproval almost too passionate ; and he 
 enforced his conceptions of character and events on his readers 
 with a vivid descriptive power unsurpassed in literature, with a 
 wealth of illustration, and with a full command of pathos and 
 humour. As a preacher of righteousness, he deeply stirred the 
 
HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 27 
 
 hearts of two generations of English-speaking men, though few of 
 those who have learned most from him will accept his maxims of 
 practical politics. He contradicted many traditional beliefs, 
 and ran counter to most current opinions, not by way of paradox, 
 but from fixed conviction ; for though he constructed no articu- 
 late scheme of belief, and held lightly all elaborate systems, 
 there is hardly a page of the eighty-four volumes of his works 
 that does not plainly bear the impress of his characteristic mode 
 of thought, couched in language as original — pithy, pregnant, 
 and graphic, with a rugged rhythm, all his own. 
 
 Notable amongst his works are the essays, translations, and 
 lectures by which he first familiarised Englishmen with modern 
 German literature : a translation of Legendre's Geometry ; 
 Sartor Resartus ; his great "prose epic," The French Revolu- 
 tion; Heroes and Hero- Worship ; Past and P?'esent ; Oliver 
 CromwelVs Letters and Speeches ; The Latter-Day Pamphlets ; 
 The Life of John Sterling ; and A History of Frederick the Great. 
 
PHILOLOGISTS. 
 
 Lord Monboddo. — 1714 — 1799. 
 
 Studied at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Groningen. 
 
 In his Origi7i and Progress of Language he strangely anticipates 
 some of the methods and results of recent philology and anthro- 
 pology. 
 
 John ^Wilson. — 1804 — 1875. 
 
 Studied for the Church. Indian Missionary, Vice-Chancellor 
 of Bombay University. 
 
 He was a thorough master of the language of Western India, 
 and had a vast and scholarly knowledge of the literature, history, 
 and faiths of Indian races. He wrote on The Parsi Religion 
 and India Three Thousaiid Years Ago. 
 
 John Muir. — 1810 — 1S82. 
 
 Studied at Glasgow and at Haileybury, and was in the Indian 
 Civil Service from 1828- 1853. 
 
 As founder of the Chair of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, 
 he is closely connected with the University. He was an accom- 
 plished Sanskritist, a zealous student of the history of religions. 
 His great work, a monument of learning, is the Original Sans- 
 krit Texts on the Origifi and History of the People of India, 
 their Religion and Institutions. 
 
 William Ramsay. — 1806 — 1865. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh and at Cambridge ; Prof, of Humanity 
 at Glasgow. 
 
 He was a distinguished classical scholar and a very influential 
 teacher. He is known for his Manual of Roman Antiquities, 
 his Manual of Latin Prosody, and his edition of the Mostellaria 
 of Plautus. 
 
 John Leyden and others are commemorated elsewhere. 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 David Hume, — Edin. 171 1 — Edin. 1776. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, 1723-8. Visited France 1763-6, and 
 met Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, Buffon, and others. 
 
 In the Treatise on Human Nature (1739), following Locke in 
 deriving all knowledge from experience, he makes a rediictio ad 
 absurdiwi of the Idealism of Berkeley by applying to subjective 
 conceptions a criticism similar to that which had resolved the 
 world of matter into an abstraction. "Mind," he said, "existed 
 only as a series of impressions." Such scepticism had a disin- 
 tegrating effect on the old metaphysics, preparing the way for 
 the work of Kant, especially on the side of the theory of know- 
 ledge. He may also be regarded as having prepared the way 
 for the modern doctrine which justifies the hypothesis of the 
 existence of matter on the ground of its affording the only con- 
 sistent explanation of phenomena, and which regards mind as a 
 generalized expression of the functions of an organism. He 
 further initiated the scientific definition of cause as the sum of 
 antecedent conditions, thus largely helping to supersede teleo- 
 logical speculations. In the Inquiry into the P?'inciples of 
 Morals {1751), he directs attention to the social character 
 common to all actions approved as moral, the recognition of 
 which has been the basis of most subsequent ethical theories. 
 'His History of England (1762) was long a classic. In several 
 of his Essays he made valuable contributions to the scientific study 
 of economics. (See Hill Burton's Life and Huxley's Monograph). 
 
 Dugald Stewart.-— Edin. 1753— Edin. 1828. 
 
 Studied, Edinburgh, 1765-9. Professor of Mathematics, 1775; 
 Moral Philosophy, 1785. 
 
 He followed Reid in his so-called common-sense protest against 
 the conclusions of Berkeley and Hume, and carrying forward 
 that philosopher's more thorough analysis of mental faculties gave 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 a strong impetus to psychological studies. He exerted incalcu- 
 lable influence as a great teacher on a large number of men who 
 afterwards helped to mould their generation, such as Brougham, 
 Jeffrey, and Cockburn. 
 
 James Mill. — Forfarshire, 1773 — London, 1836. 
 
 Studied, 1790-7. 
 
 After publishing the History of British India he became head 
 official of the India House. In close relation to Bentham and 
 Ricardo, he wrote much on Politics and Economics, giving the 
 impulse to the school of economists represented by his son, John 
 Stuart Mill. In his Analysis of the Htwian Mind he demon- 
 strated the importance of the principle of association in 
 Psychology, and of considerations of titility in Ethics. (See 
 Bain's Life and J. S. Mill's Autobiography.) 
 
 Thomas Brown. — Kirkcudbright, 1778 — London, 1820. 
 
 Studied, 1 792- 1803 ; Prof. Moral Philosophy, 1810-20. 
 
 While in the main following the lines of Reid and Stewart, 
 he sought to give greater simplicity and unity to their psycho- 
 logical analysis. 
 
 Sir "William Hamilton, Bart. — Glasgow, 1788 — Edin. 
 1856. 
 
 Stud. Glasgow, 1803-6 ; Edinburgh, 1806-7 ; Oxford, 1807-IO ; 
 Edinburgh, 1811-14. Prof, of Civil History, 182 1 ; Logic and 
 Metaphysics, 1836-56. 
 
 He wrote no systematic work, and his philosophy must be 
 gathered from his Lectures and Disctissio7is, and from his critical 
 edition of Reid's works, in all of which the philosophical 
 acumen and the immense learning he displays are equally 
 remarkable. His analysis of consciousness led him to regard 
 thought as a process of conditioni^ig, a definition which brought 
 into prominence the now current doctrine of the relativity of 
 knowledge ; while his conception of the infinite and the absolute 
 have helped to the view which regards these terms as artifices of 
 expression for realities which exist only subjectively. He is the 
 chief representative of the Scottish School of Philosophy. (See 
 Veitch's Life.) 
 
PHILOSOPHERS, 
 
 James Ferrier. — Edin. 1808 — St. Andrews, 1864. 
 
 Stud. Edinburgh, 1825-27 ; Oxford, 1827-31 ; Heidelberg, 
 1834. Prof, of Civil Law, 1842-45 ; St. Andrews, Mor. Phil, 
 and Pol. Econ. 1845-61. 
 
 In his Institutes of Metaphysics^ like the German transcenden- 
 talists, he sought to reach a truer synthesis than Reid and his 
 followers, by laying new stress on the subjective element 
 inseparable from all acts of knowledge. His style as a writer is 
 admirable, his brilliant lectures on Greek Philosophy being 
 specially memorable. 
 
ART 
 
ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, AND 
 TECHNOLOGISTS. 
 
 Robert Adam. — 1728— 1792. 
 
 Studied here, and subsequently spent three years in Italy. He 
 rose to high eminence as an architect, designed the present 
 University building, was appointed Architect to the King, and at 
 his death was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 John Rennie. — 1761-1821. 
 
 Student in 1780. Studied under Black and Robison, and 
 spent at college, as he himself says, the three most profitable 
 years of his life. 
 
 He was the architect of the three great London bridges, the 
 engineer of the Plymouth breakwater, and of the principal 
 London docks. He superintended the execution of several great 
 canals, of docks and bridges, in all parts of the country, and of 
 many other works of national importance. He was buried in 
 St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 Andre^w Ure. — 1778 — 1857. 
 
 M.D. Studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Published in 
 1829 System of Geology. Better known as a chemist. 
 
 Robert Stevenson. — 1772 — 1850. 
 
 Studied several sessions at Edinburgh. 
 
 His most remarkable enterprise was the erection of the famous 
 Bell Rock Lighthouse ; he in all erected twenty-three lighthouses, 
 and did much for rivers, bridges, harbours, canals, and railways. 
 
36 ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, TECHNOLOGISTS. 
 
 W. H. Playfair. 
 
 High School and University. Architect. 
 Completed University building, and erected many public 
 buildings in Edinburgh. 
 
 Robert Stephenson. — 1803 — 1859. 
 
 The son of George Stephenson. Studied natural philosophy, 
 chemistry, and geology, 1822-23. 
 
 Amongst the achievements of his engineering skill are the 
 Britannia Tubular Bridge, the great Victoria Bridge across the 
 St. Lawrence at Montreal, two bridges across the Nile at 
 Damietta, and the high level bridge at Newcastle. He was 
 buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 John Scott Russell.— 1808— 1883. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Glasgow. 
 
 Author of well-known researches on the nature of waves and 
 the resistance of fluids to motion of floating bodies. Distin- 
 guished as a naval constructor. He published an important 
 treatise on The Modern System of Naval Architecture. He 
 wrote also on Technical Education, but is too little known as an 
 educational reformer. 
 
 George Wilson. — Edin. 1818 — Calcutta, i860. 
 
 Studied 1832-37; M.D., 1839; Prof, of Technology, 1855-1860. 
 
 He wrote much and well on chemistry, technology, and 
 miscellaneous subjects. His Researches on Colour- Blindness 
 were valuable ; The Five Gateways of Knowledge is his best 
 known work. 
 
 W. J. Macquorn Rankine. — Edin. 1820 — Glasgow, 1872. 
 
 Studied in Edinburgh, Professor of Engineering in Glasgow, 
 1858. 
 
 He propounded in 1849 a "Hypothesis of Molecular Vortices," 
 from which he deduced the general equation of the mechanical 
 action of heat. Author of numerous theoretical researches of 
 fundamental importance, he was the first systematically to apply 
 the science of thermodynamics to practical questions. He 
 investigated the propulsion, resistance, etc. , of ships, the motion 
 of waves, besides numerous problems in applied mechanics. 
 
PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Archibald Pitcairne. — 1652 — 1713. 
 
 Professor of Medicine in Leyden, 1692-95, and joint-pro- 
 fessor of Medicine in Edinburgh, with Sir Robert Sibbald 
 and Dr. James Halket. 
 
 These three men did much to raise the condition of the 
 healing art in Scotland, and, amongst other useful works, 
 founded the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 168 1. 
 
 John Fothergill. — 1712 — 1788. 
 
 M.D., 1736. A distinguished London Physician, who devoted 
 himself with much success to the study of nervous diseases. 
 His name is commemorated by the Fothergillian Medal of the 
 Medical Society of London. 
 
 Robert 'Whytt. — 1712 — 1766. 
 
 M.D., Rheims, 1736; M.D., St. Andrews, 1737. Professor 
 of Institutes of Medicine and Practice of Physic in the University 
 in 1747. _ 
 
 Like Fothergill, he was one of the pioneers in the study of 
 nervous diseases, upon which subject he has left an indelible 
 mark. 
 
 ^William CuUen. — Hamilton, 1710 — 1790. 
 
 Educated at Local Grammar School, and University of 
 Glasgow. Probably received most of his professional training 
 from John Paisley, to whom he was articled as a pupil. After 
 five years practice he spent two years at the University of 
 Edinburgh, and was one of the founders of the Royal Medical 
 Society. In 1736 returned to Hamilton, where he had William 
 Hunter as a pupil ; 1740 he graduated in Glasgow, and in 1744 
 migrated thither, where he commenced to lecture on Medicine 
 (thus apparently originating the Glasgow School) ; and in 1 751 
 
38 PHYSICIANS. 
 
 was appointed to the Chair ot Practice of Physic. Became 
 Professor of Chemistry, Edinburgh, 1755, ^^^^ inaugurated the 
 teaching of Clinical Medicine. In 1766 he succeeded Robert 
 Whytt in the Chair of Institutes of Medicine, and in 1773 he 
 became Professor of Practice of Physic. 
 
 In an age given up to scholasticism, Cullen's teaching was not 
 only wonderfully free of its baseless theories, but powerfully 
 aided the introduction of the methods of positive science into 
 modern medicine ; he founded Solidism in Pathology, and his 
 doctrines were soon widely accepted. Students flocked to Edin- 
 burgh from all countries, and returned as teachers, thus spreading 
 the wide influence which he possessed upon his age. 
 
 His most important works are The First Lines of the Practice 
 of Physic (1777); Institttiions of Aledicine (1777); Synopsis 
 Nosologice Methodicce (1785); and A Treatise of the Alateria 
 Medica (1789). 
 
 John Gregory. — Aberdeen, 1724 — Edin. 1773. 
 
 The son of James Gregory, Professor of Medicine in Aberdeen 
 and founder of the medical school there ; and grandson of the 
 inventor of the reflecting telescope. M.D., Aberdeen, 1746 ; 
 studied also in Edinburgh, Leyden, and Paris. After succeeding 
 his father in Aberdeen, he was appointed in 1766 Professor of 
 Practice of Physic in Edinburgh. 
 
 His influence as a physician and as a teacher was very great. 
 His principal work is the Elements of the Practice of Physic 
 (1772). 
 
 James Gregory. — Edin. 1750 — 1822, 
 
 M.D., 1774. Son of the preceding. 
 
 Distinguished not only as the successor and exponent of 
 CuUen, but as a teacher and man of wide culture. 
 
 John Brown. — Berwickshire, 1735 — London, 1788. 
 
 Studied 1 76 1. At first assistant to Cullen. He left him to 
 lecture on a new system of medicine (mainly founded on the 
 division of all diseases into sthenic and asthenic). His theory 
 enjoyed considerable influence for many years, and had many 
 adherents, the so-called Brunonians, 
 
PHYSICIANS. 39 
 
 John Cheyne. — Leith, 1777—1836. 
 
 M.D., 1795; Artillery Surgeon, 1795-99; Pupil of John Bell; 
 Professor of Medicine to the Irish College of Surgeons, 1811. 
 
 He founded clinical teachhig in Ireland, and at his feet sat 
 Graves, Stokes, and Corrigan. He made many additions to 
 the study of disease, but these are far out-weighed by the lasting 
 results of his influence upon the Irish physicians of his time. 
 
 John Abercrombie. — Aberdeen, 1780 — Edin. 1844. 
 
 M.D., 1803. 
 
 Eminent as a philosophical physician, and author of Inquiries 
 respecting the Intellectual Powers (1830) ; Philosophy of the Moral 
 Feelings (1833), etc. 
 
 ^William Pulteney Alison. — Edin. 1790 — 1859. 
 
 Son of the Rev. Archibald Alison, Author of Essays on the 
 Nature of Taste, and Dorothea, daughter of John Gregory, 
 M.D., 181 1. Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, 1821 ; of 
 Medicine, 1842. 
 
 Beloved and revered alike by his patients and his students, he 
 was the ideal of a physician and a teacher. Author of Outlines 
 of Pathology and Practice of Medicifie, and other works, all re- 
 markable for their breadth of generalization. 
 
 Sir Henry Holland, Bart.— 1788— 1873. 
 
 Pres. Roy. Med. Soc. 1809-10, and M.D. 1810. 
 He established himself in London ; and although leaving only a 
 few remarkable essays had a wide influence in stimulating others. 
 
 Richard Bright.— 1789— 1858. 
 
 Pres. Roy. Med. Soc. 1812-13 ; M.D. 1813. 
 
 Settled in London, and became a pioneer in medical research. 
 Author of numerous important medical works, and investigator 
 of the disease which bears his name. 
 
40 PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Sir Robert Christison, Bart. — Edin. 1797 — Edin. 1882. 
 
 Son of Alexander Christison, Professor of Humanity. 
 Educated at the High School. M.D. 1S19. He afterwards 
 studied in Paris under Robiquet, Guy-Lussac, and Orfila. 
 Appointed to the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence, 1822 ; Pro- 
 fessor of Materia Medica, 1832-77. Memorable equally as one 
 of the founders of Medical Jurisprudence, and on account of va^t 
 contributions to Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 
 
 He was the author of ^ Treatise o?i Poisons (1829) ; Granular 
 Degeneration of the Kidneys (1838) ; Dispensatory ((1842). 
 
 Robert James Graves. — Dublin, 1795 — 1S53. 
 
 M.B., Dublin, 1818. Studied in Edinburgh, 1819. Prof, of 
 Institutes of Medicine, University of Dublin. A clinical teacher 
 of wonderful power, and was discoverer of the disease bearing 
 his name. 
 
 His System of Clinical Medicine^ originally published in 1843, 
 has gone through many editions. 
 
 William Stokes. — 1804— 1877. 
 
 M.D., 1825. He became Regius Professor of Physic in the 
 University of Dublin. 
 
 His works on The Diseases of the Chest and The Diseases oj 
 the Heart and the Aorta (1854) are classical. 
 
 Sir Dominic Corrigan, Bart. — Dublin, 1802 — 1880. 
 
 Like Stokes, he aided powerfully in medical progress in 
 Ireland, and was the author of many important papers. 
 
 James Hope. — Cheshire, 1801 — 1841. 
 
 M.D., 1825. Pres. Roy. Med. Soc, 1824-24. Physician to 
 St. George's Hospital, London. 
 
 His investigations, especially those upon the Circulation, have 
 Ijeen of signal service to science, and his work on the Diseases 
 of the IJeart and Great Vessels has not yet been surpassed either 
 for matter or style. 
 
PHYSICIANS. 41 
 
 Sir James Young Simpson, Bart.— Bathgate, 181 1— 
 Edinburgh, 1870. 
 
 Educated at Bathgate. M.D., 1832. Pres. Roy. Med. Soc. 
 1835-36 along with Martin Barry and John Reid. In 1 840 
 appointed Professor of Midwifery. A most distinguished and 
 memorable Obstetrician ; he introduced anaesthetics in the 
 practice of midwifery, and was the discoverer of the physio- 
 logical effects of chloroform. 
 
 John Hughes Bennett. — London, 1812— 1875. 
 
 M.D., 1837. Chair of Physiology, 1848-74. 
 
 One of the most renowned teachers of clinical medicine 
 during the present century. He inaugurated a new era in 
 medical education by the introduction of practical instruction in 
 Physiology, and gave a great impetus to clinical research. He 
 also shares with Virchow the credit of discovering the disease 
 known as leucocythsemia or leuksemia. 
 
 Charles Murchison. — Jamaica, 1830 — London, 1879. 
 
 M.D., 1851. As a clinical teacher, he was one of the ablest 
 of the century. 
 
 In addition to other works, he wrote a classical Treatise on the 
 Continued Fevers of Great Britain. 
 
SURGEONS. 
 
 Alexander Monteith. — d. 1713. 
 
 President of the College of Surgeons in 1695 ; and an early 
 and distinguished teacher of Anatomy and Chemistry. 
 
 Benjamin Bell. — Dumfries, 1749 — Edin. 1806. 
 
 Studied, London and Paris. Surgeon, Royal Infirmary, 1772. 
 
 To him belongs the merit of clearly defining Syphilis, and he 
 also taught that forms of Phthisis, Epilepsy, etc., might be due to 
 the same cause. He insisted on the value of preser\dng skin 
 when operating. He regarded access of air to wounds and 
 frequent dressing as injurious. 
 
 John Bell. — Edin. 1763 — Rome, 1820. 
 
 Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery, 1786-80; Surgeon and 
 Anatomist. 
 
 A distinguished pupil of the second Monro, was famous as a 
 teacher and operator ; and, in fact, the reformer of surgery in 
 Scotland, since the first to apply the science of Anatomy to 
 practical surgery. 
 
 James Wardrop. — Linlithgow, 1782 — London, 1869. 
 
 Studied in London and Paris. Practised in Edinburgh, and 
 afterwards in London. A distinguished oculist and surgeon. 
 
 He was the first who treated Aneurism successfully, accord- 
 ing to Brasdor's method of distal ligature. He published a 
 beautifully illustrated work on The Morbid Anatomy of the 
 Human Eye (1808), and a work On Aneurism in 1828. 
 
SURGEONS. 43 
 
 Robert Liston. — Linlithgowshire, 1794 — London, 1847. 
 
 He was a pupil of Barclay, and studied also in London. 
 Prof. Clinical Surgery in Univ. Coll., London, 1835. 
 
 Liston was distinguished as a most brilliant and rapid operator. 
 To him we owe the introduction of the cutting bone forceps. 
 
 John Lizars. — 1794 — 1860. 
 
 A pupil of John Bell ; lectured on Anatomy and Surgery ; 
 Prof, of Surgery, R.C.S., 1 831. 
 
 Distinguished both as an anatomical iconographer and opera- 
 tive surgeon ; ligatured the innominate artery ; introduced 
 the excision of the upper jaw, and was one of the first to advocate 
 and practise operative interference in cases of ovarian tumour. 
 
 Sir George BallingalL —1786— 1855. 
 
 Army Surgeon, served in India, Java, and France. Professor 
 of Military Surgery, 1822. 
 
 Wrote a work on the Construction of Hospitals. 
 
 James Syme. — Edin. 1799 — Edin. 1870. 
 
 Studied in France and Germ.any. When eighteen years of 
 age he discovered a method of waterproofing cloth (Mackintosh). 
 At his own expense, in 1829, he converted old Minto House into 
 an hospital. Prof. Clinical Surgery 1833. 
 
 Among the many improvements in surgical practice which he 
 devised, and which are recorded in his works {Principles of 
 Surgery, etc., 1831), may be mentioned his amputation of the 
 foot at the ankle-joint, his treatment of the largest tumours of the 
 jaw, of lingual cancer, and his revival of the old operation for 
 Aneurism by cutting -directly into its cavity. He devised a 
 method of removing cartilages from joints, and demonstrated the 
 power of the periosteum in forming new bone. His treatment 
 of diseased elbow and shoulder-joints by excision marks a new- 
 epoch in surgery. 
 
 Richard Mackenzie. — 1819— Crimea, 1854. 
 
 Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and Lecturer in Surgery. 
 His name is associated with the operations of excision of the 
 knee-joint, and amputation at the ankle-joint. 
 
44 SURGEONS. 
 
 V/illiam Pirrie. — d. 1882. 
 
 Pupil of Knox and Listen. Studied at Paris. 
 
 He did much to establish the Aberdeen Medical School ; was 
 a distinguished Surgeon, and wrote on Acupressure, etc. , besides 
 publishing a text-book on Surgery. 
 
 Sir ^William Fergusson, Bart. — Prestonpans, 1808 — 
 
 London, 1877. 
 
 Lecturer on Surgery, 183 1. Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, 
 1S36. Professor of Surgery, King's College, London, 1840. 
 A pupil of Knox the Anatomist. 
 
 He extended the teaching of Syme as regards excision of the 
 elbow-joint, and in face of much opposition applied the same to 
 the knee and hip-joints, besides doing much to improve other 
 operations. He was a strong advocate for the so-called "Con- 
 servative Surgery." 
 
 James Spence. — Edin. 1812 — Edin, 1882. 
 
 Studied in Paris. In 1842 taught Anatomy ; in 1854 Surgeon 
 to the Royal Infirmary and Lecturer on Surgery ; in 1864 
 Professor of Surgery. 
 
 He wrote Lectures on Surgery, 2 vols. (1871) and published 
 experimental investigations connected with the ligature of 
 arteries ; Remarks on the Sources of Haemorrhage after Litho- 
 tomy, Clinical Reports and Observations. 
 
EDUCATIONISTS. 
 
 Alexander Adam. — Forres, 1741 — Edin. 1809. 
 
 Head-Master of Watson's Hospital, 1761 ; thence passed, in 
 1768, to the Rectorship of the High School of Edinburgh, which 
 post he filled with conspicuous ability till his death. He had the 
 rare fortune to have as pupils Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, Brougham, 
 Lord Cockburn, and others scarcely less distinguished. Wrote 
 a Manual of Roman Antiquities. 
 
 James Pillans. — Edin, 1778— Edin. 1864. 
 
 Pupil of Dr, Adam, and his successor in the Rectorship. Having 
 large classes to deal with, he was the first in Scotland to adapt 
 to classical teaching the monitorial method which, in the hands 
 of Bell and Lancaster, at one time proved so successful in our 
 elementary schools, and which has since been developed into 
 our pupil-teacher system. Professor of Humanity in the 
 University of Edinburgh for upwards of forty years. By means 
 of pamphlets and addresses, he was long an enthusiastic advocate 
 for educational reform. 
 
 Aglionby Ross Carson. — Dumfries-shire, 1780 — Edin. 1850. 
 
 Arts Student, 1797. Succeeded Pillans as Rector (1820-1845). 
 Besides being a noted teacher, he had a wide reputation for 
 classical scholarship. 
 
 Sir Daniel Sandford. — Edin. 1798— Glasgow, 1838. 
 
 Son of the Bishop of Edinburgh. Studied at Edinburgh and 
 Oxford ; Professor of Greek at Glasgow. 
 
 By refined scholarship, enthusiasm, and marked ability as a 
 teacher, he did much to foster the study of Greek literature in 
 Scotland. 
 
46 ED UCA TIONIS TS. 
 
 George Combe. — Edin. 1788— Farnham, 1858. 
 
 Studied, Edinburgh, 1806-10. Writer to the Signet. 
 
 He was the first in this country to support the phrenological 
 theories of Gall and Spurzheim, which, in their main interpreta- 
 tion of the functions of the brain, are now generally accepted by 
 biologists, and the new school of psychologists. In his Consti- 
 tution of Man (1828), he proposed, as a philosophic basis for 
 religion, a demonstration of the harmony of natural laws. His 
 views on phrenology, education, and the treatment of the 
 criminal classes have had a wide influence in America and on the 
 Continent as well as in his own country. (See Gibbon's Life.) 
 
 George Birkbeck. — Settle (Yorkshire), 1776 — London, 1841. 
 
 Studied at Leeds, Edinburgh, London. M.D., 1798. Pro- 
 fessor of Natural Philosophy, Glasgow, 1 799 ; afterwards London 
 physician. 
 
 Originator of a scheme to establish Mechanics' Institutes 
 throughout the country, thereby leading the way towards the 
 modern popularisation of science. 
 
 ^William Ballantyne Hodgson.— Edin. 181 5— Brussels, 
 
 1882. 
 
 Student, and Professor of Political Economy. 
 
 An eager advocate of rational means and aims in school 
 education, as well as of Mechanics' Institutes. ^ His teaching of 
 Economics was undertaken in a similar spirit — that of the 
 ardent social reformer rather than of the scientific thinker. A 
 useful work entitled Errors in the Use of English is one fruit of 
 his many-sided culture, which an active sympathy and a singularly 
 persuasive gift of speech led him to express, for the most part, 
 in personal ways. 
 
POETS AND ROMANCERS. 
 
 ^William Drummond. — Hawthornden, 1585 — 1649. 
 
 Graduated 1605. After a few years of foreign travel, he settled 
 at Hawthornden, where Ben Jonson paid him a memorable visit 
 in 1619. 
 
 Drummond rather allies himself in poetic thought and feeling 
 to the school of English poets which carried on the influence of 
 Spenser into the reigns of James I. and Charles I. He will 
 always find admirers for his sonnets, which, for stateliness of 
 verse and a certain Miltonic grandeur of conception, have been 
 placed by competent critics very near those of Shakespeare, 
 Milton, and Wordsworth. His Cypress Grove, a prose essay on 
 death, has been ranked with the finest work of Sir Thomas 
 Browne. 
 
 Robert Blair. — Edin. 1699 — Athelstaneford (East Lothian), 
 1746. 
 
 Minister of latter place for fifteen years. 
 
 Wrote in blank verse The Grave (1743), a somewhat dull, 
 didactic poem, though lit up here and there by passages of 
 power and beauty. 
 
 James Thomson. — Ednam, 1700 — London, 1748. 
 
 Student, 1715-24. 
 
 Although not a poet of the first, hardly perhaps of the second, 
 magnitude, the permanency of Thomson's fame remains secure. 
 His Seasons reach the high-water mark of the nature-poetry of 
 his day, and undoubtedly shew a great advance in that path 
 which led to the poetry of Wordsworth and the succeeding 
 school. In addition to this, his Castle of Indolence, his Hyimi^ 
 and the ever-popular national lyric, Britannia rule the Waves 
 (attributed to him), have each taken a place of its own in our 
 literature. 
 
48 POETS AND ROMANCERS, 
 
 David Mallet or Malloch. — i7(xi — 1765. 
 
 Editor of Bolingbroke's works. Author of tragedies, Eurydice, 
 Elvira, and Musiapha, and popular minor poems. 
 
 Mark Akenside. — Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1721 — London, 
 
 1770. 
 
 Student of medicine at Edinburgh and Leyden. 
 
 Chief poem : Pleasures of the Imagination, In dignified and 
 sonorous language he unfolds his philosophic theory, and breathes 
 life into it by wealth of illustration and power of rhetorical 
 exposition. 
 
 John Home. — Leith, 1722 — East Lothian, 1808. 
 
 Student about 1740. Clergyman and Dramatic Poet. 
 
 Is remembered as being the author of the tragedy of Douglas, 
 the successful production of which, on the Edinburgh stage, so 
 offended his clerical brethren that he was compelled to retire 
 from the ministry. He was an associate of David Hume, 
 Adam Smith, and Principal Robertson. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. — Ireland, 1728 — London, 1774. 
 
 Studied medicine, 1750-2. Studied previously at Trin. Coll., 
 Dublin, and subsequently at Leyden and at Padua or Louvain, 
 where he took degree of B.M. 
 
 Travelled a great part of Europe on foot, playing the flute for 
 livelihood. After these wanderings he settled in London, and 
 on the publication of The Traveller rose to poetic fame, becom- 
 ing member of the famous Literary Club, which, including 
 Burke, Johnston, Reynolds, and Garrick, was probably the 
 most brilliant society of which our literary annals have record. 
 
 While the spring of his genius lay in his quick and tender 
 sympathies, in the swift response of his heart to the joys and 
 sorrows of the humblest of his fellow-creatures, his purely literary 
 gifts were of the first order. Nothing can excel in art his 
 apparently artless style, so that it did not seem possible for him 
 to treat any subject without informing it with a peculiar naive 
 charm. In his choice of subjects for his poems, he may almost 
 be said to have inaugurated the movement which assumed such 
 importance in the hands of Burns and Wordsworth. Apart 
 from these touching and genuine poems, his immortal comedy. 
 
POETS AND ROMANCERS. 49 
 
 She Stoops to Conqtier, and his other delightful prose works, he 
 leaves us a novel, which can only be ranked beside the master- 
 pieces of Cervantes, Boccaccio, Le Sage, and Defoe. 
 
 Henry Mackenzie. — Edin. 1745 — 1831. 
 
 Student about 1 76 1-4. 
 
 Novelist and journalist of high popularity and repute in his 
 day, yet the permanence of his fame is doubtful ; but this at 
 least should be recorded of him, that he was the first to hail, in 
 the pages of the Lounger, the genius of Burns. He was one of 
 the earliest, also, to recognize the value of German Literature, 
 and to draw attention to Schiller and Lessing. Burns happily 
 styled him the " Scottish Addison." 
 
 Michael Bruce. — Kinross, 1746 — Kinross, 1767. 
 
 Son of a weaver. Studied for the ministry, and supported 
 himself by teaching. He died of consumption at the age of 
 twenty-one. 
 
 His college friend John Logan (who disputes with him the 
 authorship of the " Ode to the Cuckoo^'') edited his poems. His 
 Elegy written in the spring before his death, possessing a painful 
 autobiographic interest, is considered his best poem. 
 
 Walter Scott. — Edin. 1771— Abbotsford, 1832. 
 
 Studied 1783-6. 
 
 Undoubtedly the greatest literary genius connected with our 
 University, he has at least three distinct grounds upon which a per- 
 manent fame might be based. It is curious that before essaying 
 poetry or fiction as ^ 1 original author, he established his fame as 
 a literary historian ; (i), by so solid and important a production 
 as his Border Minstrelsy. Then it seemed as if by his impor- 
 tunacy he had roused from her long slumbers the Muse herself, 
 who thereupon burst into renewed song, (2) Scott's narra- 
 tive poems have all the dash and carelessness of the moss- 
 trooper's raid, together with its fine out-of-door freedom and 
 instinctive skill in conduct. Greatly as other poets may excel 
 him in finish, in lyric beauty, in depth of thought, in subtlety of 
 phrasing, he must even here rank with the greatest, in virtue of 
 the power of rendering his creations thoroughly concrete and 
 vital. His descriptions of nature have, if in a less degree, a 
 similar merit, and produce their effect with remarkable simplicity 
 
 G 
 
50 POETS AND ROMANCERS. 
 
 and directness. That (3) in prose fiction, Scott found the best 
 medium for his genius goes now without saying. Verse-form, 
 which to many is an imposed restraint of greatest vakie, was to 
 this creative giant an obstructive limitation. Under the freedom 
 of the novel's form his genius rose to its full height, as it never 
 could under limitation of drama or poem. His novels are a theme 
 too familiar and inexhaustible to call for criticism or exposition 
 here. It can only be said that since Shakespeare, no man had 
 produced in number or quality such a series of creations as he. 
 
 Like the greatest of dramatists, Scott seems to have had a 
 strangely inadequate sense of the worth and importance of his 
 own genius. We find him in his latter days producing hurried 
 and imperfect work ; yet withal, we must fearlessly endorse the 
 dictum of his latest and most subtle critic, John Ruskin, that 
 Scott is " the greatest intellectual force since Shakespeare." 
 
 John Leyden. — Denholm (Roxburghshire) 1775 — Java, 
 1811. 
 
 Son of a shepherd. 
 
 Soon became distinguished for his knowledge of languages. 
 His strong desire to become an Oriental scholar led him to the 
 East, where, after giving promise of becoming a distinguished 
 philologist, he died of fever. Leyden has left behind him poems 
 marked at once by exquisite melody and a fine feeling for nature, 
 and some of his stanzas have been praised by Scott (who was 
 greatly indebted to him in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border) 
 as "exhibiting a power of nuinbers, which, for mere melody of 
 sound, has seldom been excelled in English poetry." 
 
 Thomas Campbell. — Glasgow, 1777 — Boulogne, 1844. 
 
 Studied Law 1798. vStudied previously in Glasgow, and was 
 distinguished there for his' knowledge of Greek Literature. 
 
 It was a residence amid the wild and stern scenery of the 
 West Highlands that awoke the poet in Campbell. His 
 Pleasures of Hope has yet to be surpassed for splendid poetical 
 rhetoric. His martial lyrics, however, undoubtedly furnish his 
 true title to immortality ; they combine the terse vigour charac- 
 teristic of Horace, with a clear, fervid tone that stirs the blood 
 like a bugle sounding a charge. The Last Man, if somewhat 
 inflated, is still a poem of singularly weird power. In his prose 
 writings and lectures, and his share in the founding of London 
 University, he did good service to literature and learning. 
 
POETS AND ROMANCERS. u 
 
 Thomas Aird. — Bowden, 1802 — Dumfries, 1876. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh. 
 
 A poet and prose writer of great literary merit, contributor to 
 Blackwood in its most brilliant days, he appears in most of his 
 works to have missed that outstanding excellence and power 
 that secures permanent attention. The Devil's Dream, how- 
 ever, would seem to afford a marked exception in this respect, 
 and so serves as the life-buoy of his fame. The associate in his 
 early days of Christopher North and his compeers, he lived to 
 be the companion of Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 "William Edmondstoune Aytoun. — Edin. 1813 — Edin. 
 1865. 
 
 Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature for twenty years. 
 
 In his Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers Aytoun has done for 
 Scottish history, ranging from Flodden Field to the disastrous 
 defeat of the Jacobites at Culloden, what Macaulay did for 
 Ancient Rome. In both we find the same onward rush of the 
 verse, the same impassioned treatment of a heroic past, the 
 same thrilling and regretful pathos. His Ballads of Bon Gaultier 
 (in which he had for coadjutor Sir Theodore Martin) and his 
 Firmilian, a satire on poetic contemporaries, abound in sallies 
 of wit and flashes of genuine humour. 
 
 John Brown. — Biggar, 1810 — Edin. 1S82. 
 
 M.D., Essayist, and Critic. 
 
 Slight as the bulk and importance of his works may appear, 
 there is that peculiar quality of literary touch which demarks 
 genius from talent. He possesses that simple and subtle pathos, 
 that tender and delicate humour, which are hardly to be found 
 elsewhere except in the pages of Lamb and Goldsmith. 
 
 Alexander Smith. — Kilmarnock, 1830— Edin. 1867. 
 
 Secretary of the University from 1854. 
 
 A poet of distinct genius and power, his fame has been subject 
 to sudden vicissitudes which alternately exaggerated and under- 
 rated his powers. It was his Storm and Stress poem, The Life 
 Drama, that first brought him fame, but it has a hectic colour 
 that argues ill for its longevity. His City Poems and his 
 
52 POETS AND ROMANCERS. 
 
 delightful prose writings have a matured force and mellowed 
 lustre from which we may infer a more enduring renown. He 
 has a marked felicity in simple lines and phrases. 
 
 David Macbeth Moir. — Musselburgh, 1798 — Dumfries, 
 1851. 
 
 Student of Medicine, 1812-1816. 
 "a" of Blackwood. His verse is remarkable for polish and 
 tenderness. Though the development of his literary genius was 
 checked by devotion to medical duties, he leaves behind him, 
 in prose, Mansie Waugh, a piece of genuine Scotch humour, 
 which bids fair to secure permanent popularity. 
 
 John Aitken Carlyle. — Ecclefechan, 1801 — 1881. 
 
 M.D., Edinburgh. (Brother of Thomas Carlyle). 
 He wrote an excellent translation of Dante's Inferno. 
 
ESSAYISTS AND CRITICS. 
 
 Henry Home, Lord Kames. — Berwickshire, 1696 — Edin. 
 1782. 
 
 A versatile and learned writer on agricultural, legal, religious, 
 ethical, philosophic and historical subjects. One of the founders 
 of the Physical and Literary Society, afterwards the Royal 
 Society of Edinburgh. 
 
 Hugh Blair.— Edin. 1718— 1801. 
 
 Student, 1730. M.A. 1739. Professor 1762-83. 
 
 His classes on Composition, under the patronage of Lord 
 Kames, led to the foundation of the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles 
 Lettres, to which he was appointed in 1762. His Rhetoric, 
 Dissertation maintaining the authenticity of the Ossianic Poejns, 
 and sermons, are his best-known works. 
 
 Alexander Carlyle ("Jupiter Carlyle") of Inveresk. — 
 1722 — 1805. 
 
 A distinguished "moderate" of peculiarly wide personal 
 influence, and author of a pungent and valuable memoir of 
 his time, since publishe'd by John Hill Burton. 
 
 Francis Jeffrey.— Edin. 1773 — 1850. 
 
 Student, 1792. Member of Speculative Society. 
 
 An able lawyer who was, as editor of The Edinburgh Review 
 for twenty-six years, an indisputable force in the development of 
 literary criticism. His application, after Alison, of the associative 
 theory in Esthetics is one of his chief constructive claims to 
 remembrance. 
 
54 ESSA YISTS AND CRITICS. 
 
 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart. — Edin. 1784--1848. 
 
 A frequent contributor of tales and sketches to Blackwood's 
 and Taifs Magazines. Author of one or two topographical and 
 antiquarian works, and a well-known account of the great floods 
 of August 1829 in Moray and adjoining districts (1830). 
 
 John 'Wilson (" Christopher North ").— Paisley, 1785— 1854. 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy, 1820. 
 
 As poet, writer of fiction, critic, and philosopher, he was one 
 of the brilliant lights of Scottish literature. Versatile and exu- 
 berant, his genius had full swing in the famous Nodes Ainbro- 
 siancB, which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine. A magnificent 
 tribute to Burns, and a series of glowing essays on Homer are 
 lasting contributions to literary criticism. 
 
 Samuel Brown. — Haddington, 181 7 — Edin. 1857. 
 
 A brilliant and speculative writer on the theory and history of 
 chemistry. The friend of Emerson, and a graceful essayist. 
 
PUBLIC LIFE 
 
STATESMEN, SOLDIERS, AND PUBLICISTS. 
 
 William Carstairs. — Glasgow, 1649 — Edin. 1713, 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh and Utrecht. 
 
 An" intimate friend of the Prince of Orange; was arrested in 
 London in 1682 on the suspicion of being implicated in the Rye 
 House Plot, sent for trial to Edinburgh, where the agony of 
 torture could not make him reveal his master's secrets. On his 
 release, returned to Holland, accompanied the Prince to England 
 in 1688, and stood near the throne until the end of William's 
 reign. Was Moderator of the General Assembly four times 
 within eleven years, and Principal of the University of Edin- 
 burgh from 1704. 
 
 "Cardinal" Carstairs was one of the most prominent figures 
 of his time. His wisdom and well-proved honesty kept him the 
 ear of the king, and his moderation did much to conciliate 
 opposition to the Government in his own country. He left 
 behind him no writings, but Scotland still owes much to the 
 sagacity and patriotism of this great ecclesiastic. 
 
 Duncan Forbes of Culloden.— 1685 — 1747. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh 1 704, and at Leyden. Lord Advocate, 
 1725; Lord President, 1737. 
 
 He was distinguished as a lavv)'er and as a politician ; and 
 excited enormous influence in favour of the Government during 
 the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745' 
 
 Sir James Denliam Stewart. — Edin. 1713— 17S0. 
 
 Studied in Edinburgh. Exiled for many years, because of his 
 sympathy with the House of Stuart. 
 
 He wrote a work entitled An Inquiry into the Prificiples of 
 Political Economy, in which he, in some respects, anticipated 
 Adam Smith. 
 
 H 
 
58 STATESMEN AND PUBLICISTS. 
 
 Alexander "Wedderburn, Earl of Rosslyn. — Edin. 
 1733— 1805. 
 
 Left the Scotch for the English bar in 1757, gained much repu- 
 tation by the defence of Lord Clive, and rose gradually until he 
 reached the Chancellorship under Pitt in 1793. His judgments 
 were characterised by dignity, as well as much ingenuity and 
 knowledge. 
 
 Sir Ralph Abercromby. — 1734 — 1801. 
 
 Studied, 1752-53. Served as a soldier in Holland, the West 
 Indies, and other parts of the world, and in 1801 commanded 
 the British Expedition against the French in Egypt. He fell in 
 the moment of victory at Aboukir. 
 
 Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville.— Edin. 1741 — 
 1811. 
 
 Advocate in 1763 ; Lord Advocate in 1773, ^^^^ afterwards in 
 successive administrations under Pitt, Home Secretary, Secretary 
 for War, and First Lord of the Admiralty ; raised to the peerage 
 in 1802 ; was impeached in 1 806 for the alleged appropriation 
 of public money, but acquitted. To testify their confidence in 
 his honour, his countrymen ei-ected to him a conspicuous monu- 
 ment in Edinburgh. His influence for good and evil in Scottish 
 affairs was for many years so great that he was called the 
 " Cirand Vizier of Scotland." 
 
 William Smellie. — Edin. 1740 — Edin. 1795. 
 
 Editor of the first Edition of the Encydopitdia Britannica^ 
 
 and of various scientific works. 
 
 Henry Erskine. — 1746— 1817. 
 
 Studied at St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Lord 
 Advocate, 1783, and again in 1806. A notable statesman, 
 lawyer, and wit. 
 
STATESMEN AND PUBLICISTS. 59 
 
 Sir John Sinclair. — Thurso, 1754— 1835. 
 
 Studied in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford. Founded the 
 Board of Agriculture. 
 
 Wrote many political and agricultural works, and originated 
 and edited the Statistical Account of Scotland. 
 
 Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque. — 1757 — 1830. 
 
 Studied at Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Member of the 
 Speculative Society. 
 
 He attached himself to the Moderate Republican party in 
 France, and both under Napoleon and after the second Bourbon 
 restoration, was a prominent exponent of constitutional principles. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh. — Inverness, 1765 — 1832. 
 
 Studied at Aberdeen, 1780; M.D., Edinburgh, 1784. He 
 afterwards went to the English Bar. Held legal office in 
 Bombay, sat in Parliament, and was Professor of Law at 
 Haileybury College. 
 
 His Vitzdicicc Gallicance is a singularly able and sympathetic 
 estimate of the French Revolution by a philosophic Liberal. It 
 was written in reply to Burke's Reflections, and at once placed 
 its author, then but twenty-five years of age, in the front rank of 
 English publicists. Other works — Dissertation on the Progress 
 of Ethical Philosophy is catholic and suggestive ; and his frag- 
 mentary History of the English Revolution in 1688 is marked 
 by insight and impartiality. 
 
 Francis Horner. — Edin. 1778 — Pisa, 1817. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, went to Scottish Bar, 1800; English 
 Bar, 1807 ; entered Parliament, 1806. 
 
 lie held a high position of public influence, being eminent as 
 a political economist. He was one of the chief promoters of the 
 Edinburgh Revieiv. 
 
 Lord Brougham. — Edin. 1778— Cannes, 1868. 
 
 Studied Art and Law at Edinburgh, 1792-1800; Lord High 
 Chancellor of England ; Chancellor of the University, 1859-1868. 
 
 The most conspicuous man in public affairs in the third and 
 fourth decades of this century. He took a prominent part in 
 
6o STATESMEN AND PUBLICISTS. 
 
 most of the great measures of the time — in the Abolition of 
 Slavery, in Law Reform, and in founding the University of Lon- 
 don, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the 
 Mechanics' Institute. PZminently distinguished in his own pro- 
 fessional work, and as a parliamentary debater, he wrote much 
 and on a great variety of subjects, including mathematics and 
 physics. Besides being one of the founders of the Edinburgh 
 Review^ he contributed largely to it for thirty years. 
 
 Marquis of Lansdo^wne. — 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, 1796- 1798; Chancellor of Exchequer, 
 1806 ; Home Secretary, 1827 ; Lord Rector of Glasgow Univer- 
 sity, 1830. 
 
 Lord Palmerston (Henry John Temple). — 1784 — 1865. 
 
 From Harrow he came to Edinburgh (1800- 1803), living with 
 Dugald Stewart. "In these three years," he himself says, *'I 
 laid the foundations of whatever useful knowledge and habits of 
 mind I possess," He afterwards spent two years at Cambridge. 
 
 He entered Parliament in 1807, and gradually rose to be the 
 foremost English statesman of his time, popular at home, and 
 powerful abroad. He was at various times at the head of the 
 War Oflice, the Foreign Office, and the Home Office, and was 
 twice Prime Minister of England, 
 
 Earl Russell.— 1792— 1878. 
 
 Educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University. 
 
 He entered Parliament in 181 3 ; was a Member of the 
 Government in 1830, and 1835-41 ; was Prime Minister (1846- 
 1852), and again in 1865. He had a share in most of the great 
 measures passed in his time, especially in passing the Reform 
 Bill of 1832. 
 
 Rev. Henry Duncan. — 1744 — 1S46. 
 
 Minister of Ruthwell. He established in 1810 the first organ- 
 i.sed Savings Bank, which led almost immediately to their institu- 
 tion throughout the country. 
 
STATESMEN AND PUBLICISTS. 6r 
 
 Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald. — 1775— 1860. 
 
 Went to sea as a boy ; performed extraordinary naval 
 exploits in the wars with France and Spain; studied at Uni- 
 versity in his scanty leisure. Having as M.P. for Westminster 
 striven against the Government for naval and other reforms, 
 he was unjustly accused and condemned, imprisoned and 
 cashiered. In 1819 accepted command of the Chilian navy 
 in the war of independence, and almost outdid his youthful 
 exploits ; in 1823 entered the service of Brazil, then throwing off 
 the yoke of Portugal, whose na\y he soon swept from the seas ; 
 in 1827 commanded the Greek fleet against Turkey ; returned 
 to Britain and was re-instated in 1832 ; on his eighty-third 
 birthday published a stirring Autobiography. 
 
 Combining cool Viking audacity with desperate Berserk valour, 
 he is the last sea-king of our annals — the Sir Richard Grenville 
 of the age (and in fact inherited his title of " El'Diabolo ") ; yet 
 lives in higher memory in political history as the liberator of 
 South America, who anticipated the cosmopolitan enthusiasm 
 of Mazzini, and tripled the victorious knight-errantry of Byron. 
 
LAWYERS. 
 
 John Erskine of Garnock. — 1695 — Cardross, 1768. 
 
 Student and Professor of Scots Law. Dealing in great part 
 with material as yet undigested, he gave such clearness of outline 
 to the fabric of law that his Principles (first published in 1 754), 
 and his ampler work, the Institute of the Law of Scotland (post- 
 humously published in 1773), are still deemed the best introduction 
 to the study of Scots Law. 
 
 David Hume (Baron).— Ninewells, 1756— Edin. 1838. 
 
 Student and Professor of Scots Law ; afterwards Principal 
 Clerk of the Court of Session, and Baron of Exchequer. In his 
 lectures, he brought a wide and well-controlled learning to the 
 illustration of the growth of legal doctrine, and his Commentaries 
 on the Law of Scotland respecting description and punishment of 
 Crimes, (published in 1797), gave special fulness to a department 
 somewhat meagrely treated by Stair and Erskine. 
 
 George Joseph Bell. — Edin. 1770 — Edin. 1843. 
 
 Student, and Hume's successor in the Chair of Scots Law. 
 
 The balance and inclusiveness of judgment displayed in his 
 Com/nentaries on the Law of Sootlafidy and on the Principles of 
 Mercantile Jurisprudence, have given the work a great and freely- 
 acknowledged weight in judicial deliberations. Two smaller 
 treatises of the nature of text-books possess great succinctness 
 and authority conferred by the author's grasp of principle and 
 distinction as an institutional writer. 
 
LA WYERS. 63 
 
 Allan Maconochie, (Lord Meado^wbank). — 1748 — 
 1816. 
 
 Professor of Public Law, and afterwards holder of several 
 high legal offices. 
 
 He was also one of the founders of the Speculative Society. 
 According to Lord Brougham, "he was one of the best of lawyers, 
 one of the most acute men, a man of large general capacity, and 
 of great experience ; and with very few exceptions, if any, the 
 most diligent judge we can remember in the practice of Scotch 
 Law." 
 
 Sir James ^Wellwood Moncrieff. — 1776 — 185 1, 
 
 One of a race which has given several distinguished members 
 to law and theology. Studied at Oxford, before entering the law 
 classes at Edinburgh. 
 
 He achieved rapid distinction at the bar, where Cockburn 
 and Jeffrey were his compeers, his pleadings being marked by a 
 terse and massive reasoning due less to eloquence than to an 
 iron grip of facts, and a peculiarly searching quality of intellect. 
 On the bench, his decisions were notably well-based, and form 
 important precedents. 
 
 Numerous other eminent Lawyers arecommemorated elsewhere. 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DIVINES. 
 
 Robert Rollock. — 1555 — 1598. 
 
 Studied at St. Andrews. First Principal and Regent of 
 Edinburgh 1583. He took a prominent part in church politics, 
 and as a divine wrote Latin Commentaries on several books of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Robert Boyd of Trochrig. — 1578 — 1627. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh. Professor at Montauban, and in 1606 
 at Saumur. Principal of Glasgow, 161 5. Appointed Principal 
 of Edinburgh, 1622, but hindered by royal authority for entering 
 on this office. 
 
 He was an eminent divine, wrote numerous works, mainly 
 theological. 
 
 Samuel Rutherford. — 1600 — 1661. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, 161 7; M. A., 1621. Prof, of Humanity, 
 1623-25 ; Prof, of Divinity at St. Andrews, 1639, deprived at 
 the Restoration. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners to 
 the Westminster Assembly, and was called to be Professor at 
 Utrecht. 
 
 He was an outstanding example of Scottish Presbyterianism 
 and of piety. He wrote on the Divine Right of Presbytery ; the 
 famous Lex Rex, in opposition to slavish Royalism ; while his 
 works on practical theology, especially his Letters, have nurtured 
 the spiritual fervour of generations of Scotchmen. 
 
 Robert Leigh ton. — 161 1 — 1684. 
 
 Son of the ill-fated author of Zio/i's Plea against the Prdaci^. 
 Student 1 627-1 631. Presbyterian Minister of Newbattlc in 1641, 
 resigned 1652; then became Principal of the University, Professor 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DIVINES. 65 
 
 of Divinity, became Bishop of Dunblane in 1 661, Archbishop of 
 Glasgow in 1670, retired in 1674, and spent the last ten years of 
 his life in quiet study and meditation at Broadhurst in Sussex. 
 
 Leighton's influence was small in his own times, but it has 
 been great upon posterity. He devoted himself to the task of 
 uniting together the two opposing ecclesiastical parties, but he 
 succeeded only in being misunderstood by both. With charac- 
 teristic modesty, he published nothing himself, but the works he 
 left behind, especially his Comnientary tipon Peter^ is among 
 the most valuable monuments of English theology. The 
 " aphorisms " drawn from this work form " the most philosophical 
 of English theological treatises," Coleridge's Aids to Reflection. 
 The Serf nans and Praelectiones Theologiccc (delivered from his 
 academical chair in Edinburgh) are no less valuable. 
 
 John Toland. — Londonderry, 1670 — Putney, 1722. 
 
 Studied at Glasgow, 1687. Graduated at Edinburgh in 1690. 
 
 He was one of the most prominent of the Deistical writers, and 
 was largely engaged in political and other controversies. His 
 Christianity not ?uysterious is the most notable of his works. He 
 wrote a Life of Milton and edited his works, 
 
 Thomas Boston. — Duns, 1676 — 1732. 
 
 Student, 1691. Minister of Ettrick, 1707; the principal 
 figure in the Scottish evangelical camp during his time. 
 
 He was a fair scholar, possessed of considerable powers of 
 mind, and his works were once very precious in the eyes of 
 Scottish piety. Of these the chief are the Crook in the Lot and 
 the Fourfold State ^ the latter, says Carlyle, written " with the 
 noblest intent, but in defiance of grammar and philosophy." 
 
 Thomas Chalmers. — Anstruther, 1780 — Edin. 1847. 
 
 Studied at St. Andrews ; Prof. Moral Phil, at St. Andrews, 
 1823-24 ; Prof, of Theology, Edinburgh, 1828-43 ; Principal of 
 Free Church College, 1843- 1847. 
 
 As minister in Glasgow, he attained unparalleled influence as 
 a pulpit orator ; but devoted himself to ennobling and brighten- 
 ing the lives of his poor and wretched parishioners. In 1843 ^^ 
 was the leader of the Evangelical section of the Scottish Church, 
 and founder of the Free Church. Of the thirty volumes of his 
 works, the majority are occupied by his sermons, and by his 
 
 I 
 
66 CHURCHMEN AND DIVINES. 
 
 histitutes of Theology, But he made valuable contributions to 
 political economy and the question of the poor laws. He must 
 ever be recognised as a great, fervid, broad -hearted Christian 
 teacher and leader of men. 
 
 Edward Irving. — Annan, 1732 — London, 1834. 
 
 vStudied at Edinburgh ; taught at Haddington and Kirkcaldy ; 
 became Assistant to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow ; called to the 
 ministry of the Scotch Church in London in 1822. 
 
 A very popular preacher for some time : led by his tendency 
 to mysticism, became lost in the mists of unfulfilled prophecy 
 and belief in the continuance of the miraculous gifts of the early 
 Christians ; was deposed for heresy by the Presbytery of Annan 
 in 1833, ^'^^ d^^^ i^ neglect and gloom next year at Glasgow. 
 His intimate friend Carlyle wrote, "His head, when the fog- 
 Babylon had not obscured it, was of strong far-reaching insight. 
 . . . His was the freest, bravest, brotherliest human soul mine 
 ever came in contact with." 
 
 Thomas Erskine of Linlathen. — 17S8 — 1S70. 
 
 Educated at Edinburgh, and called to the Scotch bar, but did 
 not practise, lived a retired and studious life in intimate friend- 
 ship with many of the best thinkers of his time. 
 
 His theological writings reveal a mind of much refinement and 
 acuteness, warmed by a religious faith of singular sweetness and 
 simplicity. He was much esteemed by Frederick Maurice and 
 Dean Stanley, and the former acknowledges that he was indebted 
 to him for his first true conception of the central question of 
 Christianity. 
 
 vXohn M'Leod Gamx3bell. — 1800 — 1871. 
 
 Studied at Glasgow, and at Edinburgh, 1816-1820. Minister at 
 Row, but deposed for heresy by the General Assembly in 1832. 
 
 He has been called by Dean Stanley " the most spiritual and 
 philosophical divine that has for many years adorned the ministry 
 of the Church of Scotland.'' His infiuence on the theology of 
 England and Scotland has been great, especially through his 
 work on the Natiij-e 0/ (he A{onc7ncnt. 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DIVINES. 67 
 
 Thomas Guthrie. — Brechin, 1S03 — 1873. 
 
 Studied at Edinburgh, was ordained in 1830, took an active 
 part during the "Ten Years' Conflict" on the popular side, 
 joined the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843, ^^^d devoted 
 himself with characteristic energy to its support. In 1837 he 
 came to Edinburgh, and from that time he laboured to benefit 
 the crowded poor. 
 
 His best title to fame depends on his noble exertions to found 
 "Ragged Schools." He was an eloquent preacher, if not a 
 theologian. 
 
 Norman Macleod. — 1812 — 1872. 
 
 Studied arts at Glasgow, divinity at Edinburgh. 
 
 For many years the foremost and most influential leader of the 
 Church of Scotland ; an eloquent preacher, of genial character, 
 and broad and liberal views. He is known as first editor of Good 
 Words, as author of T/ie Earnest Student, Wee Davie and the 
 Starling, humorous and pathetic tales, sermons, hymns, and 
 songs. 
 
 Besides the above rnentioned, there might be named a long list 
 of men eminent as religious leaders, such as — 
 
 Sir Henry ^Well^wood MoncriefT (1750-1827), and the 
 saintly Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Ministers of the 
 Church of Scotland ; David "Welsh and Robert Lee, 
 Theological Professors in the University; Ebenezer Erskine 
 and his brother Ralph (1680- 1754), Founders of the Secession 
 Church; Thomas Gillespie (1708-1774), Founder of the 
 Relief Church. Hugh M'Kail (1660-1686), and James 
 Ren^srick (1662-1688), both martyrs for the Covenant at the 
 age of twenty-six, were graduates of this University. 
 
ENVOY. 
 
 So these phantasmal generations rise : 
 
 As whe7i the Trojan in that nether wood, 
 
 Girt by the ninefold river's wandering, stood 
 
 Between two daw7iings i7i the place of sighs, 
 
 And saw pale lips and heard faint-voiced replies 
 
 Of great men dead, a moving multitude. 
 
 King, priest, bard, warrior, healer, where the good 
 
 Dwell separate, with crowned hair and augural eyes. 
 
 Then through the ivo?y gate to war he went. 
 And sailed th^'ough moonlight ittto blood-red dawn : 
 As we again by supreme fate are drawn 
 To labouring days from gazes backward sent 
 Across three hundred years, tvhose ripples bar 
 The long reflection- of our Northern Star. 
 
Edited by Patrick Geddes from Contributions by Alexander 
 Anderson, H. Bellyse Baildon, F. M. Caird, W. L. Carrie, 
 T. Davidson, D. Mimro Eraser, James Geikic, G. A. Gibson, 
 J. W. Mackail, T. C. Martin, John S. Mackay, R. Milne 
 Murray, P. W. Nicholson, James Oliphant, David Patrick, J. 
 Arthur Thomson, H. A. Webster, and Mortimer Wheeler^ all 
 past or present Members of the University. 
 
 Photolithograph from a clay sketch for the bust of Carlyle by 
 Charles Macbride. 
 
Scott and Ferguson, Printers, Edinburgh. 
 
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Princeton Theological Semi"ary Libraries 
 
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