y\M.(L. 
 
 
 G/C 
 
 ROBERT KNOX.

 
 A SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 ROBERT KNOX 
 
 THE ANA TO MIST. 
 
 His Pupil and Colleague, 
 
 HENRY LONSDALE. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1870. 
 
 ^All Rights reserve^. '\
 
 L0NI30N : 
 
 R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 DREAD STREET }{ILL.
 
 TO 
 
 SIR WILLIAM FERGUSSON, Bart. 
 
 F.R.S., 
 
 serjeant-surgeon to the queen, and president of the royal 
 college of surgeons of england. 
 
 My dear Fergusson, 
 
 I have very sincere pleasure in dedicating this volume to 
 you, the favoured pupil, the zealous colleague, and attached friend 
 of Dr. Robert Knox. In associating your excellent name with this 
 Biography, I do honour to the memory of our Anatomical Teacher. 
 I also gladly avail myself of this opportunity of paying a grateful 
 tribute to our long and cordial friendship. 
 
 Heartily rejoicing in your well-merited position as one of the 
 leading representatives of British Surgery, 
 
 I am, 
 
 Ever yours faithfully, 
 
 HENRY LONSDALE. 
 
 Rose Hill, Carlisle, 
 September 15, 1870.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Shortly after the decease of Dr. Robert Knox (Dec. 
 1862), several friends solicited me to write his Life, but 
 I respectfully declined, on the grounds that I had no 
 literary experience, and that there were other pupils 
 and associates of the Anatomist senior to myself, and 
 much more competent to undertake his biography : 
 moreover, I was borne down at the time by a domestic 
 sorrow so trying that the seven years since elapsing 
 have not entirely effaced its influence. My hopes of 
 seeing an historical record of Knox lay chiefly with 
 his distinguished pupil Professor John Goodsir, with 
 whom I had conversed on this subject in 1864, and 
 whose remark at the time was pretty much as follows. 
 "Well, Lonsdale, it (the biography) should be done by 
 one or both of us : you knew Knox's character and
 
 vui PREFACE. 
 
 thoughts better than any one ; I'll gather his science, 
 and show the import of his teachings." Unfortunately, 
 the amiable Professor made no progress in the work ; 
 and, greatly to the loss of the science which he 
 adorned, he followed his master to the grave in March 
 1867. Towards Christmas of the same year, the 
 Rev. Joseph Goodsir, an eminent scholar and divine, 
 honoured me with the trust of writing his brother John's 
 biography. In sketching the history of my friend and 
 companion Goodsir, Knox's presence oft came visibly 
 before me, and with it arose the wish to do justice 
 to his character and memory. In January 1868, an 
 advertisement appeared in the AiitJiropological Review, 
 announcing that a Life of Dr. Knox was in preparation, 
 and information was solicited to render that Life more 
 complete. On inquiry. Dr. James Hunt disclosed 
 himself as the writer, and with great courtesy not only 
 offered to give way to what he was kind enough to 
 designate my superior claims, but furnished mc with 
 Knox's correspondence for the years 1860-62, excerpts 
 from which will be found in Chapter XIX.
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 In 1868 my pen was occupied with the memoir of 
 Professor Goodsir, and in completing the Life of Sir 
 James Graham. Wishing to see a better known name 
 than my own attached to Knox's history, I would 
 gladly, as late as October of that year, have persuaded 
 my friend Sir William Fergusson, Bart, to become the 
 biographer of his great teacher : his engagements, 
 however, were too important to permit of such an 
 undertaking; so that the work declined in 1863 even- 
 tually comes to be done by me in 1870. 
 
 Dr. Knox only a short time before his death destroyed 
 numerous letters and manuscripts ; what was left, though 
 of much less avail than had been anticipated, was kindly 
 placed at my disposal by the only surviving member 
 of his family, his son, Mr. Edward Knox. The gist of 
 the information thus furnished me is contained in the 
 first chapter. 
 
 Whilst courteously acknowledging words of encou- 
 ragement received from various quarters, I regret to 
 say that the direct aid afforded me has been compa- 
 ratively small. My cordial thanks are due, however, to
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 my friends Sir W. Fergusson, Bart., Dr. David Skae, of 
 the Morningside Asylum, Edinburgh, and Dr. James 
 Adams, of Glasgow, for both anecdote and narrative. 
 Many friends, like the late Dr. Adams, sen., of Edin- 
 burgh, from whom I learned something of Dr. Knox's 
 career previous to 1834, have passed beyond my 
 grateful acknowledgments. 
 
 Some historical record, however imperfect, was due to 
 a man of Dr. Knox's eminence, the great notability of 
 the Edinburgh Medical School during the third and 
 fourth decades of this century. He was without dispute 
 the ablest anatomical teacher of his day. The character 
 of a man so scholarly and many-sided, so original and 
 versatile in thought, so broad and comprehensive in 
 views, is not easily portrayed ; and all that can be 
 said of the present effort is, that an honest wish not 
 to extenuate, nor set aught down in malice, has been 
 the guiding principle. A more popular cast might 
 have been given to his biography by saying less about 
 his scientific career, and more about his personal traits ; 
 on the other hand, to have passed over his zoological
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 labours with too light a hand would have been unjust 
 to his professional status. It was imperative to notice, 
 however briefly, his varied march over the vast domain 
 of art and literature, as well as science. 
 
 A chapter has been devoted to the early history of 
 the Anatomical School of Edinburgh, to enable the 
 reader to comprehend the injustice of the stigma cast 
 upon Dr. Knox by the West Port atrocities, which 
 happened to culminate in the rooms of his anatomical 
 establishment. I would gladly have kept the Resur- 
 rectionists out of sight, and all remarks bearing upon 
 the history of transactions both painful and harrowing 
 to the general sentiment ; but to have written Knox's 
 Life without a clue to the events which damaged 
 his name and destroyed his prospects, would have 
 been as incongruous as playing the Shakesperian 
 Hamlet and omitting altogether the part of the Ghost. 
 The fault of the Resurrectionist system a terrible 
 blot upon our social status as a Christian nation 
 lay with the Executive Government of the country, 
 who for half a century proved deaf to all remon-
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 strance, and evinced not the slightest regard for the 
 science of medicine till the anatomical affairs of the 
 kingdom fell into a state of fearful chaos. 
 
 As an English boy on the Scottish borders, I was nur- 
 tured in the anatomical prejudices of the day, and these 
 prejudices were still fresh in my mind in 1834 when 
 I joined Dr. Knox's class. It was from this cause 
 probably that, during many years' intercourse with the 
 Anatomist, I used to find myself instinctively studying 
 his character in the hope of obtaining a clue to the 
 shadows of his public career ; and those who knew 
 our friendly relations will at once concede my claim to 
 be considered fairly conversant with his inner life and 
 opinions. Throughout my medical probation the mode 
 of conducting anatomical establishments previous to 
 and after the passing of the legislative Act of 1832 oft 
 engaged my attention. Now my opportunities were 
 ample, and it may be said unusual, for knowing what 
 has been so unhesitatingly advanced in this volume on 
 all matters pertaining to the operations of the Resurrec- 
 tionists and their employers. Nor was I less cognizant
 
 PREFACE, xiii 
 
 of the character of the proletariat population of the 
 Old Town of Edinburgh. On my becoming Dr. Knox's 
 partner in 1840, the anatomical affairs of the city were 
 in a state of confusion ; and before the winter session 
 commenced, the Associated Professors and Teachers of 
 Anatomy and Surgery (Professors Monro, Sir C. Bell, 
 Sir Geo. Ballingall, Drs. Knox, Handyside, Duncan, and 
 others) did me the honour of appointing me their 
 Secretary and Treasurer. This onerous and anomalous 
 position gave me large insight over a period of five 
 years ; at the same time I acted as Physician to the 
 Royal Public Dispensary, and had charge of the 
 largest and worst district of Edinburgh (including a 
 great portion of the High Street and Cowgate, the 
 whole of the Grassmarket, West Port, &c.). The re- 
 lapsing fever which prevailed as an epidemic in 1843 
 brought me daily in contact with the filthiest dens of 
 the city, and a population indescribably brutal and 
 debased. Indeed in my walks through the worst parts 
 of Paris, Rome, Naples, Stamboul, Cairo, and Jerusa- 
 lem, I do not remember seeing anything so shocking
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 in the relations of humanity as was presented to me 
 in the capital of Christian Scotland during the summer 
 of 1843. 
 
 This explanation seemed necessary, as some persons 
 may be disposed to view the picture of Edinburgh " low 
 life " as a little overcharged ; whilst others, and those 
 possibly nearer the mark, will opine that the curtain is 
 only partially drawn up, and that some of the more 
 tragical shadows are not presented on the canvas. 
 
 The work has been a labour of love, or it would never 
 have been done. It will constitute a reward for the pains 
 bestowed upon this volume, the greater part of which 
 has been written whilst suffering from impaired health 
 and sorely-tried vision, if the reader can be induced 
 to rely on the data it contains, and accept the sentiments 
 based thereon it may be a little bluntly, but not less 
 honestly expressed. 
 
 The headings of each chapter, along with the Index, 
 should suffice for every reference. Whilst thanking my 
 publisher for the excellent getting-up of the work, I 
 ought to add that the portrait on the frontispiece is from
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 a calotype taken of Dr. Knox in his fiftieth year ; and 
 the portrait at page 140 is from the pencil of his 
 famed pupil, Professor Edward Forbes ; and both have 
 been ably reproduced by the autographic process, by 
 Messrs. Maclure, Macdonald, and Macgregor, 37, Wal- 
 brook ; the emblem on the title-page, from a drawing 
 of my own, showing ijiter alia the head of Aristotle, 
 has been faithfully copied by Mr. James D. Cooper, 
 188, Strand, London. 
 
 H. L.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Knox Family. Robert. Dux of the High School of Edin- 
 burgh. His Graduation. Army Surgeon. Waterloo. Cape of 
 Good Hope. Paris and Cuvier. Contributions to Medical 
 Literature. Ethnologist and Naturalist ..... 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Contributions to the Wernerian Society. Comparative Anatomy of 
 the Eye, Lacteal Vessels of Cetacea, &c. Museum of the College 
 of Surgeons of Edinburgh ; its Conservatorship.- Dr. Barclay 
 resigns his Classes to Knox ....... 
 
 CHAPTER HE 
 
 Obstacles to Anatomy. Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh (1505). Slow- 
 Progress of Anatomical School. The Monros. Violation of 
 Graves. Medical Legislation. The Resurrectionists.- The I>eter- 
 mination of the Surgeons. Stories of the Past .... 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Hare and Burke. The Murder's out. Excitement and Alarm 
 everywhere in the Land.^Knox defamed and in danger of Martyr- 
 dom. A Committee of Inquiry : their Report, and Knox's Letters 
 of Exculpation .......... 73 
 
 b
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Knox illtreated by the Profession. Pecuniary Sacrifices for his Class. 
 His Innocence established. Knox's Assistants. Condition of 
 the Bodies. Burke and the Lodging-houses. Sale of Bodies by 
 Relations. Sham Mourners ....... So 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Knox in danger. His Courage and Daring.^ Narrow Escape. Love 
 of his Class. Scientific Work. Cloquet's Anatomy. Mitchell's 
 Plates. Beclard's General Anatomy. -Peruvian Lama . . 107 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Knox's Personality and Showy Attire, and their Influence. His 
 Style of Lecturing and its Success. Immense Classes. The Knox- 
 ites. A Rehearsal. High Science and Low Art. Rhetorical 
 Displays. Tableaux Vivavts . . . . . . .124 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Comparative and General Anatomy. Saturday Lectures. The Caflfre. 
 Ciceronian dis|ilays. The Pictorial School. Educational Views. 
 Training of Lads. The Knox Triumvirate and Teachings. The 
 Master and Idle Apprentices. The Enthusiasm of his Class . . 143 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DUGONG AND CETACEA. 
 
 Great Northern and Young Whalebone Whales. Food of Whales. 
 Balana Mysticetus. Dolphins. .Soosoo. Porpoises. Dugong. 
 Teeth of the Cachelot. Stomach of certain Cetacea . . . 163 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. Scene in the Royal Society. Harry 
 Goodsir's views. Knox and his Colleagues part. Edinburgh 
 School declines. Knox's Di.ssector Contributions to Chatham 
 Museum 1S2
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 The Chair of Pathology. ^ Papers on Hernia, Entozoa, &c. Sir A. 
 Cooper. Sharks without Brains. Hermaphrodism. Museum. 
 "Brother Fred." Knox surpasses himself. Papers on various 
 subjects. The Reid and Knox Controversy. Lectureship to Art 
 Students ........... 200 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Life at Home. Prince of Talkers. Ugly yet charming. Historical 
 Contrasts. The Actor and Story-teller. Rural Enjoyments. 
 Dark Lines in the Portrait. Trenchant Critic. Tender-hearted 
 and charitable. The Bible and "Don Quixote." Domestic 
 Sorrows ........... 222 
 
 CHAPTER XHL 
 
 The Philosophy of Anatomy. Newton, Goethe, St. Hilaire, Serres, 
 &c. Wings of the Angels ! Supra-Condyloid Process. Hip 
 Joint. Surgical Opinions. Monkey and Man. Lectures in Glas- 
 gow, The sad Fall ......... 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Edinburgh Physiology Chair. The Historic Man. His On- 
 slaught on Institutions. The Chivalrous Knight. The Orator. 
 Hero Worship. Introductory Lectures. Distinguished Pupils. 
 Name talismanic. No Home ....... 261 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RACES OF MEN 285 
 
 CHAPTER XVr. 
 RACES OF MEN {continued) 308
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Congenital Deformity of Joints. Contributions to yVnatoniy and 
 Physiology in Medical Gazette. Cervical Ribs. Lectures on Phy- 
 siology, &c. Museums. Potato Disease. Agricultural Schemes. 
 Seeks Government Employment. Sphenoid Bone. P'au's 
 Anatomy. Hip Joint, &c. . . . . . . . -331 
 
 CHAPTER XVHI. 
 
 Great Artists and great Anatomists.- Manuals of Anatomy and 
 Zoology. Proposals to Publish. Fish and Fishing. Papers in 
 the Latieet. Bichat. Aztecques. Philosophy of Zoology, Cri- 
 mean War. Food Question in France. Contributions to the 
 Zoologist. The Social Evil ....... 35c 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Popular Physiology- Whales. Basil Hall. Acclimation. Natural 
 History of Man. Ethnological and Anthropological Societies. 
 Literary Projects. Darwin. Geographical Society. Popular Lec- 
 turers. Manuscripts. Practice. Latter Days and Death . . 374 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Medical Comments on Dr. Knox. The Knox School of Anatomy. 
 His varied Labours in London. Religious Beliefs. His Enemies, 
 lay and clerical. Conclusion ....... 395 
 
 Indkx 411 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ROBKRT KnO.K .... hyontuplicc 
 
 Ditto 140
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Knox Family. Robert. Dux of the High School of Edinburgh. 
 His Graduation. Army Surgeon. ^Waterloo. Cape of Good Hope. 
 Paris and Cuvier. -Contributions to Medical Literature. Ethnologist 
 and Naturalist. 
 
 John Knox, the Reformer, was a conspicuous figure in 
 an epoch unusually prolific of intellectual thought and 
 revolutionary change. As preacher, polemic, and icono- 
 clast, he stands pre-eminent among the Scottish worthies 
 of the i6th century. His abjuration of Papal authority, 
 his pulpit denunciations, and "first blast of the trumpet 
 against the monstrous regiment of women" so directly 
 aimed at the Court of Holyrood exercised a marked 
 influence in achieving the Scottish Reformation. Knox, 
 like his co-religionist Calvin, was a fiery, contentious 
 spirit, rude in speech and ruthless in action. His harsh 
 words often brought tears to the cheeks of "bonnie 
 Queen Mary ;" and he would have been nothing loth to 
 burn any Romish priest caught lingering by the ruined 
 altars of his church, after the sway of the " Congrega- 
 tionists" had become paramount in Scotland. 
 
 B
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 North of the Tweed, those who bear the cognomen of 
 Knox are disposed to trace their origin to the historic 
 man of that ilk, or the more ancient Knoxes of Ranfurly, 
 in Renfrewshire, to which the Reformer may also have 
 belonged. This is natural enough, as ancestry and clan- 
 ship are wholesome provender to the Scottish mind 
 proud of its nationality; and a "lang pedigree" aye 
 helps to sweeten the bread, if it does not largely fatten 
 the brose, of life. Among others who held for the 
 blood of the Ranfurly or Haddington Knoxes were a 
 family of farmers located by St. Mary's Isle, Kirkcud- 
 bright, early in the i8th century. 
 
 Mr. Knox, who concerns this narrative, was a tenant 
 farmer of the Earl of Selkirk. Of himself and wife 
 scarcely anything is known beyond their having a son 
 Robert, a lad of promise, who was sent to Edinburgh to 
 obtain the best education of the country. There the 
 youth showed excellent parts, and proved himself no 
 mean mathematician and scholar. About the year 1775, 
 this Robert Knox married Mary Sherer or Schrerer, a 
 farmer's daughter whose family were of German extrac- 
 tion, and some of whom had become enrolled as citizens 
 of the "gude auld toun" of Ayr. For a time the young 
 couple appear to have resided in the Stewartry of Kirk- 
 cudbright, and were favourably received at the Hall of 
 the Earl of Selkirk.^ Possessing loftier aims than the 
 
 * In 1778. whilst the Earl was from home, " My Lady Selkirk" would 
 entertain her neighbours at dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Knox were present on 
 this eventful, and more or less historic, occasion. The cock-a-leekie soup 
 and the choice salmon of the Dee had been served, when a naval Captain 
 and party abniptly entered the dining-room, and begged permission to join 
 her ladyship's circle. The Blue Jackets proved their relish of the viands
 
 AfA THEM A TICIAN KNOX. 
 
 bucolic life of his family, Robert Knox left "Mill-knowe," 
 or the "Little Mote," his father's residence; and bidding 
 adieu to St. Mary's Isle, the banks of Dee, and Solway's 
 silvery sands, sought his fortunes in Edinburgh. There 
 he taught some branches of natural philosophy : he was 
 also the mathematical master at George Heriot's Hos- 
 pital. As a leading Freemason, he is said to have taken 
 part with Dr. CuUen and other notabilities in laying the 
 foundation stone of the University of Edinburgh (No- 
 vember 1 6th, 1789) on a day ever memorable to the 
 cause of education in Scotland. On the first outbreak 
 of the great French Revolution, he became an ardent 
 admirer of the new order of things, and joined the 
 "Friends of the People;" in whose ranks the free-spoken 
 British spirits of the day were enrolled. His patriotism 
 was not so exuberant as to permit his incurring the 
 martyrdom that fell to many of the Edinburgh worthies 
 for their advocacy of the politics of Marat and Saint 
 Just; so he had the discretion to retire in good time 
 within the safe fold of the autocratic Dundas and the 
 lines of constitutional government. Of the character of 
 
 and Bordeaux. When the ladies retired to the drawing-room, the Captain 
 and his men swept the sideboard of its silver plate, and, laying hold of all 
 that was valuable and portable, decamped from the hall, laden with spoil 
 and good cheer ! They offered no apology for this bold procedure, they 
 made no promise to pay, much less to return ; but, as a mark of condescen- 
 sion, the Chief of the piratical crew left his card inscribed "Paul Jones, 
 of the Ranger." 
 
 " Paul Jones," or, more correctly, John Paul, was the son of a gardener, 
 once in the employ of the Earl of Selkirk. A silver ladle or spoon used 
 to be shown by Dr. Knox as the gift of Paul Jones to his mother, as 
 a placebo to her outraged feelings on discovering in the Scoto-American 
 pirate the son of a neighbour of decent worth. 
 
 B 2
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 this Robert Knox, mathematician, Mirabeauan, or mo- 
 rah'st, Httle more need be written, nor is there much 
 definitively known of his Hfe beyond his abihty, acu- 
 men, and citizenship. He had six sons and three 
 daughters by his wife Mary: the eldest child and son, 
 born in September 1776, was named John, after the 
 great divine; 2, William; 3, Archibald; 4, Mary; 5, Isa- 
 bella; 6, Paxton ; 7, Janet; 8, Robert; and 9, Frederick 
 John, whose name betrays the family regard for the 
 ancestral John of national repute. All are dead but 
 the youngest, Frederick John, who emigrated to New 
 Zealand about thirty years ago. The eighth child, and 
 fifth son of Robert and Mary Knox, was born on the 
 4th September, 1791,^ and named Robert, after his father: 
 his history is the one to be discussed in this volume. 
 
 Robert Knox, " the darling boy of the family," is said 
 to have been good-looking, of fair complexion, with soft 
 flaxen hair and large blue eyes. At an early age he 
 had smallpox in a virulent form, which cost him the 
 vision of his left eye, and involved him in delicacy of 
 health for years. After a good educational training at 
 home, he was sent to the High School of Fdinburgh, 
 where he had to contend with the best youths of the 
 city and surrounding district. Few juvenile institutions 
 could boast of more distinguished names than Francis 
 Horner, Henry Brougham, and Henry Cockburn ; and 
 on the long roll of illustrious alumni of the High 
 School scarcely one showed more brilliant parts than 
 
 1 Dr. Knox's birth is taken from the Family ]$ihle, and the same date is 
 to be found in tlie records of the Royal Collcfje of Sur^'cons, Kdinburgh. 
 In some documents and brief biojjraphical notices of the Doctor, the year 
 1793 lias been assigned to his birth.
 
 ''DUX'' OF THE HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 Robert Knox. Apparently without efifort, he rose to 
 the head of every class, and came out as Gold Medal- 
 list in 1 8 10 leaving other competitors far behind him 
 in the race for the "blue ribbon" of the year. Robcrtus 
 Knox figures on the wall of the Academy among the 
 '^ Duces Classis Gr(EC(B et Latiiice,'' vi. Aug., i8io. The 
 gold medal was inscribed " Robo'to Knox piicro optiino 
 merito condiscipnloruni Duci ;" and on its obverse ''PrcE- 
 miinn Mnrrctanum m ScJiola Edinburgensir On the 
 day of distributing the prizes to the scholars of the 
 High School, the Lord Provost and Town Council pre- 
 sented Knox with a large folio volume of the Works 
 of Virgil, " ex editione Petri Btirmaniii',' to mark their 
 approval of his superior abilities and conduct. 
 
 Robert Knox joined the medical classes of Edinburgh 
 in November iSio. His literary and historical studies, 
 his partiality for the collateral as well as the direct 
 medical sciences, and not less his rhetorical powers, 
 led him to take a prominent part in the hebdomadal 
 discussions of the learned Societies assembled under 
 the shadow of his Alma Mater. He had evidently 
 won his spurs early in the Royal Physical Society, 
 as prior to his graduation he had twice occupied its 
 presidential chair, an honour so rare as to be almost, 
 if not altogether, unprecedented in the history of the 
 Society. Owing to the loss of "the Minute Book," no 
 clue can be had to the Essays which he contributed to 
 the Royal Physical Society, or to the mode in which he 
 had distinguished himself so far beyond his compeers. 
 
 It is said that, on his first examination for the M.D., 
 Knox was plucked for his anatomy. Such a contre-
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 temps at the threshold of a promising career brought 
 out his Saxon mettle and roused him to a thorough 
 sense of duty, that not only saved him from the op- 
 probrium of a second rejection, but the more damaging 
 position of medical mediocrity. As the anatomical 
 teaching of Monro tcrtius had been of poor service, 
 Knox went to Barclay to make amends for lost time. 
 Under a fresh teacher arose a fresh zest for a study 
 the cultivation of which revealed a large field of inquiry, 
 of absorbing and increasing interest to a man of com- 
 prehensive mind like Knox. Allured to the ranks of 
 anatomy, his course became clearly established ; he 
 abandoned the dialectics and rhetorical encounters 
 of the Societies for practical anatomy the basis of 
 surgical art and the best of all introductions to the 
 study of natural science. His second appearance be- 
 fore his Examiners is said to have been more startling 
 than his previous rejection ; he had anatomy at his 
 finger's end, and could set forth his knowledge in the 
 choicest Latin the language in which the examina- 
 tions were at that time conducted. He graduated in 
 1 8 14. His thesis " De Viribus Stimulantuim ct Nar- 
 coticoriim in corporc sano " though brief in extent, and 
 professedly written in haste, showed originality of 
 thought : it contained observations on the effects of 
 walking upon the pulse ; and the influences exercised 
 upon the frame by alcohol and other stimulants, as 
 well as the narcotics in common use. His experiments 
 made to ascertain the effects of equestrian and pedes- 
 trian exercise on the state of the pulse, came to be 
 more fully investigated before the close of the year.
 
 ON THE PULSATIONS OF THE HEART. ^ 
 
 In October 1812, Mr. Knox, the father of Dr. Knox, 
 died ; his mother, Mrs. Knox, lived till 1838. After his 
 father's death the Doctor was looked upon as the head 
 of the family. 
 
 In January 181 5, his essay "On the Relations subsist- 
 ing between the Time of the Day and various Functions 
 of the Human Body, and on the Manner in which the 
 Pulsations of the Heart and Arteries are affected by 
 Muscular Exertion," appeared in the Edinburgh Medical 
 and Surgical Journal, vol. xi. pp. 52-65 and 164-167. 
 To settle the interminable disputes concerning the stimu- 
 lant and sedative powers of foxglove, Knox was induced 
 to think of the preparatory steps in the inquiry the 
 various conditions of the healthy pulse. Dr. Cullen had 
 been of opinion that an acceleration of the pulse happened 
 twice a day, at noon and in the evening, and somewhat 
 resembling a febrile paroxysm. On the contrary, Knox 
 always found his pulse and that of the subject^ of his lOO 
 observations diminish in velocity as the day advanced ; 
 thus it was 72 at 1 1 A.M., 64 at 5 P.M., and 58 at 8 P.M. ; 
 and, in the intervals, the pulse lost one pulsation and a 
 fraction hourly. The morning pulse was counted before 
 breakfast, and the evening pulse after exercise of mind 
 and body, and after food and drink ; yet its frequency 
 was less than in the morning, when everything favourable 
 to a rapid state of the circulation was carefully guarded 
 against. He held the pulse to be more excitable in the 
 morning; after breakfast and before 10 A.M., its average 
 
 1 The subject of his experiments was about 22 years of age, of moderate 
 height, and somewhat muscular. He was easily excited by stimulants of 
 almost every kind.
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 was 72 ; after dinner, before 5 P.M., 74'22 ; and after sup- 
 per (with more or less alcohol), between 10 and 12 P.M., 
 64'388. These observations were so opposed to those 
 Fodere had recorded in his Essai de PJiysiologie Positive, 
 as well as Cullen's, that Knox could only explain the 
 great diversity of opinion by saying that Fodere, Cullen, 
 and others had framed their hypothesis on the diurnal 
 revolutions of the pulse from unhealthy persons, or the 
 febrile, or phthisical. It required but few experiments 
 to convince Knox that animal food raised the pulse much 
 more than vegetable. The excitation of the pulse by wine 
 is still greater, and that from spirituous liquors greatest 
 of all. Along with the "daily diminution of velocity in 
 the functions of the sanguiferous system," there appeared 
 to Knox a similar revolution in several other functions 
 of the human frame. Thus, beyond all doubt, our per- 
 ceptions in the early part of the day arc clearer, our 
 minds more acute, and our intelligence more active. The 
 same may be said of our stomachic functions. " Were it 
 lawful for me to speculate," wrote Knox, " in this expe- 
 rimental age, I would venture to support an opinion at 
 present, I allow, somewhat antiquated, and very niifasJiioii- 
 ablc that early rising may be conducive to long life, as it 
 most certainly is to the perfect enjoyment of all oyr facul- 
 ties." He believed that " the most powerful stimulant 
 which can be applied to increase the action of the heart 
 is exercise," the increase in the number of arterial pulsa- 
 tions being greatly influenced by the debility of the indi- 
 vidual. He did not fail to point out the pathological 
 relations of this fact, and how the slightest muscular 
 exertion tries the frame weakened by disease, the loss
 
 THE WOUNDED OF WATERLOO. 
 
 of blood, fever, &c. He dwelt upon the increase of the 
 pulsations occasioned by change of posture, and the im- 
 port of this knowledge in studying the different phases 
 of disease. Whilst Knox felt anxious for the solution 
 of the physiological problems, his eye was constantly 
 directed to the application of his views to pathological 
 medicine. 
 
 In 1815, Dr. Knox obtained his commission as assist- 
 ant-surgeon in the army : at that period, the junior mem- 
 bers of the medical staff were styled " hospital assistants." 
 Professor Duncan and others, in giving Knox introduc- 
 tions to Sir Walter Farquhar and Sir Gilbert Blane, then 
 at the head of the Public Medical Departments, called 
 special attention to the merits of his graduation thesis. 
 Knox was sent to Brussels to render aid to the wounded 
 of Waterloo, and in after-years was wont to speak of the 
 valuable experience he gathered there. He was attached 
 to the Gens d'armerie Hospital, where "hospital gan- 
 grene " prevailed and proved so fatal, owing, as Knox 
 supposed, to the small confined rooms of the building, 
 which had formerly been a Nunnery. Secondary ampu- 
 tations were extremely unsuccessful : only one of Sir C. 
 Bell's lived ! The people of Brussels, according to Knox, 
 spoke in disparaging terms of the English medical de- 
 partment ; and he himself admitted that skill and atten- 
 tion were not very rife in the surgical wards ; nor did 
 the English doctors prove a knowledge of the French 
 language equal to the necessities of the hour. He looked 
 upon the hospital gangrene sores as differing but little 
 from those met with in the wards of St. Bartholomew's, 
 London. He returned to England in charge of ninety
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 wounded, and was for a time attached to the Melsea 
 Hospital, in Hampshire. 
 
 Being gazetted to the 72nd Highlanders, Dr. Knox, 
 early in April 18 17, sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 where he remained till the autumn of 1820. In sailing 
 out to the Cape he made " Observations on the Tem- 
 perature of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Superin- 
 cumbent Atmosphere between the Latitudes of 50 2' 
 and 20 24'' N." {Edin. Philos. Journal, vol. v. p. 279). 
 It was during the month of April. He used a mercurial 
 thermometer (Fahrenheit's scale), and his observations 
 were made at 6 A.M., at noon, and at 6 P.M. His 
 tables show the remarkable equality of temperature en- 
 joyed as well by the great ocean as by the superincum- 
 bent atmosphere. The air and the sea seldom differed 
 more than three or four degrees, and often only one de- 
 gree of Fahrenheit. He ascribed to the mildness and 
 equability of marine air its extreme salubrity in phthisis ; 
 and therefore objected to phthisical patients sailing along 
 a coast or an inland sea where the temperature of the 
 marine air differs but little from that of the neighbouring 
 continent oi' island. He cited the fact of the Baltic being 
 often frozen when the great ocean, ten degrees further 
 north, is open and the weather mild. Also that seamen 
 were made aware of the vicinity of land by the sudden 
 cooling of the air and of the sea. He considered that the 
 atmosi)hcre resting on the great ocean, by the equability 
 of its temperature, and the uniformity of its qualities as 
 to moisture, will under very few circumstances affect the 
 human frame as the inconstant air of a continent or large 
 island, subject to endless variations from the change of
 
 LIFE AT THE CAPE. Il 
 
 seasons, and even by the alternations of day and night. 
 He called in question the doctrines of Marsh Miasinata, 
 and looked upon fevers as resting more on the change in 
 the constitution of the atmosphere regarding its tem- 
 perature and moisture ; and, in corroboration, pointed 
 out the district of Lammermuir, about twenty miles 
 south of Edinburgh, where agues disappeared as soon 
 as the forests were cut down. 
 
 Whilst on duty at the Cape, or in " the wilde " of 
 Southern Africa, he seems to have entered with great 
 zest into the arts and practice of soldierly life. To equip 
 himself for real service he became a thorough horseman, 
 swordsman, and " shot." How many old friends and 
 pupils of an after period would have had their eyes glad- 
 dened could they have seen Knox in his regimentals, 
 with cocked hat and feathers and high decoration ! 
 Practising the soldierly attributes in the plumes and 
 plush of military conceit, Knox must have surpassed 
 himself in grand externals and lofty walk. 
 
 As a man of thought and observation, Knox looked 
 beyond the confines of his hospital engagements, and 
 aimed for the light which fresh countries and travel afford. 
 He examined the charts of the Cape territory, and was 
 able to correct and extend them. He studied the phy- 
 sical geography and meteorology of each district, and 
 not less the Fauna, if not the entire natural history under 
 his survey. His observations in these varied walks, as 
 well as medicine proper, will presently be noticed. It 
 was not enough for Knox to look upon the prairies, and 
 the wild untamed denizens of the forest, when so visibly 
 under his cognizance antagonistic races of men were
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT Kh^OX. 
 
 playing their game of humanity the Saxon encroaching, 
 and the CatTre as daring and impetuous in repelHng the 
 foe. There were the Hottentots and their hybrids, and 
 the lethargic Dutch in the field; whilst commercial "John 
 Bull " would take part in the fray only for the interests 
 of civilization, and, of course, "missionary glory," that 
 grand myth of the would-help Providence, and at any 
 cost or sacrifice, of the credulous Britisher. Early in 
 his African experiences the ethnological faculty seemed 
 strongly manifested in Knox, so that he came to look 
 upon the Caffre on the defensive, the Dutch Boer growing 
 cabbages, and English fighting men, lovers of order and 
 organization, as so many forces gathered on an African 
 plateau, and there manifesting to those who could observe, 
 the characteristics, the tendencies, and the antagonisms 
 of race. 
 
 Natural history pursuits engaged his spare time ; he 
 marked the habits of wild animals, then shot or en- 
 trapped them ; he employed men to skin the beasts, and 
 to aid him in the preparation of artificial or natural 
 skeletons. He collected specimens from every division 
 of the animal kingdom. Man, however, was his chief 
 study, and, as war brought its usual contingencies, he 
 took every opportunity thus afforded of dissecting the 
 Caffre and Bosjeman, not without regard to those 
 differences of organization supposed to exist between 
 these savage tribes and the European settler. Had his 
 notes and observations on the anatomical characters, the 
 mode of living, and other physiological traits of the 
 Aborigines around the Cape been arranged, along with 
 the zoological and other scientific data he had gathered,
 
 A FRTCA N EX PL OITS. 1 3 
 
 they would have constituted a valuable monograph. 
 Though this was not done, a great deal of what he saw 
 in Africa came to be worked up in magazine articles, 
 whilst the anthropological memorabilia formed interest- 
 ing details for his anatomical classes, and were after- 
 wards woven in graphic colours with his " P'ragment " on 
 the Races of Men. 
 
 No African traveller could surpass Knox in story- 
 telling. Mounted on his famous Arabian mare, that 
 could travel ninety miles "apparently without the 
 slightest fatigue," and armed with a rifle of marvellous 
 aim, Knox single-handed achieved wonderful things. 
 The palm of the " dead-shot," however, he did not claim 
 for himself, but nobly awarded it to a Dutch farmer and 
 his son ; the examples he recounted of the " dead-shot," 
 and the value assigned to such unerring aim in en- 
 counters with the caniivova, were grandly piquant to 
 every circle of listeners, as was every narrative of his 
 African experiences charmingly told and beautifully 
 coloured throughout. 
 
 The following extracts from a letter written by Dr. 
 Knox to his brother Frederick are worth quoting for 
 their characteristic touches. The Doctor was then by 
 the banks of the Great Fish River, Cape of Good Hope. 
 The letter bears date loth September, 1818 : 
 
 "My df.arkst Brother, By your letters, I perceive that neither 
 time nor absence has in the smallest degree diminished the affections of 
 my relations, or attachment of my friends. How happy am I, and yet 
 how wretched ! Delighted to hear of your health and prosperity, yet 
 miserable at the thoughts of the wide-extended ocean which rolls between 
 us. . . . I am in tolerable health, and as far as regards all the com- 
 forts of life every way content. You know, and to you I may say it with-
 
 14 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 out vanity, I generally acquire friends wherever I go, and the Cape forms 
 no exception to the remark ; indeed I know nothing but the first so- 
 ciety. . . . My banishment cannot last for ever, and I have already 
 taken such steps as will probably allow of my returning before June 1819. 
 I begin, my dear brother, to ' lack promotion :' life is short, and excessive 
 studies have not a little impaired my constitution. It is true, that in this 
 country I could settle advantageously for life, nay, perhaps acquire a 
 fortune in ten or fifteen years ; but will this recompense me for so long a 
 deprivation of European society? the separation from all those whom I 
 hold most dear, from friends, from relations, from my beloved parent? All 
 the wealth of India could never reconcile me to this. Home I must 
 and shall, life permitting, once more behold. . . . Had I, my dear 
 Frederick, that command of language I once possessed, that readiness of 
 diction, acquired by a long familiarity with literary subjects, I would, and 
 perhaps ought to have written, to her ladyship,^ but I have been neces- 
 sitated to resign the pen for the gun ; to acquire the art of managing the 
 reins of my horse whilst travelling on the parched roads of Africa, or pur- 
 suing at full speed the swift antelope over pathless flats, whose termination 
 the weariest eye searches for in vain. The amusements of the chase, 
 though interesting at first, soon grow irksome to one whom education and 
 habits of life have led to difTerent pursuits. P'inally, continue to love and 
 respect as your best friends on earth, our only surviving parent and sisters ; 
 you shall see me before June. Farewell ! " 
 
 In the same enclosure: 
 
 "My dearest Mother, I have not addressed this letter to you, but 
 you may believe me when I say that it is written chiefly on your- account. 
 Nature herself seems to point out that I do not speak falsely when I say 
 that 1 am your affectionate son ; for behold an involuntary tear has dropt 
 on the paper. " RoiiERT Knox." 
 
 He added a few words to his sisters Mary and Jessie 
 breathing of kindness. In a subsequent letter, not 
 now forthcoming, addressed to his mother, he gave her 
 a long history of the topography of the district in 
 which he was located, the people and their habits, and 
 
 1 This was Lady Wemyss, who had shown great interest in Dr. Knox's 
 success. ,
 
 CLIMATE OF SOUTH AFRICA. 15 
 
 all that pertained to the general features political, 
 social, and agricultural of the colony. 
 
 Busy in every direction that could engage his mental 
 powers, Knox sought by meteorological registers and 
 other data to arrive at some opinions regarding the 
 sanitary condition of the Cape and its inland settlements. 
 Graaf Reynct was selected by him as illustrative of the 
 average climate. At the distance of about 135 miles 
 from the Southern Ocean, in latitude 32 ii'S., and 
 longitude 26 E., stands the village of Graaf Reynet, 
 about 1,100 feet above the level of the sea, in one of the 
 north-eastern districts of the colony of the Cape. Here 
 were kept the thcrmometrical tables ; and, with the ex- 
 ception of the Cape Peninsula and the southern moun- 
 tainous tract, Knox believed the said tables would be 
 found very generally applicable to every part of the 
 colony. From May 18 18 to May 18 19, the general 
 annual temperature was 62'i9 Fahr. ; the lowest monthly 
 mean temperature was 5379; and the highest 7r30 
 Fahr. The observations were made by J. Ernst, and 
 commented upon and made applicable by Knox. There 
 were 'jd rainy days in the year, and of these eleven were 
 stormy ones. Knox maintained that, whatever might be 
 drawn from the tables just noticed, the climate of South 
 Africa was one of the healthiest in the world. Epidemics 
 and fevers of marshy countries were unknown. He ad- 
 mitted the existence of bilious fevers in the young, and 
 during the hot part of summer, and did not recommend 
 the Cape Colony for phthisical patients ; and further 
 observed that the disease (consumption) was not infre- 
 quent with the colonists and the Hottentots.
 
 1 6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Knox was by no means undistinguished as a surgeon; 
 his removal of half of the lower jaw of a sergeant, an 
 operation that several surgeons refused to undertake, 
 and other creditable efforts, gained him considerable 
 ^clat, both in civil and military service. He stood in 
 special favour with the Dutch settlers, who solicited him 
 to become chief surgeon to the Dutch Free States. 
 Having aided in planning one of the principal roads to- 
 wards the interior, caused him to be looked upon as an 
 authority in such matters, and, marvellous to say, he was 
 offered the post of surveyor to a part of the colony. 
 
 His skill as a surgeon, his zeal in biology and the 
 varied walks of Natural History, the attention he be- 
 stowed upon the climate of the Cape and its sanitary 
 relations, and the marked interest he had shown in all 
 that bore upon the material progress of the colony 
 traits of character so unusual in a subaltern officer won 
 him golden opinions in various ranks of life. Had he 
 consented to remain a dozen years at the Cape, there 
 was no post of honour in the hands of the colonists that 
 he might not have attained, and, independently of offi- 
 cial patronage, would have achieved both position and 
 fortune there. Long after his sojourn amongst them, the 
 Cape colonists spoke in high terms of his transcendent 
 abilities and exploits in the field. Influenced either by 
 home sickness, or health, or a higher ambition than could 
 find scope in an African colony, Knox left the Cape of 
 Good Hope on the 22nd October, and, sailing in the brig 
 Brilliant, arrived in England on Christmas Day, 1820. 
 
 He was at home in Edinburgh early in 1821, and joined 
 the VVernerian Natural History Society, then under the
 
 STUDIES IN PARIS. 17 
 
 presidency of Professor Jameson, and became one of its 
 chief supporters. On March 10, 1821, he communicated 
 to it some particulars relative to the Caffre Albino, lately- 
 seen by him at the Cape of Good Hope (Edin. Philos. 
 Journal, vol. vi. p. 172). 
 
 On the 26th September, 1821, Knox obtained per- 
 mission from military head-quarters to go abroad, and 
 be absent from the United Kingdom for one year. Next 
 month (October) he received the thanks of the Army 
 Medical Department through Sir James McGregor, 
 Director-General, for his chart of the eastern frontier of 
 the colony of the Cape of Good Hope the execution 
 of which Sir James deemed so creditable to Knox's 
 " industry, zeal, and talents," and for which he (Sir 
 Jam.es) always expressed a high appreciation. Knox's 
 object in seeking leave of absence was to enable him to 
 study in the medical schools of the Continent. 
 
 In the French capital, to which he now repaired, 
 Knox found every department of natural science, as 
 well as medicine and surgery, ably represented. Cuvier's 
 researches had awakened a fresh love for geology and 
 that grafting of zoology upon it now known as Palae- 
 ontology ; nor was Geoffrey St. Hilaire's Philosophie 
 Anatoniiqiie less attractive to the human anatomist 
 seeking for an interpretation of abnormal forms in the 
 general unity of type. Knox was well qualified by his 
 earlier studies, and still more by his love of osteology 
 and natural history, to enter upon the new fields of 
 investigation opened out by the French savans. He 
 examined the data upon which Cuvier based his great 
 reputation ; he listened to Geofiroy St. Hilaire ex- 
 
 C
 
 1 8 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 pounding his views of the higher anatomy, and became 
 a convert to the new doctrines ; though his great 
 idol, Cuvier, opposed them in toto. The French indoc- 
 trination had a powerful influence upon Knox, who, 
 for long, if not through life, spoke of Paris as the great 
 school of modem ideas in science. Knox made valu- 
 able frieildships in Paris with those just named, also De 
 Blainville, Baron Larrey, and others. He joined the Free- 
 masons, in Paris, on the 22nd of April, 1822. 
 
 Dr. Knox's " Observations on the TcBuia solium 
 (tapeworm), and on its Removal from the Human 
 Intestinal Canal by Spirits of Turpentine " {Edin. Med. 
 and Surgical Journal, July 182 1, vol. xvii. p. 384), 
 showed that in Oct. 18 19 the TcEuia soliuin had 
 become so general among the British troops stationed 
 at the Cape of Good Hope as to resemble an epidemic. 
 Of a detachment of eighty-six men, thirty-eight were 
 affected ;^ of these, two had the Ascaridcs luvibricoidcs, 
 and the remainder Tcenia solium. Young and healthy, 
 old and debauched, were alike sufferers. The presence 
 of this parasite was evidently attributable to the use of 
 unwholesome or diseased meat. Spirits of turpentine 
 proved thoroughly effectual in destroying the parasites. 
 He did not believe in any combination of matter being 
 capable of converting itself into intestinal worms a 
 theory occasionally prevalent for, " were we satisfied 
 
 ^ Tliis was a very large proportion. Knox's observations as to bad meat 
 being tlie /o?is et origo mali are confirmed by Wauruch, of Vienna {^Lancet, 
 May 13, 1843), ^''^o> " treating of 206 cases, states that 52 of the patients 
 were women cooks ; the rest were butchers, and eaters of large (juantities of 
 meat, bad mutton and pork.
 
 PERICARDITIS AND NECROSIS. 19 
 
 with such explanation, the origin of men and all other 
 animals would be readily accounted for from a pecu- 
 liar arrangement and combination ot organic molecules 
 placed under peculiar circumstances, and the story of the 
 Python would be no longer a fable." Had Knox lived 
 till these latter days, he would have seen " protoplasm " 
 endowed with the pythonic force in the hands of both 
 French and English physiologists. 
 
 In the same (17th) volume of the Edinburgh Medical 
 and Surgical Journal, p. 567, he reported " Cases of 
 Inflammation of the Pericardium ; with Remarks on the 
 Adhesion of Serous Membranes." Comparatively little 
 was known of pericarditis at the time, but Knox gave 
 sufficient interest to his cases to call forth an editorial 
 note from Professor Andrew Duncan. Curiously enough 
 he quoted the " instructive case of pericarditis, mistaken 
 for rheumatism," from M. Pelletan's surgical works 
 the patient was the celebrated Mirabeau without, 
 however, recognizing the importance of the supposed 
 mistake in the diagnosis. 
 
 His " Observations and Cases illustrative of the 
 Pathology and Treatment of Necrosis " {Edin. Med. and 
 Surg. Journal, Jan. 1822, vol. xviii. p. 62), were mainly 
 drawn from military practice. His theory of necrosis 
 ran counter to the experiments of Duhamel and Troja, 
 and the observations of most practical surgeons who 
 attached the greatest import to the periosteum ; thus 
 he stated : " In no dissection performed by myself or 
 others, has the new bone, in cases of necrosis, been 
 found to depend for its origin on the periosteum, or 
 surrounding of the parts, but, on the contrary, it has 
 
 C 2
 
 79 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 uniformly appeared to be a secretion from that portion 
 of the old bone which remained alive." 
 
 In the same volume (p. 564) he had a few " Observa- 
 tions relative to the Action of the Heart in Fishes," 
 evidently made on his voyage out to the Cape. Sharks, 
 bonitos, and dolphins were the subjects of his experi- 
 ments ; he marked in these animals the contractions of 
 the cavcE, the creeping, vermicular, tremulous action of 
 the auricle, and the violent convulsive-like action of the 
 ventricle of the heart, the regular succession of these 
 motions ; and as life gradually became extinct the 
 auricle sometimes moved without a corresponding action 
 of the ventricle, but the contrary of this never happened. 
 The influence of stimuli upon the contractions of the 
 different portions of the heart was also noted. 
 
 The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for 
 April 1823 (vol. xix. p. 210) contained "Observations 
 on the Regeneration of Bone, in Cases of Necrosis and 
 Caries," being a supplement to the Memoir published in 
 January 1822. He had been to London to examine 
 the Hunterian Museum, and the pathological specimens 
 in the Military Hospital at Chatham ; also to the 
 School of Medicine at Paris and the collections of 
 pathological anatomy at Alfort ; and from these last- 
 named he described two specimens of great interest 
 the necrosed clavicle presented to the French Academy 
 by DAugerville, and a necrosed scapula from Alfort 
 to support his views of regeneration of bone from bone 
 in necrosed conditions.^ He discussed Haller's and 
 
 ' There is no desire on my part to uphold or contravene Knox's opinions, 
 as to attempt such would require large space and comment ; here and there,
 
 CL OSE OF MILITA R Y SER VICE. 
 
 Hunter's opinions, and other authorities, and objected 
 to the torturing experiments made on pigeons and 
 animals so far removed from man in structure. 
 
 His history, so far as his miHtary Hfe is concerned, 
 may be conveniently stated here. On the 31st of 
 December, 1822, he wrote to the authorities for his 
 half-pay, due since Christmas 1820, and wished it to be 
 paid in Edinburgh ; showing that his mind was made 
 up to settle in his native city, unless the war-cry should 
 again call him to the tented field. He continued to 
 draw his half-pay till Lord Fitzroy Somerset wrote on 
 the 17th Nov., 1 83 1, to Sir J. McGregor on the subject, 
 when it became needful that Knox should resume his 
 duties or retire from the service. On the 2nd Aug., 1832, 
 he did retire, receiving ij^ioo as a commutation, so that 
 Knox may be said to have fared extremely well at the 
 hands of the Government his five years' active service 
 being rewarded beyond its term with nearly thirteen 
 years of half-pay and a handsome bonus.. 
 
 however, a note may not be unobjectionable. Few subjects have beea 
 more fully discussed than the formation and regeneration of bone ; and 
 experiments after experiments have been adduced in support of special doc- 
 trines ; indeed the highest surgical authorities have been opposed to each 
 other : to-day it is bone ; to-morrow it is periosteum ; and so the changes 
 have rung from the days of John Hunter to the present time. The matter, 
 it may reasonably be supposed, is within the compass of solution. Each 
 tissue has its own sphere of action deriving its pabulum of growth from the 
 blood elements. Looking at the external covering of bone, its inner mem- 
 brane, and the Haversian and innumerable other canals connecting both ; 
 may it not be that this intermedlale structure marked in the embryo, soft, 
 vascular, and permeating the osseous substance and carrying the capillary 
 nourishment everywhere constitutes the nidus by which bony secretion is 
 effected? Surely it fulfils the physiological growth and aids most materially 
 those operations which Nature is called upon to perform in repairing the 
 pathological necessities of bone.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Contributions to the Wernerian Society. Comparative Anatomy of the Eye, 
 Lacteal Vessels of Cetacea, &c. Museum of the College of Surgeons 
 of Edinburgh; its Conservatorship. Dr. Barclay resigns his Classes 
 to Knox. 
 
 Five years of practical experience as a military surgeon 
 would have satisfied less observant men than Knox of 
 the thorough import of anatomy to professional work. 
 He had seen enough, and more than enough, of medical 
 dilettanteism at the bedside of the Waterloo victims, and 
 on the plains of Caffraria, to guard him against the error 
 of neglecting the basis of physiology and surgery. His 
 ethnological and natural history inquiries at the Cape, 
 to which by the way he^ had no guide, formed an ex- 
 cellent introduction to his studies in the Jardin des 
 Plantes and the schools of Paris. Here the exercise of 
 his best powers, aided by a special culture, was needful 
 to grasp the philo.sophic teachings of Cuvier, St. Hilaire, 
 and De Blainville men in whose hands the extinct forms 
 of an antediluvian past, compared with the living organ- 
 isms on the earth's surface, became as plastic material 
 Upon which to construct a theoretical basis or plan, typi- 
 cal of the whole world of life. Elated by the presence,
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WERNERIAN SOCIETY. 23. 
 
 and still more by the personal recognition, of these great 
 masters, whose bold inquiries had penetrated the arcana 
 of science, and revealed to mankind fresh realms of 
 thought, Knox longed to soar above the stereotyped 
 formulas of medicine and to take part in the extension 
 of the new philosophy. Amid the zoological treasures 
 obtained by Napoleon, and the osteological collections of 
 Cuvier, Knox became imbued with a grand emulation for 
 biological study. This spirit was manifested in all its 
 freshness on his settling down in Edinburgh at Christ- 
 mas 1822, and continued unabated through life. 
 
 He had only been at home a few days when he read 
 (on the 28th December) to the Wernerian Natural 
 History Society, a " Notice relative to the Habits of the 
 Hyaena of Southern Africa " {Trans. Werner. Soc.,vo\. 
 iv. p. 383, or Edin. PJiilos. Journal, vol. xviii. p. 386). 
 He doubted Dr. Buckland's explanation of the bones of 
 various animals being found in the cave of Kirkdale, 
 Yorkshire, being dragged there by hyaenas ; the lion and 
 panther, he believed, carried off their prey, but not the 
 hyaena or wild dog. Hyaenas do not congregate ; they 
 are solitary, according to Knox. He had often roused 
 the hyaena from his lurking-place, but assuredly these 
 places bore no resemblance to charnel-houses. He also 
 seemed disposed to call in question the nature of the 
 bones found in the Kirkdale cave, and thought they might 
 be the remains of bears, tigers, as well as hyaenas. 
 
 His " Observations on the Anatomy of the Beaver 
 {Castor Fiber, Linn.) considered as an Aquatic Animal," 
 appeared in the same (4th) volume of the Wernerian 
 Transactions, p. 548. He pointed out an extensive "sinus,"
 
 24 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 or receptacle for the blood, situate close to and above the 
 liver, into which entered the lower cava and hepatic veins, 
 and from it arose a single trunk conveying the blood to 
 the right side of the heart. The Eustachian valve was 
 very perfect, and another similar valve was found at the 
 entrance of the superior cava into the right auricle of the 
 heart. Knox went largely into the history of the venous 
 sinuses, and indicated that the power of suspending respi- 
 ration possessed by aquatic animals is attributable to the 
 peculiar formation of their venous system. Referring for 
 a moment to the human structure, he stated that he had 
 observed valves at the mouths of the vena; cava; in man. 
 
 On the same evening, April 19, 1823, and to the same 
 Society {Trans. Werner. Society, vol. v. p. 206), Knox 
 stated the results of his " Inquiry into the original and 
 characteristic Differences of the Native Races inhabiting 
 the extra-tropical part of Southern Africa." He showed 
 a Caffre's cranium, a drawing of which accompanied the 
 paper. According to Knox, there were three distinct 
 races of men in that part of Africa situated to the south of 
 the tropics. Firstly, the Anglo-Dutch colony of the Cape, 
 a mixture of almost all the modern nations of Europe, the 
 Dutch predominating, who had pushed before them and 
 partly exterminated (secondly) the race of Hottentots, or 
 Bosjemans; and, thirdly, the Caffres. He arranged the 
 Bosjemans with the Mongolian, and the Caffrc with the 
 Ethiopian varieties of Blumenbach. The Bosjeman had 
 uncommon powers of vision, which seemed lost by inter- 
 marriage with another race. The cranium, viewed verti- 
 cally, is nearly equal to the well-formed European head. 
 
 Judging from the inspection of a fine collection of skulls
 
 MONGOLIAN FEA TURES IN BRITAIN. 2$ 
 
 collected by the banks of the Ganges, the property of 
 Professor Jameson, Knox was disposed to question the 
 association of the Hindoo race with the Caucasian variety. 
 
 The vast antiquity of the Mongolian hordes of Africa 
 seemed to be proved. It also appeared to Knox that 
 these tribes had penetrated into Europe and Southern 
 Africa, and not improbably modified by their presence 
 some of the races of Central Africa. He further stated 
 that " the peculiar Mongolian face is very strongly 
 marked in many families^ now inhabiting the High- 
 lands of Scotland, and more particularly the Hebrides." 
 
 On April 26, 1823, Knox read a paper " On some 
 Peculiarities of the Structure of the New Holland Cas- 
 sowary" {Edin. P kilos. Journal, vol. ix. p. 390). 
 
 In the years 1822 and 1823, Knox communicated to 
 the Wernerian Society four memoirs on the anatomy of 
 Or7iithorJiync]iiis paradoxus of New Holland. In addition 
 to the organs of sense, espcially considered, and the in- 
 ternal viscera of digestion, &c., he described a femoral 
 gland and duct leading to the spur on its heel. This 
 anatomy he held to be original, and the spur to be 
 connected with the organs of generation. {Trans. Wern. 
 Soc, vol. v., or Edin. Philos. Journal, vol. ix. p. 390.) 
 
 His paper on the Cassowary mentioned above con- 
 stitutes Article xxi. of the Edinburgh Philosophical 
 Journal, vol. x. p. 132; whilst Article xxii. of the 
 same journal, pp. 137-40, is entitled "Additional Ob- 
 servations on the Structure of the Trachea in the Cas- 
 
 1 Without being aware of this special observation of Knox's, I have 
 occasionally been surprised to see what are deemed MongoHan features in 
 the faces of the British in other parts of the United Kingdom.
 
 26 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sowary Emeu of New Holland," with a drawing of the 
 trachea. He looked upon the gallated cassowary found 
 in the Indian islands as distinct from the species lately 
 discovered in Australia, and distinguished by the name 
 of " Emeu Casuary." He gave the anatomy of both 
 birds at some length, and described for the first tine a 
 remarkable appendage of the trachea in the cassowary 
 of New Holland a large muscular bag, about the size 
 of a man's head, into which the windpipe opens by a large 
 orifice, occasioned by a deficiency of a part of the circum- 
 ference, in about thirteen tracheal rings. He knew no simi- 
 lar structure or appendage being attached to the trachea 
 of any of the feathered tribe, nor of anything analogous 
 to it in any other animal excepting the chameleon, to the 
 upper portion of whose trachea there is appended a com- 
 paratively large membranous bag. Knox thought it 
 enabled the bird to swim and preserv^e life among the 
 extensive marshes composing Central New Holland. 
 
 The interesting paper Knox furnished to the Wernerian 
 Society on the Foramen of Soemmering bears date June 
 20, 1823, but was not read till the 15th November, 1823. 
 {Trans. Werner. Soc, vol. v. p. i.) In his "Account of 
 the Foramen centrale of the Retina, generally called the 
 Foramen of Soemmering, as seen in the Eyes of certain 
 Reptiles," Knox stated that Cuvier and De Blainville 
 had described it in man and the monkeys, but he had 
 found it in a cla.ss of animals differing widely from man, 
 namely, the lizard tribe of reptiles. The first time he 
 noticed it was in the Lacerta siiperciliosa of naturalists ; 
 then the Lacerta calotes and Lacerta striata. In the 
 Gecko, the foramen centrale was wanting, and also in the
 
 KNOX THOROUGHLY ENTHUSIASTIC. 27 
 
 lizard called by naturalists " Lanius " (the Lacerta ma- 
 buy a) ; so that \.h.Q foramen centrale was present in some 
 and wanting in others. He did not find it in the crocodile. 
 On the following week, Nov. 22 (p. 104 of the same 
 volume of the Society's Transactions), Knox announced 
 the existence oi ih.Q foramen ce?ttralem a large chameleon 
 sent to the Edinburgh University by the Marchioness of 
 Hastings, and in a much more developed form than in 
 the human species. His communication was illustrated 
 by beautiful preparations. {Edin. Pliilos. Journal, vol. 
 X. p. 171.) 
 
 It will readily be seen from the above list of contribu- 
 tions that Knox was among the most active supporters 
 of the Wcrnerian Society during the year 1823. The 
 Society showed their regard for his work by placing him 
 on the Council. 
 
 Knox, seated in the family attics in Nicholson Square, 
 and secure from all interruption, made excellent use of 
 his opportunities in Edinburgh. He was a thorough 
 enthusiast, and spared neither time nor money to gain 
 anatomical knowledge. Though comparative osteology 
 was his chief attraction, he surveyed the whole field of 
 anatomy, and laboured in every direction, from the 
 minute textures of the human eye upwards in the 
 scale of magnitude to the elephantine crania. He 
 sought the acquaintance of gamekeepers and river con- 
 servators for the game and fish he wanted for special in- 
 vestigation ; and held the Newhaven fishwives in favour 
 for the opportunities he might gain of the marine fauna 
 of the Forth. To him nearly all the oddities found in 
 the fishing-nets of the neighbouring Firth were brought.
 
 28 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He paid well, and knew how to divert the fishwives. 
 If a difficulty arose with Knox as to an anatomical 
 structure, he neVer rested till it was solved. His giving 
 fourteen shillings for a brace of grouse, and in Scotland, 
 too, the great habitat of the bird, showed how regardless 
 he was of the outlay of money when science demanded it. 
 
 The anatomy of the eye must have claimed his atten- 
 tion in Africa, or he could hardly have produced the 
 valuable essay he read to the Royal Society at Edin- 
 burgh, on the 17th of June, 1823 "Observations on the 
 Comparative Anatomy of the Eye" {Trans. Roy. Soc. 
 vol. X. pp. 43-70). It was to elucidate the nature and 
 distribution of the nervous system that led him to in- 
 quire into the structure of the eye, and there is good 
 ground for believing that his first observations were 
 made at the Cape ; for there only could he have seen 
 the organs he examined in a fresh state. In this paper, 
 drawn from a wide field of comparative anatomy, based 
 on numerous dissections admirably made by a master 
 hand, Knox endeavoured to demonstrate that the adap- 
 tation of the eye to different distances is effected by 
 means of the ciliary muscle, or that body which anato- 
 mists had hitherto called the "ciliary ligament" 
 Annuliis albus, &c. Though furnished only with a 
 simple lens, he maintained that the Annulns albus 
 showed no ligamentous fibres, but " comparatively large 
 branches of nerves ; that it did not resemble any of the 
 textures of the eyeball except the iris, but that here the 
 resemblance was so close that they could with difficulty 
 be distinguished." 
 
 " Having discovered that in birds, and in the deer, the
 
 ANATOMY OF THE EYE. 29 
 
 so-named (ciliary) ligament received numerous nerves, 
 that its texture bore no resemblance whatever to ligament, 
 that it became rudimentary in those animals whose sight 
 was feeble, which would not necessarily happen were it 
 simply a ligament for the suspension of the tunics and 
 humours of the eye, the conclusion was irresistible that 
 the Annulus albas is a muscle, that it is the muscle by 
 which the eye adapts itself to the perception of distant 
 objects ; and that by it, in conjunction with the iris, all 
 the changes which take place in the interior of the eye- 
 ball are effected." 
 
 He remarked that " the development of the ciliary 
 muscle followed the ratio of the strength of vision, or 
 rather of the accommodating powers of the eye in the 
 various classes of animals ; id est, it is strong in birds,^ 
 in men, in the Quadrumana, and in the deer ; weaker in 
 some others of the Ruminantia, as the ox ; still more so 
 in the horse. Lastly, in most fishes it is completely 
 rudimentary, and is reduced to a mere ligament." He 
 considered that an examination of the eyes of birds and 
 of fallow deer would satisfy any anatomist that the ciliary 
 muscle could not possibly be a ligament. 
 
 At a meeting of the Anatomical and Physiological 
 Society of Edinburgh, in 1836, Knox referred to the 
 Archives G^iidralcs of that year, containing an analysis 
 of various German monographs on the structure and 
 physiology of the eyeball, and the confirmation of his 
 views on the Anmilus albus by Arnold. Professor 
 Alison, of Edinburgh, the most cautious and philoso- 
 
 ^ Knox believed that it was by sight only that the vulture was led to 
 discover his prey, and not by the sense of smelling.
 
 30 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 phic physiologist of his day, believed in Knox's obser- 
 vations and deductions, but English writers, so far as I 
 know, make no allusion to them. 
 
 Professor Donders,i of Utrecht, evidently unaware of 
 Dr. Knox's observations in 1823, attributed the dis- 
 covery of the muscular character of the so-called ciliary 
 ligament to Professors Bowman of London and Bruecke 
 of Vienna. This opinion is no longer tenable, as to 
 Knox is really due the honour ; and the honour is all 
 the more, that the achromatic microscope had not come 
 into use, and the nature of muscular fibre was then 
 unknown. His extended anatomical observations and 
 correct reasoning upon the facts so obtained led Knox 
 to the true nature of the ciliary muscle. He endeavoured 
 to unravel the anatomical connection of the sclerotica 
 and transparent cornea, and, looking to the distribution 
 of the inner membrane of the cornea in connection with 
 the anterior layer of the iris, he believed that during the 
 strong contraction of the pupil in viewing objects placed 
 close to the eye, the form of the aqueous humour must be 
 considerably affected. He looked upon the marsupium 
 in birds and fishes as simply a reflected membrane of 
 the choroid ; he had traced its functions and the cause 
 of its disappearance in the Mammalia. He viewed the 
 ciliary fibres placed immediately over the Capsule of 
 Petit as membranous folds quite analogous to the folds 
 of the inner membrane of the choroid coat, and ulti- 
 mately terminating in processes also analogous to those 
 
 ' " On tlie Anomalies of Accommodation and Refraction of the 
 Eye," J). 23, l)y F. C. Donders, M.D. The New Sydenham Society, 
 London, 1864.
 
 ANATOMY OF THE EYE. 31 
 
 termed ciliary. In describing the mode in which the 
 optic nerve enters the eye, Knox considered the eye of 
 the deer as approaching in many respects that of the 
 bird. The eyes of birds, of Qnadruma7ia, and of man 
 himself, showed him that the ciliary muscle was not a 
 nervous ganglion or plexus. 
 
 A supplement to the above paper was read to the 
 Royal Society on the 15th of March, 1824 {Trans. Roy. 
 Soc. vol. X. pp. 231-252), entitled "An Inquiry into the 
 Structure and probable Functions of the Capsules forming 
 the Canal of Petit, and of the Marsupium Nigrum, or the 
 peculiar Vascular Tissue traversing the Vitreous Humour 
 in the Eyes of Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes." He had 
 examined the eyes of an executed criminal eight hours 
 after death, and found the forauien of Soemmering " re- 
 markably distinct, and of a deep yellow tinge ; tJic7'e was 
 no fold, a fact which proves the appearance to be di post- 
 mortem one, and that Soemmering had on this point 
 misled all anatomists since his discovery. The retina 
 was transparent." He further stated that the pulpy layer 
 of the retina terminates by a well-defined margin, near 
 to the place where the internal ciliary processes {Zonula 
 ciliaris of Zinn) commence, but the inner layer of the 
 retina may be considered as advancing forwards towards 
 the lens, and uniting with the other transparent tissues 
 to form the internal ciliary processes, and the internal 
 parictcs of the Canal of Petit. He admitted that this 
 opinion rested on analogy. By the employment of 
 delicate vermilion injections he showed the ciliary pro- 
 cess of the vitreous humour (the Corona ciliaris of Zinn) 
 to abound with blood-vessels. Of the 47 injected pre-
 
 32 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 parations exhibited to the Royal Society, 34 were de- 
 posited in the Anatomical Museum of the Royal College 
 of Surgeons, Edinburgh ; the remainder were consigned 
 to a distinguished Edinburgh oculist. 
 
 The " Royal " and " Wernerian " Societies of Edin- 
 burgh were by no means favourable channels for con- 
 veying anatomical and physiological discoveries to the 
 medical profession of the kingdom, and it is doubtful if 
 they were of greater significance to the more philosophic 
 inquirer, either at home or abroad ; hence a great deal of 
 Knox's work contributed to the Edinburgh Societies was 
 never heard of south of the Tweed. Even now when 
 physiological compilations are the order of the day, the 
 science that Knox developed and the many valuable 
 papers contributed by him on various subjects are seldom 
 recognized by writers. It is pleasant to find a notable 
 exception to the preceding statement, and that the dis- 
 covery of the forameti of Soemmering by Knox will no 
 longer be questioned. Mr. J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., of the 
 Middlesex Hospital, one of the latest and best writers on 
 this subject, says {Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 
 vol. i. p. 103): "The first notice of the existence of the 
 Foramen centralc in reptiles, which I can find, is by 
 Knox, in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, 1823, 
 where he describes very accurately the macula and 
 Foramen centralc in the chameleon, and says that he has 
 also seen it in Laccrta supcrciliosa, L. scutata, L. calotes, 
 and L. striata. There was recently in the Anatomical 
 Museum at Frankfort, a preparation of the chameleon's 
 eye with an inscription in Soemmcring's handwriting, de- 
 scribing \\nt foramen, which proves it to have been known
 
 THE CHYLE-VESSELS IN CETACEA. 33 
 
 to this great anatomist; and there are also in the Museum 
 of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, two old pre- 
 parations of the chameleon's eye (undated, Hunterian ?) 
 which time has spoiled, but which, the catalogue says, 
 are intended to display the foramen. These prepara- 
 tions and Knox's memoir were overlooked by later 
 investigators, and till very recently it was commonly 
 taught that the macula and central fovea were peculiari- 
 ties of the human retina, and of that of some apes. In 
 1862, the error was for ever set aside by H. Muller's re- 
 markable memoir on the chameleon's eye, in which he 
 described with great exactness the macula and fovea, 
 and two sets of vertically and obliquely radial fibres 
 here so conspicuously distinct." 
 
 On the 24th of January, 1824, Knox addressed the 
 Wernerian Society " On the Mode of Growth, Reproduc- 
 tion, and Structure of the Poison Fangs in Serpents " 
 [Trans. Soc. vol. v. p. 411). 
 
 On April 3, 1824, he communicated a paper to the 
 same society on the supposed discovery of Professor 
 Tiedcmann and Dr. Fohmann relative to the non-exist- 
 ence of the Vasa cfferentia in the Phoca tntnlina. His 
 views arc given at greater length in three letters ad- 
 dressed to Dr. Duncan, junior, inserted in the Edinburgh 
 Medical and Surgical Journal for July 1824, vol. xxii. 
 p. 23. The vessels conveying the chylous fluid from the 
 intestines to the mesenteric glands, anatomists had agreed 
 to call Vasa afferentia, those conveying the same fluid 
 from the glands into the thoracic duct, Vasa cfferentia : 
 the existence of these latter vessels had been denied by 
 Tiedemann, who stated that the chyle poured into the 
 
 D
 
 34 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 glands by the Vasa affcrentia is absorbed by veins only, 
 arising from these glands, and thus conveyed directly 
 into the blood without passing along the thoracic duct. 
 Knox got a specimen of the common seal {Phoca vitidina 
 Linn., Sheeund of the Germans), from which Tiede- 
 mann had borrowed his description, and found the Vasa 
 effcrcntia quite distinct. He repeated his dissections 
 upon the seal and porpoise, and discussed Mr. Abernethy's 
 views on the anatomy of the whale and the lactiferous 
 vessels, and concluded by affirming that the anatomy of 
 the seal and the porpoise do not furnish any argument 
 against the long-established doctrine of the transmission 
 of the chyle by Vasa affercntia to the mesenteric glands, 
 and Vasa efferentia from the glands to the thoracic duct.^ 
 
 On the 17th of the same month he offered a few 
 observations " On the Black Colour of the Periosteum in 
 the Colymbus septentrionalis, or Red-throated Diver." 
 
 In June 1824 he communicated to Brcivsters Journal 
 of Science, vol. i. p. 96, " Observations on the General 
 Anatomy of the Gyninotiis clectricns, the Electric Eel 
 of America ; and on the Philosophic Anatomy of the 
 Electric Organs." 
 
 His paper on the theory of the existence of a sixth 
 sense in fishes, supposed to reside in certain peculiar 
 tubular organs found immediately under the integu- 
 ments of the head in sharks and rays, is to be found in 
 
 * Professor Turner (jfournal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p. 77), 
 in his paper on the Anatomy of the Pilot Whale, confirmed, from actual 
 observation of the lacteal vessels filled with chyle, the opinions entertained 
 by Knox, and showed that in the Cetacea, as in other Mammals, the chyle is 
 conveyed by a system of lacteal vessels.
 
 BONES OF ANIMALS IN CA VES. 35 
 
 Breivsters Jotimal of Science, vol. ii. p. 12. Knox 
 examined the opinions of Jacobson (of Berlin), Tre- 
 viranus, and others, and looked upon the tubular organs 
 as organs of touch, modified, however, so as to hold an 
 intermediate place between the sensations of touch and 
 hearing, but approaching nearest to hearing. The undu- 
 lation of the water by a tolerably-sized ship might affect 
 these organs at a distance, and thus apprize the shark of 
 the presence of a moving body. 
 
 He communicated to Brewster s Journal of Science, 
 vol. iii. p. 193, a paper " On the Limits of the Retina in 
 the Eye of the Sepia loligo, one of the Cephalopoda 
 MoUusca." 
 
 Mr. J. W. Reddock, of Falkirk, having found "the 
 bones of a quadruped in a bed of clay, near Camelon, 
 90 feet above the present level of the Firth of Forth," 
 brought them before the Wernerian Society, and read a 
 paper upon them. Knox, at the following meeting, in 
 January 1825, showed that the bones were those of a 
 seal, of the species still inhabiting the Firth of Forth 
 {PJioca vitulina). At the meeting of the Wernerian 
 Society, on the 14th of May, 1825, Knox exhibited spe- 
 cimens of bones of various animals found in the cave 
 at Oreston, near Plymouth ; being chiefly bones of large 
 oxen, and very large deer, and which, being almost 
 completely deprived of their animal matter, appeared as 
 if calcined. 
 
 The preceding pages of this chapter embracing but a 
 general record of Knox's work from Christmas 1822 to 
 1824 afford abundant proofs of his zeal and aptitude 
 for original research. During these two years, he took 
 
 D 2
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 part in the discussions of the " Plinian," the " Royal 
 Physical," and " Medico-Chirurgical " Societies ; and was 
 among the most prominent leaders of the " Wernerian " 
 and " Royal " Societies, to both of which a higher status 
 or excellence was attached. Everything betokened well 
 for Knox's social and scientific position in his native city, 
 when all at once he threw away an important chance or 
 element of success. A world of promise was before him, 
 and he inconsiderately put shackles to his social progress 
 by marrying a person of inferior rank, some time in the 
 year 1824. This marriage was kept a secret. In Scot- 
 land this could easily be done, as no ceremony civil or 
 religious, no notice before or after publication, no writing, 
 and no witnesses, are essential to the constitution of 
 marriage. 
 
 Dr. Knox became a fellow of the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh on the ist December, 1823. He also joined 
 the Medico-Chirurgical Society, and continued to mani- 
 fest as much interest in surgery and medicine as the 
 keenest follower of both. Occasionally he did a little 
 practice, and might have done more had not his private 
 dissections absorbed so much time. His studies in the 
 Museum of Natural History made him known to Pro- 
 fessor Jameson, who was glad to receive the aid of a 
 promising naturalist for his Quarterly PJiilosopJiical 
 Journal, then in its infancy. 
 
 The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in the 
 "Old Hall" of the " Incorporation of Chirurgeons," was 
 a very poor affair in 1823. Along with its relics of the 
 " Art of Chirurgcric," the fleams and cutting instruments 
 of the barber surgeons, and other crude apparatus,
 
 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 37 
 
 surgical and obstetrical, stood dwarfed forms and other 
 deformities, gathered as curiosities from a superstitious 
 past. Its modern collection, or specimens of health and 
 disease, and a few natural history examples, belonged 
 almost entirely to the nineteenth century, and these 
 scarcely numbered 300 in all. This condition of affairs 
 might well shock Knox, fresh from the Parisian School, 
 and he longed above all things to redress it. 
 
 On the 2nd April, 1824, Dr. Knox submitted to the 
 College of Surgeons a plan for the formation of a Museum 
 of Comparative Anatomy, having felt, as he said, more 
 than most anatomists the great want of a proper Museum 
 and of an Osteological collection. The letter pro- 
 ceeded : " Towards the formation of a Museum of Com- 
 parative Anatomy I am willing to bestow my whole 
 labour and time, with that energy which the cultivation 
 of a very favourite pursuit naturally gives ; the attending 
 expenses of presses, glass, spirits, &c., to be borne by the 
 Royal College of Surgeons. I am, moreover, willing 
 that the Museum so erected be considered as the pro- 
 perty of the College, and intended for the use of its 
 Fellows (as is at present the Pathological collection), 
 reserving to myself during my lifetime the use of the 
 Museum for the furtherance of my favourite pursuits and 
 studies." ^ This handsome offer on the part of Dr. Knox 
 was accepted by the College at their meeting on the 
 15th May, and the "scientific arrangement and active 
 management " of the additional collection of Comparative 
 Anatomy necessarily devolved upon him. 
 
 ' Extracts from the Minutes of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.
 
 38 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 At this period in its history the College Museum was 
 under the charge of a Committee of Fellows called 
 " Curators," whilst two other Fellows held the special 
 office of " Keepers," or what might be termed unpaid 
 Conservators. Both Curators and Keepers were annu- 
 ally elected to their respective offices. On the iith of 
 September, the College, on the notice of the President, 
 voted their thanks to Dr. Knox " for the labour and 
 attention he had bestowed in regard to the Museum." 
 His work pleased the Fellows so well that, on the 13th 
 of January, 1825 (within eight months of his accepting 
 office), a proposal was made to him " to take charge 
 of the Pathological Museum, in co-operation with the 
 ' Keepers,' and under the direction of the Curators, at 
 a salary of ^100 a year," he to defray the expense of 
 assistant. Knox accepted the offer, and was now con- 
 sidered " Conservator of the Museum, or, to speak more 
 correctly, of its pathological portion." 
 
 No better choice could have been made, for, restless 
 in his ambition to see his College progress with the 
 times, and in possession of a Museum worthy of the 
 great school it sought to lead in surgery, Knox was con- 
 tinually urging upon the chief men of the Institution the 
 need of amplifying the collection of both the physio- 
 logical and pathological series. It was probably his 
 example and promptings that led the College to consider 
 the proposal offered it in November 1824, by Mr. (after- 
 wards Sir C.) Bell, of disposing of a large part of his 
 Museum in Windmill-street, London, for i,(X)0. Dr. 
 Knox and Mr. Watson being deputed to go to London, 
 reported most favourably of the Bell collection. On the
 
 CONSERVATOR OF THE SURGEONS' MUSEUM. 39 
 
 15th February, 1825, the day on which the Bell negotia- 
 tion was recommended, the College agreed to give Dr. 
 Knox and his colleague ,2\ each for their trouble in 
 going to London. Knox courteously declined the money, 
 on the ground of its being a remuneration for services 
 which he conceived to be a duty he owed to the College 
 as its Conservator. The purchase of the Bell collection 
 being completed on the 22nd July, Dr. Knox was 
 authorized on the 5th August to proceed to London, and 
 arrange for its safe removal to Edinburgh, for which 
 service the sum of fifty guineas was voted to him. 
 
 So valuable a collection as Bell's gave a fresh, or 
 rather entirely new, character to the Surgeons' Museum, 
 and led to important changes in the management the 
 end of which was the appointment, on the 15th May, 
 1826, of Dr. Knox as Conservator of the entire Museum, 
 at a salary of ;^I50 a year. 
 
 Anatomy was not an ordinary occupation or mere 
 intellectual pastime with Knox, but viewed by him as 
 an object of high philosophic research. He was early 
 to recognize the two divisions anatomical science and 
 anatomical art : the former embracing the elucidation 
 of the nature or structure and organization of animal 
 bodies ; the latter comprehending all those means and 
 contrivances, manual or potential, by which organisms 
 can be unfolded and demonstrated. Whether or not 
 he had studied Constant Dumeril's Essai sttr Ics Moyens 
 dc pcrfcctionncr ct d'ctcndre /'A rt de /'A natomiste, 1 1 
 Fructidor, an. xi. (1803); and Gilbert Breschet's De la 
 Dessication et dcs auU'es Moyens de Conservation des 
 Pikes anatomiqucs, 1819 ; Knox looked first to Expo-
 
 40 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sition ; second, to Preparation ; and, thirdly, to Conser- 
 vation, as the grand objects to be attained in anatomical 
 art. There might be no novelty in the mode of 
 museum construction pursued by Knox, but its appli- 
 cation to the Edinburgh College of Surgeons^ was 
 unquestionably new. The labours of Eustachius, De 
 Graaf, Ruysch,"^ Riolenus, Glisson, Willis, Swammerdam, 
 Bellini, Lieberkiihn, and others had not been overlooked 
 by Knox in his initiative efforts to secure a good 
 groundwork to his anatomical art.^ 
 
 Knox's work in the College of Surgeons' Museum 
 was well done. Deriving but little aid from others, 
 he classified and catalogued the whole collection, and 
 strove to make it available to the medical student and 
 practitioner. He gave a new direction to the Com- 
 
 1 Under the quaint but expressive title of the "Anatomist's Knife," 
 Michael Lyserus, the student of Simon Pauli and Thomas Bertholinus, at 
 Copenhagen the latter of whom was helped by Lysenis in the discovery 
 of the chyliferous absorbents had done much to aid the constmction of 
 Museums as far back as 1653. 
 
 2 Ruysch's Museum was described as a perfect necropolis, all the in- 
 habitants of which were asleep and ready to speak as soon as they were 
 awakened. "The mummies of Kuysch," said M. Fontenelle, in his Eloge 
 of the anatomist, "prolonged in some degree the visible duration of life, 
 while those of ancient Kgypt prolonged only the appearance of death." 
 Peter the Great bought Ruysch's Museum for 30,000 florins, and was so 
 struck with the life-like countenance of a child that had been preserved by 
 Ruysch for' many years after it had ceased to breathe, that he actually laid 
 aside both Imperial dignity and Muscovite severity, and kissed the appa- 
 rently animated features. 
 
 ' The wIkjIc subject of Conser\'ation is most curious, and Egyptian art, in 
 this particular, far excels the civilized nations of the Christian era. How 
 cautious Englishmen should be in boasting when the arts of colouring, 
 the ])rocess of embalming, the raising of Monoliths and Pyramids 5,000 
 years ago and upwards, far surpass the greatest of modern efforts.
 
 DR. JOHN BARCLAY. 41 
 
 parative Anatomy series, and added to its variety by 
 several preparations of his own. One of the novelties 
 introduced by Knox was a collection of specimens to 
 illustrate Human and Comparative Pathology the 
 more desirable that a School of Veterinary Surgery had 
 just been opened in Edinburgh. He obtained every 
 zoological example within reach, as he maintained that 
 the field could not be too large and varied to be 
 inviting to the student. Of his familiarity with the 
 surgical part of the museum, his anatomical classes had 
 frequent opportunities of judging, and benefiting thereby. 
 Knox's seven years' service (1824-31), like a diligent 
 apprenticeship, in the College Museum, fairly entitled 
 him to the honours of Master. He placed it in 
 methodical order, and worthily left his own impress 
 upon every department. Unfortunately a great part of 
 Knox's catalogue that cost him much labour has been 
 lost, and no one knows how, but there are portions left 
 to show his painstaking character and his thorough 
 knowledge of the work. When Knox entered upon 
 office, in 1824, there was but a shell of a collection, but 
 by Bell's purchase and Barclay's noble bequest, with 
 presentations from the Fellows of the College Knox's 
 own probably the largest contribution the Museum, in 
 1 83 1, had become worthy of a Royal College that had 
 its Bells, Listons, and Symes, as exponents of modern 
 surgery. This excellence was largely owing to its dis- 
 tinguished curator. 
 
 For some years the fame of the Anatomical School 
 of Edinburgh had rested with Dr. John Barclay of 
 whose character and position it is needful to say a few
 
 42 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 words. John Barclay, the son of a Perthshire farmer, 
 was educated for the Scottish Church, and duly 
 licensed to preach ; but his leaning to anatomy^ and 
 natural history led him to study medicine and to become 
 an Edinburgh graduate in 1796. In the following year 
 he gave his first course of Lectures on Anatomy, in the 
 High School-yard, adjoining Surgeon's-square, Edin- 
 burgh. His mode of teaching was a great improvement 
 upon that of the Monros, and his pleasant manners and 
 thorough zeal in anatomical research added to his 
 popularity and success. When Monro {secnndus) retired 
 in 1808, and his son, Monro {tertius), began his long and 
 tedious reign, Barclay got a large class which was not 
 much affected by the appearance in the field of an able 
 lecturer. Dr. John Gordon a man of great promise, but 
 unfortunately of short career. 
 
 Dr. Barclay was an enthusiast in anatomy, and 
 devoted his whole time to its pursuit. He was vigilant 
 and painstaking as a teacher, faithful in collecting data, 
 and sagacious in their interpretation; he framed a new 
 anatomical nomenclature, wrote admirably on biological 
 questions, and established an excellent museum. He 
 made Human Anatomy attractive, and seems to have 
 
 1 Barclay, as a preacher, was for some weeks the locum iencns of the Rev. 
 G. Haird, of I5o'ness. Mr. Haird, wishing to ascertain how his parishioners 
 likel Barclay, asked the oj)inion of a shrewd villager. "Gey wee), minister, 
 gey weel," quoth Sandie ; " but everybody thought him daft." "Why, 
 Sandie ?" " Oh, for gude reasons, minister; Mr. Barclay was aye skinning 
 puddocks " (frogs). It used to be said that dogs avoided Barclay's path 
 from an instinctive dread of his dissecting them. If it be true that he was 
 disliked by animalities, he was much loved by his contemporaries and 
 friends. GoonsiR's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 25.
 
 BARCLA V AND KNOX. 43 
 
 been the first teacher in Britain to give a direction to 
 the study of Comparative Anatomy. His lectures were 
 greatly in advance of his time, and helped to sustain the 
 character of the Edinburgh School. 
 
 After sixty or more summers, thirty of which had 
 been devoted to science, the dim shadows of life began 
 to steal over Barclay, and with these tokens came 
 anxiety for the continuity of his school its fame and its 
 honours. Should his anatomical and physiological teach- 
 ings, tlie growth of so much labour,^ be left to chance 
 and time's effacing fingers, or should search be made for 
 an eminent disciple to whom the Barclayan standard 
 might be consigned .'' Barclay had excellent assistants 
 in his time Robert Nasmyth,^ Sir George Ballingall, 
 Robert Liston, A. Dickson, and others, who had obtained 
 honourable positions at home and abroad ; but none were 
 exactly at their master's call in the year 1825. 
 
 In his visits to the Museum of the College of Surgeons, 
 Dr. Barclay came in immediate contact with the new 
 
 ^ Henry Brougham, on the staff of the Edinburgh Rrj'uiv, asked 
 Barclay to give him half an hour's talk on anatomy, to enable him to write 
 a criti(jue on one of his (Barclay's) works ! The anatomist might well ex- 
 press surprise, as well as refusal, at the audacity of a Scotch barrister, who 
 had never handled a part of the anatomy, offering to review a work that had 
 cost him years of thought. Such sheer impertinence was very characteristic 
 of Henry (afterwards Lord) Brougham, who always wished to be con- 
 sidered a man of science, yet never had a drop of scientific blood in his 
 veins but what he got by transfusion. Brougham's ambition for omniscience 
 gave him the effrontery of Serjeant Buzfuz. 
 
 2 From my kind friend Mr. Nasmyth, the father of Scottish Dentistry, I 
 have heard much of Barclay ; and in days gone by, also from my friend Sir 
 G. Ballingall, who wrote a brief biography of Dr. Barclay, prefixed to his 
 " Introductory Lectures," published in 1827. [With unfeigned sorrow I 
 have to add that the good Mr. Nasmyth died May 12, 1870.]
 
 44 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 conservator, Robert Knox, in whom he saw a person of 
 precision, method, and expertness, a growing naturalist, 
 and an excellent human and comparative anatomist. 
 Moreover, Knox was one of his own pupils, rising in 
 fame and large in promise. Many thoughtful men had 
 gone into the great field of medical competition armed 
 with the Barclayan method, but no one offered more 
 sterling qualifications as an anatomist than Robert Knox. 
 Accordingly, Barclay offered a co-partnery to Knox, the 
 terms of which were agreed upon and signed on the 2nd 
 March, 1825. Knox agreed to relieve Barclay "of the 
 whole labour in every branch of the Institution whatso- 
 ever during the continuance of the co-partnery," Barclay 
 having the option of taking any part agreeable to him- 
 self Provision was made in case Knox should get a 
 professorship in any University a fact in the record that 
 implied the probability of such an advancement. Knox 
 was to retain the position and emoluments of his College 
 of Surgeons' Conservatorship. As the contract was to 
 terminate on the death of either of the parties, and Dr. 
 Barclay died (aged Ci6 years) in the autumn of the 
 following year 24th August, 1826 Knox came into 
 possession of the class and profits after eighteen months* 
 service. Barclay gave the introductory lecture to the 
 session 1825-26, and took no further part, but in all 
 respects showed the highest regard for Knox's well- 
 doing, and stipulated by will that his Museum, wherever 
 deposited, should be accessible, or rather available, for 
 Knox's use in lecturing.^ 
 
 ' The I'arclayan collection of comparative and j^liysiological anatomy 
 occupies a prominent position in the Royal College of Surgeons' Museum
 
 KNOX'S LECTURES. 45 
 
 It now became incumbent upon Knox to join one of 
 the Royal Colleges to secure the proper recognition of 
 his lectures, and he naturally preferred the Surgeons, 
 whom he joined on the 19th April, 1825, His proba- 
 tionary essay for admission to the Fellowship of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, was " On the 
 Causes and Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Human 
 Spine." It bears date April 1825, and consists of 52 
 pages 8vo, and was dedicated to John Henry Wishart, 
 F.R.S. Edin. His notion was that lateral curva- 
 tures of the spine were " the direct results of civilization 
 arising from an abuse of sedentary employments, an 
 excessive manufacturing population, and a total neglect 
 of the physical education of youth." He believed that 
 in the crowded population of large European cities only 
 one out of twenty could show a perfectly erect spine, 
 formed on the model which " nature originally bestowed 
 on man, and which Grecian art transmitted to admiring 
 posterity." He traced the history of the subject from 
 Hippocrates downwards. He dwelt upon the erroneous 
 system of education demanding of children efforts be- 
 yond their strength, by which the muscles supporting 
 the spine daily lose their energy for want of relaxation 
 and a correct system of exercise. He did not object to 
 corsets during school hours, nor did he declare against 
 mechanical aids in the treatment of lateral curvature ; 
 but his great preventive and panacea was exercise and 
 living according to nature's dicta. 
 
 in Edinburgh. There is also a bust of the worthy donor, who loved and 
 practised science as few men ever did, and whose many good qualities of 
 head and heart had won him golden opinions in society.
 
 46 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Dr. Knox's first course of lectures on anatomy and 
 physiolog'y", delivered in 1825-26, was a great success, 
 and fairly sufficed to establish his character. With 
 Knox, as Thomas Carlyle would say, the clock making 
 its advance to the meridian did not strike one, two, 
 three gradatiin, but sounded twelve at once. He 
 eschewed the puerile, formal methods of lecturing, 
 and sought the free, expressive, and higher academi- 
 cal ; and partly followed the course of his predecessor, 
 which had drawn excellent classes of excellent men. He 
 kept to the lines of his master, but in the adoption and 
 use of a decorative art gave to the Barclayan conception 
 an aesthetic colouring no less warm than effective ; thus, 
 whilst Barclay completed the walls and cornice with just 
 proportion and skill, Knox furnished the panels and 
 frescoes that gave lightness, tone, and consonance to the 
 whole apartment. 
 
 Knox's public appearance might well excite attention. 
 Here was a first year's lecturer, of marked individuality 
 in style, treating anatomy as a pastime of the hour, yet 
 giving to its demonstration a practical aim and philo- 
 sophic character. To attempt to follow Barclay in any 
 direction implied courage and experience, and to claim 
 the privilege of succeeding so able a man augured the 
 possession of talents of no small magnitude. Knox was 
 more than a successor to his distinguished master; he 
 was himself, and soon came to be designated by his class 
 as " Knox primus et incomparabilis!'
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Obstacles to Anatomy. Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh (1505). .Slow 
 Progress of Anatomical School. The Monros. Violation of Graves. 
 Medical Legislation. The Resurrectionists. The Determination of the 
 Surgeons. .Stories of the Past. 
 
 Antipathy to dissection after death is a natural and pri- 
 mary feeling that has been manifested by all nations, creeds, 
 and peoples ; the Egyptian and the Greek, the Roman 
 and the Jew, the Christian and the Mahometan. This 
 instinctive aversion rose to a superstitious dread, under 
 the fostering care of a wily priestcraft ever operating on 
 human minds, from the rise of the Nilotic dynasties to 
 the fall of the Roman Empire; nay, down to modern 
 times, and the Victorian era. The primitive Christians, 
 as is evinced by the epitaphs on their tombs, left any- 
 thing but blessings to the disturbers of their remains in 
 the Roman Catacombs.^ As the Koran forbade dis- 
 sections, whatever the Mahometan instructors taught of 
 anatomy was borrowed from the Greeks. Pope Boni- 
 
 1 My own notes on this subject, made in 1858, are not forthcoming; but 
 Dr. McCaul's able work on the " Christian Epitaphs of the P'irst Six Cen- 
 turies" (Bell and Daldy, 1869) affords examples of the text above, thus: 
 ^''Male pcrcat, insepultus jaceat, non resurgit cum JtuiA pai-tetn habeat, si quis 
 sepulchrum hunc violaverit." A heathen epitaph shows a twin feeling of 
 benediction : " Si quis violaverit ad inferos non recipiatur."
 
 48 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 face VIII. issued a Bull prohibiting even the preparation 
 of the skeleton. The pious wish of King Robert the 
 Bruce to have his heart deposited in Jerusalem, did not 
 shelter the act of " cutting out and embalming " from 
 sacrilegious condemnation at the hands of Pope Bene- 
 dict XII. Luther, ascribing the majority of diseases to 
 the influence of the devil, dealt out hard blows against 
 the physicians ; and so the world went on theological 
 dogmatists ever standing hostile to the advancement of 
 science. Popes and anti-Popes sanctioned the lowest 
 empiricism, whilst they acted towards medicine as if it 
 were a " black art " of no better repute than sorcery or 
 alchemy, the emanations of Satan. 
 
 Now and then a bold man appeared in history like 
 Dcmocritus of Abdera, the friend of Hippocrates, and 
 Galen, attracted to Alexandria by its possessing two 
 human skeletons ; but how rare are such examples in 
 ancient history ! The dark clouds of the Middle Ages 
 were passing away when Italy, true to her repute as the 
 leader of science, came forth with Mundinus, Achellini, 
 and Berenger (Carpi), to rescue anatomy from its de- 
 graded position. These were followed by Leonardo da 
 Vinci {Vnomo universale), -who, apart from its medical re- 
 lations, pursued anatomy as a branch of science worthily 
 associated with the revival of modern letters. France 
 had her Jacques Dubois and Charles Eticnne ; but these 
 and many others were eclipsed by Andrew Vcsalius 
 the great anatomical light of the new era, a Fleming 
 by birth, in reputation an Italian, who adorned the great 
 .schools of Pisa, Padua, and Bologna, and left an im- 
 perishable name in history.
 
 BARBER SURGEONS OF EDINBURGH. 49 
 
 At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Edinburgh, 
 though consisting of httle more than a long street con- 
 necting its ancient Castle with Holyrood Palace, evinced 
 a laudable desire for anatomical knowledge. The rudi- 
 ments of medicine had got some acknowledgment 
 in the previous century, or the " Guilde " or craft of 
 " Surregeanis " and " Barbouris " [Surgeons and Barbers] 
 could hardly have obtained a charter of incorporation 
 from the Town Council on July i, 1505, that received 
 the sanction of King James IV.^ the following year. To 
 know the " anatomea nature and complexioun of every 
 member In manis bodie " was imperative on all appli- 
 cants for admission into the " Incorporation," and it was 
 also set forth that " We [the Surgeons] may have anis in 
 the year, ane condampnit man efter he be deid ^ to make 
 
 1 James IV. was partial to the practice of physic ; he is described as 
 "weill lamed in the airt of medicine and a guid Chinirgiane. " In the lists 
 of the expenditure of the Lord High Treasurer (February 9, 1511-12) there 
 is an entry of a payment in the following terms : " Item to ane fallow, be- 
 cause the King pullitfurth his twtht [tooth], xiiii. s." The King was pay- 
 ing for his education, and fourteenpence for pulling a tooth was handsome 
 remuneration to any "fallow." The doings of King James are touched 
 upon in an interesting historical work of Sir J. Y. Simpson's, "Antiquarian 
 Notices of Syphilis in Scotland in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." 
 
 2 The words "efter he be deid" will sound strangely to the modem 
 reader. They indicate that cases had occurred prior to the reign of 
 James IV., where the dissector had anticipated death. Vesalius incurred 
 the odium of the Inquisition for examining the body of a Spanish nobleman 
 before muscular life had disappeared. In the Minute Book of the Tondon 
 Barber-Surgeons, dated July 13, 1587, there is a distinct order relative to 
 the disposal of " any bodie which shall revyvc or come to lyve agayne, as 
 of late hathe been scene." As the bodies of criminals were the only ones 
 available to the anatomist, the hanging had been but an incomplete stran- 
 gulation, so that the application of restoratives now and then succeeded. 
 History records several such revivals Ann Greene in Oxfordshire, Margaret 
 
 E
 
 50 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 anatomea of quhairthrow we may haif experience Ilk ane 
 to instruct uthcrs And we sail do suffrage for the soule.^" 
 It is curious to note how anatomy got a footing in 
 Scotland, and that it was made to hinge upon the work 
 effected by the gallows, or rather to complete that work 
 in the eyes of the law a circumstance that tended more 
 than anything else to bring dissection into bad repute 
 with all classes of society for three succeeding centuries.^ 
 
 Dickson in Edinburgh, in 1728, and Patrick Redmond in Cork, in 1766. 
 Sir William Petty restored Ann Greene to life, and, oddly enough, she was 
 proved to be an innocent woman. Margaret Dickson got married, and lived 
 thirty years after her hanging ! Redmond was recovered by Glover, a play- 
 actor who had some knowledge of surgeiy. The same evening Patrick 
 Redmond, inspired by gratitude as well as by whisky, went to the play- 
 house, and on Glover's appearance jumped upon the stage, and returned 
 thanks to his preserver, to the no small terror and astonishment of the audi- 
 ence. Riscarc/ia in the South of Irdaiid, by T. Ckofton Crokf.r, p. 191. 
 
 ' This charter had a religious bearing, as by it the Surgeons were bound 
 to "uphold ane altar in the College Kirk of Sanct Geill [St. Giles] in the 
 honour of Gcxi and Sanct Mongow our Patron." See Dr. John Gainlner's 
 able " Historical Sketch of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh," 
 published in i860; also his "Sketch of the Early History of the Medical 
 Profession in Edinburgh," 1864, from which the quotations in the text have 
 been taken. 
 
 ' The fact of hanged criminals being " left for dissection" increased the 
 natural horrors against it. A strong instance may be adduced. Upwards 
 of forty years ago a man was hanged in Carlisle ; an 1 the friends of 
 the culprit detennincd to revenge themselves on the doctors who engaged 
 in the |>ost-mortem examination. All the medical men sustained personal 
 injuries, and of a severe kind. Mr. Anderson, whom I knew so well in 
 after years, was shot in the face, and carried the marks of this diabolical out- 
 rage to the grave. Another surgeon was found dead by the side of a lofty 
 bridge, over the parapet of which, it was believed, he had been thrown. As 
 a child I remember the great excitement that prevailed, for jioor Anderson 
 was shot within a hundred yards of my father's door. Hanging in chains on 
 the jjublic roads, to be dissected by vultures, seemed less frightful to the 
 condemned criminal than knowing he would be " cut up" by the doctors!
 
 SL VV PROGRESS OF ANA TO MY. 5 1 
 
 Edinburgh, to her great credit be it said, made her 
 first advance to a knowledge of surgery nine years before 
 the birth of Andrew VesaHus, the father of modern 
 anatomy ; four years before that of Ambrose Pare, the 
 great French surgeon ; and one hundred and twenty 
 years prior to Harvey's setting forth the discovery of 
 the " Circulation of the Blood." The early start was 
 more propitious than the progress of the cause ; for, 
 consistently with the feeling of the times, the avenues 
 to learning were beset with suspicion ; science and magic 
 were almost synonymous, and both stood in a black- 
 balled position to theology. As anatomy wore a ques- 
 tionable aspect, it had to be pursued with a caution and 
 reserve by no means favourable to its development and 
 success. Fifty years of " Incorporate " life had given 
 no great character to Scottish Physic, or Jerome Cardan 
 would not have been brought from beyond the Alps to 
 cure the Archbishop of St. Andrew's in 1552. Nay, a 
 century and a half after obtaining their chartered foot- 
 ing, the Surgeons had only small acquaintance with 
 the basis of their art, as is shown by the following quaint 
 record, semi-pious and semi-anatomical, copied verbatim 
 from the Archives of the University of Edinburgh : 
 " Res Rariorcs sive Natiiralcs sive A rtificialcs DoiiatcE 
 vel Acqiiisita;. A skeleton of a Frenchman brought 
 from Paris by Doctor Michael Young, who, physician- 
 like, frighted us at first sight, and then to dissipate Fear 
 and make this sad spectacle very familiar and Monitory 
 of what we must all be at last, presented the Colledge 
 therewith 1671. It is neatly and cleanly done, and 
 covered with a white sheet, and wants three teeth above 
 
 E2
 
 52 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 and four below, and the forefinger or joynt of the right 
 hand is dropt off. He hangs in a very convenient 
 oblong box of timber which, opening with three doors, 
 exposes all parts of him to view." 
 
 The cranium so it is affirmed of the Scottish 
 historian George Buchanan and this French skeleton 
 constituted the entire '^ res rariores anatoniice" of the 
 University ; yet, previous to this, William Wormius had 
 published (1665) the Museum Wormiajm^n a cata- 
 logue of the rare and curious objects of Natural History 
 established by his renowned father Olaus Wormius; and 
 Nehemiah Grew was busy with his Museum Rcgalis 
 Societatis; and Frederick Ruysch had made Amsterdam 
 famous by his great anatomical collection. 
 
 Edinburgh had but a small population, and a trade 
 nearly limited to the making of "quhanzears" (swords), 
 so that, in setting up a claim for anatomy some years 
 prior to the establishment of Walter Chapman's printing- 
 press within the walls, the citizens showed their partici- 
 pation in the fresh intellectual force ushering in the dawn 
 of the sixteenth century. Art^ had come boldly forth, 
 and Science was trying to divest herself of the shackles 
 
 * Almost synchronous witli Edinburgh's first advance towards anatomy, 
 Da Vinci was engaged in some of his grand works, evincing an intimate 
 knowledge of external form and human physiognomy ; and in the vcrj' year 
 of the Surgeons' Charter of Incorporation (1505), Michael Angclo had 
 finished his cartoon of the " J{alhing Soldiers" for the great hall of the 
 F'alazza Vecchio, in Florence a work that fully exhibited the result of his 
 twelve years' study of myography. Nor was Raphael a whit behind his 
 predecessors and compeers in his adornment of the Camera della Signature, 
 and in his creation of Madonnas of imperishable glory in art ; indeed, the 
 greatest efforts of his genius rest on a just appreciation of the human form 
 divine.
 
 THE SCOTTISH KIRK PREDOMINAhTT. 53 
 
 that had so long bound her to alchemy, astrology, and 
 priestly dogmas. In this general assertion and awakening 
 of the European mind, the close alliance existing be- 
 tween the French and Scottish Courts in the sixteenth 
 century would essentially aid in the creation of a medical 
 faculty of observation in Edinburgh. Scotland, however, 
 for many long years, was too much engrossed with her 
 political status, her theological feuds, and the burning of 
 witches, to give much heed to scientific culture.^ The 
 Reformation, though based on moral and spiritual aims, 
 was more a political than an intellectual movement ; its 
 theology was dogmatic, if not mystical ; and it too often 
 came visibly forth that " New Presbyter was but Old 
 Priest writ large." The Kirk, the ruling power in Scot- 
 land, was busy with its " godly discipline," and hurling 
 excommunications right and left upon its refractory mem- 
 bers. Everything that exalted the intellect, or betrayed 
 a love for physical and aesthetic enjoyment, was viewed 
 as critical or dangerous to the soul's welfare, and liable 
 to be treated as heresy. Even minstrels and pipers had 
 to cease their vocation, lest they harped ungodly tunes, 
 or brought the sons and daughters of Eve in too close 
 harmony of person; and as late as 1569 two poets in 
 
 1 Sec Buckle's " History of Civilization," Lecky's "History of Rational- 
 ism in Europe," Sir W. Scott's " Demonology," and Mrs. E. Lynn 
 Linton's "Witch Stories." Paganism had as much credit as medical science 
 in the outlying districts of Scotland. Thus the register of the Presbytery of 
 Dingwall, in the year of grace 1678, shows that several members of the 
 Mackenzie family were cited for " sacrificing a bull in a heathenish manner 
 on the Island of Rufus, commonly called Ellam Mowry in Lochen, for the 
 recovery of the health of Constance Mackenzie, who was formerly sick and 
 valetudinaire."
 
 54 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the Scottish " land of song" were hanged, possibly "pour 
 encoiirager les aid res y 
 
 It was not till 1694 that an efifort was made to establish 
 a School of Anatomy in the Scottish metropolis, by asking 
 the Town Council to grant the dead bodies of foundlings, 
 and such as die of violent deaths and have none to own 
 them, for dissection. Three years previously (1691) Paul 
 Martin, a distressed French Protestant, had commenced 
 the manufacture of surgical instruments in Edinburgh. 
 In 1705, a Professor of Anatomy was appointed, with a 
 salary oi \^ a year, to teach the chirurgeon-apothe- 
 caries ! In 1720 Alexander Monro succeeded to the 
 professorship and its emoluments. He {primus) had 
 studied in Paris and Leyden ;^ and of his fame it is un- 
 necessary to speak, as everybody is aware that he and 
 his son Alexander {secuudus) laid the foundation of the 
 Anatomical School of Edinburgh.^ 
 
 Before the days of the Monros, the supply of "sub- 
 jects" was so inadequate, that the surgeons' apprentices 
 
 ' The anatomists had to seek the Continental Schools, yet all the while 
 there was plenty of materkl, could it have been but utilized, in Edinburgh. 
 The number of persons condemned for witchcraft alone would have afforded 
 a superabundant supply. In 1664 no less than nine women witches were 
 burned together at Leith ! (Dalzell, " Darker Superstitions of Scotland," 
 pp. 669, 670.) The Presbyteries held that the element of fire was neces- 
 sary to the purification of the ".Satanic progeny." It might have been sup- 
 posed that the " puir Deil" would have been allowed to deal with his own 
 progeny and in his own way. Oh, Religion ! what crimes are committed in 
 thy name ! 
 
 '^ 'i'here are no pretensions in these pages to an historical account, but 
 only to note a few salient points l)caring upon the Knox narrative. Pro- 
 fessor Struthers has carefully collated most of the facts pertaining to the 
 medical school in his "Historical Sketch of the Edinburgh Anatomical 
 School." (Maclachlan and Stewart, 1864.)
 
 THE RESURRECTIONISTS. 55 
 
 and young barbers determined upon the adventurous 
 step of procuring them from the graveyards. The Old 
 Greyfriars, containing the sacred dust of the Martyrs and 
 Covenanters, was still the chief sepulchral ground of the 
 city, and to this place of interment the said apprentices 
 resorted. How long they had practised the system of 
 body-snatching is not known ; but the secret oozed out 
 in 171 1, as on the 20th May of that year the College of 
 Surgeons recorded a minute, that " of late there has been 
 a violation of sepulchres in the Greyfriars churchyard, by 
 some who most unchristianly have been stealing, or at 
 least attempting to carry away, the bodies of the dead 
 out of their graves." For a few years subsequently 
 nothing more was heard of grave-desecration ; but with 
 the success of Monro's teaching arose suspicions of a 
 return to the " unchristian practices," to guard against 
 which the College of Surgeons, on the 24th January, 
 1 72 1, ordered that a clause should be put into all the 
 indentures of apprentices against violation of the church- 
 yards. Notwithstanding this, in April 1725, a further 
 disturbance of graves became known, and, in the fearful 
 tumult that arose, the populace nearly demolished Monro's 
 anatomical establishment. 
 
 The framers of the English language had not provided 
 against the contingency of such a special artisanship as 
 that of robbing graves. So deeply grafted was the sacred- 
 ness of " God's Acre," that the removal of a body from 
 its walled precinct was viewed as nothing less than an 
 interference with the " plans of Providence" and the 
 "great Resurrection." Hence, probably, arose the name 
 of " Resurrectionists," to designate the body-snatchers.
 
 56 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 For a time the apprentices and gravediggers were the 
 only resurrectionists ; but at the beginning of this cen- 
 tury a distinct class of men engaged in the work, and 
 earned great wages in Edinburgh, owing to the popu- 
 larity of its medical school attracting a majority of 
 English and Irish students. The demand was so much 
 greater than the supply afforded by the northern resur- 
 rectionists, that Dr. Barclay, in 1806, and subsequently,^ 
 sent to London for " subjects :" this was a precarious, 
 and necessarily costly, speculation. The trading smacks 
 plying between London and Leith were oft detained by 
 adverse winds, and the boxes of mortalities, marked 
 " perishable goods," seldom reached their destination in 
 a satisfactory condition. 
 
 Though the dissection of brute forms, particularly 
 those of the higher mammals, have furnished much 
 anatomical information, and served greatly to elicit the 
 general principles of physiology, human bodies are essen- 
 tial to the true anatomy of man and the practice of 
 pathology and surgery. Anatomical teaching, to be suc- 
 cessful, or at all applicable to the pursuit of the healing 
 art, required the use of " mortal remains," and these were 
 sought for and obtained at all hazards. The non-profes- 
 
 ^ In the Diary of a Ix)ndon Resurrectionist, for i8l2 and 1813, which 
 I had the opportunity of examining in the Royal College of Surgeons' 
 Library (London), I found ample confirmation of what is recorded above. 
 Occasionally twelve bodies were despatched to Edinburgh by one sloop. 
 Of all diaries extant, this of an English Resurrectionist seems the most 
 remarkable. The notes are written in a good hand, and each chapter in the 
 book is intnxluced with fine caligraphic flourishes ; these stand in striking 
 contrast with the fearful data contained in the record. Thus : " Drunk, 
 Ben and 'i'om and Jack with me." "Did nothing last night; came to the 
 Moulders' Arms, and got drunk." "Got six packed three to Edinburgh,"
 
 OBSTACLES TO BRITISH ANATOMY. 57 
 
 sional reader will ask if it had not been the custom to 
 provide the anatomist with the unclaimed dead of prisons, 
 hospitals, and poor-houses, as well as the executed crimi- 
 nals ; why, therefore, should he resort to the cemeteries ? 
 To which the anatomists of forty years ago could only 
 have replied : " Our legitimate source hardly amounts 
 to units in the scale of wants, and is therefore totally 
 inadequate ; our professional status does not receive 
 any recognition at the hands of the Legislature ; 
 and, in self-defence of interests, affecting the general 
 weal more than ourselves, we are forced to associate 
 with the most abandoned of characters the Resurrec- 
 tionists." 
 
 To revert for a moment to an antecedent period, it 
 may be stated, that among the social and political reforms 
 engaging England after the peace of 181 5, Medicine, 
 whether viewed per sc or in its hygienic and State rela- 
 tions, could not wisely be overlooked. The Navy and 
 Army Medical Departments, and not less the general 
 public, were solicitous for a more skilful class of doctors 
 than the old apothecary and phlebotomist of an un- 
 educated age. Looking to the labours of John Hunter 
 and Matthew Baillie in the field of anatomy as suggestive 
 of a more philosophic surgery and pathology than Eng- 
 land had yet obtained, the Royal Colleges of the United 
 Kingdom, as trustees of the profession, advocated an 
 extension of the anatomical courses and instruction in 
 their medical curriculum. With this salutary move in 
 the way of medical reform, sanctioned too by the ruling 
 powers, it was hoped that anatomy would obtain a 
 legalized footing in Britain, and so be able to hold its
 
 58 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 own against the more complete organization prevalent 
 in the medical schools of Europe. The hope was futile : 
 the English Executive endorsed the wishes of the pro- 
 fession for a higher standard of anatomical proficiency, 
 nay, made it imperative upon all students of medicine ; 
 but took no steps whatever to facilitate the acquisition of 
 the knowledge they demanded. Thus it played fast and 
 loose with the profession. The law of Britain against 
 the practice of exhumation was kept in full force all the 
 while ; there were no less than fourteen convictions in 
 one year in England : fines, imprisonment, and in one 
 case transportation for seven years was awarded by the 
 Essex quarter sessions, where the guilt w^as far from being 
 established. Whilst the Eldons and Castlereaghs had 
 their minds fixed upon party and personal interests, the 
 State Church and our "glorious Constitution;" Medicine, 
 the most valued of all sciences, was left out in the cold, 
 or resolutely thwarted in its progress by the rule of Tory 
 fogyism ! 
 
 Under circumstances so humiliating to the national 
 fervour, what was the anatomist to do } He had long 
 "prayed and petitioned" the Jupiters of his constitu- 
 tional Pantheon for help ; he had offered incense at the 
 shrine of municipal and parochial boards, and humbled 
 himself to the nod of corporatcs great and small, even as 
 low as the plush of Beadledom ; but realized only the 
 " noil possHjHUs" and the " circumlocutions" of office. No 
 wonder the question, from time to time, arose Was the 
 profession of medicine to be sustained in this country as 
 a noble calling based on anatomy ; or was it to revert to 
 that of the barbcr-surgcon, intertwined with the herbalist
 
 ENGLAND BEHIND HER NEIGHBOURS. 59 
 
 and bone-setter ? Every intelligent person knew that, as 
 the rule and the square were to the architect and builder, 
 and the compass to the sailor, so was anatomy to the 
 surgeon ; yet the means for its practice had to be ob- 
 tained furtively, with that rare exception, the carrying 
 out what might be designated the final /// tcrroran of the 
 law against malefactors. If medicine merited a place in 
 English civilization, had it to march pari passu with the 
 progressive science of the day, and enjoy the privileges 
 due to well-directed efforts in the cause of truth, or to be 
 " cabin'd and confined" by legislative enactments till it 
 sank back to the level of scholastic medisevalism ? Was 
 man, in his infirmity and suffering, to fare no better in 
 nineteenth-century England than the wounded and half- 
 dead victim of the Jericho thieves did at the hands of 
 the priest who passed by on the other side ? Happily 
 for the English name, the love of science and the greater 
 love of humanity made suitable response. The followers 
 of the healing art stepped forward as good Samaritans, 
 nerving themselves to a work both imminent and painful, 
 hoping that the day was not far distant when the State 
 would imitate the continental Governments, and make 
 anatomy available to the cultiv^ator of science. 
 
 The schools of Paris and Vienna, being well supplied 
 with " subjects," attracted the more enterprising English 
 student ; and if means of travel had been as available 
 forty and fifty years ago as now, the anatomical institu- 
 tions of this country would have been reduced to the 
 lowest possible ebb. Whilst Protestant England, boasting 
 of her advanced civilization and constitutional liberties, 
 was rabid in her opposition to the pursuit of human
 
 6o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 anatomy, the great Catholic countries of France and 
 Austria, lent every aid to promote the cause of medical 
 science in their respective capitals. 
 
 No greater hardship could have overtaken men of 
 feeling and education than being brought in personal 
 contact with the Resurrectionists a crew of unequivocal 
 Ishmaelites. Whilst reprobates and thieves formed the 
 van, others credited with better demeanour joined the 
 ranks, and shared in the lucrative pay attending grave- 
 robbing, or, as it might be, coffin violation. The guardians 
 of the peace, the servants of the Church, the exacting 
 undertakers, as well as the Pharisaical " mutes " and 
 other parties engaged in the last rites paid to mortality, 
 not only connived at the doings of the Resurrectionists, 
 but readily took their bribes. How the " well-greased " 
 palm could change the doleful whine of the sexton's 
 " Amen," and open the gates of the sacred precincts to 
 the thief of the night ! Numbers were implicated in this 
 traffic, and possibly viewed it in the same light as Jerry 
 Cruncher, " honest tradesmanship of an agricultooral 
 character." Paid members of the funeral cortege would 
 occasionally respond in words to the " hopes of a glorious 
 resurrection for our dear brother here departed," who 
 knew that the coffin lowered in the dust contained no 
 " brother" at all, but an equivalent weight of soil and 
 rubbish. Amidst the crime and sacrilege of their opera- 
 tions, these monsters never scrupled to exact heavy 
 deodands from the anatomist, whereby to drink and 
 dissipate and drown the cares of life. 
 
 All sorts of schemes were resorted to for the carriage 
 of bodies by sea and land from distant districts to the
 
 THE MODES OF THE RESURRECTIONISTS. 6i 
 
 metropolitan schools. The Resurrectionists personified 
 drysaltcrs, pork-curers, purveyors of animals for museums, 
 even apple-dealers and blacking-makers. Nothing was 
 too base for them to do. Their countenances betrayed a 
 sinister expression, and their dress, always shabby, neither 
 resembled the artisan nor the lowest of tradesmen ; they 
 were nondescripts in person, as they were in character. 
 They did their best to avoid recognition, and always 
 seemed in a hurry to place their box in the coach "boot," 
 or to get their casks on board ship. They lacked the art 
 of packing and the use of antiseptics : hence the frequent 
 disclosures of their traffic on the quays of Dublin and 
 Glasgow, and in coach transit ^ from the provincial towns 
 of England. Had prudence or common decency guided 
 these men, the world might have gone on for a time 
 without being much wiser of the relations between the 
 doctors and their purveyors ; but the increased demand 
 and higher pay for materiel generated sad reckless- 
 ness and brutality. Quarrels arose over the spoils : the 
 jealousy of success, the rivalry of the factions of the 
 different schools, and the frequent attempts of the Resur- 
 rectionists to outwit each other, led to personal denun- 
 ciations and a fearful publicity. 
 
 Nothing could well be more incongruous in the history 
 of legislation than enforcing " practical anatomy " upon 
 every medical probationer, whilst his seeking the means 
 
 ^ The danger of discovery was greatest in the towns where the stage 
 coach stayed for the night. Several inquests were held at Carlisle on 
 bodies thus detected, and meant for the Edinburgh school. The deci- 
 sions of the juries on these occasions "Found dead in a box" used to 
 amuse the Scottish jurists and anatomists, and naturally threw discredit on 
 the proceedings of all "Crowners' quests."
 
 62 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of its pursuit involved the risk of fetters to his heels and 
 a lasting opprobrium to his name. The law of England 
 resembled the Venetian as laid down by Shakespeare's 
 " Portia ; " it exacted on the bond the pound of flesh, yet 
 denied the operation of removing it. The law, as it bore 
 upon anatomy, typified the goddess of Justice with one 
 eye professedly open to the wants of the public service, 
 the other eye in a state of occlusion to the evils of a great 
 social abuse that disturbed the domestic quiet of the 
 realm, and shocked the tenderest feelings of humanity. 
 The law virtually proclaimed that the surgeon should 
 possess aptitude and powers as well as a formal licence 
 to practise ; nay, it went further, and subjected him who 
 failed to display " proper skill " to pecuniary forfeiture 
 in the civil courts at the instigation of any dissatisfied 
 patient ; yet the only mode of acquiring that skill, 
 namely, from dissections of the dead clandestinely ob- 
 tained, was in the criminal court held to be a misde- 
 meanour, punishable by fine and imprisonment ! There 
 was no steering between the Scylla and Charybdis of the 
 law. Think of the youthful cultivator of medicine seeking 
 anatomical expertness by opportunities, the detection of 
 which would send him to a felon's cell ; or, if he grew up 
 a dunce rather than risk such a contingency, finding him- 
 self in after years charged in a civil court with want of 
 proper knowledge, and cast in heavy damages ! Instances 
 of both these forms of forfeiture could be adduced from 
 the history of the English and Scottish courts. 
 
 Whilst legal enactments and the indignation of the 
 lower orders were allied against dissections, the student 
 daily listened to the academical expression of anatomy
 
 MEDICAL ENTHUSIASM. 63 
 
 being a sine qua ?ion to his advancement, the map or 
 globe of the medical geographer ab initio. The indoc- 
 trination of his teachers came with all the more force when 
 the historical examples of professional superiority, de- 
 rived from the renowned men of the past as well as living 
 surgeons, were shown to rest on the higher achievements 
 in anatomy. It could be truly said that without anatomy 
 England would have had no Cheselden, no John Hunter, 
 and no William Lawrence in surgery, and might have 
 ranked no higher in the biological sciences than some 
 petty States beyond the Alps ruled by ecclesiastics, Aus- 
 trian satraps, and other oppressors of human thought. 
 
 With such recognized data on the chart of his studies, 
 no wonder the novitiate in medicine evinced so strong a 
 feeling for the means of anatomical research. Prompted, 
 as all true students were, by a high sense of duty to their 
 calling, no difficulty seemed too great to enable them to 
 obtain the special desideratum in their education. With 
 such fervour in the class-rooms, the enthusiasm of the 
 hospital surgeon seeking the highest honours in his own 
 walk may be readily inferred. To be an courant with 
 the improvements in his art, and to make the service of 
 his patients the solicitous care of his life, were constant 
 objects of consideration with all good and humane sur- 
 geons. The hazardous surgical operations of fifty years 
 ago^ were seldom attempted by the most skilful of hands 
 
 1 Between 1820 and the passing of the Anatomy Act of 1832 some of the 
 boldest operations in surgery were performed in Edinburgh. British Sur- 
 gery had no more promising representatives than Robert Listen and James 
 Syme at the time. Soon afterwards Mr. (now Sir W. ) Fergusson, Bart., 
 won his laurels in the Edinburgh Hospital as the reward of a constant and 
 noted vigilance in the pursuit of anatomy.
 
 64 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 ^^f? ^ 
 
 without a previous preparation on the dead body ; and 
 if such opportunity was not to be had, the operators 
 bent upon success had no alternative but to repair to 
 the burial-grounds. There was some justification for the 
 step, provided the feelings of living relatives were in no 
 wise trespassed upon : Jiere, in hospitals and in the homes 
 of a large city were the maimed and diseased crying 
 for relief ; tJicre, in graveyards, fast mouldering into 
 dust, were resources which, rightly used, might prove 
 highly beneficent to living mortals. The restoration of 
 one life of real value was worth the sacrifice of many 
 cadavera. The professional ardour that prevailed^ has 
 been much overlooked in discussing the history of these 
 times of peril to British Surgery ; it stood forth as a 
 ruling passion affecting men of the highest moral and in- 
 tellectual endowments the Bells, Barclays, and Coopers 
 and what they sanctioned as aids to a cause they 
 served so nobly might well be excused in their succes- 
 sors, pending the introduction of legislative measures to 
 correct a large and still growing evil. 
 
 For some years prior to the catastrophe that brought 
 the anatomical affairs of Britain to a crisis, considerable 
 
 1 This enthusiasm was well proved during the cholera visitation of 1831- 
 32. Whilst the stronjjest of minds were filled with alarm as to tlie con- 
 tagious pestilence in the city, and coftins and bearers could hardly be had 
 wherewith to bury the dead, the Edinburgh anatomists laid hold of every 
 unclaimed cholera subject. For a time Knox's Rooms contained no other 
 than those holding the virus of the disease. Courting the "bubble reputa- 
 tion at the cannon's mouth " was not more fraught with danger than the 
 dissection of cholera bodies fresh from the wards of an hospital. The 
 bodies of fever |iationts contained the seeds of contagion. Dr. Murchison, 
 the author of tiie best work on fever now extant, caught the disease in this 
 way in Edinburgh. lie had not been near any fever patient.
 
 DEATH TO THE RESURRECTIONISTS ! 65 
 
 apprehension existed as to the safety of the dead both 
 in town and rural districts ; even the secret sources by 
 which the anatomist pursued his art were no longer to 
 be connived at by the public authorities. Rumour, with 
 its thousand tongues, magnified the horrors of the situa- 
 tion, whilst the imagination of the sorrowful as to the 
 fate of their lost ones helped to pile up the agony far 
 beyond the real facts of the case. In Edinburgh, the 
 civic authorities were called upon to act with greater 
 vigilance ; " detectives " were placed near the anatomical 
 rooms, and all visitors of questionable purpose were 
 traced to their residences. The " minions of the moon " 
 felt the surveillance most keenly ; they were marked 
 men to whom no quarter or mercy could be shown, if 
 caught flagrante delicto. Being ferreted out of their old 
 haunts by the terriers of the law, and finding no shelter 
 or safety in the worst slums of the Old Town, these out- 
 lawed caterers for science were forced to make raids 
 across the Borders, or take ship to Ireland. Almost 
 everywhere within the realm the cry of " Death to the 
 Resurrectionists !" resounded, and to such purpose as 
 materially to affect the existence of the anatomical 
 classes of Barclay and Monro.^ The cry, so exultant 
 and menacing out of doors, caused reaction as defiant 
 within the anatomical rooms ; and this was but a prelude 
 to heroic action, well developed and well sustained. The 
 students, organized in bands and under good leadership, 
 set out on Vcsalian crusades, and succeeded beyond 
 
 1 Mr. James Syme, the well-known Professor of Clinical Surgery in 
 lidinburgh, taught Anatomy for a time, but, finding it impossible to obtain 
 bodies, retired from the field at the beginning of the Session 1828-29. 
 
 F
 
 66 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 expectation ; the greatest triumphs fell, however, to more 
 experienced hands, and one Lecturer especially signalized 
 himself in these times. He was a Napier in action, bold, 
 dexterous, aye ready, and in the van of danger, and 
 single-handed equal to any three of the regular staff of 
 workmen. Thus one night, when a party of medicals 
 headed by this surgeon saw they were discovered in 
 a city churchyard, the chief actor laid hold of two 
 large " adults " that moment disinterred, and, carrying 
 one under each arm, escaped by a door which led 
 into the garden of a private Institution. Perhaps no 
 man in Edinburgh could have done such a feat of 
 strength, or made so good a retreat, whilst under " the 
 cover" of blunderbusses. Strategy and foresight were 
 quite as much in request as brute force, and men of 
 intelligence succeeded where the Resurrectionists failed, 
 as in the following instance. 
 
 A country lad whose disease had excited large interest, 
 and upon whose case numerous medical men had been 
 consulted, at length succumbed to hydrocephalus, and 
 his body was buried in the exposed cemetery of a fish- 
 ing burgh on the shores of the Firth of Forth. Having 
 strong suspicionsof the doctors, the fricndsof the deceased 
 engaged trustworthy watchers of his grave men who 
 for night after night, and week after week, resisted every 
 overture of bribes and whisky offered them by the Resur- 
 rectionists. The agents of Monro and Barclay and others 
 were all intent upon what in the language of the schools 
 was termed a " rare osteological specimen ;" money was 
 abundantly lavished, and every artifice and intrigue put 
 in force to obtain the subject ; but all to no purpose.
 
 A BOLD STROKE OF BUSINESS. 67 
 
 Weeks had gone over, and the excitement of the contest 
 between the "watchers" and the besieging force of 
 Resurrectionists had passed away, when one evening at 
 dusk two well-dressed gentlemen, smoking their cigars, 
 drove up in a dog-cart to the chief hostelry of the little 
 burgh : they alighted, and requested that their horse 
 might be taken care of for an hour. The "whip-hand" 
 gentleman told the ostler that he expected a livery 
 servant to bring a parcel for him, which could be put in 
 the box part of the conveyance, to which the key was 
 attached. In a short time a man in smart livery came 
 to the stable-yard, deposited a bag under the seat of the 
 dog-cart, pocketed the key, and walked off " a canny 
 silent man, or dull o' hearing." Presently afterwards the 
 two gentlemen returned to the inn, ordered out their 
 " trap," and trotted off at a brisk pace. The sharp-eyed 
 stable-boy could not help remarking that the " liveryman" 
 who brought the bag was deuced like the off-side gentle- 
 man, and fancied he saw a bit of the scarlet lining under 
 the said gentleman's brown overcoat. " Haud yer 
 tongue, Sandie,"said the lad's superior; "ye'reaye seeing 
 farlies." Whilst the unknown gentlemen were trotting 
 homewards at full speed, the watchers of the night, or 
 rather the guardians of the hydrocephalic body, were 
 approaching their post of duty. As usual on entering 
 the cemetery, they looked at the grave to see that all 
 was right ; but to their astonishment found that it had 
 been disturbed ; nay, more, that the coffin was broken, and 
 that the body was gone ! What ! abstracted in day- 
 light impossible, yet too true ! The reader will have 
 surmised that the " dog-cart gentlemen" were the depre- 
 
 F 2
 
 68 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 dators, and most expert ones too ; for they had done a 
 piece of work that had baffled the ingenuity of the most 
 experienced Resurrectionists of Scotland. AvaiHng them- 
 selves of the twilight just before the watchers appeared 
 on the ground, they succeeded in disinterring the body 
 and carrying it off in thirty minutes. Two such accom- 
 plished artists in their own line, as Liston, the Edinburgh 
 surgeon, and Crouch, the London Resurrectionist, the 
 world never saw before, and, now that " Othello's occu- 
 pation's gone," cannot possibly see again. A terrible hue 
 and cry was raised in the burgh, that soon extended 
 to Edinburgh ; detectives, search-warrants, and all the 
 agencies of the law were put in force, but no clue could 
 be had to the den of Cacus, and of course non habeas 
 corpus. Years rolled on.; the contents of the big sack, 
 having in the meantime become manipulated beyond 
 "all mortal ken," found a resting-place in the noblest 
 anatomical collection of Britain the donor's name being 
 worthily attached to the chef d' oeuvre oi his body-snatch- 
 ing exploits. The many thousands who during the last 
 thirty years have looked qpon this remarkable skeleton, 
 No. 3,489, little fancy that its history from first to last 
 would afford materials for a" tale of thrilling interest the 
 truth in the record being stranger than any fiction that 
 could possibly be woven around it. 
 
 A case of almost equal import could be instanced from 
 the P'ifc coast, where watchings and countcr-watchings, 
 scntinel-ism and subterfuge, contended for long ; but vic- 
 tory eventually rewarded the anatomists. Horses fleet 
 of foot, and mounted with panniers simulating the old 
 " pack-saddle" of other days, were stationed near the field
 
 PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT. 69 
 
 of action ; as soon as the saddle-bags got filled, men of 
 bold enterprise hastened to the coast, where a boat was 
 ready to receive the Charon-freight, and to set sail for the 
 southern banks of the Forth, and nearest to Edinburgh. 
 All attempts to overtake or, discover: the delinquents, 
 invariably failed. 
 
 Independently of the doings of the Resurrectionists, 
 this volume might be filled with stories of dangers by 
 flood and field incurred by educated, men for the sake 
 of professional excellence, and, the safer practice of a 
 humanitarian art. One instance more may be cited, as 
 it brings out both the " plot and counterplot " of the 
 Resurrectionists, their scandalous conduct at the grave- 
 side, and their discomfiture with a vengeance by more 
 knowing masters in the same field. Messrs. L. and M., 
 anatomical teachers, walkingabout midnight in the direc- 
 tion of a churchyard, discovered flitting lights among 
 the tombstones, and soon heard human voices in angry 
 tone and violent dispute Resurrectionists, of course! 
 One party had nearly raised a body when another set of 
 men appeared on the scene and claimed it as, their spe- 
 cial privilege ; a row followed, and blows were very freely 
 exchanged by the combatants. Now was the time for 
 honest interference, and who could seize the vantage- 
 ground with more skill than Mr. L., who, stealthily 
 approaching behind the tombstones, suddenly struck 
 the fiercest leader of the fight, and felled him to the 
 ground. The presence of the " deil himself " could not 
 have produced greater consternation ; the cowardly 
 ruffians took to their heels sativc qui petit, leaving their 
 tools and cadaver, to the " gentleman in black," whom
 
 70 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 they avowed, in defence of their awful fright, to have 
 been possessed of something more than a cloven foot. 
 
 With the external signs of daring effrontery and of 
 devils incarnate, the Resurrectionists showed a vast 
 amount of cowardice ; even a lunar shadow scared them 
 at times. Their schemes for getting money from the 
 anatomists which they never meant to pay, their knavish 
 artifices, their betrayal of each other, their wholesale 
 brutality, marked them as little less than caco-demons. 
 Two "noted hands" called one night at Knox's rooms, 
 and asked the assistant on duty if he would take "an 
 adult" which they had "close by." Agreed, and in ten 
 minutes the body was brought in and paid for. Next 
 morning Mr. Lizars' anatomical class was in great excite- 
 ment on learning that a " fresh subject" had been carried 
 off during the night from the tables of their dissecting- 
 room. Lizars himself was in a terrible rage, and inter- 
 rogated Peter, the janitor, very closely. " You say you 
 bolted and barred all the doors, and found them the same 
 this morning .-' " " Yes, sir." " Then how the devil could 
 the body be got away .'' " " Well," quoth Peter, " I 
 dinna ken, unless it was the deil's ain work, for there's 
 neither a chink in the door nor a flaw in the window 
 for an imp to creep in by." As no clue could be had 
 to the body, the superstitious Highland student saw 
 a deeper meaning than the mere abstraction, nothing 
 less indeed than a bond fide resurrection of a new 
 prophet for his Scottish Israel. The burglary was 
 in every way outrageous. A body stolen from the 
 grave is sold to Lizars ; it is re-stolen from his dis- 
 secting-room, and sold again within the hour. The
 
 THE CHOLERA CASE! 71 
 
 villains netted 2^ by their work, and had no fear of 
 indictment. 
 
 As showing an utter disregard not only of all moral 
 and sacred standards, but of the shadow of decency, 
 among these fellows, the following may be narrated : 
 During the prevalence of cholera in Edinburgh, 1831-32, 
 one of the last of the Resurrectionists ever seen about 
 his old haunts was found on the street in a comatose 
 state. The police, supposing him to be dying of 
 cholera, carried him off to the Cholera Hospital, where 
 he was treated by Dr. Mcintosh as a patient in the 
 last stage ; viz. by venesection, the Doctor's favourite 
 remedy. Next morning the despaired-of choleraic was 
 wonderfully recovered, and Dr. Mcintosh pointed with 
 delight to the last happy illustration of the good effects 
 of his system ! The patient, whose only remembrance 
 of the previous night was being "awfu' fou" at Sandy 
 McTavish's dram-shop, was as much surprised to find 
 himself in the presence of nurses and doctors, as the 
 latter could possibly be at his " marvellous recovery" 
 from cholera ! He was too knowing a rascal to mis- 
 understand the interest taken in his case, and played his 
 cards accordingly, by pleading weakness and soliciting 
 brandy and nutriment. On his entire restoration from a 
 "drunken bouse," he showed his gratitude.by debauching 
 every comely nurse in the wards of the Institution ! 
 
 Such were the practices in vogue to secure provision 
 for the anatomical schools when Dr. Knox succeeded to 
 Dr. Barclay's Lectureship in 1826; nay, had been in 
 existence for a century ; yet Knox was spoken of as 
 originating the system ! To clear away some clouds of
 
 72 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 prejudice, this semi-historical chapter became impera- 
 tive. It is needful for the lay reader to bear in mind 
 that in these painful transactions, the Anatomists, ranking 
 amongst them so many excellent and honourable persons 
 as Sir C. Bell and Sir George Ballingall, had to deal with 
 matters affecting medical and scientific interests as they 
 best could and not assuredly as they wished, and not 
 as they were in the habit of dealing with the ordinary 
 affairs of life. Everything indeed was exceptional. If 
 Barclay, the preacher, good citizen, and philanthropist, 
 could be a party to these practices, Knox, a younger 
 man, might well pass unscathed ; for if Barclay had diffi- 
 culties in the way of supply to his rooms, Knox, with 
 a larger class, had unquestionably more to contend with. 
 Edinburgh and its environs were almost in a stage of 
 siege qua anatomy, so the area of operations had to be 
 greatly enlarged. Ireland was found to offer greater faci- 
 lities than either England or Scotland, and Knox had 
 large dealings with the Dublin resurrectionists. As 
 a teacher, he placed himself en rapport with his class, 
 sharing in its enthusiasm and scientific ardour, and, to 
 gratify these aims, thought nothing of the trouble or 
 expense he might incur in furnishing his anatomical 
 rooms ; hence No. it). Surgeons' Square, had a supply 
 which no other establishment possessed.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Hare and Burke. The Murder's out. Excitement and Alarm every- 
 where in the Land.; Knox defamed and in danger of Martyrdom. A 
 Committee of Inquiry : their Report, and Knox's Letters of Excul- 
 pation. 
 
 " Speais et Caci detecta apparuit ingens 
 Regia, et ujnbrosm penitus patuere caveriia:. " 
 
 ..^NEID, lib. viii. 
 
 On the 29th November 1827 an old pensioner of the 
 name of Donald died in Tanner's Close, West Port, 
 Edinburgh. He died in debt to the extent of ^, and 
 William Hare, his creditor, in whose lodging-house he 
 had lived, saw but one way of reimbursing himself, and 
 that was by disposing of the old man's body to the 
 doctors. Hare found a ready accomplice in William 
 Burke, another of his lodgers. The body was removed 
 from the coffin, and a bag of tanners' bark took its place; 
 the coffin lid was screwed down, and all made decent 
 for the bearers. Several neighbours, who had listened to 
 the old man's stories of the war, respectfully joined the 
 funeral procession, little conceiving that their tears at 
 the grave-side were shed over deal boards and tanners' 
 bark. The same evening Hare and Burke stealthily 
 repaired to the college, and, meeting a student in the 
 quadrangle, asked for Dr. Monro's room.s. On dis-
 
 74 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 covering their errand, he, being a pupil of Knox's, 
 advised them to try Dr. Knox's, lo. Surgeons' Square. 
 There they sold the pensioner's body for 'j los. So 
 big a sum and so easily got proved sadly ominous : the 
 two Irishmen loved their labour less and their whisky 
 vastly more from that hour of " selling their friend's 
 carcase." They had not courage to attempt the mode 
 of the Resurrectionists, and, as waiting for another 
 casualty at home was " awfu' tedious," Hare, the vilest 
 of the two monsters, suggested a fresh stroke of business, 
 namely, to inveigle the old and infirm into his den and 
 " do for them." 
 
 Prowling about the streets in search of a victim, Hare 
 met an old woman from the neighbouring village of 
 Gilmerton " fresh with drink ;" he asked her to his house, 
 and gave her lots of whisky ; she got merry and 
 garrulous, sang her favourite ditties, drank more 
 deeply, and then became comatose. Now was the fit 
 opportunity. Hare placed his hands firmly over her 
 nose and mouth to stop respiration, while Burke laid 
 himself across her body to ensure stillness. The opera- 
 tion succeeded the woman of Gilmerton was dead. 
 The body brought ;^io! a gold sovereign for every 
 minute of time spent in the work. Verily this realized 
 De Quincey's notion of " murder being one of the fine 
 arts." The expertness and surety of the mode enhanced 
 the blood-money ; the vampirian thirst now took pos- 
 session of Burke and Hare and their paramours who 
 shared in their devilish gains. Widows, orphans, street- 
 walkers, and imbeciles were allured on various pretexts 
 to the houses of Burke and Hare, and there dosed with
 
 THE HALLOWEEN TRAGEDY. 75 
 
 whisky and suffocated. Dante's Lasciate ogni speranza, vol 
 cJi entratc, should have been inscribed over the door lead- 
 ing to this den of infamy in the West Port. Thuggism 
 and other horrid forms of Eastern fetichism found 
 their counterpart in atrocity during the year 1828 in 
 the " Heart of Mid-Lothian," the capital of " moral and 
 Christian Scotland." Emboldened by their repeated 
 successes, Burke and Co. murdered their victims in day- 
 light, and drank and danced in the midst of death. The 
 " deil's luck " befriended them fifteen times ; the sixteenth 
 turn of the wheel proved fatal to the horrid fiends. A 
 woman of the name of Docherty was invited from the 
 street to spend the " Halloween " ^ in Burke's house, 
 hoping no doubt to meet there with 
 
 " Hearts leal, and warm, and kin'." 
 
 She danced and sang, and joined in the revels of the 
 night, that were wound up by her roaring " a horrid 
 
 murder shout," 
 
 " In dreadfu' desperation !" 
 
 Next morning her dead body is seen under some straw by 
 two lodgers, who gave information to the police. Burke 
 and Helen McDougal and Hare and his wife were then 
 apprehended on the charge of "Wilful rnurder."^ 
 
 ^ The character of "Halloween," as kept in Scotland, will be best ob- 
 tained from Bums's famous poem. "All Hallow Eve, or the eve of All 
 Saints' Day, is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other 
 mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands. " 
 Burns little fancied that his poetical definition would be realized to the full 
 by devils in human shape, living in the year of grace 1828 under the shadow 
 of Edinburgh Castle. 
 
 2 At the trial of the prisoners (December 24, 1828) Hare, the most 
 hideous of scoundrels, and his wife turned approvers, and so escaped the
 
 .76 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 The reader may conceive the astonishment that pre- 
 vailed in the city of Edinburgh when it became known 
 on the 2nd November that a woman had been murdered 
 for the sake of her body, and that it was found in Knox's 
 rooms. The deed itself was sufficiently horrifying ; it 
 was but a nucleus, however, to a hundred suppositions 
 equally dreadful and alarming. The air was filled with 
 suspicions of the direst kind, and dismay like an 
 epidemic spread over the land. Edinburgh got the 
 credit of being the head-quarters of the new Thuggism. 
 History was ransacked for parallel instances of human 
 immolation ; and religious history was specially appealed 
 to for an interpretation of the events that had made 
 "the Halloween " of 1828 the saddest on record. Who 
 could have designed this latest and " fatalest sort of 
 devildom .-*" Burke and Hare were Irishmen ; they were 
 also Roman Catholics ; might they not be agents of the 
 Jesuits .- Were the days of Philip the Second of Spain 
 to have a secret revival in Protestant Scotland, with an 
 anatomical Inquisition to complete the horrors .-' The 
 smothered embers of the old Covenanters' hate of both 
 Papacy and Prelacy were again lighted up by "auld 
 grannies," ensconced by Scottish ingle-nuiks, reciting 
 from their infantile recollections stories of persecutions 
 long gone past, to willing and excited listeners. Super- 
 gallows, only to be hunted, however, from town to town like wild beasts. 
 They returned to their native country (Ireland), and were no more heard of 
 exce])t in the pages of fiction till a few months ago, when Hare was re- 
 ported as being seen in London. Burke was hanged and dissected ; his 
 skeleton is to be found in the Anatomical Museum of the University. His 
 cranium resembles that of a woman, and could hardly have been taken for 
 that of a murderer. Helen McDougal's guilt was "not proven." She is 
 said to have died in Australia in 1868.
 
 AGITATION OF THE PUBLIC MIND. 77 
 
 stition and love of vaticination known attributes in the 
 Scottish character lent no small aid to the disquieted 
 state of the public mind. Some had lately seen in the 
 display of the aurora borealis, generally so beautiful in 
 October nights in the North, portentous streaks of red 
 and blue. The West Port discovery was dreadful, but 
 were not worse things in store for poor Scotland .-* In 
 the perfect unanimity of opinion that there was something 
 " rotten in the State of Denmark," everybody in authority 
 came in for a share of blame, from the wicked George 
 IV. down to the hateful exciseman. The " General 
 Assembly of the Kirk," the religious Parliament of 
 Scotland, was accused of having lost its sterner attri- 
 butes. The pulpit was not so warm and edifying in its 
 exhortations to the elect, and not sufficiently vehement 
 in its denunciations of the sinner. The common folk were 
 crying for reform and reading newspaper trash, instead 
 of reforming themselves and studying "The Book." 
 Burke and Hare were but the carnal weapons of Satan ; 
 their concubines the alluring servitors of Romish priests, 
 keenly alive to the selection of fitting instruments for 
 plotting and effecting mischief 
 
 This terrible tragedy afforded such provender to 
 garrulous men and gossiping women, and the prejudiced 
 of every rank and age and sex, that each reputed 
 version of the facts showed more sombre and sinuous 
 lines of villany. Newspapers, forty years ago, were 
 limited very much to towns and the higher and middle 
 ranks of life; the lower orders had to trust to the piquant 
 " broadsides " and the ribald ballad for a large part of 
 the current news. The "Burkin"; affair" was clothed in
 
 78 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 brackish prose and rhyme/ and meant for th^profaiium 
 vulgus ; the old Gaberlunzie filled his wallet, and the 
 pedlar his basket, with these "full, true, and particular 
 accounts," and after inundating the villages and hamlets 
 with them, sought the byeways, across hill and muir, 
 even the solitary bield, and everywhere they met 
 with a welcome that had never been awarded them 
 before, and entirely due to the special horrors con- 
 tained in their fresh budget of news. A reign of 
 social terror prevailed. Every household gathered 
 its members within doors before dusk ; working men 
 walked home from their night's toil in groups ; the 
 streets were scarcely frequented even by the " unfortu- 
 nates," lest they should share the fate of " Bonny Mary 
 Paterson." If Buonaparte, early in the century, had 
 been the bugbear of naughty children, and " Bonny's 
 coming " was a dread, the winters of and succeeding 
 1828-29, ir^ which were heard "Burke and pitch-plasters 
 to your mouth," assured a more effective call to order 
 and obedience in every domicile. 
 
 In the midst of all the excitement, unfortunately 
 the name of Knox mingled with that of Burke, and 
 the British vocabulary was ransacked for epithets of 
 defamation to his character. At the corners of streets, at 
 the mouths of narrow wynds, and issuing from lairs of 
 iniquity, women half nude, half drunk, and more than 
 
 * Here is a specimen : 
 
 " Down the Close and up the Stair, 
 But and ben wi' Burke and Hare. 
 Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, 
 Knox the man that buys the beef."
 
 THE MOB IN A STA TE OF FUROR. 79 
 
 half savage, stood in groups, clamorously egging on both 
 men and lads to act a desperate part towards Knox, 
 The lowest rabble of the Old Town, full of menacing 
 oaths and ferocity, rushed out to Newington and at- 
 tacked Knox's house in the expectation of securing his 
 person and hanging him along with his &^%y, by the 
 lamp-post in front. Here was a surging plebs in all 
 its wrath like a hostile mob with a "No Popery" cry, 
 and rising with the occasion of having a philosopher 
 instead of a Captain Porteous to burn and destroy. 
 
 Knox was daily exposed to Jeddart-law justice, which 
 means hang your victim first and try him afterwards; 
 yet all the while there was not a single circumstance in 
 his behaviour to which blame could be attached, much 
 less any act of criminality. The Procurator-Fiscal of 
 Edinburgh had made his searching inquiry ; the Lord- 
 Advocate of Scotland had fathomed all the facts of the 
 case; but nothing could be adduced to show Knox in 
 any way accessory to the West Port atrocities. 
 
 Next to the physical- force enemies of Knox was the 
 Press, which, with few exceptions, blamed him. Then 
 his rivals in the Anatomical School, who pretended they 
 saw in the Burke supply his vantage-ground and success, 
 and who tried to damage his reputation to the utmost. 
 Lastly, and pretty strongly, came the religious probing 
 of his character by a people who are nothing if not 
 religiously critical of their neighbours. If Knox sanc- 
 tioned such and such practices, what was to become of 
 his soul .'' Then, who had his soul in keeping.'' or under 
 whom did he sit {Scottid for saying whose religious 
 ministry did he attend) .'' or of what congregation was he
 
 8o , LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 a communicant ? The name of Knox was Scottish, 
 Presbyterian, and historical ; but Robert the anatomist 
 was not to be found among "the Elect" of his great 
 ancestor's " Reformed Church." What a relief to the 
 Fathers and Elders of the Kirk of Scotland ! Was he 
 Episcopalian or Dissenter ? No ! Robert Knox ranked 
 with no sect or congregation of religionists ; so all the 
 Churches breathed freely. Whilst none had the privi- 
 lege of excommunicating him, every class of the " unco 
 guid " was ready to condemn the " miserable sinner." 
 Some in charity asked if his penitence and public 
 avowal of past errors could not be brought about. Let 
 those who knew Robert Knox in the glory of his 
 strength and intellectual independence with an eye that 
 penetrated every artifice of statecraft and priestcraft 
 fancy the Anatomist subjected to an inquisition of con- 
 science by a Padre, and paying cash and credence to 
 a successor of Pope Joan ; or, in sackcloth and ashes, 
 receiving the Athanasian admonitions of a thirty-nine 
 articled canonical ! Think for a moment of Knox stand- 
 ing upon the " cuttie stuil" of repentance in St. Giles', 
 Edinburgh, and repeating aloud a Westminster formu- 
 lary. Such a sight would have startled both gods and 
 men, and shaken high Olympus to its base ! 
 
 Relying upon his entire innocence in the " Burking 
 business," Knox allowed the winter of a nation's discon- 
 tent to pass over without making any public declaration 
 that might have appeased the raging clamour. He 
 expected the excitement to subside, and that the better 
 classes would never believe in so dire a motive as his 
 connivance with criminal acts of fearful enormity, much
 
 ' ' BLA CKWOOD " HIGHL V RABID. 8 1 
 
 less his associating with monsters of the deepest dye of 
 infamy. He calculated wrongly for himself Silence 
 cannot be comprehended bya clamorous mob. The people 
 were infuriated that he had not been indicted along with 
 the West Port murderers, and not less maddened with 
 disappointment at Hare's escape ; so Knox had to bear 
 the whole weight of the city's wrath, increased by 
 covert enemies in every quarter. Two months after 
 Burke's condemnation, and his confession exonerating 
 Knox from all blame whatsoever had been given to the 
 world, Blackwood's MagazuiCy in its ''Nodes Ainbro- 
 siancs" (March 1829), written by John Wilson, Professor 
 of Moral Philosophy, alias " Christopher North," made 
 every effort to blast the character of the anatomist. 
 Literary ruffianism is too mild a term to apply to the 
 foul words used by Wilson, who, not content with 
 holding up Knox to public execration, rushed with 
 the savagery of the warwhoop and tomahawk upon an 
 linoffending anatomical class for showing an affectionate 
 regard for their great teacher. 
 
 Knox's silence over January and February 1829 might 
 not be good policy, but his refusal to bring his enemies 
 to account when he could have obtained heavy damages 
 for their foul libels, was peculiarly creditable to his 
 feelings and forbearance. His regard for science amount- 
 ing almost to a passion, his hope that the late atroci- 
 ties would induce the Government to take immediate 
 steps quoad the supply of the Anatomical Schools, and 
 his belief that justice would be done to his character 
 sooner or later by the thinking minds of England, 
 served to restrain his pen for months. The appointment 
 
 G
 
 82 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of a committee of distinguished citizens to inquire into 
 the whole affair caused Knox to break his long silence 
 by the following letter : 
 
 "To THE Editor of the 'Caledonian Mercury.' 
 
 " Sir, I regret troubling either you or the public with 
 anything personal, but I cannot be insensible of the 
 feelings of my friends, or of the character of the pro- 
 fession to which I have the honour of belonging. Had 
 I alone been concerned, I should never have thought of 
 obtruding on the public by this communication. 
 
 " I have a class of above 400 pupils. No person can be 
 at the head of such an establishment without necessarily 
 running the risk of being imposed upon by those who 
 furnish the material of their science to anatomical 
 teachers ; and, accordingly, there is hardly any such 
 person who has not occasionally incurred odium or sus- 
 picion from his supposed accession to those violations of 
 the law, without which anatomy can scarcely now be 
 practised. That I should have become an object of 
 popular prejudice, therefore, since mine happened to be 
 the establishment with which Burke and Hare chiefly 
 dealt, was nothing more than what I had to expect. 
 But if means had not been purposely taken, and most 
 keenly persevered in, to misrepresent facts and to inflame 
 the public mind, that prejudice would at least have stood 
 on right ground, and would ultimately have passed away, 
 by its being seen that I had been exposed to a mere mis- 
 fortune which would almost certainly have occurred to 
 anybody else who had been in my situation. , .
 
 THE ANA TOM/ST DEFENDS HIMSELF. 83 
 
 " But every effort has been employed to convert my 
 misfortune into positive and intended personal guilt of 
 the most dreadful character. Scarcely any individual has 
 ever been the object of more systematic or atrocious 
 attacks than I have been. Nobody acquainted with this 
 place requires to be told from what quarter these have 
 proceeded. 
 
 " I allowed them to go on for months without taking 
 the slightest notice of them ; and I was inclined to 
 adhere to this system, especially as the public autho- 
 rities, by never charging me with any offence, gave the 
 only attestation they could that they had nothing to 
 charge me with. But my friends interfered for me. 
 Without consulting me, they directed an agent to insti- 
 tute the most rigid and unsparing examination into the 
 facts. I was totally unacquainted with this gentleman ; 
 but I understood that in naming Mr. Ellis they named 
 a person whose character is a sufficient pledge for the 
 propriety of his proceedings. 
 
 "The result of his inquiries was laid before the Dean of 
 Faculty and another Counsel, who were asked what ought 
 to be done. These gentlemen gave it as their opinion 
 that the evidence was completely satisfactory, and that 
 there was no want of actionable matter, but that there 
 was one ground on which it was my duty to resist the 
 temptation of going into a court of law. This was, that 
 the disclosures of the most innocent proceedings even of 
 the best-conducted dissecting-room must always shock 
 the public and be hurtful to science. But they recom- 
 mended that a few persons of undoubted weight and 
 character should be asked to investigate the matter, in 
 
 G 2
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 order that, if I deserved it, an attestation might be given 
 to me which would be more satisfactory to my friends 
 than any mere statements of mine could be expected to 
 be. This led to the formation of a Committee, which was 
 never meant by me to be anything but private. But the 
 fact of its sitting soon got into the newspapers, and hence 
 the necessity under which I am placed of explaining how 
 that proceeding, in which the public has been made to 
 take an interest, has terminated. 
 
 " I have been on habits of friendship with some of the 
 Committee ; with others of them I have been acquainted ; 
 and some of them I don't even yet know by sight. I 
 took no charge whatever of their proceedings. In order 
 that there might be no pretence for saying that truth 
 was obstructed from fear, I gave a written protection to 
 every person to say what he chose about or against me. 
 The extent to which this was in some instances taken 
 advantage of will probably not be soon forgotten by those 
 who witnessed it. 
 
 "After a severe and laborious investigation of about six 
 weeks, the result is contained in the following report, 
 which was put into my hands last night. It is signed by 
 every member of the Committee except one, who ceased 
 to act long before the evidence was completed. 
 
 "I cannot be supposed to be a candid judge of my own 
 case, and therefore it is extremely probable that any 
 opinion of mine on the last view adopted by the Com- 
 mittee is incorrect, and theirs right. If it be so, I most 
 willingly submit to the censure they have inflicted, and 
 shall hold it my duty to profit from it by due care here- 
 after. My consolation is, that I have at least not been
 
 FIRST AND LAST VINDICATION. 85 
 
 obstinate in my errors, and that no sanction has ever been 
 given in any fair quarter to the more serious imputations 
 by which it has been the interest of certain persons to 
 assail me. Candid men will judge of me according to 
 the situation in which I was placed at the time, and not 
 according to the wisdom which has unexpectedly been 
 acquired since. 
 
 " This is the very first time that I have ever made any 
 statement to the public in my own vindication, and it 
 shall be the last. It would be unjust to the authors 
 of the former calumnies to suppose that they would not 
 renew them now. I can only assure them that, in so far 
 as I am concerned, they will renew them in vain. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. &c. 
 
 (Signed) " R. Knox. 
 
 " Edinburgh, 10, Surgeons' Square, 
 17M March, 1829." 
 
 Report of the Committee. 
 "The Committee who, at the request of Dr. Knox, undertook to inves- 
 tigate the truth or falsehood of the rumours in circulation regarding him, 
 have gone into an extensive examination of evidence, in the course of 
 which they have courted information from every quarter. They have been 
 readily furnished with all which they required from Dr. Knox himself; and 
 though they have failed in some attempts to procure evidence, they have 
 in most quarters succeeded in obtaining it, and especially from those persons 
 who have been represented to them as having spoken the most confidently 
 in support of these rumours ; and they have unanimously agreed on the 
 following report : 
 
 " I. The Committee have seen no evidence that Dr. Knox or his assistants 
 knew that murder was committed in procuring any of the subjects brought 
 to his rooms, and the Committee firmly believe that they did not. 
 
 "2. On the question whether any suspicion of murder at any time 
 existed in Dr. Knox's mind, the Committee would observe that there were 
 certainly several circumstances (already known to the public), regarding some
 
 86 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of the subjects brought by Burke and Hare, which, now that the truth has 
 come out, appear calculated to excite that suspicion, particularly the very 
 early period after death at which they were brought to the rooms, and the 
 absence of external marks of disease, together with the opinion previously 
 expressed by Dr. Knox, in common with most other anatomists, of the 
 generally abandoned character of persons engaged in this traffic. But, on 
 the other hand, the Committee, after much anxious inquiry, have found no 
 evidence of their actually having excited it in the mind of Dr. Knox, or 
 of any other of the individuals who saw the bodies of these unfortunate 
 persons prior to the apprehension of Burke. 
 
 '* The bodies do not appear in any instance to have borne any external 
 marks by which it could have been known whether they had died by 
 violence or suddenly from statural causes, or from diseases of short duration ; 
 and the mode of protracted anatomical dissection practised in this and other 
 similar establishments, is such as would have made it voy difficult to ascer- 
 tain the causes of death, even if special inquiry had been instituted with that 
 intention. 
 
 "No evidence whatever has come before the Committee that any sus- 
 picion of murder was expressed to Dr. Knox by any one, either of his 
 assistants or of his very numerous class (amounting to upwards of 400 
 students), or other persons who were in the practice of frequently 
 visiting his rooms ; and there are several circumstances in his conduct, par- 
 ticularly the complete publicity with which his establishment was managed, 
 and his anxiety to lay each subject before the students as soon as pos- 
 sible after its reception, which seem to the Committee strongly to indicate 
 that he had tio suspicion of the atrocious means by which they had been 
 procured. 
 
 " It has also been proved to the satisfaction of the Committee, that 
 no mutilation or disfigurement of any kind was ever practised with a view 
 to conceal the features, or abstract unseasonably any part of the body, the 
 presence of which might have facilitated detection ; and it appears clearly 
 that the subjects brought by Burke and I lare were dissected in the same 
 protracted manner as those procured from any other quarter. 
 
 "3. The Committee have thought it proper to inquire further, whether 
 there was anything faulty or negligent in the regulations under which 
 subjects were received into Dr. Knox's rooms, which gave or might give a 
 peculiar facility to the disposal of the bodies ol)tained by these crimes ; and 
 on this point they think it their duty to state their opinion fully. 
 
 " It aj)pcars in evidence, that Dr. Knox had formed and expressed the 
 opinion, long jirior to any dealings with Burke and Hare, that a consi- 
 derable supply of subjects for anatomical purposes might be procured by
 
 COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY. 87 
 
 purchase, and without any crime, from the relations or connections of 
 deceased persons in the lowest ranks of society. 
 
 " In forming this opinion, whether mistaken or not, the Committee 
 cannot consider Dr. Knox to have been culpable. They believe there is 
 nothing contrary to the law of the land in procuring subjects for dissection 
 in that way; and they know that the opinion which Dr. Knox had formed 
 on this point, though never acted on to any extent in this country, has 
 been avowed by others of the highest character in the profession. But 
 they think that Dr. Knox acted on this opinion in a very incautious 
 manner. 
 
 " This preconceived oj)inion seems to have led him to give a ready ear to 
 the plausible stories of Burke, who appears from all the evidence before 
 the Committee to have conducted himself with great address and appear- 
 ance of honesty, as well in his conversations with Dr. Knox, as in his 
 more frequent intercourse with his assistants; and always to have re- 
 presented himself as engaged in negotiations of that description, and 
 occasionally to have asked and obtained money in advance to enable him 
 and his associate to conclude bargains. 
 
 ' ' Unfortunately also Dr. Knox had been led, apparently in consequence 
 of the extent and variety of his avocations, to entrust the dealings M'ith 
 persons supplying subjects, and the reception of the subjects brought, to 
 his assistants (seven in number) and to his doorkeeper indiscriminately. 
 It appears also that he directed or allowed these dealings to be conducted 
 on the understanding (common to him with some other anatomists) that it 
 would only tend to diminish or divert the supply of subjects to make any 
 particular inquiry of the persons britiging them as to the place and mode 
 of obtaining them. 
 
 " In these respects the Committee consider the practice which was then 
 adopted in Dr. Knox's rooms (whatever be the usage in this or other 
 establishments in regard to subjects obtained in the ordinary way) to have 
 been very improper in the case of persons bringing bodies which had not 
 been interred. They think that the notoriously bad character of persons 
 who generally engage in any such traffic, in addition to the novelty and 
 particular nature of the system on which these men professed to be acting, 
 undoubtedly demanded greater vigilance. 
 
 " The extent, therefore, to which (judging from the evidence which they 
 have been able to procure) the Committee think that Dr. Knox can be 
 blamed on account of transactions with Burke and Hare is, that by this 
 laxity of the regulations under which bodies were received into his rooms, 
 he unintentionally gave a degree of facility to the disposal of the victims 
 of their crimes, which under better regulations would not have existed,
 
 88 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 and which is doubtless matter of deep and lasting regret, not only to 
 himself, but to all who have reflected on the importance and are therefore 
 interested in the prosecution of the study of anatomy. But while they 
 point out this circumstance as the only ground of censure which they can 
 discover in the conduct of Dr. Knox, it is fair to observe, that perhaps the 
 recent disclosures have made it appear reprehensible to many who would not 
 otherwise have adverted to its possible coiuequences?- 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 "John Robinson "W. P. Alison. 
 
 {^Chairman). "Geo. Ballingall. 
 
 "M. P. Brown. "George Sinclair. 
 
 "James Russell. " W. Hamilton. 
 
 "J. Shaw Stewart. "Thomas Allan. 
 
 "13^/4 March, 1829." 
 
 The gentlemen who formed the Committee were Mr. 
 Robinson (afterwards Sir John), Secretary to the Royal 
 Society ; Mr. Brown, Advocate ; Mr. Russell, Professor 
 of Clinical Surgery ; Mr. Stewart, Advocate ; Dr. Alison, 
 Professor of the Theory of Physic ; Sir Geo. Ballingall, 
 Professor of Military Surgery; Mr. Sinclair the younger 
 (or Sir George), of Ulbster ; Sir W. Hamilton, Bart., 
 Professor of Universal History ; Mr. Allan, banker, in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 1 With a view of facilitating reference to this important document, I have 
 aced some passages in italics. 
 
 placed some passages in italic
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Knox illtreated by the Profession. Pecuniary Sacrifices for his Class. 
 His Innocence established. Knox's Assistants. Condition of the 
 Bodies. Burke and the Lodging-houses. Sale of Bodies by Relations. 
 Sham Mourners. 
 
 Whilst Knox was assailed by the public press, and 
 threatened with " Lynch law," but small sympathy was 
 extended him by the professional ranks in his native 
 city. Such ungraciousness was the more reprehensible, 
 that no fault could be attached to his mode of conducting 
 his establishment. Compared with some medical teachers, 
 he really stood on vantage-ground. He never went out 
 on body-snatching expeditions ; he abhorred the Resur- 
 rectionists; moreover, he had suggested to the Edinburgh 
 School to form a joint action with London and Dublin 
 in seeking the aid of the Legislature on anatomical affairs. 
 It was by the merest accident the meeting of a student 
 when the pensioner's body was to be disposed of that 
 Knox was brought in relation with Burke at all ; and his 
 contemporaries should have remembered that his mis- 
 fortune might have been theirs, and was within an ace of 
 being Monro's. Had the West Port subjects gone to the 
 University Rooms, as Hare intended, the odium that fell 
 upon Knox would have been cast upon Professor Monro
 
 90 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 or Mr. W. Mackenzie, his assistant and factotum. Had 
 such come to pass, Monro tertiiis, then in his deca- 
 dence, would hardly have been able to stand against the 
 popular wrath, and his professorship would most pro- 
 bably have fallen to Knox. Such a consummation, 
 devoutly wished by those who compared the two rivals 
 from 1825 onwards, would have been of vast import to 
 the anatomical chair and the medical interests of the 
 University at large. 
 
 Jealous of the exaltation of Knox, his contemporaries 
 preferred to indulge their private pique rather than make 
 common cause with him for anatomical interests. He 
 had been a luminary to the student, whilst their feeble 
 lights were being gradually put out. He had won the 
 honour of the Barclayan succession, and each year proved 
 his ability to cope with its responsibilities and to extend 
 its fame : moreover, he had two-thirds of the whole 
 medical school in his class rooms ; and this fact of 
 itself was enough to engender a covert uncharitableness, 
 if not open hostility, towards him. 
 
 Knox had for months borne the burden of vituperation ; 
 at length he spoke his mind pretty freely of those who 
 had almost obsequiously attached themselves to his sleeve 
 on his onward course to fame, but on the first recoil, 
 arising from the Burke relations, were disposed to fall 
 away from his side, then to carp at and malign him. He 
 owed nothing to the medical corporations, who might 
 have stood by a man of his promise, if it were only for 
 their own interests and the reputation of the Edinburgh 
 school. Without provocation on his part, slander, and 
 other unobtrusive machinations, were put in force by
 
 HIS ENEMIES AT WORK. 91 
 
 jealous rivals to crush Knox the idol of the student, 
 the leading mind and lecturer in the School. In future 
 pages of this memoir, the cynical attitude of Knox him- 
 self will be seen in bold relief; up to 1828, however, the 
 period now under discussion, there were no indications, 
 as far as I can ascertain, of his indulging in the satirical 
 methods that afterwards characterised him so strongly. 
 His course from 1825 had been prosperous; the cares of 
 a large class occupied him nine months, and the remaining 
 three months of the year were bestowed upon museum 
 work. His devotion to science had helped to keep him 
 aloof from the snares of medical coteries. Most of the 
 attacks sustained by Knox in the professional walk 
 originated with disappointed rivals. He was at bay for 
 a time, but when he took up the glove that his enemies 
 had thrown down while the Burke excitement oversha- 
 dowed his position, he challenged each by turn, and 
 seemed to say, in the words of Macbeth : 
 
 ' ' Lay on, Macduff, 
 And damn'd be he that first cries ' Hold, enough ! ' " 
 
 One of the charitable constructions put on Knox's 
 conversation was, " Ah ! Knox used to say he could 
 always command subjects ; now we have the explana- 
 tion : he had the West Port villains in pay." The " com- 
 manding of subjects," to which he had incautiously 
 referred, simply meant that bodies, like other things 
 purchasable, could be had at a price.^ Before Burke and 
 
 ^ Sir A. Cooper, in his examination before the Select Committee on 
 Anatomy in Parliament ( 1 83 1 ), said : ' ' The law only enhances the price, and 
 does not prevent exhumation ; nobody is secured by the law ; it only adds to 
 the price of the subject. " Sir Astley knew that everything in this world had
 
 92 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Hare's operations, Knox had a vastly better supply of 
 bodies than his neighbours, owing to his more liberal 
 offers. The skilful Resurrectionist sought his rooms 
 because he got better pay and prompter payment ; 
 and, moreover, could rely upon the doctor's faithfulness 
 at all times. A Dublin agent, in 1828, writing to 
 Mr. S., of Edinburgh, who had retired from anatomy 
 and wished to retire too soon from his money responsi- 
 bilities in Ireland, hesitated not to draw the marked 
 contrast, by saying : " Knox's word once passed I 
 have never known him to violate." Again : " Knox 
 is honourable in all his transactions." If the ordi- 
 nary price was 10/., Knox in need would give 15/., and 
 on one occasion actually paid 25 guineas rather than 
 see his class disappointed. Nobody but himself would 
 make such pecuniary sacrifices, for when he was paying 
 15/. or 20/. he was charging his pupils according to a 
 scale of prices that was regulated by a much lower 
 standard. He was so lavish and regardless of his own 
 pocket, that in one session he lost the almost incre- 
 dible sum of 700/. or 800/. by "subjects" alone, a loss 
 vastly surpassing some anatomical lecturers' entire gains. 
 Without wishing to outbid rivals richer than himself in 
 money means, he could not, with 400 pupils around him, 
 bear to see empty tables, much less to hear the impor- 
 tunate solicitations of his class seeking for professional 
 opportunities that were denied them away from a medical 
 school. Inspired by the genius of their teacher, Knox's 
 
 its price, and that, during the days of the Resurrectionists, the body of a 
 spiritual peer could be obtained as readily as the pauper, if the anatomist 
 was disposed to pay the cost.
 
 'BURKE AND HARE. 93 
 
 students were largely devoted to anatomy, and of course 
 all the more difficult to restrain. 
 
 The circumstances recorded in the preceding paragraph 
 afford sufficient proof of Knox's immunity from the 
 charges of "commanding subjects" so unscrupulously 
 laid at his door. It may well be asked, Would Knox 
 have sent 200/. to Ireland for supplies (a sum, by the 
 way, entirely lost), if he had so profitable a yield in the 
 West Port } Would he have despatched the ablest of his 
 assistants to Dublin in October 1828, to arrange for the 
 approaching session, if he had had any reliance upon, or 
 wished to offer any encouragement to, those who could 
 procure victims ad libitum in the slums of Edinburgh .-' 
 The visits of Burke and Hare to the anatomical rooms 
 were not so frequent as to claim special notice from the 
 assistants, much less from Knox, who saw them there 
 but twice in all ; moreover and the fact should be duly 
 noted Burke's contributions did not exceed one-sixth 
 of the whole number obtained during the session. In 
 dealing with a large establishment, the monsters knew 
 that they ran less risk of detection. 
 
 It has been frequently averred, and as generally cre- 
 dited by some, even to this day, that the bodies were 
 received by Knox ; that they were so fresh as to be warm 
 to the touch, and not seldom marked about the head and 
 neck ; and that there was no internal disease to account 
 for death : statements obviously meant to indicate a 
 wilful oversight on Knox's part to the modus operandi of 
 Burke and Hare. The Doctor did not receive the bodies ; 
 this was done by his assistants and the janitor of the 
 establishment. If the bodies had been bruised no such
 
 94 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 indications, however, existed about the face and neck 
 it by no means followed that these signs betrayed the 
 infliction of injuries during life. Contusions and marks 
 were by no means uncommon upon bodies furnished from 
 hospitals as well as cemeteries. The " Burke" mode 
 was by suffocation of the victim already dead drunk, and 
 grasping of the neck or throttling was not resorted to. 
 The nose and mouth were kept tightly closed, and the 
 smothering was soon effected. Burke's own declaration 
 after his conviction was very clear on this point, and 
 his also maintaining that marks were not to be seen on 
 the neck from his and Hare's operations. 
 
 In the woman Docherty, Professor Christison, the 
 medical witness for the Crown, found the ligaments 
 connecting the posterior parts of the vertebrae torn, 
 and some blood effused among the spinal muscles. 
 This fact was much dwelt upon at the trial of Burke,^ 
 and afterwards advanced to show the blindness or 
 extreme incautiousness of those who dissected the 
 murdered bodies. Exception might have been taken 
 to the Docherty instance, particularly as she struggled 
 hard with her murderers, and her body was forcibly 
 pressed into a tea-chest,^ but this was unnecessary, as 
 
 ^ Dr. Christison admitted that the injury of the spine, along with the 
 effusion of blood among the spinal muscles, "might have been caused 
 quite as well after death as before it ;" and that the forcible pressure of the 
 body into the tea-chest might produce the conditions just described. In 
 cross-examination he further admitted that the appearances in the body 
 t.iken per se were " merely suspicious" of death being caused by violence. 
 (Trial of lUirke and McDougal, taken in shorthand by Mr. John Macnee, 
 Writer, pp. 121 123. Edinbui^h : Robert 15uchanan. ) 
 
 '' Now Docherty's botly was brought to Surgeons' .Square on a Saturday, 
 and next morning the police had to cut the ropes binding the tea-chest
 
 CONDITIONS AFTER DEA Til. 95 
 
 
 similar conditions were found in bodies obtained from 
 the cemeteries. This statement is made on the authority 
 of those who pursued anatomy in the Resurrectionists* 
 times, and who had charge of practical rooms and very 
 large experience upon which to found their opinions. 
 
 The cause was not far to seek. In the disinterment of 
 bodies considerable force was required, and this was 
 mainly exerted round the neck by means of a cord and 
 other appliances. Now, withdrawing the contents of a 
 coffin by a narrow aperture was by no means an easy 
 process, particularly at dead of night and whilst the 
 actors were in a state of trepidation : a jerking movem_ent 
 is said to have been more effective than violent dragging, 
 and this would necessarily subject the cervical vertebrae, 
 
 in which the body had been so strongly squeezed : in other words, the 
 body had not been touched by the anatomist. If the spine of other " sub- 
 jects" had been similarly affected, it is doubtful if such would have been 
 detected, owing to the usual delay in examining the deeper parts of the 
 anatomy. Four weeks would elapse before the ligaments of the neck got 
 dissected. The same remark will apply to the non-recognition of some 
 internal pathological changes the viscera being seldom seen before de- 
 composition had affected the structures. Daft Jamie struggled most of all 
 with his murderers, yet there were no signs of violence or injury done to 
 his body. A distinguished Professor speaks of having dissected "Jamie" 
 without recognizing his features. 
 
 Speaking from some experience, I may be allowed to say that post- 
 mortem examinations reveal conditions that are by no means easily solved. 
 Whilst associating with my lamented friend Professor John Reid then 
 acting as pathologist to the Edinburgh Infirmary we occasionally saw 
 bruised surfaces and torn muscular fibres beneath, in bodies which had been 
 merely transferred from the wards below to the pathological room above. 
 Comparisons were made between these abnormal conditions and what had 
 been observed in the bodies provided by the Resurrectionists, as well as that 
 of the woman Docherty ; the general result of which was to show that the 
 greatest caution should be exercised in forming opinions as to the proximate 
 cause of some post-mortem appearances.
 
 96 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 or rather their connecting fibres, to a severe test. Burke 
 and Hare suffocated their victims, and as a rule the 
 bodies would show less external marking than ceme- 
 tery subjects : not that any such comparison was ever 
 instituted, as no suspicion of foul play rested on the 
 cadavera offered by them any more than on others. 
 It may be safely affirmed that there was nothing 
 but freshness of appearance upon which to found the 
 slightest suspicion of Burke's victims being sooner in 
 possession than the bodies of the Resurrectionists, and 
 in this particular some excuse might be assigned.^ 
 
 All bodies were known to be got surreptitiously. They 
 were generally brought to the anatomist at night, 
 and immediately consigned, in Knox's establishment 
 at least, to a cold damp cellar. Burke brought three 
 of his bodies in the daytime : this, instead of ex- 
 citing, was calculated to disarm suspicion, as it cor- 
 roborated the statement he had made once or twice, 
 that he got bodies from lodging-houses and took the 
 earliest opportunity to transfer them to the rooms. 
 The assistant in waiting, tired and worn with his many 
 hours of labour in a tainted atmosphere, could hardly be 
 expected to make a close scrutiny of a corpse when all 
 that was required to be known was the probable age, the 
 sex, and its general applicability to the wants of the class. 
 
 1 Every experienced medical practitioner will be able to recall examples 
 of bodies retaining their freshness for several days after death. Two such 
 cases cross my mind at once. On the seventh and eighth days respectively 
 I was asked to allay the fears of those who could trace no perceptible chanjje 
 in the freshness of the complexion or character of the features of their de- 
 ceased relative. One was a lady of sixty-three years; the other a gentleman 
 upwards of seventy years.
 
 THE DOCTOR'S ASSISTANTS. 97 
 
 On the following or sometimes second morning, the 
 body was placed on the table of the dissecting rooms. 
 Everything was done openly and above board at Knox's 
 establishment ; no corpse was hidden from the public 
 class, and no steps were ever taken to mar its features, 
 or in any way to destroy its characteristics. As thieves 
 and lawless villains were concerned in the work, it would 
 have been sheer folly to interrogate them on the smallest 
 matter that bore upon their practices. No circumstance 
 had arisen by which suspicion might fall on the character 
 of Burke and Hare's transactions, any more than upon 
 the Resurrectionists in general with whom they were 
 naturally associated. Without tangible reasons and none 
 whatever existed it would have been highly impolitic 
 on the part of the anatomist to pry too closely into the 
 acts of those who served his class. Moreover, no good 
 could have arisen, as these rascals dealt only in lying 
 and deceit. The persons who subsequently to the cata- 
 strophe used to talk of " grounds of suspicion," " natural 
 mistrust," and the like, knew nothing whatever of the 
 management of anatomical rooms. The most guarded 
 behaviour cannot meet the circumventions of rogues in 
 whom rascality was the genuine type or predominant 
 feature. It does not require any great mental effort to 
 be wise after the event ; with the prosy and prophetic, 
 however, it is the only opportunity they have of proving 
 their vast abilities to the world. Knox had as chief 
 assistants T. W. Jones, William Fergusson, Alexander 
 Miller, and lour juniors : the three just named came in 
 for a share of the abuse heaped upon their master. If 
 there had been incaution or any blame in the trans- 
 
 H
 
 98 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 actions with Burke, it obviously rested with them, 
 and not with Knox ; but nothing ever transpired to 
 show that they had the remotest idea of the " Burking 
 system." 
 
 Knox's assistants were just out of their teens, and could 
 not be expected to act with the sagacity of age, or to 
 show that mistrust which the world too often engenders ; 
 they were alternately on evening duty, and too often 
 absorbed with special work upstairs to give much heed 
 to the " last comer." The doorkeeper or porter^ of the 
 establishment was the person to receive the bodies and 
 to deposit them in the mortuary, and then report the 
 essential particulars to the assistant. Had Knox himself 
 been in such close relations with Burke and Hare as his 
 subordinates, his keen eye, equalling that of a French 
 detective, would most probably have penetrated the veil 
 that hid the doinjjs of these monsters. In his hands 
 
 ^ David Paterson, Knox's doorkeeper, who admitted seeing Docherty's 
 body in Burke's house, incurred a vast amount of condemnation. To try and 
 mitigate the popular wrath he wrote an exculpatory pamphlet, and also 
 addressed the Lord Advocate on the subject. The tenor of his writings was 
 to cast doubt on Knox's assistants, who peremptorily replied, and by more 
 than a tu quoqiie accused him of associating with Burke and Hare. They 
 first showed that he was "a menial ser\ant hired by the week at "js. and 
 dismissed at pleasure," and not a "keeper of Knox's Museum," as he had 
 represented himself; and then stated that he (Paterson) "was going to 
 enter into an agreement with Burke or Hare, and become his partner, and 
 intended, nay, actually tried, to make a profit on the subjects procured from 
 the West Port." Their letter in the Caledonian yJArr/z/j concluded : " This 
 ( Paterson) is the person who says he suspected Burke and I lare, and deter 
 mined to watch them ! And this is the person who said the body of the 
 woman Docherty prescnlcd marks of violence ; yet this was the same lx)dy 
 to sell which he was in treaty with a lecturer for 15/., saying his master 
 (Knox) would not give more than \2l."
 
 THE HORRID DENS OF EDINBURGH. 99 
 
 their exposure would have been most complete ; and 
 what a sea of troubles would have been saved thereby ! 
 
 Burke's contributions were observed to be "fresh;" 
 and to obviate any doubts on this score, he made no 
 secret of his dealings with the relatives of the deceased, 
 or the owners of lodging-houses. When his attention 
 was drawn to two apparently newly dead, his glib 
 tongue and feasible statement served his purpose so well 
 as to lull all doubts. One of these was warm, on touching 
 which the assistant expressed himself much horrified. 
 Burke, being challenged in the strongest terms, admitted 
 the warmth, " for the person died only a few hours 
 previously, and for secrecy the body had been in close 
 contact with the fireplace." His open manner and ready 
 excuse when so boldly taken to task, told immeasurably 
 in favour of the accuracy of his statement. 
 
 It is needful to revert to the mode of procuring "sub- 
 jects " from lodging-houses, to show the grounds for 
 believing, as all Knox's men did, that Burke and Hare 
 trafficked in the dead of unclaimed strangers. If the 
 artisan or tramp, the sma' pedlar, the gaberlunzie, and 
 other waifs and strays, decrepid and aged, classed as 
 unknown vagabonds, died in a lodging-house where ten 
 or more persons slept, the removal of the corpse became 
 an urgent necessity. The Resurrectionist, aided by his 
 scouts, chiefly abandoned women, often stepped inland 
 proffered his services, and by means of a few pints of 
 whisky discreetly given, " to hold the wake," succeeded in 
 getting the body. Those who knew the Old Town of 
 Edinburgh, its wretched "wynds," its hovels, or rather 
 styes, its whisky shops and dens of iniquity, could have 
 
 H 2
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 no difficulty in comprehending the frequency of casual- 
 ties amid such a frightfully debased population. Life was 
 everywhere surrounded by the contingencies of death. 
 The filth and horrors of Paris, as described by Eugene 
 Sue, had their counterpart in the Cowgate, Canongate, 
 and Grassmarket. Housed in the sunless and fetid alleys, 
 or the worse tainted cul de sacs or " closes," sheltering by 
 dilapidated gables and sheds for cattle, or half smothered 
 amid burrowed ruins and cellarage tenanted with rats 
 and vermin, men, women, and children huddled together 
 in brutal fashion. Of what consideration was life to 
 mortals in the veriest rags and tatters, in the midst of 
 stench, and feeding on the garbage of the gutters, or 
 the poison of the dram-shops .'* Was death not rather a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished .-' Human beings 
 so lost to shame and natural feeling would have sold the 
 corpse of their neighbours, and as readily that of their 
 nearest relative, for a few bottles of whisky ; nay, their 
 souls too, if anything like profitable barter could have 
 been done in that way. The Edinburgh proletarian, 
 maddened with drink and still longing for more, in whom 
 all traces of affection for both kith and kin were gone, 
 would have disposed of "any mortal thing" that could 
 yield cash and liquor.^ Now, all bodies obtained in this 
 way were, of course, but recently dead ; the same 
 
 1 Examples of persons offering their own bodies to the anatomist on con- 
 dition of having food and quiet during their last days on earth, could be 
 ad<hice<l from both sides of the Tweed. Mr. Joshua Brookes, a London 
 surf^con of this century, had an application of this kind ; and a .Salisbury 
 surgeon was also written to by a James Hrown wishing to dispose of his 
 "healthy and sound body" for a mo<lerate sum of money. "I shall be 
 delivered to you on demand, being persuaded," writes Hrown, "that on the
 
 BONNY MAR V PA TERSON. 
 
 remark was applicable, but not so forcibly, to some 
 exhumed bodies removed immediately after the regular 
 interment. 
 
 Two of Burke's victims were often cited as instances 
 condemnatory of Knox. One was " Daft Jamie," a poor 
 imbecile in the habit of rambling through the streets of 
 the " Old Town ;" the other was a pretty girl of the 
 name of Mary Paterson. Now, if the anatomist had had 
 the slightest suspicion of murder, would he have exposed 
 " Daft Jamie" in the rooms to which hundreds of students 
 had access } The brazen audacity of Burke in offering 
 "a town's character" to the rooms showed too truly his 
 devil-may-care conduct, and how strongly ingrained was 
 the thought, as he expressed it after his conviction, that 
 he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. The 
 body of the girl Paterson could not fail to attract 
 attention by its voluptuous form and beauty ; students 
 crowded around the table on which she lay, and artists 
 came to study a model worthy of Phidias and the best 
 Greek art. Here was publicity^ beyond the professional 
 walk ; nay, more, a pupil of Knox's, who had been in her 
 company only a few nights previously, stood aghast on 
 observing the beautiful Lais stretched in death, and ready 
 for the scalpel of the anatomist. This student eagerly 
 
 day ot general resurrection I shall as readily find it in your laboratory as it 
 it were deposited in a tomb." 
 
 1 Knox, wishing for the best illustration of female form and muscular 
 development for his lectures, had Paterson's body put in spirit for a time, so 
 that when lie came to treat of the myological division of his course, a 
 further and daily publicity was given to Paterson's remains. Mary Paterson 
 formed the basis of many imaginative stories, and one novel, and that highly 
 sensational, appeared in one of the London penny miscellanies.
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 and sympathizingly sought for an explanation of her 
 sudden death : Burke on his next visit was confronted 
 with his questioner in the presence of two gentlemen, 
 and declared that he bought the corpse from an old hag 
 in the Canongate, and that Paterson had killed herself 
 with drink.^ He offered to go and show the house if 
 they doubted him. His explanation was feasible ; it 
 rested on the whisky tendency of all such women and 
 Paterson's body smelt of liquor when brought in their 
 reckless life and exposure, and their frequent abandon- 
 ment when at death's door. 
 
 It should be stated that a noli me tangere feeling 
 guided the anatomist in all his relations to the Resur- 
 rectionists : like outlaws, these men were seldom known 
 by their real names, and then only after years of service. 
 Burke and Hare were " fresh hands," and neither their 
 names nor their residence were at all known in Knox's 
 establishment till Paterson, the doorkeeper, came in closer 
 intimacy with them towards the last days of their career. 
 In the book recording the number of "subjects," their 
 date of reception, &c., the names of " John and William" 
 were used to designate Burke and Hare ; whilst Lees 
 frequently appears to be spoken of in his real name, and 
 also others of the " old set." The West Port murderers, 
 especially Burke, were too cunning to allow cither their 
 character or abode to transpire till they wished to league 
 with Paterson. They furnished thirteen victims in all to 
 
 ' There are no coroners' inquests in .Scotland. Tlie sudden death of 
 either stranger or citizen does not concern the public authorities un'ess sus- 
 picion is entertained and evidence can be ofTered to warrant the attention of 
 the Procurator- P'iscal, who then makes a most thorough investigation in 
 private, untrammelled by stupid juries and the comments of the press.
 
 THE SHAM MOURNERS. 103 
 
 Knox's rooms during their eleven months' operations, 
 and never but once brought two bodies at a time. 
 
 Newly-dead bodies were not so uncommon in the 
 practical rooms. The Resurrectionists were always on 
 the qui vive for dying persons without friends, and to 
 know all about their history, and, if possible, to personify 
 the individual of whom the deceased had spoken in his 
 or her last moments. Marvellous were the expedients 
 resorted to by these false claim^ants of the unprotected 
 dead, and equally marvellous was their success, consider- 
 ing that all the various personifications of character rested 
 witli so small a group as three or four men, one of whom 
 had to profess direct kinsmanship with the deceased. A 
 rascal of the name of Andrew Lees^ was the leading spirit 
 in the funereal line. He was a tall, gaunt fellow, with a 
 long pale face, the muscles of which were exceedingly 
 pliable to any emotional need tragedy, comedy, or farce. 
 Grotesque in look and gesture, and wearing a cast-off 
 suit of black that had not been made for his " shrunk 
 shanks," the students named him " Merry-Andrew ; " 
 and over his cups he could maintain the fool's part well. 
 When assuming the character of mourner, his appearance 
 
 1 " Merry-lees " was at one time a carrier between D and Edinburgh . 
 
 His dwcllini; so abutted the country churchyard, that he could enter by his 
 windows and do his resurrectionist work with safety. One night he suc- 
 ceeded in getting three cadavera. As a carrier delivering boxes to the 
 medical schools, no one dreamt of his more profitable pursuit. His drunken 
 
 habits and loose tongue involved him in suspicion, and D became too 
 
 hot for him ; he then headed a party of Resurrectionists. When "aubjects" 
 brought double the prices of his first experience, he used to revert to his 
 former facilities when he could obtain them, as he said, "as cheaply as 
 penny pies. " This hardened sinner drank sixteen glasses of raw whisky 
 daily ; on great occasions he was equal to as many pints 1
 
 I04 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 was dismal enough ; his pale face, with dropped jaw, set 
 off by the habiliments of grief, and odd manner, far sur- 
 passed any theatrical "get up." His approach to the 
 house of death was that of a stranger from the country 
 timidly inquiring for a certain house, on entering which 
 his bleared eyes, that would have made the fortune of 
 a London " mute," became suffused with tears. After 
 dwelling on the virtues of his " dear relative," he would 
 at length intimate that he wished to convey "the remains" 
 to the family burial-place in the country ; that he and 
 some friends would return with a cart and coffin towards 
 evening. His " friends," all in the same line, were, 
 first, " Spune," as he was called, a little man who shaved 
 very cleanly, and looked as demure and resigned as a 
 Methodist preacher so saintly, and, barring his greasy- 
 black clothes, of truly " sweet savour;" secondly, Mowatt, 
 who got the name of Moudiewarp (moldewarp) from his 
 successful imitation of the mole in burrowing the earth, 
 
 " Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the earth so fast ? 
 A worthy pioneer ! " 
 
 thirdly, the mock minister or clergyman, who was per- 
 sonified by a deep-dyed vagabond who called himself 
 Howard, in the hope of hiding his iniquity under a noble 
 English name. Dressed in a black suit, too seedy for 
 even a curate by the fell-sides of Cumberland, and with 
 white choker, the " praying Howard " ^ officiated a la 
 
 ^ With the exception of Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, there is no 
 " burial service" either at the church or grave-side in Scotland. In lieu of 
 this, a minister attends the funeral, who offers up a prayer or suitable address 
 by the side of the bier at the house of the deceased. 'I'his solemn and im- 
 pressive procedure was imitated by the vile hypocrite named in the text.
 
 THE FINALE OF THE RESURRECTIONISTS. 105 
 
 mode, improving the occasion by calling upon those 
 around the bier to reflect on the uncertainty of life and 
 the need of a spiritual regeneration, for man was but a 
 vain shadow : in using these scriptural words, he looked 
 with becoming gravity upon the thin form of Merry-lees, 
 as if to draw the moral or to warn his friend ! The group 
 of mourners having played their part, the funeral cortege 
 moved towards the suburbs. As soon as night and cir- 
 cumstances favoured the change of scene, the black 
 curtain was raised ; the dramatis personce mounted the 
 cart and returned to Edinburgh, and lost no time in 
 transferring the body to the anatomical rooms. With 
 cash in hand, the quaternion had a night of it; and Merry- 
 lees, now seen in his character of the laughing Mercutio, 
 made the welkin ring, till he had put each of his " friends " 
 below the table dead drunk. The same parties played 
 the same game at the Infirmary, and got several un- 
 claimed bodies ; they often dragged in their women 
 coadjutors to aid in the deception practised on the 
 officials of public institutions. 
 
 It is but right to state that the West Port murders and 
 the supposed complicity of the doctors formed the basis 
 of several tales of fiction ; some passable enough, others 
 vilely overcharged with malice against Knox and his 
 assistants. Among the romances issued of late years 
 was the " Court of Cacus, or the Story of Burke and 
 Hare," by Alexander Leighton (Nimmo, Edinburgh). 
 Unfortunately for the cause of historical truth, the author 
 had dressed up his story so well, and introduced moral 
 and pious reflections to suit the Scottish mind (surely 
 not his own freer thought), that many mistook his work
 
 io6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 for a bond fide narrative of events ! Mr. Leighton's pre- 
 judices prevail on every page of his romance. Previous 
 to the pubhcation of this biography, the only authentic 
 documents bearing upon the relations of the anatomists 
 to Burke and Hare were to be found in the report of 
 the trial of the West Port murderers, alluded to in p. 94, 
 and the verdict of the committee of inquiry into Knox's 
 conduct, given at length in pp. 85 88 of this volume. 
 
 This painful history of the surroundings of the ana- 
 tomist belongs entirely to the past, and that past can 
 never be revived. The Anatomical Act, 2nd and 3rd 
 William IV., cap. 75, passed in August 1832, annihilated 
 all secret sources of supply to the anatomical rooms of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. It cannot be too strongly 
 set forth in this volume, possibly to be read by others 
 than the medical fraternity, that the governmental regu- 
 lations afford the most perfect safeguard against all body- 
 snatching : nay, more, it not only protects the grave 
 of all classes, but infallibly respects the wishes of the 
 humblest of her Majesty's lieges as to the burial of 
 their bodies after death. The pauper and the peer are 
 alike safe.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Knox in danger. His Courage and Daring Narrow Escape. I.ove of 
 his Class. Scientiiic Work. Cloquet's Anatomy. Mitcliell's Plates. 
 Beclard's General Anatomy. Peruvian Lama. 
 
 Lord Cockburn noticed the events sketched in the 
 foregoing chapter thus : "All our anatomists incurred 
 a most unjust and very alarming, though not an un- 
 natural odium ; Dr. Knox in particular, against whom 
 not only the anger of the populace, but the condem- 
 nation of more intelligent persons, was specially directed. 
 But tried in reference to the invariable and the necessary 
 practice of the profession, our anatomists were spotlessly 
 correct, and Knox the most correct of them all."^ Con- 
 sidering the anger of the populace,^ it is remarkable that 
 
 ^ " Memorials of his Time," p. 257 a charming book on Scottish 
 manners. As the popular citizen and one of the ablest representatives 01 
 the Scottish Bar, and who could sift evidence and see through human 
 motives with the readiness of instinct, Lord Cockburn's words, based on 
 personal knowledge of all the facts, are of great weight in establishing 
 Knox's freedom from blame. Had this page been appropriate to an 
 In Memoriatn, I should have said much in grateful remembrance of Lord 
 Cockburn's kindness, and of his eldest son Archie's hearty companionship 
 of other days, at Bonaly. 
 
 2 Possibly the savage feeling that prevailed against all the anatomists 
 might have been assuaged had the public known the many dangers sur-
 
 lo8 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Knox escaped violence. His private residence and 
 public class-rooms were no secret; his physiognomy, how- 
 ever, was known only to a few of the upper and middle 
 ranks of life, and rather as a man of science in the learned 
 societies of Edinburgh. There were fewer opportunities 
 for publicity forty-five years ago than now. The phi- 
 lanthropic schemes for making men virtuous and women 
 angelic, and regenerating society at large, were not then 
 in vogue ; neither were the peripatetic Congresses, those 
 
 rounding the art of dissection. An infinitesimal part of a drop of poisoned 
 human virus entering the skin by the merest abrasion, or through the 
 instrumentality of the finest needle, is enough to affect the whole system, 
 and cause death in less than fifty hours ! Every winter session used to 
 afford instances of this kind, and often young men of great promise were 
 the victims. It may be added, that the morbid secretions of living men 
 affect in a similar way. At this moment an eminent provincial surgeon 
 cannot use his hand, owing to his having opened an abscess, upwards of 
 sixteen months ago, without being aware of a part of the integument under 
 the nail being somewhat thin. In the same city, the house-surgeon of a 
 large hospital lately died from poisoning of his system after a post-mortem 
 examination. The dread influences and casualties surrounding the art of 
 medicine would fill a chapter of horrors that might possil)ly interest "Ladies' 
 Associations " arrayed against the Contagious Diseases Acts. 
 
 In the year 1847 alone it was calculated that no fewer than 500 medical 
 men in Ireland, or one-fifth of the whole number, suffered from typhus, 
 of whom 127 died ! 
 
 Professor Christison and two of his colleagues in Edinburgh, during a 
 period of thirty-two years, attended upwards of 280 medical students for 
 fever caught in the Infirmary or Fever Hos]iital. The number did not include 
 more than a part of those who suffered. In one month, November 1837, 1 
 remember four promising graduates who died in the Fever Hospital. 
 
 As the cadavera from idioiiathic fever used to form a large proportion ot 
 the ilissecting-room supply, numbers, like Dr. Murchison, mentioned in 
 page 64, caught the disease ; yet all this while there was a clamour against 
 the anatomists, emanating, it is true, from a frothy, democratic class, blind 
 to their (jwn interests, and ungrateful for the many benefits they had rcceiveil 
 from the medical profession.
 
 PENNY-A-LINERS AND CARICATURISTS. 109 
 
 free and easy unions of the loquacious and bas-blai, di- 
 verted by the presencQ of " the third sex," as the clergy 
 were designated by the witty Sydney Smith. In short, 
 there was less "platform drumming," but possibly quite 
 as much solid sense in the world. If Knox owed some- 
 thing to his retirement and sequestration from open haunts 
 and popularity, he owed vastly more to his intrepidity 
 and boldness in securing personal immunity. Every 
 means were taken to make him known to the rabid 
 masses by speech-criers of the last horrid doings of Burke 
 and the doctors, headed by caricatured portraits^ the 
 penny-a-line narrative and the lamp-black art being alike 
 worthy of the gutters of the Old Town. 
 
 Knox was a man of thorough pluck, and this was 
 well exhibited on the night that the rabble assailed his 
 residence and burned his effigy. Seeing that his life was 
 aimed at, he walked out by a back entrance, and on his 
 way to town passed through the midst of the enraged 
 
 ^ A scries of lithographic prints, illustrative of the okixt.^ dramatis persona 
 who figured in the West Port tragedy, were published by Nimmo, under 
 the title, " Wretch's Illustrations of Shakespeare," or, as some called them, 
 "Nimmo's Illustrations of Wretches." These prints were mainly directed 
 against Knox. In one of these caricatures the devil is seen in a garden 
 with a pair of big shears in his hand, ready to crop "a Nox-l-ous plant; 
 or an old virtuoso appropriating a new curiosity." The anatomist is por- 
 trayed in his lecture-room ; also in effigy, with burning fagots and an 
 uproarious mob ; as Richard III. looking out for a Tyrrel, whom he finds in 
 Burke ; and as Macbeth, in the cavern scene" Another yet? A seventh? 
 I'll see no more." 
 
 Such drawings were meant to make Knox known to the mob, and to 
 damage his character, nay, to damn him beyond all hoj^es, either as a citizen 
 or as a lecturer. In justice to the publisher it may be said, the illustrations 
 conveyed but the public sentiment ; that sentiment, every reader of this 
 biography should see, was decidedly wrong.
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 populace. Unobserved (for who could possibly fancy him 
 in the open street ?) he reached the house of his friend 
 Dr. Adams, in St. Patrick's Square, where his presence 
 caused almost frantic surprise. "What in heaven's name, 
 Dr. Knox, has tempted you out to-night, when thousands 
 of ruffians are seeking your life, and ready to burn you 
 with your effigy.'"' Knox said he knew it all, nay, he had 
 seen the wretches and touched their sleeves on his way 
 thither ; but rather than stay at home and become the 
 modern Servetus of a Calvinistic mob, he had braved the 
 danger of being discovered in the open street. Moreover 
 he was prepared for the worst ; then, throwing aside his 
 military cloak, and pointing to a sword, pistols, and High- 
 land dirk, he added : " You see my arms, and had I 
 been called upon to defend myself, I would have measured 
 a score of the brutes." Knox seemed less concerned 
 than the kind family who sheltered him, and, after taking 
 supper, talked in his usual easy manner, becoming more 
 emphatic when discussing the historical meanings of the 
 night that had threatened him with destruction ; thus he 
 referred, in apt words, to the ostracism and death of the 
 nobler Greeks, the modern instance of Priestley, and 
 unsparingly condcnmcd the uncurbed democracy of every 
 age. He never spoke more eloquently or more calmly. 
 
 For some weeks after the Burke disclosures, persons 
 were on the watch for Knox returning home from his 
 evening lecture, and made the High School yards, the only 
 entrance to Surgeons' Square, their place of rendezvous. 
 One night when Knox had attracted a large class to 
 hear him on a favourite subject, the crowd in the ap- 
 proaching street or "yards" mustered in unusual force.
 
 HONOUR TO THE BRAVE t 
 
 Durin^^ the pauses in the lecture, the yells and howling 
 outside were distinctly heard in the class-room. The 
 students got alarmed, and kept looking to the doors of 
 egress. Knox perceiving the growing restlessness of his 
 audience, suddenly paused, and then made use of words 
 to this effect : "Gentlemen, you arc disquieted by these 
 noises, to which, no doubt, you attach a proper meaning. 
 Do not be alarmed ! It is my life, not yours, they seek. 
 The assailants of our peace may be big in menace, but 
 they arc too cowardly in act to confront such a phalanxed 
 body of gentlemen as I see before me. How little I 
 regard these ruffians you may well judge, for, in spite of 
 daily warnings and the destruction of my property, I have 
 met you at every hour of lecture during the session; and 
 I am not aware that my efforts to convey instruction 
 have been less clear or less acceptable to you." This 
 statement was received with such cheers as never rung 
 through a class-room in Edinburgh, and, as they re- 
 sounded beyond its walls, actually cowed for a time the 
 uproarious mob. Knox resumed his lecture,and,as pleased 
 as ever in manner, rose far above the immediate subject; 
 and now and then electrified his audience by referring 
 to Vesalius^ and others who had suffered mart}'rdom in 
 
 ^ Vesalius died the victim of the Spanish Inquisition. His insjicction, 
 witli tlie full consent of the relatives, of the body of a Spanish Grandee, 
 whose lieart gave some feeble contraction when divided by a knife, brought 
 him before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and, had not the King interfered, 
 would have led him to the burning stake. Vesalius, compelled to make a 
 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was shipwrecked on the island of Zantc, and 
 died in extreme i)enury, and most probably of starvation. A liberal gold- 
 smith defrajed the funeral charges, or the remains of the greatest anatomist 
 the world had seen would have been devoured by birds of prey. In the 
 same year of Christian grace, 1564, the French anatomist, Charles Etienne,
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 their zeal in the cause of anatomy. As he proceeded 
 with the historical exposition, it was easy for the class to 
 draw the parallel instance. The serenity of his manner 
 and the lofty purport of his words, that breathed of a 
 manly, if not an inspired eloquence, touched all hearts ; 
 he surpassed himself that night, and impressed every 
 one with his commanding genius. His cool demeanour 
 on an occasion so frightfully trying many of those present 
 believed, and with good reason, that his hour was come 
 recalls Lavoisier's attitude and words when seized in 
 his laboratory, and begging the gendarmes to wait the 
 completion of a chemical experiment, the solution of 
 which concerned him more than the guillotine to which 
 he knew he was about to be hurried. 
 
 It was sometimes necessary for Knox to stay in his 
 rooms till the last of the sans-culottcs dispersed, especially 
 as he declined any protection beyond that of his senior 
 assistants, whose numbers were too small to constitute a 
 body-guard ; they lacked nothing, however, in devotion 
 and promptitude. Thus, one night, some lads issuing 
 from the Cowgate observed Knox turning up Infirmary 
 Street, and of course raised a hue and cry. Instead of 
 seeking protection in the Infirmary, Knox walked on at 
 his usual pace, crossed the great thoroughfare, and took 
 
 sharing in the oppressive persecution to which his family were subjected for 
 their religious opinions, dicfl in a dungeon. Only eleven years previously 
 (i553) Servetus, also an anatomist, had been burned at the stake by 
 Calvin's orders, because he denied the Trinity. What a gathering oi 
 fagots there would be to-day if all non-Trinitarians were to be so treated ! 
 It makes the heart shudder to record that Andrew Vesalius, Charles Etienne, 
 and Michael Servetus, as martyred souls, suffered the death of persecution 
 at the hands of men professing to be the followers of Christ.
 
 THE AFFECTION- OF HIS PUPILS. 113 
 
 up North College Street ; his assistants kept within a 
 short distance, and on the opposite side of the street. 
 The crowd was gathering force, and a strong-boned 
 fellow led the party some yards in advance. The 
 moments were critical, and unless some diversion could 
 be accomplished the rabble would succeed in their foul 
 purpose ; it was then that one of Knox's athletic and 
 warmest supporters instinctively seized the only chance 
 of safety left his master, by rushing upon the vociferating 
 leader, and dealing a powerful blow that felled him to 
 the ground. The sudden collapse of the voice and form 
 of the big bravado served as a most effective check to 
 the advancing crew, who were puzzled to account for 
 the fall of their leader ; in the meantime Knox and his 
 friends took rapid strides homewards. 
 
 Assailed by the press, attacked by mobs, and slan- 
 dered by Philistines, who but Knox could have stood 
 against such an array of malignities } His only solace, 
 the silver lining to as dark a cloud as ever shadowed 
 a man's position, was to be found in an approving, nay, 
 affectionate class of students. His anatomical establish- 
 ment, where he toiled from morning to night, however 
 paradoxical it may seem, was his only haven of peace or 
 rest ; there he received the morning congratulations of 
 his associates and the smiling greetings of his pupils ; 
 and each appearance in his lecture-room elicited heart- 
 felt expressions of sympathy from every side of the 
 crowded benches. No lecturer on science was ever so 
 idolized by a class as Knox during that eventful session 
 of 1828-29; its members hailed his presence with the 
 enthusiasm that would mark the political devotion of a 
 
 I
 
 1 14 LIFE OF R OBER T KNOX. 
 
 great party to their leader. IMoreover, they wished to 
 give him a lasting proof of their attachment, by present- 
 ing him with a handsome testimonial. Knox heard of 
 this, and, in writing, expressed his objections to the pro- 
 posal being carried out at such a time, not that he failed 
 to appreciate the affections of his pupils, for their kind- 
 ness had contributed powerfully to uphold him in a 
 situation which required no ordinary support ; but he 
 was afraid of the honour offered him being misunder- 
 stood. " The absurd imputations against me," wrote 
 Knox, " by which the public has been industriously 
 misled, are viewed by you and all reasonable men as 
 they deserve. But, however extravagant these misrepre- 
 sentations may be, I have never disguised from myself, 
 nor shall I attempt to disguise from you, that the connec- 
 tion of my establishment with the late atrocities, how- 
 ever accidental, is a very serious misfortune ; insomuch 
 that, though utterly unconscious at the time of anything 
 wrong having been done, yet the very recollection of 
 these shocking occurrences must be ever painful to me." 
 His pupils, however, could not forego the gratification 
 of carrying their design into effect ; they cited the fact 
 of Knox having " sacrificed to the accommodation of the 
 class an extra hour daily (in which the lecture delivered 
 at eleven o'clock is repeated for the benefit of those who, 
 from the crowded .state of the room, could not be accom- 
 modated during the previous hour), thereby incurring the 
 extraordinary exertion of lecturing for three consecu- 
 tive hours, namely, from 11 A.M. to 2 r.M." On the 
 nth April, 1829, the presentation of a hand.some gold 
 vase was made to Knox, and a kind letter also accom-
 
 UPSE T BY HIS EMO TIONS. 1 1 5 
 
 panied the gift, the last clause of which may be quoted : 
 "We have deeply sympathised with you during the 
 mental sufferings which you must have experienced in 
 consequence of circumstances on which we are unwilling 
 to dwell. That you should now stand acquitted of every 
 imputation affecting your character, must gratify, but 
 cannot surprise us. The public voice has at length 
 exonerated you from charges of which we who know you 
 from the first moment felt the injustice." 
 
 Only once, as far as I can learn, did Knox exhibit 
 any emotion on account of the connection of his name 
 with the Burke and Hare atrocities, and his freely alleged 
 complicity in the transaction. Walking in the meadows 
 at Edinburgh with his old friend Dr. Adams, their con- 
 versation turned upon " outward form" and its relation 
 to " inward qualities." Knox had a keen appreciation of 
 the beautiful in form ; and it chanced at the moment 
 that a pretty little girl about six years of age caught his 
 notice while at play. She afforded a text for Knox's 
 comment on physical beauty combined with unusual 
 intelligence in so young a child, for by this time he had 
 drawn her into a playful conversation. At length he gave 
 her a penny, and said, " Now, my dear, you and I will 
 be friends. Would you come and live with me if you 
 got a whole penny every day .''" " No," said the child ; 
 *' you would, may be, sell me to Dr. Knox." The anato- 
 mist started back with a painfully .stunned expression ; 
 his features began to twitch convulsively, and tears 
 appeared in his eyes. He walked hastily on, and did 
 not exchange words with Dr. Adams for some minutes : 
 at length came a forced laugh, with a questionable em- 
 
 I 2
 
 Il6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 phasis on the words " vox popiili" which led to a new topic 
 of discourse. 
 
 No man could be more thoroughly occupied than 
 Knox was during these years. He retained the Conser- 
 vatorship of the College of Surgeons' Museum till Sep- 
 tember 1 83 1, along with the heavy duties of the largest 
 anatomical class ever seen in Britain, or likely to be 
 heard of again within the four seas. He was also pre- 
 paring manuscript for the press, and building up a 
 museum of his own, collected from every available 
 source. Methodical in the work that was imperative to 
 his position as a great teacher, he never slackened in 
 his devotion to science all the year round. No country' 
 medical practitioner that poor drudge of humanity 
 always at the call of the public, the hardest worked 
 and poorest paid member of the community had less 
 time for recreation than Knox. He was at his rooms 
 about nine o'clock, and seldom left till seven at night. 
 His simple meals were brought to his museum coffee 
 and eggs at ten in the morning, soup or Scotch kail 
 containing meat and vegetables at five, but no stimu- 
 lant. Such laborious exertion and hardly Saxon diet 
 in support proved the fine temper of his constitution, as 
 well as the robustness of his intellect. 
 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor-General of Australia, 
 having sent to Professor Jameson, of Edinburgh, a 
 specimen of an animal much resembling the wombat, 
 the Professor handed it over to Knox for dissection. 
 The animal was new in Edinburgh, and Knox could 
 not ally it with the Phascolome of Pcron, brought to 
 France and described by St, Hilaire, with which it had
 
 THE WOMBAT OF FLINDERS. WJ 
 
 been confounded by anatomists and naturalists ; nor 
 could it be made to agree with the genus Koala of 
 Cuvier, a marsupial animal, described briefly in the 
 Rcgnc Animal. Surgeon Bass, the companion of Cap- 
 tain Flinders ("Voyage to Terra Aiistralis''), had de- 
 scribed a wombat : but Knox believed the specimen in 
 his hand to differ from it, and, in honour of Flinders, 
 named it the Wombat of Flinders. According to 
 Flinders, there were two sorts or species of the wombat ; 
 one inhabiting the islands, which burrows like a badger, 
 the other living in the tops of trees, and in manners 
 bearing resemblance to the sloth. Knox, after con- 
 troverting the opinions of Home and Illiger, went on to 
 show that as the Phascolome of Peron, Cuvier, and 
 St. Hilaire had two long incisive teeth in each jaw, ten 
 molar teeth, and no canine teeth, it could not be the 
 same as his specimen, which possessed six incisors, two 
 canine, and ten molar. Other differences he pointed 
 out : thus the Wombat of Peron had a short and wide 
 caecum and an appendix vermiformis ; the caecum of 
 the Wombat of Flinders was 6ft. 5 in. long, tapering 
 gradually to a point, and without a vestige of appendix 
 vermiformis. The Wombat of Flinders appeared to 
 Knox to constitute the link connecting the marsupial 
 animals with the Rodentia, and the form and structure 
 of its intestinal canal as placing it in close relation with 
 the beaver and with the class Rodentia. Considering 
 the opinion of the natives of New Holland as to the 
 generic terms wombat and the koala, and the species 
 Koala ivombat ; and after examining the characters of 
 the Koala described by Cuvier, Desmarest, and De Blain-
 
 Ii8 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 ville, all of whom dififered in their descriptions, he pro- 
 posed the abolition of the term koala, and the classifi- 
 cation of those extraordinary animals under the genus 
 Wombat, and of this genus the species Flinders, which 
 he had described, and, secondly, the Phascolome of St. 
 Hilaire, Wombat of Bass, &c. His views were read to 
 the Wernerian Society, January 14th, 1826 {Edin. New 
 P kilos. Journal, vol. i. p. 104). 
 
 The dental characters and long caecum of Knox's 
 Wombat of Flinders agree with those of the Koala 
 {Lipnrus cinereus of Goldfuss, Phascolarctos of De 
 Blainville). Cuvier, it would appear, knew only the skin 
 and digital characters when Knox wrote on this subject. 
 In Professor Owen's able paper on the Marsjipialia, in 
 Todd's "Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. iii., 
 the reader will find the whole question treated of the 
 dentition of the Koala, p. 271, fig. 95; and caecum of the 
 same animal, p. 302, fig. 126. 
 
 On the 27th of May, 1826, Knox furnished to the 
 Wernerian Society {Editi. New Philos. Jourtial, vol. i. 
 p. 130) a notice respecting the presence of a rudimen- 
 tary spur in the female Echidna of New Holland, in 
 which he controverted the opinions of Sir E. Home, who 
 had stated that the spur belonged to the male only. 
 
 In July 1827, the Highland Agricultural Society con- 
 veyed their thanks to Knox for giving free admission 
 to the practical students attending Mr. Dick's veterinary 
 classes, to his valuable lectures on Human and Compa- 
 rative Anatomy. 
 
 In 1829, "A System of Human Anatomy, on the 
 Basis of the Traits d'Anatomie Descriptive of M. H.
 
 CLOQUE T'S ANA TOMY AND ''KNOX'S FLA TES." 1 19 
 
 Cloquet," by Robert Knox, was issued by Messrs. 
 Maclachlan and Stewart. Knox got 150/. for the trans- 
 lation and editing. A second edition followed in 1831. 
 Knox, in his preface to Cloquet, defended himself 
 against the accusation of too forcibly influencing the 
 student's mind, and of dragging it away from other 
 collateral studies, to fix it exclusively on anatomical 
 pursuits. Though somewhat heavy in detail, Cloquet's 
 Avork in Knox's hands did great service ; it balanced the 
 brevity of the Dublin " Dissector," then so much in use 
 in the rooms, and so far made French descriptive ana- 
 tomy available to the English student. Knox's name 
 appeared upon the title-page of a new edition of the 
 " Anatomy of the Bones of the Human Body, repre- 
 sented in a Series of Engravings, copied from Sue and 
 Albinus, by Edward Mitchell, Engraver, with explanatory 
 references by the late Dr. Barclay." Mitchell's engrav- 
 ings of the muscles, copied from the folio plates of 
 Jules Cloquet ; of the arteries, after Frederick Tiede- 
 mann ; and the cardiac nerves, the eighth and ninth 
 pair of cerebral nerves copied from the TabidiZ Neuro- 
 logiccE of Antonio Scarpa, were all endorsed by Knox's 
 name, and generally went under the designation of 
 " Knox's plates." Some passed through a third edition, 
 owing to his high recommendation of them to his 
 numerous classes. It was Knox's intention to make a 
 more complete work of the engravings of the ligaments 
 that Mitchell had copied from the original works of the 
 Caldanis, beyond the " revised and carefully compared 
 with nature " edition of 1834, 
 
 Dr. Knox's views as to the use of figures and plates for
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 anatomical teaching were almost identical with those of 
 his predecessor, Dr. Barclay. " Figures are exceedingly 
 useful w^hen the originals are not to be had ; but to 
 study plates when the originals may be procured, is 
 so far from bespeaking a taste for anatomy, that it 
 scarcely implies an ordinary share of common under- 
 standing. Even the best are only aids in studying the 
 originals ; but when they are substituted for the originals 
 their intention is perverted they serve only to mislead, 
 to diffuse error, and to perpetuate it."^ Again says 
 Barclay : " Anatomy is an art, and those who would 
 study it must see it practised : they must see the 
 forms, magnitudes, positions, proportions, and connec- 
 tions of the structures and organs as they are in nature. 
 No figures or verbal descriptions can ever compensate 
 for want of the originals ; they give not the same relish 
 nor interest, nor afford the same correctness of ideas. 
 Even when accurate, they but assist the imagination to 
 conceive the things which they represent ; and if they 
 be otherwise, as they frequently are, they tend to mis- 
 lead it, and become, not unusually, the strongly fortified 
 depots of error. In short, at their best they are only 
 shadows in place of the substances ; and if they be 
 faulty, they are worse than shadows, because they are 
 shadows without any substance or prototype in nature." 
 
 1 Barclay's " Introductory Lectures to a Course of Anatomy," pp. io6 and 
 146-7 (published by Maclachlan and Stewart, Edinburgh, 1827). 
 
 Anatomical figures for teaching purposes are supposed to have been in 
 use in the 13th century. At any rale Hermondeville taught anatomy from 
 them at Montj>ellier in the 14th century. Da Vinci made engravings sub- 
 servient to the art, and may be held to be the greatest iconographic ana- 
 tomist up to the 1 7th century.
 
 BECLARD'S GENERAL ANATOMY. 
 
 Dr. Gordon, of Edinburgh, in 1815, briefly discussed 
 the anatomy of the " common textures " in the first 
 volume of his unfinished " System of Human Anatomy ;" 
 and Dr. Barclay strove to familiarize his students with 
 some of the views of Bichat and Beclard ; but Knox 
 advanced beyond both his predecessors. The writings of 
 Winslow, Vicq d'Azyr, Prochaska, W. Hunter, Bordeu, 
 the Wenzels, Meckel, and Bichat, were accessible to the 
 higher educated professional ranks, though seldom con- 
 sulted by them ; but no special work on the anatomy 
 of the tissues appeared in an English form before 1829, 
 and that work " The Elements of General Anatomy, 
 containing an Outline of the Organization of the Efuman 
 Body," by R. D. Grainger was Beclard of 1821 repeated 
 and scarcely modified, with Richerand as its physio- 
 logical authority. About the same time the " French 
 Manual of General Anatomy," by Messieurs A. L. J. 
 Bayle and H. Hollard, was translated by H. Storer. 
 Oddly enough in point of time, Knox the same year 
 issued his translation of Beclard's "General Anatomy:" 
 this work was only a part of the superstructure, the 
 basis of which had been laid by himself in 1826, before a 
 large anatomical class. To Knox, therefore, is mainly 
 due the credit of introducing to the British student the 
 subject of "general anatomy." He made Beclard a 
 household word in Edinburgh, and gave a higher inter- 
 pretation to the French and German doctrines. In his 
 teachin'g he discountenanced the physico-mathematical 
 hypotheses of the Boerhaave School, and wished the 
 various speculations that were entertained of the ele- 
 mentary fibres by Haller, Walther, PfafF, Richerand, and
 
 LIFE Of ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 others, to be considered on their own merits as tested by 
 a rigid examination of the tissues themselves. The 
 great disparity prevaihng abroad as to the number of 
 the tissues Haller's mystic three and Bichat's twenty- 
 one did not seem to give Knox so much considera- 
 tion, but it might have been supposed that the views 
 expressed by Meyer, of Bonn, as to the cell, the vessel, 
 &c., in his Histologic, would have caught his fancy as 
 pointing to a newer version of structure ; as, in all pro- 
 bability, they aided Johannes Miiller in his adenolo- 
 gical generalizations. The days of Schleiden and 
 Schwann had not dawned. 
 
 Knox was partial to the free handling of all anato- 
 mical structures, and the examination of them i7i situ, as 
 the best mode of comprehending their nature. It was 
 an essential feature in his teachings ; not that he over- 
 looked the physical and chemical properties of each 
 tissue, their analogous characters and relations, their 
 actions and reactions under the influence of pathological 
 change. The new views on histology have effected a 
 revolution of late years, but as far as the science of the 
 day was known, Knox was an admirable pioneer and ex- 
 ponent of what was then considered " French anatomy," 
 as deduced from the labours of Bichat down to the last 
 authority, Beclard. 
 
 At a meeting of the Edinburgh Royal Society (4th 
 January, 1830), Knox read his " Observations on the 
 Structure of the Stomach of the Peruvian Lama ; to 
 which are prefixed Remarks on the Analogical Reason- 
 ing of Anatomists in the Determination a priori of Un- 
 known Species and Unknown Structures" {Trans. Roy.
 
 THE PERUVIAN LAMA. 123 
 
 Soc. xi. 479). The author shows an unusual amount of 
 disquisition and zoological reasoning in this paper, and 
 maintains that, as animal machines were not pieces of 
 human mechanism, the physiological systems built on 
 the design of separate individual organs are so many 
 systems of false philosophy. As the camel had been 
 styled by poets the " ship of the desert," and belonging 
 to the old world, Knox held the lama to be the camel of 
 the new world. He believed the stomach of all animals 
 to be a single organ ; but, in conformity with the lan- 
 guage used by anatomists, he himself spoke of double, 
 triple, &c. The single human stomach was not infre- 
 quently found contracted about the middle, so as to 
 divide the cavity, as it were, into two by means of a 
 narrow constricted portion. He looked upon this de- 
 viation from the ordinary human conformation of the 
 simplest kind, and as an irregularity in man, but a 
 regular structure in certain of the lower animals, that 
 structure being, as it is so often, persistent in them 
 which in him is only fugacious. This reasoning of 
 Knox, as to the " multiple stomachs " being but modifi- 
 cations of the single organ, solves many of the apparent 
 difficulties that have been advanced regarding the for- 
 mation and variety of the stomach, or its comparative 
 anatomy. This paper, like many others of Knox's, has 
 not been read by the would-be historians of anatomical 
 progress, or we should have been spared the perusal of 
 much that has been written on the double stomach of 
 man'
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Knox's Personality and Showy Attire, and their Influence. His Style of 
 Lecturing and its Success. Immense Classes. The Knoxites. A 
 Rehearsal. High Science and Low Art. Rhetorical Displays. 
 Tableaux Vivants. 
 
 Dr. Knox was .slightly above the middle stature, and 
 his person realized the definition of a muscular, " tight- 
 made man." He showed the nervo-sanguineous tem- 
 perament of the Saxon, to which race he steadily held 
 for his blood alliance. His wide chest and powerful 
 shoulders, and rather long arms, presented something of 
 \he physique of the wrestler ; but no such characters for a 
 moment vied with the gentlemanly air and pronounced 
 intellectuality of the man himself His carriage was 
 upright, his walk firm and soldierly, and both body and 
 limbs showed a free and lithesome action. The rise on 
 the toes, and the apparent restlessness of both his features 
 and framework, bespoke the versatile Frenchman more 
 than the " canny Scot." The atrophied condition of the 
 left eye,^ the large nose, and full mouth were heightened 
 
 ^ Though Knox had but one eye, he saw more clearly than most men do 
 with two eyes. Of him it might be said, as Spenser wrote of one of his 
 heroes, "Faerie Queene," Book iii., canto x. : 
 
 " His halfen eye he wiled wondrous well. 
 And Hellenor's both eyes did eke beguyle."
 
 portraiture: 125 
 
 in force by strong lines and a coarseness of features in- 
 cident to the worst form of confluent small-pox. He 
 had a strikingly fine head, that shone in all its baldness ; 
 the prominence of the supra-orbital region and eyebrows 
 served to place the frontal development in high relief, 
 and to make the cranial outline appear more dome-like 
 and massive. His perfect eye was perfection itself, and 
 an excellent index^o his passing thoughts. CikFXord 
 Brougham, whom he resembled in plainness of visage, 
 the muscles of Knox's face were seldom at rest when 
 his brain was occupied. These involuntary twitchings 
 were far from agreeable, especially those which affected 
 his under-lip, the crossing of which from side to side 
 produced a kind of smacking noise. Co-ordinate or 
 alternating with these facial movements, the neck was 
 extended, the shoulders raised, and the arm drawn to 
 the side. Possibly these gestures may have served as 
 diverticula to his exuberant force ; they cannot be said to 
 have improved his presence in the eyes of a stranger. 
 
 If Nature had been less kind in her gifts to the outer 
 man, she was lavish in her bestowals upon the social and 
 intellectual Knox. However harsh if not forbidding in 
 personality, his courtesy and conversation atoned for all. 
 He was bland in manner, and full of pleasantry ; he had 
 a gentle, agreeably-toned voice, and a ready persuasive 
 tongue that made captive of every listener who could 
 appreciate colloquial excellence. 
 
 Dr. Knox was wonderfully got up in the way of cos- 
 tume, and perhaps the only lecturer who ever appeared 
 before an anatomical class in full dress. Being a well- 
 made person, his tailoring was all the more effective for
 
 126 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 his display of "the gloss of fashion and the mould of 
 form." A dark puce or black coat; a showy vest, often 
 richly embroidered with purple, across which gold chains 
 hung in festoons ; a high cravat, white or in coloured 
 stripes, and the folds of which were passed through a 
 diamond ring; a prominent shirt collar, delicately-plaited 
 cambrics, watch-seals and pendants, set off by dark 
 trousers and shining boots, completed his outer man 
 significantly gay, if not loud in colouring. Knox, in the 
 highest style of fashion, with spotless linen, frill, and lace, 
 and jewellery redolent of a duchess's boudoir, standing 
 in a class-room amid osseous forms, cadavera, and decay- 
 ing mortalities, was a sight to behold, and one assuredly 
 never to be forgotten. 
 
 The door of the lecture-room was seldom more than 
 half open when the bald head and bowing attitude of 
 Knox became visible, as if he were solicitous to bestow a 
 smiling recognition on the occupants of every bench of 
 the amphitheatre. Placing his watch and seals upon 
 the table, he would brace himself up for his work, and 
 again survey the class, as if to be sure that every one 
 was ready to go along with him. His oral commu- 
 nications to his class were among his happiest efforts. 
 Possessing high natural endowments, he strove for per- 
 fection in a walk seldom attainable that of public 
 lecturing and he achieved an excellence that far sur- 
 passed all his contemporaries. Words cannot convey 
 Knox's superiority in this respect. Some lecturers walk 
 unconcernedly to their desk and read off-hand ; some 
 arc condescending, others are brusque in manner; and of 
 the modes of address it may be said quot hofuincs, tot
 
 THE ANA TOMIST IN HIS SHO WY A TTIRE. 127 
 
 scntcnticB. The exits and the entrances of Knox were 
 alike graceful and exceedingly characteristic; nor did he 
 for a moment during the hour of lecture lose his suave 
 demeanour and high respect for his class as a body of 
 gentlemen. 
 
 A youth about to take the initiative in medicine, and 
 with reserve approaching the precincts of an anatomical 
 institution, might well express surprise on observing 
 Knox for the first time in his capacity of teacher, a man 
 of smiling courtesies and elegant apparel. The osseous 
 and repellent forms were forgotten in the admiration of 
 the lecturer; the eye, glancing for a moment at the doctor's 
 bald head and gold spectacles, soon centred upon the 
 artist /(^r excellence in his showy attire. As Knox passed 
 from side to side in the special area of his lecture-room, 
 demonstrating the anatomy, he showed a rare felicity of 
 movement, now reminding you of the slow and graceful 
 minuet, then the quiet pose or soldierly "attention;" and 
 these again were succeeded by the rapid gesture ; then his 
 actions were so pertinent and applicable to the matter 
 on hand. After each division of his subject he would 
 readjust his spectacles, draw up the waistband of his 
 trousers he wore no braces and then, presenting a 
 steady front to his class, resume his prelection. All 
 this was inimitably done, and thoroughly revealed his 
 powers as a natural dramatist. 
 
 If the class appeared a little wearied with the descrip- 
 tion of a bone, say the sphenoid, the minute portions of 
 which were invisible to all but the front benches, Knox 
 would show his skill in refreshing his audience by a 
 pause ; then saying in a distinct voice, " Gentlemen, the
 
 128 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sphenoid bone is the most important bone in the body." 
 This assertion, "nowhere writ" in the text-books, startled 
 the class by its novelty and abruptness ; every eye now 
 became eager to scan the form and realize the description 
 of the bone. To support his bold opinion, he would refer 
 to the relation of the sphenoid to the cranial arch, the 
 effects of fracture at the base of the skull, or perhaps 
 touch lightly upon the osteogenesis and morphology of 
 the bone, to awaken the deeper interest of his advanced 
 pupils. Nobody could ever say that he gave a dry 
 lecture, or one that was not specially instructive. 
 
 Knox had no real competitor in the medical school 
 of Edinburgh. His style, his illustrations, and insinuat- 
 ing speech lent a fascination to the study of human 
 anatomy ; dissection was not only to be viewed as an 
 introduction to the practice of surgery and medicine, 
 but invested with the loftiest aims quoad science in 
 general. He stood before his class the impersona- 
 tion of lofty intellect and self-possession ; the latter 
 faculty never for a moment deserted him. The area of 
 his class-room was to Knox a charmed circle, and there he 
 exercised a weird influence that traversed from side to side 
 the thronged benches, and subtly pei-vaded the mind of 
 every member of his audience. With many teachers ana- 
 tomy wore a monotonous, Dryasdust aspect, but in Knox's 
 hands the descriptive outline w^as like a pleasant lesson in 
 geography, with frequent diversions into the history and 
 manners of the people of the country. If masterly in 
 action, he was equally specific in his phraseology, "You 
 perceive, gentlemen," or "you observe," were words 
 which he happily repeated, and often emphasized by his
 
 HIS MODE OF TEACHING. 129 
 
 raised arm and pointed forefinger, upon which he wore 
 an exquisite diamond ring. In hazarding an original 
 remark based on his own observation and experience, 
 he would with apparent modesty add, " If I may be per- 
 mitted to say so, gentlemen." He had the art of saying 
 things never said before, and his expressions oft became 
 the talk of the school ; indeed, many of his dicta memo- 
 rabilia would have been worthy of publication, not 
 only as brilliant facetiae, but as wise saws and modern 
 instances in the Knox philosophy. 
 
 There was no circumlocution in his teachings ; he 
 aimed at a clear delineation of the work before him. 
 He was more practical than minute, more suggestive 
 than analytic in his systematic course : rather than linger 
 on points of detail, he indicated the path to be pursued 
 by the student. His mode of teaching was not suited to 
 the "grinding" or "cramming" system; hence those 
 who sought anatomy for examining boards went else- 
 where. His prelections were well adapted to stimulate 
 thought, as he meant them to do. Being a surgeon and 
 pathologist, Knox could significantly apply anatomy 
 to a practical calling ; and as a physiologist of high 
 aim, he looked to zoology as a sine qjid non to the study 
 of the higher philosophy of Man himself 
 
 The Knox platform was broad yet specific, and no 
 less philosophical than practical. Those who sought 
 to follow and comprehend the Master Knox had to 
 serve a faithful apprenticeship, to be educated, and dili- 
 gent and aspiring. Schoolboyism would not do, and 
 mnemonics, however artful, could not raise the youth 
 to the Knox standard : on the other hand, lads of keen 
 
 K
 
 I30 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 faculties and comprehension ascended the steep with 
 their chief and rallied under his flag, as soldiers in the 
 fight battling for the colours of their regiment. 
 
 As he took warm interest in the progress of his class, 
 and was at all times accessible and ready to offer counsel, 
 he became the guide, philosopher, and friend of every 
 worthy student. His pupils loved him, and lauded him 
 to the skies. He was not slow to befriend the medical 
 candidate in the hall of his college and in the council of 
 other examining boards, and always argued for fewer 
 classes and more practical tuition. His popularity, how- 
 ever, rested mainly on his eminence as a teacher, his 
 enthusiastic pursuit of science, and his vast and crowning 
 abilities. No medical lecturer in the United Kingdom 
 ever enjoyed so much public confidence as Dr. Knox. 
 From 1826 to 1835, over a period of nine years, his 
 students annually averaged 335, and in the session of 
 1828-9 he had 504 pupils ! No such anatomical class 
 ever assembled in Britain. The old lecture-room of Dr. 
 Barclay would not admit of more than 200 persons, so 
 Knox was obliged to lecture three times daily, and on 
 the same subject each time. Such laborious repetition 
 would seem a terrible task, especially as these lectures 
 were given, for one winter at least, in consecutive hours ; 
 but Knox seeme^ scarcely afifected by a work that tho- 
 roughly engaged his heart. He courted popularity, and 
 it had come as a flood ; he was proud of his rhetorical 
 powers, and here in crowded benches was a fulsome 
 adulation to their exercise. When the College of Sur- 
 geons vacated their old hall in Surgeons' Square in 1832, 
 he moved there from Barclay's premises and built a very
 
 CROWDED AND APPLAUDING BENCHES. 131 
 
 large class-room ; even, there he repeated his morning 
 lecture the same evening, and men of superior educa- 
 tion and character', like Sir George Sinclair, were induced 
 to attend both. No higher proof need be instanced of 
 the general attractiveness of his lectures. 
 
 The benches of Knox's class-room were occupied by a 
 scholarly, earnest, and appreciative class ; the majority 
 were strictly medical students, but mingling with these 
 were English barristers, Cambridge scholars and mathe- 
 maticians, Scottish advocates and divines, scions of the 
 nobility, artists, and men of letters. The zoologists 
 and naturalists flocked to Knox for their comparative 
 anatomy and general studies, looking upon him as the 
 great master of his art, and fully endorsing the enco- 
 miums bestowed upon him by Audubon and others of 
 still greater eminence, both Continental and Trans- 
 atlantic. Military and naval surgeons, in active service 
 or on half-pay, oft mingled with the crowd. Some 
 students who had passed through the literce humaniores, 
 logic and philosophy, and with an aim to the Church, 
 carried on a duality of study medicine and divinity 
 as if wishing two strings to their bow of lucky 
 adventure in this profane world. These youths, as well 
 as the " probationers," or fully fledged ministers, waiting 
 upon Providence for " a call to the pulpit," occasionally 
 took to physic and became capital practitioners. Of 
 these outsiders semi-medical, semi-theological, as well 
 as the dilettanti of every university Knox got by far 
 the largest share. The man of travel, the higher class 
 of visitors to Edinburgh, the country parson, the young 
 squire coming up to study agriculture and natural his- 
 
 K 2
 
 132 LIFE OF R0BER7 KNOX. 
 
 tory, all sought out the hero of the day. One of the 
 sights or living lions of the Scottish metropolis was 
 Knox in his lecture-room. Men were attracted by his 
 fame, and looked upon his prelections as the greatest in- 
 tellectual treat afforded them in the " Modern Athens." 
 Even the lecturers of a rival and by no means too 
 friendly school were in the habit of attending Knox's 
 " introductory " to have an hour's thorough enjoyment. 
 Dr. Argyle Robertson, himself one of the most pleasing 
 and popular of lecturers, told me that so great was the 
 pleasure of listening to Knox, he would gladly attend 
 him all the year round. 
 
 He gave both character and colouring to his anato- 
 mical teachings ; he went further, and indoctrinated his 
 pupils with a love of science for its own sake as well 
 as its professional worth. In his historical disquisitions 
 he brought the great men of the age visibly before his 
 class, and in citing their examples as illustrations of 
 what a powerful incentive could accomplish, did not lose 
 the opportunity of impressing his pupils with a love 
 of medical literature. As Knox the anatomist stood 
 per sc, so to a certain extent did his pupils stand apart 
 from the rest of the medical community. The greater 
 the intellectual calibre of the student, the more largely 
 did he extol Knox ; and as the anatomical classes in 
 which men were daily thrown together marked the 
 divisions of the school, the "Knoxitcs" prevailed in 
 point of numbers, and not infrequently in scholarly 
 attributes. The daily plodders or routinists in other 
 words, the majority of the dull men or slow coaches 
 went clscwlicre, to the brothers Lizars, where they
 
 THE MAG A. EDWARD FORBES. 133 
 
 got the A B C of anatomy, as plainly as the largest 
 and most coloured alphabet could be presented to the 
 infant mind in the nursery. The " Knoxites " were 
 everywhere leaders, and for many years may be said 
 to have ruled " Young Physic " in Edinburgh. It was 
 the " Knoxites" who most frequently occupied the 
 presidential chair and took chief part in the discussions 
 of the Royal Medical, the Hunterian Medical, and 
 other societies ; it was they who constituted the edi- 
 torial staff of the Maga, a weekly magazine of fun and 
 satire, with Edward Forbes as artist and redactcur e?i chef. 
 The poesy and art and lively prose of the Maga and 
 " Medical and Quizzical Journal " had a decided flavour 
 of Old Surgeons' Hall. It was the Knoxites who ori- 
 ginated "the Oineromathic Society," or, more correctly 
 speaking, the " Brotherhood of the Friends of Truth," ^ 
 and gave fame and celebrity to its character ; finally, 
 they may be said to have taken an active part in all 
 matters of polity affecting the medical school and the 
 
 ^ The reader is referred to Goodsir's " Anatomical Memoirs," vol. i. 
 p. 60, for a brief account of the famous Brotherhood, among whom Forbes, 
 the Goodsirs, Sam. Brown, J. H. Bennett, John Reid, Geo. E. Day, 
 and others, were enrolled, all of whom contributed largely to the spread of 
 science. Here is a stanza of an Oineromathic song, written by Edward 
 Forbes, the Arch Magus : 
 
 " Some love to stray through lands far away, 
 
 Some love to roam on the sea ; 
 But an antique cell, and a College bell. 
 
 And a student's life for me. 
 For palace or cot, for mead and grot, 
 
 I never would care or pine ; 
 But spend my days in twining lays 
 
 To learning, love, and wine."
 
 134 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 general interests of the profession. A corps d' esprit^ 
 prevailed among the Knoxites ; they were proud of 
 their teacher and jealous of his honours, and lost no 
 opportunity of defending his scientific status in the 
 world of Medicine. 
 
 Dr. Knox was a born orator, and by studying the 
 classical examples he became a highly accomplished 
 one. It was supposed that he prepared himself when he 
 had a great work on hand or a higher effort to sustain; 
 and the broad features of the following story used to 
 pass current among a few of his senior students. 
 
 At a late hour of a winter's evening, two of Knox's 
 junior assistants had gone down to the dark cellared 
 mortuary for the purpose of injecting the arteries of 
 a new "subject," and, whilst so engaged, were much 
 startled by hearing noises in which vocal sounds faintly 
 mingled with a sort of tramping march. In the full 
 belief that they were the sole occupants of the building, 
 and being quite unable to unravel the unearthly acoustics, 
 and further tried by 
 
 " The horrible conceit of death and night, 
 Together with the terror of the place " 
 
 something akin to Juliet's dread stole over them, in a 
 
 1 In all the street rows brought about by the antagonism of the Bakers' 
 lads to the students, the Knoxites shared in the discredit of promoting them, 
 and of abetting other mischief. In the snowball encounters with the popu- 
 lace they were conspicuous, especially in the great riot of 1837, best known 
 as the " Battle of the Quadrangle," described so humorously by Edward 
 Forbes, from the conflict between the students and the police taking 
 place within the University walls. They made a noble stand in the fight, 
 driving the " Peelers" outside the gates, wounding and disabling several : 
 indeed the students only gave way to authority when hard pressed by a body 
 of infantry presenting fixed bayonets to their cardiac regions.
 
 A STRANGE REHEARSAL. 135 
 
 vault amid cadavcra one "but green from the earth, 
 fest'rinfj in his shroud," others half dissected and shmv- 
 ing haggard features and mournfully spectral shapes, 
 hideous to behold in humanity-form. " Hush ! " there 
 is another heavy beat, a pause, articulate sounds, now 
 emphatic, now sinking away in a distant cadence, then 
 followed by stillness. The disconcerted medicals resumed 
 their operation of t3'ing the aorta as if all cause of 
 alarm had subsided, when fresh intonations and more 
 gliding movements returned. 
 
 " What may this mean, 
 That thou, dead corse, again " 
 
 deters us from our work .- In breathless haste they 
 left the charnel-house and rushed upstairs. As they 
 approached the door of the lecture-room 'they drew 
 near to the loais in quo of their fears ; they listened, 
 and detected a human voice, and that voice could be 
 no other than the weird anatomist's : the "questionable 
 shape " was discovered to be a " spirit of health," and not 
 a "goblin damn'd !" Yes! the syrenic Knox was heard 
 busily tuning his instruments for to-morrow's " oratorio." 
 Verily a strange rehearsal, and stranger scene ! Stand- 
 ing in the small enclosure of a big amphitheatre 
 of empty benches, and in the midst of darkness that 
 "a farthing dip" rendered visible, Knox w^as going 
 through the part of his own Hamlet, practising the 
 attitudes, now delivering his thoughts in calm and 
 measured tones, now loudly vehement, as the subject of 
 his prelection demanded. The skeleton in its tripod 
 was the only semblance of humanity around him, and 
 standing by its side and resting his hand upon one
 
 136 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of its acromion processes, he apostrophized the osseous 
 entirety with as much earnestness as the true Hamlet 
 did the "canonized bones hearsed in death" of the 
 Royal Dane. " For one night only" did he attempt a 
 rehearsal, so it is believed. Had it been at all his prac- 
 tice, it would have been soon heard of, and much dwelt 
 upon by his rivals. Even if time had permitted of such 
 preparation, of what import was it compared with the 
 exercise of his own innate powers, capable of meeting 
 every emergency } A strong, nay, incontrovertible argu- 
 ment against the habit of rehearsal is to be found in the 
 fact of his frequently having been called upon to lecture 
 on a subject foreign to the regular course of things; 
 besides, all his most notable efforts were quite im- 
 promptu, of which many instances could be given from 
 my own personal knowledge. 
 
 In his rhetorical efforts there was nothing pompous, 
 but rather a Saxon homeliness of speech, combined with 
 perfect dignity of manner, so that with the familiar inci- 
 dent or lively epigram readily grasped by every member 
 of his class, he practised a faultless style and felicitous 
 expression calculated to please the higher minds. At 
 times, but rarely, he manifested passion and emotion, 
 and the force that is generated by these ; but there was 
 nothing of the passion that with uneducated speakers is 
 apt to be blatant, if not frothy and boiling over. He 
 was viewed as a consummate actor of his part ; but then 
 his part was always sustained with consummate ability. 
 His oratory was racy and refreshing to a degree, nor 
 could it fail to lighten up the path of mediocrity and 
 dulness that is too apt to be present in every assembly
 
 THE KNOX PANTHEON. 137 
 
 of the mixed classes of English life. Superior to his 
 contemporaries in possessing an academic temperament, 
 he surpassed them all in creating exaltation of thought 
 and a steady, healthful penchant for educational im- 
 provement. If he carried his pupils to the heights of 
 Science, he was not unmindful to note the rough and 
 arduous steep ; and, when those fancied heights had been 
 gained, would with significance point to the clouds above 
 and beyond, waiting the light of philosophy to pierce, 
 and thereby to reveal fresh pinnacles and a still higher 
 Olympus. Familiar with the biography of the renowned 
 men of the past, he could throw a beautiful halo of lauda- 
 tion around the labours of the physicists Newton and 
 Laplace, the anatomists Vesalius, Harvey, and Bichat, and 
 the chemists Lavoisier and Dalton. Such men constituted 
 the Knox pantheon, each niche of which seemed to con- 
 tain a living statue upon whose sculptured form he loved 
 to dwell. Well versed in the literature of his profession, 
 and always fertile in resource, he could interweave his 
 historical readings, or ideas if you will, with the subject 
 of his lectures, in a manner no less exceptional than 
 grandly impressive. Anatomy was his text, and in 
 discussing its general bearings he saw no impropriety, 
 but much advantage, in illuminating his text with 
 every ray of light that could be brought to bear upon 
 the subject under review. 
 
 Dr. Knox had a natural and decided aversion to the 
 use of artificial aids for refreshing the memory of the 
 young anatomist. The "private teachers," or "grinders," 
 who prepared candidates for their public examinations, 
 often came under the lash of his satire. The " cramminsr
 
 138 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 system " he held to be httle less than an imposture, 
 offensive to habits of culture, damaging to the practice 
 of medicine, and altogether derogatory to man's intellect. 
 He denounced both the men and the mode, calling the 
 former " quacks," and the latter a parrot system of 
 instruction. The small octav^os issued by the London 
 grinders were bad enough ; but the nc phis nltra of 
 make-believes was the " Pocket Anatomist." Knox hit 
 upon a happy method of showing it up. At one of his 
 introductory lectures (winter session,^ 1837-38^ attended 
 as usual by crowds of students and not a few rival 
 teachers of medicine, some of whom favoured the 
 system he was about to condemn, he said : " Gentle- 
 men, in my younger days anatomy was taught with 
 a view to medical practice and the development of 
 philosophical principles in zoology. The old authors, 
 however voluminous in their records, were cited by 
 our teachers and recommended for our perusal and 
 example. Alongside our practical studies in the dis- 
 secting rooms we were referred to works of this kind for 
 consultation " holding up at the same time a huge 
 tome, which he carried around the area at arms' length. 
 " This, gentlemen, is a volume written by Vesalius, the 
 acknowledged father of our art. Look at its size, and 
 bear in mind that its thousand folio pages embrace only 
 a special part of the human anatomy." Then taking a 
 
 1 Al)out a week before the opening of this session he asked me what 
 should be the purport of his "introductory," "as now it was time to be 
 thinking of it." Some paper was brought for him to take notes, and he 
 wrote "(Jcntlemen" upon it I lis conversation then turned on other 
 matters, and the single word received no additions ! Mis only preparation 
 was during his morning or evening walks.
 
 VESA LIUS AND THE POCKET ANATOMIST. 139 
 
 stand centrally towards his class, he withdrew from his 
 \\aistcoat pocket the smallest of publications ever issued, 
 well named the " Pocket Anatomist." " Now, gentle- 
 men, behold the advance of the age, the progress of our 
 science in these latter days ! Vesalius was the first and 
 greatest anatomist ; look at his work and contrast it with 
 this ignoble production, said to contain the whole of 
 your anatomy within the compass of three inches by 
 two!" As he held up the antipodes of Art to the gaze of 
 his class, cheers echoed from wall to wall ; and as these 
 subsided, Knox, with an air of reverence, deposited 
 Vesalius on the table, and then, with an expression of 
 thorough contempt, cast the Lilliputian to the floor. 
 The audience was electrified by this inimitable exposi- 
 tion of the difference between exalted Science and 
 debased Art. Vesalius, the founder and mighty pillar of 
 the past in anatomy, held up with the " Tom Thumb " 
 pocket vocabulary of the present day, was worthy of 
 Knox, and assuredly no man could have done it but 
 himself, and done it so admirably. 
 
 In listening to Knox as he swept across the chords of 
 his lyre, the historical men of the Georgian political 
 period Burke, Sheridan, and Fox crossed one's mental 
 vision ; not that his style was exactly like any of these 
 men, though his fiery vigour was equal to the best. 
 When he quoted a Ciceronian phrase you recalled the 
 denunciatory passages against Verres; and while your 
 eyes were riveted upon the moving figure in high gesture, 
 your mind would be instituting comparisons between 
 the modern Scot in his roofed apartment and the noble 
 Roman in the Forum at the base of the Capitol. Taking
 
 I40 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 his stand by the table, and resting his left hand upon it, 
 whilst he raised his right somewhat semi-bent, and with 
 his fingers oddly apart (as shown in his portrait), he 
 personified a special and vigorous attitude that would 
 have done admirably for the political leader of a consti- 
 tutional assembly, or the graver-toned president of the 
 higher Senate. 
 
 The portrait of Dr. Knox attached to this page was 
 taken during the session 1834-35, by his chief artistic 
 pupil, Edward Forbes, afterwards known to the world 
 of science by his Natural History investigations. The 
 sketch portrays the Doctor as he stood in his lecture- 
 room addressing his class. Forbes' work admirably hits 
 the salient features of the physiognomy, no less than the 
 special attitude of the man : it bears the artist's well- 
 known mark, " B.B." The portrait appeared among the 
 Edinburgh celebrities in the Studctits JSIaga, and naturally 
 commanded a great sale of that monthly issue. It was 
 accompanied by a few words of comment, also from the 
 pen of the editorial Forbes, in which the Doctor is 
 described as the great hater of humbug, and the leading 
 anatomist of the age. To add to the fun in which my 
 genial-hearted friend Forbes used to revel, he headed his 
 remarks on his great master by a quotation from a 
 Roman poet thus : 
 
 " ^ Nox 
 
 Semper." 
 
 And every student with a copy of the Maga and who 
 was without it } was ready to respond to the classical 
 sentiment, and echo " Knox for ever !"
 
 OR A TORICAL DISPLA YS. 141 
 
 lie was much too classical to be ranked with the 
 modern tribune, especially of these latter days. If 
 tile pose and uplifted arm claimed attention, how 
 much more effective was the demonstration of the man 
 when roused by a subject that conveyed historical 
 warnings, and most of all when denouncing corporate 
 monopolies, chicanery, and cliquism. Then his head 
 V s thrown back, his step was pronounced, his eye 
 Ixed, his arm swung from below upwards, not only 
 lending force to his utterances, but embracing the whole 
 audience in its sweeping play. Woe betide the indi- 
 \idual that came under Knox's censure, whether that 
 censure was shown in a tone of derision or with the 
 finger of scorn pointed to the offending mortal. Without 
 naming he could hold up the foe to the mirror, and then 
 v\-ith scathful and burning words cast him to the earth. 
 
 There was a philosophy in the very manner of his 
 teaching, a freshness that caught and convinced ever\'- 
 body. With a rare suggestive faculty, he from day to 
 day opened out new channels of inquiry to his students, 
 and developed a broader basis of anatomical observ^ation. 
 Ready and copious in diction, he had the art of enliven- 
 ing his class, now with historical opinions or current 
 facts, now with narratives piquant, if not imagina- 
 tive, but always with an eye to interest and in- 
 struct. Knox was never at a loss for words, and never 
 had far to seek his illustrations. It was firmly believed 
 that he could at a moment's notice lecture for an hour 
 upon a piece of adipose tissue, by describing its cha- 
 racter, uses, and position in man's body, and supple- 
 menting this by his natural history observations at the
 
 142 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Cape, or the equally telling episodes, always at com- 
 mand, derived from the pages of Bichat and Blumen- 
 bach, or the personal friendships of Baron Cuvier 
 and Geofifroy St. Hilaire. A single episode of Knox's 
 was of more worth than an entire lecture of many of his 
 rivals, and often proved as effective during the hour's 
 instruction as a bright patch of colour in an otherwise 
 sombre landscape. 
 
 If Knox was careful not to commit himself to a 
 doubtful opinion in theoretical medicine, he was pretty 
 affirmative in his views on pathology and practice. In 
 demonstrating the regional anatomy, say the muscles of 
 a limb, he passed with a light hand over the grouped 
 bundles seriatim and relationally ; then interested his 
 audience by showing how muscular actions affected the 
 surgery of the part ; and if the class seemed less en 
 rapport with him, he drew animating pictures, almost 
 tableaux vivants, of the powerful display of the athlete; 
 or if describing the muscles of the fore arm, exempli- 
 fying the fine touch and muscular power of the hand 
 from the fingers of Paganini.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Comparative and General Anatomy. Saturday Lectures. The Caffre. 
 Ciceronian dis])lays. The Pictorial School. Educational Views. 
 Training of Lads. The Knox Triumvirate and Teachings. The Master 
 and Idle Apprentices. The Enthusiasm of his Class. 
 
 Notwithstanding the labours of John Hunter and the 
 Monros, England gave no signs of earnestness in zootomi- 
 cal science during the three first decades of the present 
 century. France had her Vicq d'Azyr, Daubenton, 
 Serres, Cuvier, St. Hilaire, and Dc Blainville, and Ger- 
 many many men of promise; whilst England had scarcely 
 broken ground in the general field of zoology. Dr. John 
 Barclay, and his successor Dr. Robert Knox, were, as far 
 as I can learn, the first public teachers of comparative 
 anatomy in Britain. They had no English text-book 
 for their students, no special work to refer to but the 
 obsolete folios of Samuel Collins, published in London 
 in 1685. Professors Grant and Rymer Jones issued their 
 excellent works in 1840 and 1841, two years subse- 
 quently to the time (1839) when Knox made a memo- 
 randum now before me; "that for many years past from 
 1829 the study of comparative anatomy was confined 
 to books and plates derived from the French." Herein 
 lies the credit due, first to Barclay, and notably to Knox,
 
 144 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 for drawing the attention of the British medical inquirer 
 to the subject of zoology, and showing its great import 
 in the study of the higher anatomical science. It should 
 also be borne in mind that in 1826, when Knox delivered 
 his first course of lectures, human anatomy itself was 
 a superficial pursuit with the majority of students a 
 three months' course of dissections sufficing for the medi- 
 cal boards of the United Kingdom so that to incite a 
 further step anatomical-wards required no small energy 
 and skill on the part of the teacher. Nothing less than 
 the brilliancy of Knox's lecturing could have succeeded 
 forty-four years ago in investing the dry osteology of 
 the brute creation with such vast interest. To some 
 lecturers a bone was but a structure with certain physical 
 features, and nothing more. Knox made it assume an 
 historical position in the scale of organization ; its size 
 and form were patent enough, but he sought in the 
 osteogenesis and type and homologues to fix its place 
 in the general superstructure of the animal series : in 
 short, he gave not the mere description, but the philosophy 
 of the osseous form. Of Knox, in this special department 
 of his teaching as in many others, it could be truly said, 
 " ;/// tctigit quod iion ornavitr 
 
 He was in the habit of delivering a series of lectures 
 on Comparative and General Anatomy, and Ethnology, 
 on the Saturdays. These were the red-letter days in the 
 Knox calendar. Students, practitioners, and fellows 
 of the Royal Colleges used to assemble in great numbers 
 to enjoy the hour's treat of " Knox on a favourite sub- 
 ject." At one time a separate ticket was issued for these 
 lectures, the character or purport of which varied a good
 
 BICHAT AND BECLARD. 145 
 
 deal each session. Whether zoology proper, or man in 
 his Racial aspects or structural elements, formed the 
 subject of his prelections, the lecturer showed a freshness 
 of design and an amplitude of intellectual view that 
 never failed to draw large audiences to Old Surgeons' 
 Hall. Knox was in his happiest humour on Saturdays ; 
 the audience was of a more advanced character, and as 
 a rule highly discriminative ; the lectures were very 
 much his own choice and capable of large historical 
 treatment, and consequently better adapted to call forth 
 a finer display of his faculties and genius. 
 
 On " General Anatomy " he professed to make 
 " Monsieur Beclard " his guide, and an English transla- 
 tion (his own) of Beclard lay on the table as if for imme- 
 diate use ; rarely, however, were its pages referred to. 
 Knox laboured under a curious difficulty, he could not 
 with any comfort to himself read to a class. To have his 
 eye fixed upon a book, and so far out of the direct survey 
 of the audience, was positively irksome to him. Yet he 
 was quite an elocutionist. As he knew his theme, quota- 
 tion could be done without, and the inspiration of his 
 class served a far better purpose than either chapter or 
 verse of " Monsieur Beclard." With an array of prepa- 
 rations on the green-baized table, and "fresh tissues" for 
 the purpose of demonstration, Knox required no backing 
 up, no authoritative aid; his chief reliance at all times 
 rested with himself, and that self was never found want- 
 ing. He was lavish in his praise of Bichat^ ^^ ce Bichat 
 que r Europe envie a la France'' for his Modern Philo- 
 
 ^ Knox perhaps attributed a little too much to Bichat, and would have 
 endorsed Corvisart's opinina of his idolized countryman : " Personne, en si 
 
 L
 
 '46 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Sophy (1801), and Beclard for his later interpretation 
 of " L'Aiiatomie Generale,"^ as he was of every distin- 
 guished name in science ; but, after all, Knox appeared 
 very much his own oracle when describing what he 
 called " the history of the tissues." 
 
 Over the zoological domains of science Knox loved to 
 roam with the freedom that characterised his dashing 
 pace across the African prairies. He might consult the 
 compass and the provisional chart, but he had his own 
 horizoned beacon, his own track and goal, the gaining of 
 which by him apparently required but small effort. His 
 jaunty air of confidence impressed you with the belief 
 that he was as conversant with each walk in biology as 
 the farmer with the locality of his fields ; on the other 
 hand, he practised a modesty that insinuated he was but 
 a pioneer breaking up the fallows of the science for his 
 pupils more successfully to till and fertilize. However 
 discursive he might appear in citing the ancient in- 
 stances of Aristotle and Pliny, or the more modern 
 names of Linnaeus and Buffon, the scientific purport of 
 his teachings was still kept in view ; his discoursings 
 were never without their meaning and characteristic 
 relevancy. In picturing the author of the " Historia 
 
 peu de temps, n'a fait tant de choses, et aussi bien." Dr. Fletcher showed 
 that Bichat was preceded not only by the great anatomical authorities since 
 the time of Beranger and Vesalius, but by Aristotle and Galen. Haller, 
 Bonn, John Hunter, and Pinel, to come within the range of a century, no 
 doubt saw the leading characters of the tissues, and the pathological indica- 
 tions belonging to them ; Bichat, however, deserved the palm of excellence, 
 by his transcendent abilities and originality. 
 
 1 Elements of General Anatomy, translated from the last edition of the 
 Frencli of P. A. Beclard, with Notes and Corrections by Dr. Knox. (Mac- 
 lchlan and Stewart, 1 830. )
 
 THE GREEK AND ROMAN SAGES. 147 
 
 Animalium" examining the marine fauna of the Bay of 
 Salamis, something- of the classical halo might obtrude ; 
 it was only for the moment that he figured so grandly, 
 then he carried out the historical parallel by exhibiting 
 zoological specimens taken from the Firth of Forth, 
 upon which to indicate an Aristotelian analogue, or 
 possibly to amplify a generic illustration. Nothing could 
 well be more inciting to " ingenuous youth" than com- 
 bining the historical and classical phases of his science 
 with the living and available resources of the adjacent 
 sea-board ; such instructive lessons as these, coming from 
 so great a master as Knox, might well develop men of 
 the Goodsir, the John Reid, and Edward Forbes stamp. 
 With the works of the Greek and Roman sages Knox 
 showed a familiarity that was only surpassed by his 
 recounting in detail the last conversation he enjoyed 
 with his friend Baron Cuvier in the Jardin des Plantes. 
 His ingenuity in interweaving his own observations 
 with the experience of his great predecessors in the field 
 of anatomy, was not less remarkable than the felicitous 
 manner in which he presented all he knew to the recog- 
 nition of his pupils. The text and context, the narrative 
 and the dialogue set forth by Knox, were uniformly clear 
 and inviting to every avenue of the understanding. Men 
 of culture and there were many who sat on Knox's 
 benches were rapt in admiration of the lecturer's display 
 of Esculapian lore, nay, an unfathomable fertility of lite- 
 rary and scientific resource. The historical prologue, the 
 array of data digested or otherwise, the nicely balanced 
 argument, the logical inference, and the "telling hit," and. 
 all in hapi^y sequence, were pronounced in faultless 
 
 L 2
 
 148 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 language/ and garnished with a silvery tongue, whose 
 measured accents fell like melody upon the ear. An 
 hour with Knox glided away like a day dream ; you 
 never cast your eyes upon the dial, and could hardly be 
 awakened from your half-entranced condition when the 
 " To-morrow, gentlemen," and the graceful bow, showed 
 the falling of the curtain. If the student could not be 
 roused by Knox's teaching, he was past all mending ; or 
 if he failed in the acceptance of principles so well enun- 
 ciated, his lot could only be in the abode of the helpless, 
 and among the dull and God-forgotten sons of men. 
 
 Recognized as singularly choice in his treatment of every 
 anatomical question, Knox surpassed himself in his lec- 
 tures on the Races of Men. The mode in which he took up 
 a cranium bespoke the artist as well as the anatomist, and 
 his demonstration of its special characters or conforma- 
 tion was done with a freedom that simulated the putting 
 in of the fine touches of a drawing by a master hand ; 
 then came the ethnological questionings and significance, 
 and finally the grandiose and historical flourish. For 
 truly he could speak " of all the learned and authentic 
 fellows," from Aristotle to Cuvier, from Galen to Blumen- 
 bach. Taking the Cafire for his text on the African races, 
 he dwelt upon the activity and prowess of the tribe, and 
 contrasted these faculties with the sluggishness of the 
 
 1 In one of his sly hits, drawn from the conventionalities of the would-be 
 Malthusians of the age principally French, it must be admitted he bordered 
 pretty closely upon the social proprieties. \Vhcn describing a part of the 
 human anatomy which terminated in a closed cavity, he added : "A ciil de 
 sac, gentlemen ; a form of structure, I may remark, by no means approved 
 of by Trench ladies of gaiety." This Shandean episode, derived from 
 " Us gauds d amour" was only caught by a very few of the knowing ones.
 
 JOHN BULL AND THE CAFFRE! 149 
 
 Dutch Boer. After noting a few historical data, he would 
 address his class somewhat in this fashion: "Gentle- 
 men, I hold in my hand the cranium^ of a Caffrarian 
 chief, whom I saw on the hostile field, leading his un- 
 disciplined but brave tribes forth against British infantry; 
 and for a time he maintained his position against fear- 
 ful odds. His dauntless spirit, that could bear no curb, 
 brought him within close range of our troops, and of 
 course he fell under a rattling fire. I was fortunate 
 enough to secure his body, and to bring this ethnological 
 specimen home to England. Look at the development 
 of this cranium, and compare it with the known Europeans 
 presented in such numbers to your observation. View 
 the African and European crania from every point, and 
 tell me if you could fairly distinguish the Cafi"re from the 
 so-called Anglo-Saxon. Are we to be told that the 
 Cafifre of this cerebral stamp is a savage because he lives 
 in the 'wilde,' and that John Bull is the happy creature 
 of civilization because he wears breeches, learns cate- 
 chisms, and does his best to cheat his neighbours 
 always, of course, on Christian principles!" Such telling 
 incidents, such exquisite satire, were, if possible, magnified 
 in the eyes of the student by the dramatic personification 
 
 ' Of the many wicked stories told by his enemies, one had reference to 
 his possessing so many Caffre slculls in his museum. It was alleged that 
 when one of his students inquired of the Doctor how he got them, he 
 replied : " Why, sir, there was no difficulty in Caffraria ; I had but to 
 walk out of my tent and shoot as many Caffres as I wanted for scientific 
 and ethnological purposes," This monstrous accusation had its believers. 
 Knox was tender to a degree, wherever humanity was concerned ; he never 
 approved of the Caffre war, and always extolled the Caffre man for his 
 courageous conduct.
 
 I50 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 exhibited by the narrator. On this and kindred subjects, 
 e.g. life and organization, each step across the area, 
 each swing of the right arm that stamped the Knox 
 dictum, appeared to the pupil like another turn of the 
 Knox kaleidoscope, revealing fresh colours and fresh 
 facets of surprise. 
 
 Knox's feeling was commensurate with his words. 
 These, however, did not flow out into long reaches of lan- 
 guage, as was Edmund Burke's wont; his sentences were 
 in easy compass, and each division had its increasing 
 emphasis ; then came the connected rush, the charac- 
 teristic gesture, and sweeping torrent. Few men in this 
 country were possessed of the mien that in Knox gave 
 so much apparent sincerity to his words, and manliness 
 and dignity to his pathos. He personified and was truly 
 himself; there was no counterfeit indeed there could be 
 none, for where was the previous instance .'' In his 
 greater efforts he seldom had the chance of completing 
 his peroration, for his words vires acqidrit eundo 
 gathered still faster the enthusiasm of his class, watch- 
 ing for the crescendo of the orator, as academic youths 
 do, to give vent to their applause. It was a grand 
 spectacle to see Knox in his higher flights, startling, 
 impetuous, and pronunciative. Who could then doubt 
 the Knox dogma .-' Who could argue with the inspired 
 possessor of a platform .- There he stood, before a body 
 of educated men, earnest in attitude, confirmed in faith, 
 and more and more convincing as he warmed in his dis- 
 course. As his skill in words invested everything with 
 a gloss, his vehement declarations came forth as the 
 pervading spirit of the man, yet with the force of Jove,
 
 EXCITEMENT OF HIS CLASS. 151 
 
 that wrought his Hsteners into a state of high excite- 
 ment, totally irreconcilable with the temperate behaviour 
 usually exhibited by the members of a scientific class. In 
 his sudden bursts of oratory, his sharp, pithy sentences, 
 which came like sparks from a furnace, and not always 
 evanescent, but igniting by their satire, created sad havoc 
 among doubtful medical reputations. A mot of Knox's 
 oft became the talk of the school ; a nickname or telling 
 sarcasm of his would circulate throughout Scotland. In 
 his great efforts he appeared, though on a different arena, 
 an Antony to more than Cleopatra: 
 
 " His rear'd arm 
 Crested the world : his voice was propertied 
 As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends ; 
 But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, 
 He was as rattling thunder." 
 
 While his class seemed spell-bound under the opera- 
 tions of his rhetoric, the dull and bucolic-minded men, with 
 eyes and mouth agape, wondered at the light of their 
 neighbours' countenance, and then seemed to become 
 more or less infected with the enthusiasm of the intelli- 
 gent members, who, getting excited with the rush of 
 oratory, started from their seats and vociferated as 
 lustily as an uproarious House of Commons on the 
 second reading of a Reform Bill. At one of his Saturday's 
 lectures, where Knox had been unusually eloquent and 
 humorous, quoting Shakespeare, "Tristram Shandy," or 
 a bit of Horace's spicy satire, and where he summed 
 up in a measured and lofty style that rivalled the best 
 examples of ancient or modern times, the crowded 
 audience stood up e7i masse as he bowed his exit, and
 
 1 53 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 waved hats and handkerchiefs, and cried "Bravo! bravo! 
 Knox for ever, and one cheer more !" 
 
 He seemed to Hve to lecture, and enjoyed it more as 
 a recreation than anything else. No charm in rural life, 
 not even the incense-breathing morn, was half so exhi- 
 larating to the mind of Knox as the air of his own 
 amphitheatre, where a rapturous welcome hailed his 
 presence. There the vexations of the world and the 
 prickly thorns of his enemies found no place. As the 
 folding doors closed in upon the anatomist in his 
 enchanted circle, all external Satanic influence was put 
 behind him ; and with the passing hour all seemed 
 serene in the lecturer's mind. Too often, however, the 
 old leaven of the man himself would ferment and rise 
 up in hasty judgment upon his compeers and the 
 world at large. It cannot be gainsaid by his most 
 fervent admirers, that Knox was at times highly injudi- 
 cious in holding up society to the glare of his bull-eyed 
 lantern, and construing the professed verities of English 
 life into worldly shams and hypocrisies ; and when dis- 
 posed to be personal, stigmatizing men of public character 
 as readily as he would issue a philippic against his pri- 
 vate foe. His temper, generally placid, might well be 
 tried by seeing how the merest pretensions to science 
 could be tolerated, nay, sometimes encouraged, in high 
 places; and how men of solid acquirements and original 
 research fared worse than the mediocrities trailing along 
 the road with no higher credentials than a well-timed 
 orthodoxy. He saw littleness extolled far beyond its 
 deserts, and his own experience too sadly proved that if 
 you cannot be St. Paul to all men and in every walk
 
 THE PICTORIAL-ANATOMY SCHOOL. 153 
 
 of life, your brightest intellect affords no guarantee for 
 success. Imbued with such feelings, he was apt to be 
 incautious in hazarding comments on his contemporaries, 
 and as often fell into trouble. Now and then he became 
 bitter in his expressions, as if to say with Don John, 
 " It better fits my blood to be disdainful of all, than to 
 fashion a carriage to rob love from any ;" and thus acted 
 as if regardless of the retaliation of his foes. 
 
 Knox was eminently diverting when he aimed his sati- 
 rical shafts at the " Pictorial- Anatomy School," as he 
 designated certain anatomical teachers whose class-room 
 walls were covered with huge diagrams and coloured 
 illustrations. Several of his contemporaries showed a 
 weakness for a kind of mural art, neither natural nor 
 aesthetic ; and artificial aids to, rather than the demon- 
 stration of the anatomy itself The brothers John and 
 Alexander Lizars were the chief sinners of the picto- 
 rial school. They were draughtsmen-anatomists, who 
 favoured alphabetical mnemonics and puerilities of 
 learning, and dealt uncommonly in gaudy colours and 
 big pictures. Knox defined, and pretty fairly too, their 
 pictorial helps to anatomy as " huge misrepresentations 
 of nature" calculated to mislead the young anatomist, 
 nay, to destroy all chance of his ever becoming a sur- 
 geon, or even a medical practitioner. 
 
 In describing the human heart, and speaking in his 
 usual felicitous way of its anatomy, functions, and sym- 
 pathies, Knox would add : " Study this beautiful piece 
 of mechanism in situ, and trace the vessels passing to 
 and from it, so as to become familiar with its structure ; 
 do not look for its anatomy upon the walls of a class-
 
 154 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 room glaring with reds and yellows and blues, such 
 as exist in a sister institution, where the human heart and 
 aorta are depicted as large as the whale's. Why, bless 
 you, gentlemen, you might creep up such an aorta, and 
 thrust your arm along the corresponding subclavian !" 
 
 Other opportunities would occur to Knox during the 
 descriptive course of anatomy similar to the foregoing, 
 and such he did not let slip. A highly enlarged drawing 
 of a female mamma, with milk ducts the size of a finger, 
 used to be presented for the edification of the same pic- 
 torial, or, as he called it, the Infant School of Anatomy ; 
 and Knox would hold it up to ridicule by asking his 
 class if they had ever been to a country fair and seen 
 the "grand shows" attracting the bucolic multitude the 
 picture of the "fat lady" and "other phenomenons," 
 and then finish by saying : " I am told that a similar 
 picture is to be seen in town, in an establishment pro- 
 fessedly scientific but this can hardly be or at least a 
 drawing of one of the mamma; of ' the fat lady,' not 
 only 'as large as life and quite as natural,' but out- 
 stripping humanity and all artistic conception." 
 
 From day to day he impressed upon his pupils the 
 import of appealing to nature for knowledge of struc- 
 ture, and the investigation of the human form not only 
 per sc, but as a component part of the vertebrate system. 
 Theory and practice he viewed as twin supports to the 
 fabric of Practical Medicine. The dissecting-rooms and 
 hospital were his great levers in medical education, and 
 the pathological investigation after death the crucial test 
 of a man's fitness or unfitness for the practice of his art. 
 Books and lectures were of small weight compared with
 
 THE ''COACHING" SYSTEM CONDEMNED. 155 
 
 the lessons obtained in hospitals ; hence his strong objec- 
 tion to the " coaching " system a system so baneful 
 in every way, emasculating the mind, and raising up 
 a herd of conceited practitioners doing more harm than 
 good in the world.- It was in reference to such persons 
 that he would speak of the practice of physic as being 
 but a speculative art, and not worthy of the name of 
 science : and probably some of the seniors of our pro- 
 fession would be disposed to endorse his opinions. 
 
 The views which Knox so strongly and repeatedly 
 expressed on medical education, practical anatomy and 
 hospital practice being the essential features in his 
 scheme, are now pretty generally accepted in the pro- 
 fession. Theoretical medicine, chemistry, and the colla- 
 teral sciences were so far well, but he looked upon these 
 as subordinate to the practical knowledge that is to 
 make a diagnostic physician and a successful surgeon. 
 As far back as 1829 Knox contended against the con- 
 stant inroads made upon the time of the student, with- 
 drav;ing him from the cliniqiic, and the dissecting-room, 
 and the opportunities of seeing disease. It was easy to 
 see that with the extension of the medical curriculum by 
 the licensing bodies, and the larger introduction of Latin, 
 Greek, and Physics, a system of cramming would arise 
 calculated to affect the purport of a special calling or 
 practical art. How was it possible for lads only escap- 
 ing from their teens to carry themselves through a stiff 
 classical and mathematical examination, and at the same 
 time be practical surgeons, chemists, and pathologists?^ 
 
 1 Sir J. Gray stated in Parliament (1869), that the heads of the Military 
 and Naval Medical departments were so dissatisfied with the licensed
 
 156 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Could the physician's guinea honorarium be raised to 
 the 50/. " refresher " of the Chancery barrister, time 
 might be well bestowed in making the Esculapian class 
 philosophical surgeons instead of general practitioners, 
 men distinguished as linguists, physicists, learned in the 
 arts and sciences, and fully equipped for all branches of 
 medicine and surgery. 
 
 It is but justice to Dr. Knox and his eminent associates 
 to state, that the reputation of Edinburgh as a school 
 of medicine was mainly sustained at this time by 
 the private schools clustered round the walls of the 
 University. Foremost of all was Knox himself, after 
 whom came Liston, Syme, Lizars, and Mcintosh, and 
 for a time Dr. Sharpey. The teaching of anatomy in 
 the University had degenerated into a formalism, dis- 
 tasteful and repulsive to the student, while the flourish- 
 ing condition of the extra-mural school testified to the 
 energies of Knox and others at its head. 
 
 It was a saying of Knox, that if he could get lads of 
 seventeen years old, of fair elementary training, he would 
 make anatomists for every walk of professional life. This 
 was no empty boast, for with his marvellous insight into 
 human character he could almost at a glance perceive 
 the working powers of " freshmen," and adapt his instruc- 
 
 surgeons and physicians who liad presented themselves as candidates for 
 public employment, that in three years (1865-68) they had to reject 150 
 persons : yet these men were entitled to practise every branch of the 
 healing art in (jreat Britain. Thus it is shown that the theoretical learning 
 and cramming for the occasions will not bear the true test of examination for 
 medical and surgical practice. It may again be asked if Hoffman's precept, 
 " Fu^i;e medicos, ct eorum nudicamenta, si vis esse sakms," does not contain a 
 good deal of truth.
 
 KNOX, FERGUSSON, AND REID. 157 
 
 tion accordingly. If brain power existed in a pupil, 
 Knox would infallibly develop it, and no greater pleasure 
 could accrue to him than quarrying out the richer ores 
 imbedded in youthful minds. From the very first he 
 sought to establish classes of excellent men around him, 
 from whose ranks he could choose serviceable coadjutors. 
 He was among the earliest, if not the first, to have paid 
 assistants in the rooms ; and these were aided by juniors 
 glad to be enlisted as volunteers in the service of the 
 popular teacher. The practical instruction was continued 
 from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. About the years 1829-30, Knox 
 commissioned Mr. Fergusson to give demonstrations on 
 surgical anatomy. This was quite a new feature in 
 anatomical teaching ; and though the demonstrations 
 were gratuitous contributions to his class, Knox aimed 
 to make them worthy of his establishment. Special 
 surgical regions were selected for these demonstrations, 
 which were given three times a week ; and as the stu- 
 dents sat around the table and saw the exposition of 
 the parts, they derived great benefit. Mr. Fergusson 
 was the chief demonstrator, and his penchant for surgery 
 proved of material service to numbers of men. In 
 January 1833, Dr. John Reid joined Dr. Knox and Mr. 
 Fergusson in conducting the anatomical rooms. After 
 paying 250/. to his colleagues, he enjoyed one-third share 
 of the proceeds of the practical class. Each member 
 of the copartnery seemed to exert himself for the 
 common good, their diligence and supervision extended 
 over the whole day, and the result was eminently suc- 
 cessful in promoting the anatomical interests of large 
 classes in Old Surgeons' Hall.
 
 158 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Such a triumvirate as Knox, the master, and Wil- 
 Ham Fergusson and John Reid, apprenticed coadjutors, 
 labouring together in one institution, could hardly be 
 paralleled in the history of anatomical teaching. Whilst 
 alike in setting forth the elementary instruction, each 
 teacher had his higher walk, and assiduously cultivated 
 it. If Mr. Fergusson, by his dexterity and thorough 
 knowledge of anatomy, created a love for surgery, his 
 colleague, Dr. John Reid, gave promise of high reward 
 from the following of physiology : both men were highly 
 prized by their pupils. Knox was not wanting in any 
 direction, and his experience as an army surgeon, his 
 indoctrination in the French school, and maturer mind, 
 naturally gave an exalted character to his teachings. 
 There was a " dash and go " in Knox that surpassed 
 all men of his times, as it does all description here ; it 
 lent a charm to everything he did ; his expositions 
 were as visible centres of illumination brightening the 
 wits of his class. With this trinity of teaching power 
 prevailing, Knox's Rooms might well claim a character 
 of their own that sufficed to bring together the aspiring 
 youths of this country, and many from afar, even the 
 most distant parts of civilization. 
 
 Dr. Knox took great pains to encourage neatness and 
 order in dissecting, the scalpel of the anatomist being 
 upheld by him as the fittest cutting instrument to the 
 surgeon. Mr. Fergusson, carrying out his master's wishes, 
 made some choice arterial preparations, which, being set 
 before a class, failed not to excite large emulation. Of 
 those who followed suit, mention may be made of Robert 
 T. Lightfoot, the distinguished surgeon of Newcastle-
 
 THE LESSONS OF A MASTER. 159 
 
 upon-Tyne, than whom, as Knox used to say, no one 
 had better hands or sounder judgment ; and James 
 Spence, now the well-known Professor of Surgery in the 
 University of Edinburgh. Some of the dissections made 
 by the advanced students were unexceptionably good, 
 whether as anatomical or aesthetical displays. No com- 
 parison could be instituted between the work done by 
 Knox's class and anything seen in the rooms of his 
 rivals. Those who saw the prize ^ dissections of 1836 
 can never forget their beauty and excellence. 
 
 Though he delivered two lectures daily, Knox gave a 
 fair share of attention to the practical department ; and 
 when he sat down to instruct a pupil, it was in a masterly 
 fashion. No youth could well forget the lesson ; he saw 
 the fine sweep of the scalpel, the line of precision, the 
 unfolding of tissues, and finally a clear demonstration, 
 whilst he listened to a fund of information physiological, 
 surgical, and pathological. Five minutes of Knox were 
 equal to any man's half-hour, and the student must have 
 been stolid indeed who did not rise to a higher compre- 
 hension of the anatomy, and a fuller belief in its applica- 
 bility to his art or science. He was always good-natured 
 with his students, and conveyed his criticism of any im- 
 perfect work very happily, and often facetiously. When 
 he saw the pupil slashing away at the muscles of a part, 
 he touched the young man's shoulder, and said : " Ah, 
 
 1 .Stephen Stanley was first prizeman : his "bend of the elbow" was a 
 picture of a dissection. My facetious friend Stanley became chief surgeon 
 of the ill-fated Franklin expedition ; he was a fine fellow, who sank his 
 seniority to afford every facility to his assistant-surgeon, Harry Goodsir, the 
 famed and much-lamented naturalist.
 
 i6o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sir ! I see you are dissecting for the sake of the bones ; 
 would it not be well to pick up a few facts as to the 
 attachments and uses of these muscles before you reach 
 the skeleton ? " To an Irishman removing the super- 
 ficial veins and fasciae of the arm at one fell sweep, he 
 would ask if venesection at the bend of the elbow had 
 been entirely abandoned in Tipperary the county of 
 the young gentleman's birth or if the doctors drew 
 blood from the heads of their patients in the shillelah 
 fashion of Donnybrook Fair ? A word of Knox's struck 
 home, and his playful hints could not possibly offend 
 either the heavy Saxon or the susceptible Celt, or the 
 numerous representatives of foreign nations to be met 
 with in his motley class. 
 
 As sunlight waned, and the practical pupils got 
 wearied, Knox would occasionally take a position with 
 his back to the fire, and make the last half-hour of the 
 day exceedingly chatty and pleasant. It was no small 
 treat to listen to the master in his moments of relaxa- 
 tion, surrounded by his idle apprentices. There you 
 realized the freedom of a cheerful and social republic 
 the incongruous elements of the assemblage being kept 
 well in hand by its loquacious Pracscs. Knox in his 
 humour, criticising the on dits of Edinburgh, or the 
 greater theological and scientific questions of the day, 
 might well become the focus of attraction ; the students 
 never hesitated to throw down their instruments and 
 to cluster around him. How happily he could draw 
 out the leading traits in the characters of his admiring 
 listeners ! He would speak of horses to the Yorkshire- 
 man, of Britannic prowess to the " Men of Kent," as if
 
 THE RACING FOR THE KNOX GOAL. i6i 
 
 Caesar's landing-place and the last winner of the St. Leger 
 were equally familiar to him. The Welshman was more 
 than pleased when reminded by Knox of the ancient 
 lineage of the Cymri, that scarcely stopped short of 
 "the Flood." The Highlander had his blood warmed 
 by reference being made to Ossian, and Napoleon's 
 admiration for the grand poems ; or by stories told of 
 the Clans of the Macgregors levying black mail on the 
 Southern Borders. The Irishman got such a fill of 
 blarney about the historical Phoenicians and other Kings 
 of Erin, that he used to vow by St. Patrick that Knox 
 was no Scot "at all, at all," but of true Milesian blood. 
 There was a struggle to obtain good places in Knox's 
 lecture-room each day at eleven o'clock. The first 
 year's students attending Chemistry, and the second 
 year's men attending Surgery, between the hours of 
 ten and eleven, were the chief claimants for Knox's 
 front seats. The University, from whose class-rooms 
 the majority of Knox's men came to hear his morning 
 lecture, was about three minutes' walk from Old Surgeons' 
 Hall, The competitors in their flight down two stairs 
 from Hope's Chemistry Rooms, their racing across 
 the quadrangle of the University, their sweeping rush 
 over every obstacle to gain Infirmary Street, offered an 
 exciting spectacle. The race was neck and neck, and 
 woe betide the folk who happened to come between 
 the flushed medical student and the wind of his nobility. 
 Old and young passers-by were thrown down in the 
 vtelee caused by scores of agile-limbed fellows contend- 
 ing for the Knox goal. If a baker, carrying his big 
 wooden tray of loaves, stood in the line of the im- 
 
 M
 
 r62 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 petuous current, he was sure to come to grief. As he 
 lost his balance and parted with his tray, the loaves 
 and rolls were scattered along the pavement, to the 
 great delight of his mortal enemy, the medical student. 
 "Knox's men" offered great fun to the shopkeepers 
 of the South Bridge, the street in which the University 
 stands, as they were seen running roughshod over 
 the citizens, or coming in personal collision with each 
 other : great was the huzzaing when ten or a dozen 
 strapping young fellows, in broadcloth and smart 
 attire, measured themselves on Mother Earth at 
 the corner of Infirmary Street by no means a rare 
 occurrence on frosty days and on icy pavement. The 
 rare and intense enthusiasm that Knox created in 
 his class belongs to the past ; no such high fervour is 
 manifested by the student of these latter days. The 
 reason is obvious : he who called it forth is gone, and 
 his counterpart is nowhere to be found ; indeed, it is 
 more than doubtful if another Knox will ever appear 
 before a British audience. Old pupils of Knox, both 
 privately and publicly, still speak with sparkling eyes 
 of the grand excitement and rush for favoured seats 
 in his Iccturc-room. 
 
 Dr. Knox may have had some imitators, but he had 
 no real rivals in the schools of anatomy. From 1826 
 to 1835 there was but one temple worthy of the name 
 in Edinburgh, in which aspiring youths might worship 
 in the spirit of Galen, and sing the hymns that the 
 anatomico-theosophist delighted in; and that temple 
 was " Old Surgeons' Hall," where Robert Knox presided 
 as high priest, oracle, and philosopher.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DUGONG AND CETACEA. 
 
 Great Northern and Young Whalebone Whales. Food of Whales. BaleBtta 
 Mysticettis. Dolphins. Soosoo. Porpoises. Dugong. Teeth of the 
 Cachelot. Stomach of certain Cetacea. 
 
 The Royal Society of Edinburgh would seem to have 
 looked upon Dr. Knox as its chief anatomist, by con- 
 sulting him on all zoological questions, and entrusting 
 him with the dissection of animals obtained from 
 abroad. In this way he came to have at his disposal 
 a Dugong from the Indian seas ; also the bones of 
 another Dugong furnished him by Professor Jameson 
 for comparison with the perfect animal. On December 
 21, 1829, and January 18, 1830, Knox read his "Obser- 
 vations to determine the Dentition of the Dugong;" to 
 which are added, " Observations illustrating the Ana- 
 tomical Structure and Natural History of certain of 
 the Cetacea" {Trans. Royal Soc, Edm., vol. xi. pp. 
 389417). 
 
 Dr. Knox claimed to be the first to point out that the 
 osteology of the Dugong, contained in the " Ossemens 
 Fossiles," published in 1825, had been drawn up from 
 
 M 2
 
 i64 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 an imperfect skeleton furnished by MM. Diard and 
 Duvanceal. His observations led him to infer: 
 
 1. No complete skeleton of the Dugong exists in any 
 of the European museums, or, if it does, is not described. 
 
 2. The incisive teeth in the upper jaw, exclusive of 
 the fang-like incisives, are thrown off or shed at an 
 early period, and not replaced by others ; an extremely 
 firm horny-looking substance seems to supply the 
 place of the incisive teeth ; it encrusts that remarkable 
 sloping portion of the upper jaw which, together with 
 a corresponding and opposite one in the lower jaw 
 (also encrusted with a dense horny covering), forms 
 an extraordinary feature in the general appearance of 
 the Dugong. 
 
 3. The incisive teeth in the lower maxillary bone 
 remain imbedded in their sockets throughout life ; they 
 are neither shed nor replaced ; and seem to be eight 
 in number. 
 
 4. The teeth, termed milk-fangs by Sir E. Home, 
 cannot be temporary teeth, because they are found 
 in the head of an apparently adult specimen, and 
 because there is not the slightest appearance of any 
 approaching change in the form of the tooth, or indi- 
 cation of the approach of another or permanent tooth. 
 Knox therefore looked upon them as permanent teeth, 
 not as temporary, and, to reconcile these contradictory 
 statements on the part of anatomists, supposed it not 
 unlikely that the differences in the form of these tusks 
 may originate, not in a difference of age, but in their 
 belonging to distinct varieties or species of the Dugong. 
 
 Baron Cuvier's arranging the Dugong, Lamantin,
 
 THE DUGONG. 165 
 
 and the animal of Steller with the Cetacea, or rather 
 the Herbivorous Cetacea, was objected to by Knox, 
 who argued, on the form of the cranium of the Dugong, 
 the structure of the molar teeth and tusks and general 
 dentition, the structure of the stomach, position of 
 inammcE of the female (so different from that of the 
 Cetacea), that the Dugong would be more naturally- 
 grouped with the Walrus than with any of the whale 
 tribe as yet described (1830). 
 
 In the Essay he describes the skeleton of the Narwal, 
 the Di'lphinus PJioccsna^ and other specimens of the 
 genus DdpJiinus, and draws attention to the great 
 size of the foetus of the Cetacea at the time of birth, tht- 
 condition of the symphysis pubis previous to and during 
 parturition : also the dentition and digestive organs of 
 the Cetacea, and the microscopic examination of the 
 mucous membranes. The Essay is full of anatomical 
 interest. 
 
 Professor Owen has since shown that the dental 
 differences pointed out by Knox related to age and 
 sex, and not to species ; he therefore objects to the 
 classification of the Dugong with the Walrus, and is 
 of opinion that the Dugong and its congeners should 
 form a group apart from both the Carnivora and 
 Cetacea of Cuvier. This group he shows anatomically 
 to be more nearly allied to Cuvier's Pachyderms, and 
 he calls them "Apodal Pachyderms." The Dugongs, 
 Rhytinas, and Manatees have since been accepted as 
 forming a distinct order, called Sircnia. (See Owen 
 " On the Anatomy of the Dugong," Proc. Zool. Soc. 
 London, March 1838, in which Essay, p. 42, he does
 
 i66 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 justice to "that able comparative anatomist Dr. Knox," 
 for his original observations on the Dugong.) 
 
 On October 5, 183 1, the carcase of a whale was 
 observed floating off Dunbar at the mouth of the 
 Firth of Forth, and was landed to the west of North 
 Berwick. This whale was purchased by Dr. Knox and 
 his brother Frederick for scientific purposes. On March 
 18, 1833, Dr. Knox read a paper to the Royal Society 
 of Edinburgh {Proceedings of the Society, or Edin. 
 New PJiilos. Jourii., vol. xvi. p. in) : "Observations 
 on the Anatomy of the Rorqual (Whalebone Whale 
 of the largest magnitude), drawn up from the dissection 
 of a specimen found dead off North Berwick." ^ He 
 
 ^ The "monstrous fish," as the Rorqual was called by the public, at- 
 tracted thousands of visitors. How Jonah could find room "in the whale's 
 belly " was now perfectly well understood ; and the preachers in the pulpits 
 of the Lothians improved the occasion by dwelling upon "God's good pro- 
 vidence" in sending so unexampled a proof of His creative wisdom to the 
 shores of Scotland, when the cholera was raging and the country was in the 
 throes of excitement about a Reform Bill. The theologians did not wait 
 or the description of the anatomist as to the gxillet of tiie "big whale " only 
 admitting of a man's closed fist, and the presence of a stomach relatively as 
 small. Jonah might have found space within the jaws of the whale, and 
 made its tongue his bed not so soft, or even in the Rorqual, as that of the 
 Spermaceti Whale, which John Hunter likened to a feather bed and the 
 baleen his curtains. He might also have amuse<l himself in catching the 
 shrimps and other "small fry" taken in by the devourer ; but how of his 
 respiration in the maxillary chamber? for no mention is made of Jonah being 
 provided with the gills of fishes during his aqueous sojourn ; and history is 
 still silent as to the exhibition of any philanthropic endeavour by the zoo- 
 phagous animals of (he deep. Blumenbach was witty upon the exegetists 
 and the prophet Jonah ; and, according to Marx, "stood by the opinion 
 of Hermann von dcr Hardt, in Helmst.idt, who wrote a very nasty com- 
 mentary on that man of Got! ; that he lodged in Nineveh at the Whale; 
 that his cash ran out ; the landlord would give him no more credit he wa& 
 turned out of the dub ; or the Whale cast him out."
 
 THE GREAT NORTHERN WHALE. 167 
 
 named the whale Balcstia maxitniis borealis, or Great 
 Northern Whale, with integumentary folds ; and ranked 
 it with the Balceiia Rorqnalus borealis of Lacepede and 
 Desmoulins ; Rorqnahis Boops of Cuvier. An author of 
 eminence, Dr. J. E. Gray, refers it to the PJiysalus 
 Antiquorum, the Razor-back, the Balcena antiquorum 
 of F"ischer, the Roi'qiial dc la Meditcrrant^c of Cuvier,^ 
 
 The animal was a male. The girth of its carcase 
 immediately behind its pectoral extremities was 52 feet. 
 Two cross lines were drawn on the sand, from the snout 
 and centre of tail, and the interspace gave a measure- 
 ment of 78 feet. The tail, from tip to tip, measured 
 20 feet. The blood-vessels were full of a dark, semi-fluid 
 blood. The stomach contained only mucosity, the 
 intestines being partially filled with a yellow glairy 
 mucus. The cause of death was not ascertained. 
 
 As reference has often been made to Knox's whale 
 by English and Continental writers, it is needful to 
 state for the sake of reference that three years were 
 occupied in the preparation of the skeleton of the Great 
 Rorqual ; it was exhibited to the public in the years 
 1834 and 1835, in the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, 
 and for a time in Glasgow. On the suggestion of the 
 late Professor Jameson, the city of Edinburgh bought 
 the skeleton for the Natural History Museum. After 
 being exhibited in North College Street, in 1839, by 
 
 ^ In the month of November, 1869, a large Balx'noptera of the female 
 sex came ashore at Longniddry on the Firth of Fonh, not more than ten 
 miles from the place where Knox's whale was stranded. Tliis whale was 
 anatomised by Professor Turner, who identified it as the BaliEiioptera Sib- 
 baldii, and by whom "it is described in the Froc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 
 December 1869.
 
 1 68 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Knox, it found a place in the Zoological 
 Gardens, and when these were broken up it was trans- 
 ferred to the National Museum of Science and Art in 
 Edinburgh, where it now constitutes the most noticeable 
 object in the Natural History collection. 
 
 The most complete description of Dr. Knox's " Great 
 Northern Whale" is to be found in a "Catalogue of 
 Anatomical Preparations illustrative of the Whale," pub- 
 lished in 1838, and professedly edited by Frederick 
 John Knox ; there is no doubt, however, that the best 
 part of this 39-paged pamphlet was from the pen of 
 Dr. Knox. This catalogue is so exceedingly scarce, 
 that I am induced to quote the salient points in the 
 anatomy of the Great Rorqual especially: 
 
 Composition of Skeleton of the Great Rorqual. 
 
 Cranium, lower jaw, and lingual apparatus. 
 
 Cervical vertebr.x, 7. Dorsal, 15. Lumbar and caudal, 43. Total, 65. 
 
 Ribs, 15 + 15 = 30. 
 
 Sternum, one flattened bone, articulatetl with the first pair of ribs. 
 
 V-shaped bones commencing at the intervertebral substance, between the 
 39th and 40th vertebra: ; the largest of these peculiar bones is the second, 
 which is about 15 inches long. 
 
 Pectoral extremities or arms, right and left, consisting of scapula, 
 humerus, radius, ulna, carpal bones (3), metacarpal bones (4). Four 
 fingers, the radial, or thumb, not develojied in this sjiecics of whale. 
 
 Pelvis in a rudimentary state, consisting of two flattened bones (the pubic 
 portions of the ossa innominata). Pelvic extremities not developed. 
 
 Length of base of cranium, 19 feet ; of spinal column, 59 feet= 78 feet. 
 
 length of the lower jaw, 21 feet 4 inches. 
 
 Interspace between right and left rami of lower jaw, about half-way 
 between symphysis and articulation, 1 1 feet. 
 
 Length of the sixth rib, il feet. Total length of pectoral extremity, 
 3 feet II inches.
 
 ANATOMY OF THE GREAT RORQUAL. 169 
 
 Weight of cranium when first removed from the beach , . 7 tons. 
 Spine, ribs, and extremities 21 tons. 
 
 Total, 28 tons. 
 
 The whole surface of the palatal plates of the superior maxillary bone, 
 each extending to 14 feet in length, was covered with a mass of what ap- 
 peared to be well-teazed hair, of a clear and shining black. This was the 
 whalebone, arranged in a most regular manner, and composed of many- 
 thousand plates. Of the baleen, or whalebone of commerce, there were 314 
 external or labial plates on each side ; towards each extremity these plates 
 degenerate into bristles, and admit of being counted with difficulty. The 
 baleen diminished gradually in depth towards the mesial line, giving the 
 whole palatine surface an elegant arched form. For each external plate 
 twelve {internal) smaller ones could be easily counted, so that the num.ber of 
 plates which could be counted, and not including the bristly terminations 
 towards the snout, pharynx, and mesial line, stand thus : 
 
 External or labial plates 314 
 
 Internal small plates corresponding to each external one ... 12 
 
 Total number of baleen plates, 3,768 
 
 The longest plate of baleen measured 26 inches in length by 15 inches 
 in breadth. The substance when recent is highly elastic and very heavy, 
 the whole weighing nearly two tons in the BaLcna jnaxi>nus, and contains 
 so much fluid in its composition as to lose fully half its weight and a third 
 of its bulk in di-ying. 
 
 A section of the integuments revealed (i), the cuticle ; (2), the cutis, 
 equalling 3^ inches in thickness, and containing the blubber of commerce ; 
 (3), iht paniciilns carnosis, or cutaneous muscle. 
 
 The larynx, whilst totally unlike that of the dolphin and porpoise, re- 
 sembled in part the anatomy of the Balana vtinimus borealis and Balatia 
 mysticetus borealis. The nostrils were filled with two enormous cartilaginous 
 masses acted upon by muscles occupying the centre of the superior maxillary 
 bones. When the animal breathes, they are withdrawn sideways to admit 
 the passage of air. This structure appeared unique to Knox, and that it 
 had not been previously noticed by any scientific observer. 
 
 The epiglottis was 14 inches long. The position and form of the ary- 
 tenoid cartilages are very peculiar in the Bahrna rnaxivnis, and by projecting 
 into the pharynx in the manner of the epiglottis, make the upper opening of 
 the larynx a sort of triangle. " The arytenoid cartilages, however, sent, each
 
 170 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 in addition, a lengthened prolongation down on the inner surface of the 
 cricoid cartilage; and these arytenoid prolongations passing across the in- 
 terior of the larynx, assisted with the inferior margin of the thyroid cartilage 
 in supporting a bag-shaped cavity. This cavity extended fully half-way 
 down on the inferior surface of the larynx; its walls were muscular, and its 
 interior lined with a prolongation of the common investing membrane of the 
 larynx. The same mechanism was found in the BaLcna in'aiimus borealis 
 and in the BaLcna mysticdus borealis. The whale has evidently the power 
 of closing and opening this bag, but its economy is evidently extremely 
 obscure." 
 
 The measurements of the cerebral cavity were : Vertical depth, 9.^ inches ; 
 antero-posterior diameter, 11 inches; horizontal breadth, 18 inches. This 
 capacity of cranium implied, according to Sir W. Hamilton's method, 80 lb. 
 of brain. Fortunately for a more correct interpretation of the facts, the 
 fresh cerebral contents of the Balcena minimus borealis came into Dr. 
 Knox's hands, and showed the existence of a great mass or plexus of blood 
 lying under the dura viater, and constituting one-half at least of tiie cranial 
 contents. 
 
 Along with the skeleton of the Great Rorqual, 
 Mr. F. Knox exhibited twenty-seven dissections illus- 
 trative of its anatomy, and twenty-six preparations 
 obtained from the Piked Whale {Balcenoptcra rostratd), 
 which Dr. Knox termed Balcuna viiniuuis borealis, and 
 the specific difference of which from the Great Rorqual 
 was satisfactorily established by his dissections ; also 
 thirty preparations from the Greenland Whale, or 
 Balana iiiysticctiis, and forty others illustrative of the 
 genera Ddphinus, Plioccena, Soosoo, and Halicurc. Of 
 this valuable collection the late Professor Goodsir pur- 
 chased for the Anatomical Museum of the University 
 of Edinburgh, in which they are now to be found, 
 specimens marked in the Knox Catalogue as Nos. 17, 
 21, 23, 24, 28 (skeleton of the Balcena minitnus borealis), 
 S7f ^4> 107 (skeleton of Dugong), and ii6. The
 
 THE YOUNG RORQUAL. 171 
 
 remainder of the majority of the preparations were 
 variously dispersed, to the detriment, it may be said, 
 of the History of the Cetacea, which Dr. Knox un- 
 doubtedly meant to write, but in time found it 
 necessary to abandon, on the ground that scientific 
 labours were not appreciated, and comparative ana- 
 tomy least of all, in England. For Knox's own fame 
 it would have been desirable that he had issued a 
 monograph on the Cetacea, and laid claim to his 
 discoveries, for instance, the laryngeal pouch, which 
 Drs. Carte and Macalister {Loud. P kilos. Trans) after- 
 wards observed in the Piked Whale, and Eschricht and 
 Reinhardt in the Greenland Right-Whale in 1861 
 (translated from the Danish in the Transactions of the 
 Ray Society, 1866), and Turner last year in the Long- 
 niddry Whale. The rcte viirabile in the cranial cavity, 
 and other anatomical points which he demonstrated for 
 the first time in the Cetacea, have been much over- 
 looked by authors in general. 
 
 On April 27, 1834, Knox read to the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh his account of the dissection of the Young 
 Rorqual, or Short Whalebone Whale {Balcsna minimus 
 borealis of Knox, Balcena rostrata of Fabricius, Piked 
 Whale of John Hunter), with a few observations on the 
 anatomy of the foetal Mysticetus {Proc. Roy. Soc, or 
 Edin. Nciv PJiilos. jfonrnal, vol. xviii. p. 197). Twenty- 
 six preparations obtained from this whale have already 
 been referred to in the Knox Catalogue : they embrace 
 Nos. 28 to 53 inclusively. 
 
 This young Whalebone Whale was taken near Queens- 
 ferry, in the Firth of Forth, in February of the same year.
 
 172 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Knox viewed it as quite distinct from the Great Rorqual.^ 
 It was 9 feet 1 1 inches in length, 3 feet from snout to 
 ear, and 4 feet 8 inches in girth at the termination of the 
 phca and folds. The whalebone was about 2\ inches 
 the longest plate 4 inches and varied from a pale rose 
 colour to a dull white : 614 large external plates were 
 counted towards each extremity ; these plates degenerate 
 into fine bristles, and these were not counted. According 
 to Knox, the proper functions of the baleen were clearly- 
 illustrated by this specimen. The plates were observed 
 to hang perfectly parallel with each other, and from their 
 closeness and fringed lingual aspect, acted as a very 
 perfect filter in collecting the minute molluscous animals, 
 and at the same time they enabled the whale to reject 
 the water. 
 
 The food of the whale is still a disputed point. It is 
 now generally admitted that the Mysticetus lives only on 
 small medusae, shrimps, &c., but that the other species of 
 whalebone whales devour inconceivable quantities of 
 
 ^ Composition of Skeleton oi Balcrna minimus borealis. 
 
 Cranium with lingual apparatus in situ. 
 
 Vcrtebrje : Cervical, 7 ; dorsal, 1 1 ; lumbar and caudal, 30 = 48. 
 
 Ribs, II + II = 22. 
 
 Sternum, one flattened bone articulated with the first pair of ribs. 
 
 V-shaped bones commencing between the 31st and 32nd vcrtebrrc. 
 
 Scapula, humerus, radius, and ulna. 
 
 Carpus cartilaginous ; metacarpus, 5 bones ; fingers, 5 ; the thumb in 
 a rudimentary state. Pelvis rudimentary ; two sniall cylindrical-shaped bones 
 (the pubic portion of the ossa innominata) prescrvcxl, connected to the 
 vagina. The pelvic extremities or legs not developed. 
 
 Tlic skeleton of the Young Rorqual is in the Anatomical Museum of the 
 University of Edinburgh.
 
 FOOD OF THE WHALES. 173 
 
 various fishes. M. Desmoulins had been rash enough to 
 state that "600 great cod and an immensity of pil- 
 chards " had been found in the stomach of a single 
 Rorqual. Now the Messrs. Knox in the Great Rorqual 
 (measuring 78 feet in length) saw no cavity in the course 
 of the viscera which would have contained six cod of 
 ordinary size. The stomach of the Balccjia miniimis, 
 now under discussion, was empty, although the Firth of 
 Forth abounds at all seasons with herrings and other fishes 
 and their fry. " The zvnnt of teeth by no means renders it 
 impossible that the Balaena with baleen can live on large 
 fishes, but the extreme narrowness of the gullet (that of 
 the Great Rorqual barely allowed of the passage of the 
 closed human hand, and that of the Balcena miniimis 
 was certainly narrower than an ordinary-sized cow), 
 added to the want of teeth and the want of proper 
 authenticated information, are strong arguments in 
 favour of the hypothesis that they do not." Mr. Knox 
 and some studeijts had a steak of this Young Rorqual 
 done on a gridiron, but did not hesitate to express a 
 decided preference for that of the West Highland beef. 
 
 There was no vestige of teeth, though Dr. Knox sup- 
 posed they might exist in the foetus as well as in that of 
 the Mysticetus, as pointed out by G. St. Hilaire. The 
 cranium, besides containing the brain and its membranes, 
 enclosed a very large mass of a vascular substance a 
 vast plexus of arteries closely resembling erectile tissue.^ 
 
 ^ The great plexus of arteries observed for the first time in the cranial 
 cavity of the Young Rorqual, in 1834, by Dr. Knox, had been described in 
 his quaint way by Tyson, in another part of the "Anatomy of the Porpesse," 
 long ago. The same circumvolution of arteries, or blood reservoirs, or rete 
 mirabile, had been seen and ably described by John Hunter in the thoracic
 
 174 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 The same tissue filled three-fourths of the spinal canal 
 and surrounded the spinal marrow and nerves, and was 
 two inches in thickness in some places. The whole cere- 
 bral mass (nervous), comprising two inches of spinal cord, 
 weighed 3i pounds the cerebrum alone 2| pounds : the 
 cerebellum, pons, and two inches of the spinal cord 
 weighed only three-quarters of a pound. The respira- 
 tory organs resembled the Great Rorqual. 
 
 Below the thyroid cartilage was found the remarkable 
 pear-shaped bag or pouch peculiar to the Balaenae, or 
 Whalebone Cetacea, and already noted in the description 
 of the Great Rorqual. The cartilaginous rings of the 
 trachea were observed deficient for a space corresponding 
 to the size of the bag, which " is in fact nearly the whole 
 length of the trachea." 
 
 The question as to the structure and functions of the 
 abdominal glands of the Cetacea, so frequently discussed 
 in the French Institute the year previously some main- 
 taining that the glands were mammiferous, and others, 
 with St. Hilaire, that they were sexual, specific, and odori- 
 ferous Knox was disposed to settle in favour of the 
 former opinion ; in other words, to consider the said 
 glands to be true mainmcc, as he saw in them what 
 resembled the lactiferous glands of other mammalia in 
 their structure. 
 
 In presenting his drawings of the Rorqual to the Royal 
 
 cavity and spinal canal of the whales (Z<'a'. Philos. Trails. 1787), and by 
 Dr. Haiclay in 181 5, in the spinal canal of the Beluga ( IVcriur. Soc. Trans.). 
 In the very year, 1 834, that Dr. Knox saw and figured the arterial plexus 
 of the cranial cavity, M. Breschet laid claim to the discovery of the inter- 
 costal ])lcxus, evidently in ignorance of Tyson, Hunter, and Barclay's 
 observations.
 
 VERY LIKE A WHALE VERY! 175 
 
 Society,- Knox " begged leave to state that they were 
 the only authentic drawings of their kind to be met with 
 in Britain." Professor Traill, who believed himself to be 
 a great authority on the Cetacea, as on most other sub- 
 jects under heaven, asked in a petulant tone if the Society 
 was to understand from Dr. Knox that the drawings 
 he had just presented were the only ones trustworthy. 
 Knox nodded assent. Traill then inquired, " Has Dr. 
 Knox not seen mine of the same species of Rorqual, and 
 are they not accurate and of scientific value.''" Knox 
 rose very deliberately to meet this pointed question, 
 and first looking at Traill, as if scanning the vaunted 
 drawings through the draughtsman himself, and then 
 turning to the chair occupied by Sir Thomas Brisbane, 
 replied in a characteristic tone, "Very like a whale, Sir 
 Thomas, very ! " 
 
 The Messrs. Knox made thirty preparations from 
 the foetus of the Greenland Whale [Balccna viysticetiis 
 borealis, Knox Catalogue Nos. 54 to 83 inclusive). They 
 found from sixty to seventy dentar pulps on each side of 
 each jaw 260 to 300 in all. " Had these pulps been 
 confined to the upper jaw, and corresponded to the 
 number of baleen plates, it would have formed a strong 
 analogy between the baleen and the teeth ; but the 
 number of baleen plates in the whale greatly exceed the 
 number of dentar pulps ; and the lower jaw, which con- 
 tained an equal number of pulps with the upper, sup- 
 ports neither teeth nor baleen in the adult whale. When 
 the baleen is removed from the palate in the adult whale, 
 we observe no remains of the alveolar grooves: and upon 
 a longitudinal section of the lower jaw {Balcena maxi-
 
 176 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 mus)y we found no vestige of dentar pulps or teeth. Their 
 presence, therefore, in the foetal Mysticetus forms one of 
 the most beautiful illustrations of the unity of organiza- 
 tion in the animal economy. The teeth in the Balaena 
 never cut the gum, but become gradually re-absorbed 
 into the system : the very cavity in which the germs were 
 lodged disappear ; while, to suit the purposes of nature, 
 the integumentary system furnishes the baleen, which is 
 evidently a modified form of hair and cuticle." No. 57 
 in the catalogue shows seven dentar pulps from the 
 foetal Mysticetus (Edin. University Mus.). 
 
 The genus Dclphinus was illustrated by eight prepara- 
 tions (Knox Catal., Nos. 84 to 91). The skeleton of the 
 Delphinus tursio or the White-sided Bottlcnose, obtained 
 from the Orkneys in May 1835, is here given : 
 
 Composition of Skeleton. 
 
 Cranium and lower jaw. Teeth, |^ + ^J = I20. 
 
 Vertebrae : Cervical, 7 ; dorsal, 15 ; lumbar, sacral, and caudal, 59. 
 Total, 81. 
 
 V-shaped bones commencing between the 40th and 41st vertebrae. 
 
 The pectoral extremities consisted of the usual larger bones ; the carpus 
 had seven centres of ossification ; metacarpus five centres ; fingers five in 
 number, the second or forefinger the longest, having seven centres of ossifi- 
 cation developed. 
 
 Pelvis rudimentary, consisting of two cylindrical-shaped bones. 
 
 The animal was a female, and weighed 14 stone. 
 
 In the jaws of the Dclphinus Delphis caught in the Bay of Biscay, wher 
 the teeth had partially dropped out, the formula seems to have been ^y + ^T 
 = 194. "Length of dentar portion of upper jaw, 9 inches. Breadth of 
 jaw at proximal end of dentar portion, 2 J inches. 
 
 Thirteen preparations (Knox Catal. Nos. 92 to 104 
 inclusive) illustrate the genus Pliocccna. One of the
 
 PORPOISES AND SOOSOO. 177 
 
 porpoises,^ described by Messrs. Knox, was a female, 
 in a gravid state, caught in the Firth of Forth, 
 which measured 56 inches in length and 34 inches 
 in circumference ; the other was killed in the Thames, 
 also a female, 74 inches long.^ The foetus of the 
 former measured from snout to centre of tail 26 inches, 
 circumference 16 inches. " Its great bulk, considering 
 the size of the parent porpoise, is remarkable, and 
 renders the supposition that the porpoise does not 
 suckle her young extremely probable." No. 103 was 
 the skeleton of a young porpoise caught in the Forth, 
 only a few days old, as the teeth had not cut the 
 gums. The osteogeny of the cranium seems to have 
 been pretty clearly seen, but is not described. 
 
 The cranium and lower jaw of the Soosoo {Platanista 
 Gangeticd) of the Ganges, and its ossicida aiiditus, con- 
 stitute Nos. 105 and 106 of Knox's Catalogue. 
 
 The genus Halicore was illustrated by twenty prepa- 
 rations (Knox's Catal. Nos. 107 to 126 inclusive), the 
 
 ' Skeleton of Phocana communis, or Common Porpoise. 
 
 Cranium and lower jaw. Teeth |^ -}- |^ = 102. 
 
 Vertebra;: Cervical, 7; dorsal, 13; lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal, 
 45. Total, 65. 
 
 Ribs, 13 + 13 - 26. 
 
 V-shaped bones commencing between the 34th and 35th vertebra;. 
 
 Pectoral cxtnemities as usual. Carpus and metacarpus, five centres of ossi- 
 fication. Digites, 5, the second or forefinger the longest, and with four 
 centres of ossification. Pelvis rudimentary. 
 
 2 The skeleton of the Thames porpoise presented "the remarkable ap- 
 pearance of coracoid clavicles." It differed from the P'orth skeleton in 
 having 12 ribs on each side, and in its lower vertebra; being more slender 
 and delicate, whilst the transverse processes of the dorsal and lumbar were 
 broader and stronger. 
 
 N
 
 1 78 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 description of which is worthy the attention of natural- 
 ists. Whilst the chief points in the anatomy of the 
 Halicore Indiais or Dugong (popularly the merrnaid, 
 sea-cow, &c.) are set forth, Dr. Knox gave special con- 
 sideration to the osteology and teeth of the animal. As 
 to the relativ^e position of the Dugong and Manatees 
 in the zoological scale, he felt, as others have done, 
 much difficulty. He held the bones of the Dugong to 
 be " extremely dense and of stony hardness ; " that the 
 long bones, like the humerus, contained no medullary 
 cavity, but consisted of a texture nearly as close as 
 ivor}^ and capable of being polished. The extraordinary 
 weight of the skeleton of the Dugong, compared with 
 the dolphin, &c., he held to be peculiar.^ After noting 
 the unusual form of the jaw in the Dugong, he de- 
 scribed "a portion of the upper jaw bent in the cranium 
 as nearly four inches long, and the buccal surface pre- 
 senting a rough reticulated appearance not unlike a 
 necrosed bone. The tusks traverse the centre of this 
 bent portion," He considered the tusks to be teeth 
 
 1 Skeleton of the Digong. 
 
 Cranium, with lower jaw. Tusks, 2, upper jaw. Molar, J + ^ = i6. 
 
 Vertebra; : Cervical, 7 ; dorsal, 19 ; lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal, 
 30 = 56. 
 
 Ribs, 19 + 19 = 38. 
 
 V-sbaped bones commencing l>etween the 32nd and 33rd vertcbrx, and 
 continuing to the last intervertebral space, as in all the Cetacea. 
 
 Pectoral extremities : Scapula, humerus, radius, ulna, carjius (3 bones), 
 metacarpus (5 bones), 5 fingers, the radial or thumb rudimentary, only one 
 bone. The fourth finger the longest, having only 3 phalanges, however, as 
 in the human hand. 
 
 Pelvis in a rudimentary state, consisting, however, of four distinct por- 
 tions, two on each side. Pelvic extremities or legs not developed.
 
 DUGONG AND CACHELOT. 179 
 
 connected with the lachrymal bone, and not developed 
 in, but merely passing through, the intermaxillary bones. 
 " The truncated extremity of the lower jaw is '^\ inches 
 long by 2\ inches about the centre ; it is traversed 
 mesially by a suture, on each side of which the bone 
 presents a remarkable worm-eaten appearance, and 
 four distinct facets capable of admitting the point of a 
 man's finger ; in the third pair of facets, counting from 
 the snout, will be observed two white cylindrical bodies 
 about one inch in length by ^th of an inch in diameter; 
 these are rudimentary teeth, which, not being required 
 in the Dugong, are never protruded through the gum. 
 Both these remarkable and unique surfaces on the upper 
 and lower jaw are covered in the recent state by a horny 
 covering." 
 
 The tusk (right side) of the adult male Dugong 
 measured 6\ inches in length by |ths at root and -|ths 
 of an inch at point in breadth, and weighed 2 oz. 360 gr. 
 Knox had some years previously shown to the Royal 
 Society " that the tusks consisted of two substances, 
 a cortical and a medullary : the cortical, though holding 
 the situation of enamel, is similar to bone, and possesses 
 none of the qualities of that peculiar substance ; the 
 medullary portion is extremely hard, of a dense texture 
 and homogeneous appearance." 
 
 On May 2nd, 1836, Knox exhibited to the Royal 
 Society of Edinburgh some specimens of the teeth of 
 the Cachelot, divided longitudinally, and which presented 
 a central and cortical substance. " The central substance 
 resembles, and is no doubt analogous to, the ivory of 
 other teeth ; but the cortical exhibits not the slightest 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 analogy to enamel. In texture it is softer than the 
 ivory portion, and probably continues to grow or be 
 deposited during the greater part of the life of the 
 Cachelot, until it in fact at least completely encloses the 
 central part, which can be nothing but an ossified pulp : 
 it encloses the central portion in the manner that the 
 ivory of the human tooth encloses the soft dentar pulp." 
 Sections of a great variety of teeth of the Cetacea were 
 shown to exhibit a similar structure. 
 
 Professor Goodsir, in his paper on Musket Bullets 
 found in the Tusk of the Elephant, read to the same 
 Society, on the i8th of January, 1841 {Trans. Roy. Soc. 
 Edin., vol. xv. p. 97), says : " The abnormal ivory in 
 the elephant's tusk strongly resembles, if it be not 
 identical with, the peculiar substance which fills the pulp- 
 cavities of the tusks of the walrus and the teeth of the 
 Cetacea, first announced as a distinct species of dentar 
 tissue by Dr. Knox five years ago (1836), and since 
 minutely described by Retzius, Owen, and Alexander 
 Nasmyth. The species of dental tissue in the tusk of 
 the walrus, which Cuvier compared to a pudding stone, 
 Knox looked upon as a fourth substance, and being 
 present in the formation of many teeth, in addition to 
 the cement, enamel, and ivory. Thus in the teeth of 
 certain fishes, this fourth substance, or a tissue closely 
 allied to it, constituted a greater part of their mass, the 
 other three elements having disappeared, or become 
 greatly diminished in bulk or importance." 
 
 Knox had a " Notice regarding the Nature of a Pecu- 
 liar Structure observed in the Second Stomach of certain 
 Cetacea, generally considered as simply glandular, but
 
 STOMACH OF CETACEA. i8i 
 
 seemingly analogous to the Electrical Organs of the 
 Torpedo and Gymnotus," in Brewster's Journal of Science 
 for 1830, New Series, vol. iii. He pointed out a perfectly 
 smooth membrane, and this again closely invested by a 
 series of fibres externally covered in by an extremely 
 vascular and cellular tunic ; that the fibres were not 
 muscular, nor resembling any glandular structure, ex- 
 cepting perhaps the tubular part of the kidney. They 
 were placed perpendicularly and close to each other, and 
 stood out like a pile of velvet enclosed by thin laminae 
 or plates. To this stomach the greater part of the 
 nervi vagi were distributed. Sir D. Brewster examined 
 them under the microscope, and reported them a series 
 of tubes perpendicular to the two membranes which 
 enclosed them.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. Scene in the Royal Society. Harry 
 Goodsir's views. Knox and his Colleagues part. Edinburgh School 
 declines. Knox's Dissector. Contributions to Chatham Museum. 
 
 Dr. Kxox read his " Observations on the Natural His- 
 tory of the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace " to the Royal 
 Society of Edinburgh, on January 7th and 21st, 1833 
 {Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. xii. pp. 462-518).^ This paper, of 
 great length and illustrated by drawings, attracted a 
 good deal of attention as the production of a distin- 
 guished anatomist who relied for his facts on personal 
 observations. He spoke of "the true salmon, including 
 the grilse ; the salmon-trout, merely an inferior kind 
 of salmon, and including the whitling of the Tay ; the 
 herling,^ abounding in the Solway Firth, and which some 
 
 ' This long essay should be examined in detail by those interested in the 
 inquiry, as but a l)rief abstract is attempted in tiie text. 
 
 2 " When herling first ascend a river, and arc taken shortly after their 
 ascent, l)ut within that part of the river influenced l>y the tide, they are 
 clear, silvery, and covered with scales, compared with wliat they become 
 after a short residence in fresh water above the influence of the tide. Tn 
 July and August, for example, herling taken in the stake-nets of the Solway, 
 or even in the Nith, as high or a little higher than the ))ort of Kelton, are 
 in this ])rinie state, and moreover have a redness of flesh, giving the fish a 
 general vermilion colour in certain positions ; ant! an excellence of flesh as
 
 VEND ACE OF LOCHMABEN. 183 
 
 naturalists had confounded with the salmon-trout or 
 whitling." Two species of trout frequented our rivers 
 and lakes the Yellow Trout and the Parr-Trout. " The 
 latter was often confounded with the Parr, Brindlin, 
 Fingerling or Samlet, and the mistake has given rise to 
 innumerable errors and endless disputation." 
 
 He held the vendace of Lochmaben, generally es- 
 teemed by naturalists as a Corrcgomis, to be closely 
 allied to the salmon. He claimed the honour of dis- 
 covering the food of the said vendace, and that it con- 
 sisted of the microscopic entomostracous animals with 
 which the lake abounds.^ " Through the fish called 
 Corrcgomis, of which the vendace of Lochmaben offers 
 a good example, the Salmonidce are allied to the Clupeidce, 
 or the salmon to the herring. This happens in our own 
 country ; in other countries there are perhaps some other 
 fishes which more completely supply the link between 
 those two most important tribes. Captain Franklin and 
 his intrepid party, who twice visited the Arctic regions 
 
 an article of food in no diape inferior to the grilse. Their stomachs and 
 intestines are empty, or contain only the peculiar salmon-food." Herling 
 caught in the river Annan, twelve miles from the Solway, in the latter part 
 of September, assumes the external appearance of the sea-trout ; the spawn- 
 ing condition is then approaching; and the stomach contains minnow and 
 the ordinary food of trout. He exhibited specimens of the Caligiis pro- 
 ducttis and Caligiis acrtns from herlings taken in stake-nets near Annan. 
 
 * I.ochmabcn is a small town in Dumfriesshire. The presence of the 
 vendace in the Castle Loch of Lochmaben has been traced to the times of 
 Queen Mary, and even prior to her time. Knox thought that no precisely 
 similar fish existed in Great Britain. He showed the food of the vendace, 
 three different specimens taken in September and December 1832, and 
 September 1833. Drawings of these Entomostraca accompany the essay, 
 and are given on page 428 of the volume referred to in the text. He also 
 showed the viscera of the vendace at all seasons, and a skeleton of the fish.
 
 l84 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of America, mention their subsisting mostly through 
 the winter on a fish called the herring salmon of the 
 Bear Lake." 
 
 The food of the true or clean salmon consisted of the 
 Asterias glacialis or crossfish, and the ova or eggs of 
 other Echinodermata and Crustacea.^ The real habitat of 
 the salmon is the shores and bays which most abound 
 with this kind of food. The salmon-trout is by no 
 means so nice in respect to its food ; for besides preying 
 on the food of the true salmon, it takes very readily the 
 sand-eels and herring fry ; and these it finds in more or 
 less abundance in estuaries and at the mouths of rivers. 
 The true feeding-ground for the salmon is strictly the 
 ocean ; the breeding-ground is in the fresh-water streams, 
 whether principal or tributary. The part of the river 
 influenced by the tide is a kind of debatable ground in 
 which he neither feeds nor breeds. 
 
 The parasitical animals which prey on the salm.on in 
 salt water, as the Monoculus pisciniis, arc disposed to 
 leave him in the fresh water; also the tape-worm. And 
 yet his sojourn in fresh water gives rise to other evils : the 
 parasite LerncBa fastens on his gills ; to these latter, sea 
 water seems to prove a poison. 
 
 PART I. THE SMOLT, FRY, OR YOUNG OF THE SALMON. 
 
 Two of the ordinary Tweed salmon, weighing from 
 141b. to 16 lb., were watched spawning in the river 
 
 ' Knox exhibited the "food of the salmon whilst in the sea," and skele- 
 tons of the Asterias glacialis and Asterias papposa, to the Society, along 
 with the ova of the salmon at various stages of incubation ; also smelts and 
 their viscera, and the skeleton of a grilse.
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE SALMON: 185 
 
 Whitadder, on the 2nd of November. On the 25th of 
 February, or 116 days subsequently, there was no visible 
 alteration or change in the ova. The winter was one of 
 the mildest ever observed. On the same day several 
 trout were caught whose stomachs were full of small 
 insects, beetles, larvae of flies, and cod-bait generally, 
 with which the gravel of the stream abounded. In the 
 gravel-bed, which he described, the ova of salmon and 
 trout lie safe from every living enemy, and in the midst 
 of a profusion of food whose habitat is the same as their 
 ova ; and whose progress of incubation and subsequent 
 rise through the gravel is quite similar. On the 25th 
 March, the spawning-bed was again opened ; nearly all 
 the young fish had cast the outer shell, and this pro- 
 bably took place two days before, or in 142 days from 
 the deposition of the ova. These young fry would not 
 admit of transportation to Edinburgh. On their first 
 bursting the shell, they are somewhat less than an inch 
 in length ; on emerging from the gravel they continue to 
 haunt the edges of the river in shallow places. The 
 temperature of the gravel-bed was 41 Fahr. at 9 A.M., 
 that of the water about two degrees higher. He fancied 
 the temperature of these beds during winter to be 39. 
 " On the 20th April, the rivers (Tweed and Whitadder) 
 were fished with fly, and were found full of salmon- 
 smolts varying from 6 to 9 inches ; such being the 
 rapidity of their growth in three weeks." Knox seems to 
 have taken for granted that these smolts were his young 
 ova of the 25th March ; if so, they exhibited a marvellous 
 growth! He could not preserve the smolt ; it died on 
 handling or being carried. Of the further growth of the
 
 1 86 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 salmon-smolt to the size of the grilse, Knox main- 
 tained, " we really know nothing." 
 
 In reference to the "natural enemies of the salmon," 
 he found vestiges of salmon-fry or smolt in the stomach 
 of trout in rivers inhabited by the fry. In the stomachs 
 of three kelts (spawned salmon) he found the usual 
 food of trout; that is, beetles, aquatic insects of all kinds, 
 and larvse of flies or cod-bait. The spawning season, 
 according to Knox, ceases in all rivers in or about the 
 end of February, and in March, April, and May the 
 kelts and smolts or fry descend towards the sea. 
 
 PART II. THE HERRING AND VENDACE. 
 
 As the vendace or Corrcgomis was allied to the Sal- 
 monida; and Clupcidcs, Knox thought if he could discover 
 the food of the Corrcgonus he might be led to that of 
 the herring. In fishing for the Lochmabcn vendace, he 
 only got one male fish to a dozen of females. Their food 
 consisted exclusively of microscopic Entomostraca about 
 seven-twelfths of a line in length, and abounding in incre- 
 dible numbers in the lake. To the nature of its food he 
 attributed its great delicacy as a fish. He was anxious 
 to see the vendace transferred to other lakes in Britain, 
 and he believed their removal to be quite practicable. 
 The vendace could not be taken by angling ; the other 
 kinds of fish, a family of the Daces of naturalists, in the 
 lake were taken with the usual baits. The entomo- 
 stracous food approached nearest the Lyncciis lavtellatus, 
 and Trigonatiis of Miiller. 
 
 "The discovery of the food of vendace of Lochmaben
 
 FOOD OF VEND ACE AND HERRING. 187 
 
 led immediately to that of the herring ; it became im- 
 possible to overlook the strong analogy subsisting be- 
 tween the species ; and although the one was marine and 
 the other lacustrine, wc know their differences as to habi- 
 tation to be but trifling in the great economy of nature." 
 Reasoning in this way, Knox found the food of the herring 
 to be the Entomostraca, but the characters of those under 
 his notice were so broken down by gastric juice, that a 
 tolerably perfect specimen was difficult to procure. He 
 figured only one of those microscopic animals. Knox 
 was not surprised at the ignorance of his predecessors in 
 the inquiry, from Fabricius to Rennie: they had not used 
 a microscope. The peculiar species of Entomostraca 
 which he found in the herring he was disposed to asso- 
 ciate with the Cyclops of M. Dumeril, or that described 
 by Muller.' 
 
 In August 1837, Dr. Knox issued an octavo pamphlet 
 (pp. 26) " Observations upon a Report by the Select 
 Committee on Salmon Fisheries, Scotland " (Adam and 
 Charles Black, Edinburgh). He prefaced his Essay by 
 a letter to Mr. William Murray, of Henderland, upon 
 whose estate. Castle Loch, Lochmaben, he had discovered 
 the food of the vendace. Some of these " observations " 
 are pretty similar to his " Opinions of Authors," in the 
 Appendix to Part H., " On the Natural History of the 
 Salmon, Herring, and Vendace" {Trans. Roy. Soc, 
 vol. xii. pp. 512-18). 
 
 ^ Professor Tiedemann, dating Heidelberg, November 7, 1833, wrote 
 approvingly of Dr. Knox's inquiries, and offered to insert a notice of them 
 in his Physiological Journal.
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He ofifered valuable suggestions for a further inquiry, 
 and showed the unworthiness of much of the evidence 
 gathered by H. Drummond's committee, and their re- 
 missness in not making out the food or the feeding- 
 ground of the salmon, when he had decided both 
 these facts in 1832. The true naturalist had never 
 been examined by the Committee ; hence a great 
 amount of hypothesis and hearsay in their report. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell and Sir W. Jardine, it would appear, ad- 
 mitted Knox's claims to the discovery of the food of the 
 vendace, but thought the salmon lived on grosser food 
 than the minute Entomostraca. Knox notices the absurd 
 opinions entertained by Sir H. Davy and others, as to the 
 food of both herring and salmon. Davy conjectured from 
 the emptiness of the stomach that the salmon, foreseeing 
 his length of journey in ascending fresh-water streams, 
 avoided food in order to lighten himself as much as pos- 
 sible; and Mr. Fraser, reasoning upon the same data, 
 attributed the condition to a rapid digestion : his words 
 are, "the digestive powers of the salmon's stomach are 
 like a consuming fire." No wonder Knox wrote : "The 
 less these persons know of the matter, the bolder uni- 
 formly are their assertions ; and as they care not one 
 farthing about scientific truths, they fearlessly affirm 
 whatever seems best calculated to support their hypo- 
 thesis;" and "what they imagine to be true, that they 
 believe to be true ; and what they believe to be true, that 
 they will swear to be true." 
 
 Knox could hardly feel otherwise than aggrieved to 
 find his opinions on the food of the salmon and herring 
 passed over by such men as Professor Rennie of King's
 
 FOOD OF THE CHAR. 
 
 College, London, as late as 1834 ; and the evidence 
 adduced before a Parliamentary Committee devoid of 
 scientific character. The food of the herring- he proved 
 in 1832, by examining considerable numbers of fine 
 herrings taken off the Isle of May, and in a subsequent 
 page further evidence, that of Harry Goodsir, confirms his 
 statements. 
 
 He believed that marine microscopic Entomostraca 
 formed the food of vast numbers of those fishes now fos- 
 silized in the limestone and other formations. On March 
 2nd, 1835, the Doctor read a paper to the Royal Society 
 on the Food of the Char [Salmo alpinus, Linne), and 
 produced specimens of the food of these fishes, viz. micro- 
 scopic Entomostraca, and hazarded the opinion that if 
 the lake in which the char is found be changed, as by 
 draining, &c., so as to destroy the Entomostraca, the char 
 dies out. 
 
 He explained the fact of other food than what he 
 specified as the food being found in the stomachs of the 
 herring and salmon as being dependent on anomalous 
 conditions in their life. "The herring, when disordered by 
 the spawning condition, as well before as after the deposi- 
 tion of the milt and roe, will, like all other animals, in- 
 cluding' even the human race, take to other food than what 
 is natural to them." He applied the same remarks to 
 the salmon. It may be stated in the way of parenthesis, 
 "that his views of the " closing time " correspond very 
 much with the views now adopted by the Legislature. 
 
 In concluding his essay, he desired that some public 
 body interested in fisheries would cause a minute and 
 searching inquiry into his facts and opinions, as he had
 
 I90 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 but one wish, namely, to extend the boundaries of 
 science. 
 
 It should be noted that in 1833, or sooner, a marked 
 change of feeling towards Knox came over the University 
 section of the Royal Society. He who had been so 
 popular, now received but the cold shoulder from those 
 parties. Some said it arose from the West Port tragedy ; 
 this opinion, however, need not be entertained for a 
 moment : it might probably have sprung from his ten- 
 dency to spare neither friend nor foe who attempted to 
 impose pseudo-science upon a learned body. Whatever 
 his faults were, it was not sound policy to oppose the only 
 anatomist in their ranks of real distinction in Edinburgh 
 prior to John Goodsir, and whose papers were among 
 the redeeming features of the Society's " Transactions '' 
 (182-333). In subsequent years the amiability of the 
 anatomical professor met with only a shade more ac- 
 knowledgment than the satire and heterodoxy of Robert 
 Knox. Both the master (Knox) and the pupil (Goodsir) 
 did their best to uphold the reputation of the Royal 
 Society ; and both lived to know that the essays they 
 had contributed to the "Transactions" were unread at 
 home and almost unknown abroad. 
 
 Mr. John Stark, a printer in the city, and also a 
 naturalist, wrote a reply to Dr. Knox's Essay on the 
 Food of the Herring and Salmon, which he communi- 
 cated to the Royal Society, December 4, 1837. As 
 it got rumoured by Dr. Knox's enemies that Mr. Stark's 
 paper would contain an exposure of the Doctor's pla- 
 giarism and recklessness of statement, the Hall of the 
 Society was crowded beyond precedent. Sir Thomas
 
 MR. STARK A TTA CKS KNOX. 1 9 1 
 
 Brisbane was in the chair. Mr. Stark held that there 
 was no analogy between the vendace and the herring, 
 seeing that they lived in different mediums, one in salt, 
 the other in fresh water ; and that they were of different 
 natural families. His historical notes were looked upon 
 with greater interest as affecting Knox's claims to pre- 
 cedence ; for Stark maintained that Leeuwenhoeck had 
 figured the identical animal found in the stomach of the 
 vendace in 1833 by Knox, more than 130 years before; 
 that the food of the herring was described from personal 
 examination by Ncucrantz previous to the year 1654, by 
 I>eeuwenhoeck in 1696, by Fabricius in 1781, by Miiller 
 and Block about 1785, by Lacipede and Latreille in 1798, 
 by the Rev. Dr. Scoresby in 1 820, and by Pennant and 
 other writers who had treated of the natural history 
 of fishes. 
 
 As if in no wise discomfited by the Stark indictment 
 against his literary reputation, Knox rose up quite calm 
 and collected ; and turning at his then triumphant ene- 
 mies like a lion at bay, began his reply by saying : " Is 
 it necessary for me. Sir Thomas, the friend and com- 
 panion of Baron Cuvier, to defend myself in the society 
 of my compeers against the base and personal scurrilities 
 of a mere dabbler in science .* " And in this strain, 
 avoiding the merits of the question at issue, he continued 
 to pour out in the most fervent style the vials of his 
 wrath on Mr. Stark. His speech came like a flood of 
 invective and wit; the big stones heaped up by his 
 enemies to stem the Knox current were swept away by 
 force of eloquence and pointed satire, such as had never 
 been heard within the walls of the Society. An almost
 
 192 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 breathless stillness prevailed whilst the Doctor continued 
 to unveil the tactics of the opposition, and each pause in 
 his speech was filled up by a round of applause. By 
 and by he turned upon the Rev. Dr. John Fleming-, a 
 noted naturalist, who had written on the same subject, 
 and took his notions to pieces ; then suddenly reverting 
 to Mr. Stark, he denounced him for allowing himself to 
 be made "the catspaw of a party" words which he 
 took care to repeat so as to indicate the persons behind 
 the scenes. At this point Knox was interrupted by 
 Professor Traill, who thought that he was still speaking 
 of Dr. Fleming, and who in great wrath declared he 
 would not allow any one in the Royal Society to call a 
 minister of the Church of Scotland " the catspaw of a 
 party." Mr. Stark, taken suddenly aback, and wishing 
 to correct the Professor's mistake, called out, " It's me, 
 he means. Sir Thomas ; it's me." "Yes!" said Knox, 
 with ready wit and infinite point; "it is you: he knows 
 himself, Sir Thomas ; he knows himself to be the cats- 
 paw of a party, and that he has come forward at the 
 instigation of a clique." Up started another Professor 
 (Christison), quite as indignant as Traill, who could not 
 bear to have it stated that there existed anything of the 
 nature of a clique in the Royal Society. " He is one of 
 them," calmly replied Knox, "and naturally feels a little 
 sore on the subject ; you observe. Sir Thomas." He 
 was now left alone to finish what sounded like a tri- 
 umphant retort upon the reader of the paper, and was 
 received throughout with roars of laughter and applause. 
 When Knox sat down, a third Professor (Syme), be- 
 lieving that he had an arrow in his quiver which would
 
 A GRAND PASSAGE AT ARMS. 193 
 
 hit the Doctor effectively, rose and asked why Dr. Knox 
 ridiculed Sir H. Davy for telling his readers that a whale 
 was not a fish. " Did Dr. Knox think a whale was a 
 fish; or, if he did not, why cast ridicule upon Sir Hum- 
 phry for saying it was not .''" " Sir Thomas," said the 
 doctor, in reply, "the scientific character of any natu- 
 ralist who would think it necessary to tell his readers 
 that a whale is not a fish, and the scientific character of 
 any one who would ask whether the whale was a fish or 
 not, require no comment!" Thus ended a grand pas- 
 sage at arms between Robert Knox and the " professorial 
 clique" of the Royal Society. The anatomist, armed 
 with his own weapons a polished satire more keen and 
 incisive than any Damascus blade in Saracen's hands 
 cut right and left, smiting his enemies hip and thigh. 
 No such laughing interlude occupied the boards of the 
 Theatre Royal in Edinburgh, and no such tiptoe excite- 
 ment prevailed amongst the "gallery gods" of the Hall 
 of Comedy, as was witnessed that night within the walls 
 of a learned society. 
 
 Dr. Knox's views as to the food of the herring received 
 full confirmation at the hands of his distinguished pupil, 
 Harry Goodsir, whose opinions, conveyed in a letter 
 dated Anstruther, 15th June, 1843, are worth quoting 
 He wrote : 
 
 " I. The Entomostraca are at certain seasons the 
 almost exclusive food of the herring. There can be no 
 doubt either that they follow shoals of these Crustacea 
 to prey upon them, for it is only when the latter make 
 their appearance on this coast that the former are seen, 
 and when this food is most plentiful the herrings are in 
 
 O
 
 194 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 best condition. It is during the summer months also 
 that we find the larvae of the more common species of 
 Decapoda along with those of Balani, and occasionally 
 a minute shellfish among the contents of the stomach. 
 
 " 2. It appears to be chiefly during the winter and 
 spring months that the herring takes other kinds of food 
 than the Entomostraca ; during these months, however, 
 we find the stomach oftener empty, and only occasionally 
 filled with the larger Crustacea, such as the shrimps, &c. ; 
 in other cases with Entomostraca. 
 
 " 3. As to the Entomostraca being the partial or 
 exclusive food of other fish besides the herring. There 
 can be no doubt that during the summer months, when 
 the shoals of Entomostraca, or what our fishermen term 
 Maidre,^ are in great abundance, they form the food of 
 a great number of other animals besides the herring. 
 
 " It appears to me also that the shoals of Cetacea which 
 make their appearance in the Forth during the herring 
 season are in pursuit of the Maidre, and not of the 
 herring, as is most generally thought to be the case." 
 
 ^ Mr. H. Goodsir, in frequent excursions to the Isle of May (Firth of 
 Forth) in 1842, found that the Maidre consisted of one immense continuous 
 body of minute animals belonging to the Cirripeds, Crustaceans, and 
 Acalepha. The Crustaceans existed in the greatest numbers ; partly 
 Amphipoda, but chiefly Entomostraca. The spoils of the Maiilre were shared 
 in by other animals besides the herring, e.g. dolphins, porpoises, and the 
 Great Rorquals which he had seen coursing round and round the island. 
 He corroborated Knox's views as to the food of the Cetacea. He said he 
 had examined several, and never seen anything resembling the remains of 
 herrings or fish of any other kind in the stomach, although the former were 
 very abundant at the time in the Firth of Forth. He naturally inferred 
 that the Cetacea only accompany the herring in pursuit of their common 
 food, viz. Entomostraca and Acalepha. (^Edinburgh New Philos. Journal for 
 July 1843).
 
 FERGUSSON AND REID RETfRE. 195 
 
 Knox lectured on Comparative Anatomy for several 
 summers, and then, it would appear, he abandoned the 
 subject. In January 1833 a number of his senior stu- 
 dents signed a requisition, soliciting him to give a 
 course of lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Phy- 
 siology, on the ground that "this important branch of 
 medical science had not received the attention it merited 
 in Edinburgh." 
 
 Knox planned a great deal more than he ever accom 
 plished. From time to time I made several dissections 
 of regional or surgical anatomy for his special considera- 
 tion ; and in my third year he asked me to join him in 
 issuing a work on the Ligaments. Mitchell's engravings 
 of the ligaments had long been called " Knox's plates," 
 and he wished to have a more complete edition. A com- 
 mencement was made, but with my health giving way and 
 his engagements multiplying, nothing came of the pro- 
 posal ; indeed, it is only mentioned here to show one of 
 Knox's weak points his inability to cope with his resolves. 
 
 Changes of import were made in Dr. Knox's establish- 
 ment in 1836-37. Mr. Fergusson's increasing practice and 
 hospital duties lessened his opportunities of attending the 
 practical rooms ; and Dr. John Reid having succeeded 
 Dr. Fletcher as Lecturer on Physiology in Argyle 
 Square, left his demonstratorship altogether. Knox now 
 engaged his brother Frederick as assistant, and benefited 
 also by the services of some of his senior students. With 
 these changes there was a falling off in the number of 
 his class ; the tide was on the ebb, and the growing ani- 
 mosities of his contemporaries rendered that ebb more 
 and more apparent. 
 
 O 2
 
 196 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 The medical school of Edinburgh, to the fame of 
 which Knox had contributed so largely, began to show 
 signs of falling off in numbers about 1835, and went on 
 declining for many subsequent years. Several circum- 
 stances helped to bring this about : i. The want of 
 anatomical fnate'riel. 2. The advancing character of the 
 London and Dublin schools. 3. The springing up of pro- 
 vincial medical institutions. 4. The occupation of certain 
 chairs in the University of Edinburgh by senile pro- 
 fessors. 5. An extended curriculum of study attended by 
 greater expense and difficulties; and, 6. The glut in the 
 medical market. All these causes were more or less opera- 
 tive, but the first told most severely upon the prosperity 
 of Edinburgh. The imperfect supply of bodies became a 
 matter of public animadversion in the shape of meetings 
 of the students in 1834-35-36,^ followed by remonstrances 
 to the authorities. Warburton's Act did not work well 
 in the North ; the Whigs and " Little John" Russell 
 were passive upon all matters but holding place ; and no 
 impress could be made upon the town authorities the 
 fussy Beadledom and fuddling Bailliedom of the ancient 
 city. The consequence was obvious : numbers of students 
 went to Glasgow and Dublin, where greater facilities were 
 offered them. Knox bestirred himself in the business, 
 
 ' The lar{,'est grievance meeting of students ever seen in Edinliurgh was 
 held in the Argyle Square Rooms, where the suicidal policy of the parochial 
 and other authorities was shown up, and much indignation cast upon 
 the University monopoly. Lord John Russell and other Cabinet Ministers 
 were also memorialized on the subject. I have much reason to remember 
 this stormy meeting, over which I presided before the expiration of 
 my teens, as it brought me more publicity than favour with the medical 
 professors.
 
 "THE EDINBURGH dissector:' 197 
 
 and so did his students, but all to no avail. The Uni- 
 versity enjoyed a monopoly that was deemed the more 
 intolerable outside the walls, that it recalled too truly 
 the fable of the dog in the manger. 
 
 In 1837, Dr. Knox brought out "The Edinburgh 
 Dissector," a manual for the use of students in the 
 dissecting rooms. His name did not appear on the 
 title-page, only that of " A Fellow of the Royal Col- 
 lege of Surgeons in Edinburgh." This was a mis- 
 take, for no name in the college was equal to his 
 own in anatomical repute, and none was likely to be so 
 attractive to the medical student. If the " Dissector" 
 was of real value, he might as well claim the honours ; if, 
 on the other hand, he had misgivings as to his own handi- 
 work and wished to shelter himself from the criticism of 
 his enemies, he had not the art of maintaining his incog- 
 nito. The first page of his text showed the author as 
 unequivocally as a line engraving of his physiognomy, 
 for who in Edinburgh could mistake the following as the 
 production of any man but Robert Knox } " Schools of 
 anatomy are of two kinds: i. Those taught by medical 
 men. 2. Those taught by persons who merely know 
 details of human structure ; and who, having never ap- 
 plied the art to any practical purposes, i.e. having never 
 practised as physician or surgeon, repeat in a dull and 
 formal manner, often with much pomposity and in a 
 Quixotic style, the opinions of others," &c. " They are 
 in fact mere grinding schools of anatomy ; and although 
 now a little hackneyed, and the trick is somewhat stale, 
 they still succeed incredibly with the inexperienced stu- 
 dent, who seldom reflects on the astounding fact that the
 
 198 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 lecturer may not only be a worse-educated person than 
 himself, but actually totally ignorant of the arts of sur- 
 gery and physic." 
 
 "The Edinburgh Dissector" was too much based on 
 Cloquet and Meckel to be welcomed by the majority of 
 students, who did not like its apparently dry and elabo- 
 rate construction. Knox was led to expect that his 
 manual would displace "The Dublin Dissector," then so 
 much in vogue in the dissecting rooms of Edinburgh, but 
 it never vied with the popularity of Dr. Harrison's 
 volume, and fell more into the shade as the illustrated 
 Manuals of Anatomy by Erasmus Wilson and others 
 were issued from the London press. 
 
 In the report of contributions presented to the museum 
 at Fort Pitt, Chatham, July i6, 1827, it is recorded that 
 certain skeletons of birds, mammals, and preparations 
 showing the anatomy of the eye, arterial injections, 
 lymphatics, &c., contributed by Dr. Knox, are " very 
 valuable preparations, beautifully prepared and in good 
 condition." From the year 1827 to 1839, Knox sent 
 various donations to the Army Medical Department, of 
 morbid preparations and natural history specimens, for 
 the museum at Chatham ; also his own pamphlets 
 and other works, e.g. Scarpa's anatomical plates for the 
 library; and he had the pleasure of receiving more than 
 a formal acknowledgment of their acceptance, in the 
 shape of hearty and well-expressed thanks from Sir J. 
 McGregor and other officials. On the 12th June, 1835, 
 Dr. John Davy, authorized by Sir James, wrote to Knox 
 to .say how glad the Army Medical Department would 
 be to receive his specimens (105 in number) of organic
 
 s//! JAMES McGregor's opinions. 199 
 
 remains from the limestone quarry of Burdie House, 
 Edinburgh, as such a contribution would be particularly 
 valuable, and would claim a favourable place in the 
 museum. Examples of the torpedo brought from the 
 Mediterranean by Dr. Davy were offered Knox in return 
 for his presents. In 1839 ^^ ^^^t the specimens of 
 fossil shells, and received very flattering thanks for his 
 " handsome support to the Chatham institution." 
 
 Here it may be appropriately mentioned that Sir 
 James McGregor was a great correspondent of Knox's, 
 and formed the highest opinion of him. As early as 
 June 1827, Sir James wrote Knox: "You know I 
 never doubted your success as a teacher. I rejoice to 
 hear that it has been so complete." Again he assures 
 Knox that the whole Army Medical Department feel 
 grateful to him for his handsome donations to the 
 museum, adding : " What you have so kindly be- 
 stowed on us will form a nucleus, and likewise direct us 
 to what we will be ambitious to follow." Sir James 
 frequently honoured Knox by obtaining commissions for 
 his pupils, and did it in so pleasing and hearty a way as 
 greatly to enhance the value of the compliment conferred. 
 The late Director-General, Dr. Alexander, is only one 
 of many examples that might be cited of young army 
 surgeons being promoted through the kind interest of 
 Knox with his friend Sir James.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Chair of Pathol og)'. Papers on Hernia, Entozoa, &c. Sir A. Cooper. 
 Sharks without brains. Hermaphrodism. Museum. "Brother 
 Fred." Knox surpasses himself. Papers on various subjects. The 
 Reid and Knox Controversy. Lectureship to Art Students. 
 
 On the 6th July, 1837, Dr. Knox, having learned that 
 Dr. John Thomson was about to resign his professor- 
 ship, offered himself as a candidate for the vacant chair of 
 General Pathology. In his letter addressed to the Lord 
 Provost and Town Council of Edinburgh, the Patrons of 
 the University, he appealed to the success of his teaching 
 as an anatomist, his surgical experience in Elanders, 
 in English military hospitals, and abroad in the colonies, 
 and at La Charite, in Paris, his facilities for pathological 
 inquiry in Edinburgh, his formation of the College of 
 Surgeons' Museum, &c. He introduced his election as 
 corresponding member of the PVench Academy of 
 Medicine as a proof of his scientific status abroad, and 
 added that "the determined opposition and hostility of 
 numerous individuals, and even of associated public and 
 corporate bodies in my own country, present the best 
 proofs which those acquainted with the world can 
 require, that the individual so strongly opposed must at 
 least have attainments and a status in science, which
 
 THE CHAIR OF PATHOLOGY. 
 
 could not with safety be entirely overlooked." He 
 explained his objections to so many chairs being made 
 imperative upon the medical student, who, he held, should 
 be free to obtain his education " where and hozv he likcdy 
 
 Dr. John Thomson had been Professor of Surgery to 
 the Royal College of Surgeons, and afterwards of Mili- 
 tary Surgery and Pathology in the University, which 
 led Knox to designate him " the old chair-maker," 
 also the " Medical Commissioner of the Whigs." Dr. 
 Thomson was an able man, and his works on inflam- 
 mation and varioloid diseases are historical. If Sir H. 
 Davy's greatest discovery was Michael Faraday the 
 bookbinder. Professor Thomson deserved the credit of 
 eliciting the great talents of James Y. Simpson, who 
 became his amanuensis and alter ego in conducting the 
 Pathology chair, and is now the most distinguished 
 Esculapian of his epoch. [Alas that I should have to 
 alter this statement in going through the press, and to 
 record the death, on the 6th May, 1870, of Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson, Bart., whose intimate friendship I had the 
 honour of enjoying for so many years, and whose name 
 now ranks among the historical and truly immortal !] 
 
 Knox addressed a second letter to the Town Council 
 on the 15th July, with the view, in which he succeeded, of 
 upsetting a proposal made to them by Professors Alison, 
 Christison, Syme, and Sir Charles Bell, who recommended 
 the abolition of the chair of Pathology, and at the same 
 time offered to give a course of lectures that would 
 realize a retiring pension of 150/. a year to Dr. Thomson. 
 Knox looked upon this as putting the chair of Patho- 
 logy into commission, and as a curious make-shift of
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the " Pathological Commissioners," whose views upon 
 most points of doctrine differed so widely that they 
 would flatly contradict each other and puzzle the stu- 
 dent. He called the formation of the chair of Clinical 
 Surgery " an odious job," and the making so many chairs 
 imperative and exclusive as harassing to the student by 
 reducing his whole acquaintance of medical matters to 
 that condition happily and best expressed by the phrase 
 " Diffusion of useless knowledge." Both letters were 
 specially stinging, and created a sensation ; the truths 
 contained in them, though highly unpalatable, did 
 good, but assuredly the writer benefited nothing by his 
 exposure of University jobs and "thoroughbred critics." 
 
 Knox seems to have contributed to every periodical 
 that appeared on medicine and the collateral sciences 
 no doubt owing to his being solicited to do so, to 
 give (^clat to the early numbers. The London Medical 
 Gazette, established in December 1827, contained 
 (March 8, 1828) his paper on the "Altered condition 
 of that portion of the tendon of the biceps. Flexor 
 Ctibiti, which passes into the shoulder joint." 
 
 In the Edin. Med. and Surg. Jonrn. vol. xlvi. p. jG, 
 will be found Knox's " Observations on the Statistics 
 of Hernia and on the anatomical causes which de- 
 termine its production." (Read to the Medico-Chirur- 
 gical Society, session 1835-36). Three plates of the 
 pelvis accompanied the essay. He was afraid that the 
 statements of medical writers on the frequency of hernia 
 would hardly bear strict scrutiny : that Dr. Monro's 
 opinion of 7 per cent, of the population being ruptured 
 was not consistent with the facts, the Professor had
 
 CAUSES OF HERNIA. 203 
 
 himself recorded from the experience of Dr. Verstrum, 
 who had examined 40,460 young German recruits ; nor 
 did it agree with the ofificial records furnished the French 
 Academy of Surgery. 
 
 Knox had never observed a case of hernia " in any 
 unmixed dark-coloured savage race," though he had 
 seen thousands of individuals whom necessity drove "to 
 extraordinary efforts, as in the chase, which efforts they 
 seemed to meet with perfect impunity." On the other 
 hand, he was well aware that hernia frequently attacks 
 mulattoes. The inhabitants of the Cape, known for 
 their indolence, according to Knox, are liable to 
 hernia ; he acted for nine months as surgeon to a 
 corps of yeomanry 900 strong, composed almost ex- 
 clusively of Dutch farmers and their sons, and of all 
 ages, and common repute was strongly in favour of their 
 being so affected. Was it owing to their corpulency, 
 or to too much horseback exercise .'' 
 
 The anatomical structure predisposing to hernia was 
 " greath width of pelvis, and consequent increase in the 
 measurements of this cavity, whether male or female." 
 lie discountenanced the idea of femoral hernia in the 
 female being attributable to the comparative smallness of 
 Gimbernaut's ligament, as the said ligament is often larger 
 in females than in males. It was not the use of the 
 right arm and side that caused the numerical dispro- 
 portion between right and left ruptures, but the larger 
 capacity of the right side of the pelvis as compared with 
 the left ; yet Mr. Marshall's statistics on the subject of 
 hernia pointed to a greater laxity or enlargement of 
 the inguinal ring on the left side.
 
 204 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Knox believed in the reduction of hernia by the 
 taxis in most instances, and, faihng this, early operations ; 
 in support of which he cited various surgical authorities. 
 The records of the Rupture Society of London, from 
 1805 to 1835, showed that 31,400 cases had been re- 
 lieved by the Society, and that one in fifteen at least 
 (of both sexes) are afifected with this complaint, and 
 among such as are exposed to great bodily exertions 
 the average is one in eight or nine. Knox did not 
 place faith in these averages, as he held that there are 
 whole classes of society nearly exempt from hernia ; 
 the very rich, for example, and also the mendicant 
 by trade. 
 
 " Remarks on the lately discovered Microscopic En- 
 tozoa infesting the Muscles of the Human Body, with 
 some Observations on a similar Animal found beneath 
 the Intestinal Mucous Membrane of the Horse," were 
 read to the Royal Society in 1836, and published in 
 the Edin. Med. and Surg. Jonrn. vol. xlvi. p. 89 (1836). 
 His opinions coincided pretty much with those ex- 
 pressed by Hilton, Paget, Owen, and Farre, recorded 
 in the Medical Gazette of the previous winter. The 
 person from whose body Knox took his Entozoa was 
 a female, aged 65 years, neither cleanly in habit nor 
 nice as to food, and in fact rather gluttonous. She 
 showed no signs of debility, and laboured under no con- 
 stitutional disease. The muscles of voluntary motion 
 were affected ; also the diaphragm, intercostals, levator 
 ani, and constrictors of the pharyn.x, or rather the cellular 
 tissue surrounding them. The worm, cylindrical and 
 filiform, resembled the Vibrio Tritici represented by
 
 ENTOZOA IN MAN AND HORSE. 
 
 Mr. Bauer in the PhilosopJiical Transactions. Knox 
 gave seven drawings of the human entozoon. 
 
 Professor Dick had furnished Knox with portions 
 of the large intestines of a horse, upon the mucous 
 membrane of which were a number of dark spots : these 
 proved to be parasitical worms rolled up in a spiral 
 manner, and similar to the human entozoon described 
 above. " TJicy have no cysts, and vary from one-tenth of 
 an inch to a length of at least seven-tenths ; they have 
 a digestive tube divided into numerous compartments 
 and sacculated ; a mouth unarmed. There appeared a 
 cephalic ganglion and collar and two nervous filaments 
 proceeding from these." The entozoon had been found 
 in several horses and at different stages of their growth, 
 from the size of a pin point to that of i| inches in length. 
 A bad form of diarrhoea accompanied their presence. 
 Unwholesome food was supposed to give rise to the 
 parasite. Five drawings were given of the animal. 
 
 Dr. Knox favoured the Medico-Chirurgical Society of 
 Edinburgh with a " Case of Painful Crepitation in the 
 course of the Radial Extensor Muscles of the Carpus," 
 arising in a muscular adult after a hard day's fishing 
 with a heavy rod. Admitting M. Boyer's discovery 
 and the value of MM. Velpeau and Poulain's supple- 
 mentary observations, Knox differed in part from his 
 French predecessors, in contending for a wider area 
 than the interior of " real synovial capsules " for the 
 feneration of air. He drew attention to the filamentous 
 tissue surrounding the radial extensors and extensors 
 of the thumb where they cross and play over each 
 other, differing from the vaginiform synovial bursce
 
 2o6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 and hurs(2 miicoscB; he marked its distribution through- 
 out the body wherever great friction usually or occa- 
 sionally takes place, and believed that in this inter- 
 mediate structure air is generated pathologically, and 
 indeed more frequently than in the well-marked synovial 
 capsules. 
 
 To the above-named Society (in March 1836) he read 
 his " Observations on the Muscularity of the Hepatic 
 and Cystic Ducts, as explanatory of the production 
 of Jaundice by Moral Causes." He had been led to 
 this inquiry by some papers of Dr. A. T. Thomson, 
 and a curious case that had come under his own obser- 
 vation in La Charite as far back as 1821. He main- 
 tained the muscularity of the hepatic ducts and cystic 
 duct and gall-bladder ; and parenthetically stated that 
 he found the ureters of the whale {Balcena rostratd) 
 distinctly muscular. With these anatomical facts before 
 him, Knox had no difficulty in believing in the occur- 
 rence of jaundice in a seemingly healthful person during 
 the course of a single night and from a moral cause. The 
 case of the Frenchman in La Charit^ who suddenly 
 and unexpectedly came upon a sentinel, and finding 
 his chest ruffled with the soldier's bayonet, became 
 jaundiced the following morning, was cited by Knox as 
 a pretty clear instance of jaundice from fright. Patho- 
 logists of late years have advanced facts strongly 
 corroborative of Knox's view. 
 
 In the same volume {Editi. Med and Surg, yourn. 
 p. 404), Knox gave a .short paper " On the Hemorrhagic 
 Hepatization of the Lungs, occasionally mistaken 
 for Pulmonary Apoplexy, and on the Origin of the
 
 ON THE PULSATION OF THE HEART. 207 
 
 soft pulpy Tubercle of Baillie." He had seen but 
 two cases, one in Brussels in 18 15, the other in the 
 museum of the College of Surgeons, Edinburgh ; this 
 latter was probably the one described by Dr. Baillie. 
 A drawing of Knox's preparation accompanied the 
 paper. 
 
 After twenty-two years Knox again took up the first 
 of his many medical inquiries the human pulse and 
 contributed " Physiological Observations on the Pulsa- 
 tions of the Heart, and on its diurnal Revolutions and 
 Excitability," to the Royal Society in Edinburgh {Edin. 
 Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. xlvii. p. 353). He showed 
 that the results he obtained in 18 15 were confirmed by 
 Dr. Graves, of Dublin, in 1830; and that the Irish 
 physician had reproduced nearly word for word of 
 his, and even some of his conjectures. He gave Dr. 
 Bryan Robinson the credit of having discovered the 
 " differential pulse in man " a hundred years ago. He 
 compared the labours of his predecessors with what he 
 had done himself on this interesting subject ; and cited 
 various curious experiments, or rather observations, 
 made on the members of his class ; the effects of 
 standing or other changes of posture, and all other 
 circumstances calculated to affect the condition of the 
 pulse. Nor did he omit M. Quetelet's extensive data, 
 and the law of relation between the inspirations and 
 pulsation of the heart. His conclusions differ but little 
 from those he had expressed in 18 15 ; nevertheless the 
 paper is deservedly worthy the attention of those who 
 wish to be informed on the nature of the human pulse. 
 
 Again, in 1838 {Lond. Med. Gazette, June 23) he is
 
 2o8 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 combating the views of M. Lisle, also those of MM. 
 Levret and Mativie, regarding the nature of the pulse, 
 and repeating his old doctrines, of a diurnal revolution in 
 the freqtiency and excitability of the pulse, commencing 
 in the early part of the day, gradually attaining its 
 maximum about mid-day, and then declining until some 
 time after midnight. 
 
 Knox exhibited to the Royal Society, on January 15, 
 1838, specimens of the Cysticercus CelhdoscB, and main- 
 tained that the structure of the enclosing cyst or 
 capsule is an essential part of the worm, and that it is 
 not formed out of the surrounding cellular tissue ; and 
 that the disc of hooks served other purpo.ses than 
 enabling the animal to attach itself, and probably were 
 connected more with the generative than the digestive 
 system ; as near the base of each hook he had seen 
 rounded or oval bodies which, he conjectured, were 
 young Cysticerci. 
 
 Sir Astley Cooper paid Edinburgh a visit in 1838, 
 and along with a courteous hospitality was shown every- 
 thing of surgical interest, and what he had long dis- 
 believed, two well-authenticated cases of united fracture 
 of the neck of the os fcmoris. He spent an hour or two 
 in Knox's museum, but did not impress the Doctor with 
 the profundity of his remarks ; indeed, the Doctor was 
 peculiarly diverted by Sir Astlcy's comments upon 
 various professional matters, and his saying, " Ah ! we 
 do .so and .so at Guy's," or "We did so and so at St. 
 Thomas's ;" as if Cockaigne was the only atmosphere 
 that reflected British surgery and pathology. 
 
 Dr. John Rcid, the famous physiologist, in examin-
 
 SHARKS WITHOUT BRAINS. 209 
 
 ing two sharks, found no vestige of brain, or cerebral 
 ganglia, or spinal cord in the upper part of the spinal 
 canal. Being perplexed as to how the animals lived 
 without the most important part of the cerebro-spinal 
 system, he sent for Knox and others to look at them. 
 On asking the Doctor what he thought of the anomaly, 
 he replied : " My dear Reid, don't say anything about 
 it ; nobody will believe you." On Dr. Reid pushing 
 his interrogations further, and saying, was it not extra- 
 ordinary } " Not the least extraordinary," replied Dr. 
 Knox ; " if you go over to the Parliament House" (the 
 Law Courts) "any morning, you will see a great num- 
 ber of live sharks walking about without any brains 
 whatever." 
 
 In his short paper " On the Wild Ox of Scotland " 
 {Roy. Soc. Proc, April 2, 1838), Knox could offer no 
 historical account of the animal, and believed that the 
 white cattle of Britain did not constitute a distinct 
 species of the bovine tribe : that is, distinct from any 
 known species or variety of the domestic ox. He was 
 disposed to associate the White Ox of Hamilton with 
 the Galloway breed ; and believed they differed from 
 the fossil specimens seen in museums, or which had 
 been delineated by Cuvier. 
 
 In his article " On the Glands of Cowper in the 
 Female " {Loud. Med. Gazette, January 19, 1839) he refers 
 to his Essay on Hermaphrodite Structure, read to the 
 Royal Society in 1828,^ in which he maintained that the 
 
 1 The Essay alluded to appeared in the Medical Gazette, 1843-44. He 
 had "Observations on the Anatomy of the Human Foetus, presenting 
 several remarkable Congenital Deformities," in the Ediit. Joum. Med. 
 
 P
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 " type of the generative systems of organs, both in the 
 male and female, is hermaphrodite ; " that is, in every 
 individual embryo, all the organs which afterwards in an 
 especial way characterise each sex of the human species 
 are present. He was of opinion that 
 
 1. The Glands of Cowper were present in both sexes, 
 and equally developed in both. 
 
 2. That both sets of organs existed, as well normally 
 as abnormally, in the full-grown individual a view 
 completely subversive of the French doctrine of trans- 
 formation of organs. 
 
 3. That the doctrine of analogies could not be 
 applied to the generative system in the sense that ^ 
 French and German authors had done, since the strictly 
 female organs, instead of being analogous to the male, 
 were precisely and in all respects the opposite and 
 contrary. 
 
 He then gave a tabular view of the organs. 
 
 1. The embryo of the Mammalia is at first herma- 
 phrodite. 
 
 2. The cause of the determination of the sex, and the 
 precise period of the operation of this cause, is unknown. 
 
 3. If it fails, both sets of organs remain more or 
 less perfect throughout life, and thus constitutes herma- 
 phrodism to a greater or less extent. 
 
 4. The essential male organs, the testes, &c. 
 
 5. The essential female organs, the ovaria, &c. ; yet 
 
 Science. In this foetus the parietes of the abdomen were wanting, and the 
 placenta was attached to the peritoneum. The genito-urinary organs 
 opene<l into a large cavity connected with what appeared the termination of 
 the intestinal canal. Other peculiarities existed.
 
 THE GLANDS OF COWPER. 211 
 
 these two sets of male and female organs, instead of 
 being analogous to each other, are directly opposed. 
 
 6. The organs fully developed, but common to both 
 sexes, are Cowper's Glands. 
 
 7. The rudimentary organs, whose presence in the 
 adult is in accordance with the great law of formation, 
 but which are of no physiological use to the individual. 
 
 He expressed his surprise that St. Hilaire should have 
 described the remains more or less perfect of the Vasa 
 Defcniitia of the Ruminants and Pachydermatous ani- 
 mals, known under the names of the Ducts of Malpighi 
 and of Gaertner, as "peritoneal tubes," when he had a long 
 time ago shown them to be the remains of the Vasa 
 Defcrentia of the male, remaining in the rudimentary 
 and consequently imperfect condition in the cow and pig. 
 He described carefully the Glands of Cowper in the 
 female holding them to be as much developed as in 
 the male, and the duct of the said glands as opening 
 into the vulva, and not the vagina, as some had 
 described ; he looked upon their functions as connected 
 with the sexual desire. He highly approved of the 
 dissections of De Graaff, Cowper, Morgagni, and others. 
 
 In a memorandum in Knox's own handwriting, made 
 in January 1839, relative to his museum, he states 
 that of a sum of 257/. I3i'., received for lectures 
 on comparative anatomy (1825-26, I suppose), he 
 got 190/. 3i-., and paid the remainder to Dr. Barclay, 
 and then continues : " To support these lectures in a 
 becoming manner, worthy of the country and myself, 
 a museum was formed at an expense of about 2,000/. 
 I have never used it since 1829, about which time it 
 
 p 2
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 became unfashionable to study comparative anatomy, 
 otherwise than from books and plates." Of the sum 
 of 2,000/. invested by Knox in establishing his private 
 museum, no doubt can be entertained by those who 
 know the history of its formation ; but when he refers 
 to the decadence of the study of comparative anatomy, 
 he seems to have overlooked the fact of his having given 
 special lectures on the subject to large classes long 
 after 1829. His summer courses in 1825, 1826, and 
 1827 were well attended, and thoroughly appreciated 
 in the school. Lying before me is the original docu- 
 ment or requisition, signed by numerous of his advanced 
 students, asking Knox to deliver a course of lectures 
 on comparative anatomy in the session 1833, ^"<^ ^^ 
 this request he at once acceded. The memorandum 
 given above was made at a time when he began to 
 despair of the Edinburgh School of Medicine. 
 
 Of the character and extent of the museum, and the 
 wish of the owner to develop it still further, the reader 
 may judge from the fact that in the year 1828 Knox 
 paid a salary of 195/. a year to a conservator a 
 .sum considerably more than the College of Surgeons, 
 a chartered public body, paid their conservator. The 
 Great Whale, he used to say, cost him nearly 500/.; 
 probably he included all the Cetacea he had through 
 his hands. 
 
 He bought every modern work that would elucidate 
 his science, even the mo.st costly illustrated ones from 
 the continental press ; in short, he spared no means to 
 render his anatomical teaching of the utmost possible 
 service. While he did not .spend 300/. a year on him-
 
 THE DOCTOR TRIUMPHANT. 213 
 
 self and family, he devoted the remaining large profits 
 of his class to his museum and the advancement of 
 science. 
 
 John Frederick Knox, generally known by the students 
 as " Brother Fred," was a great concern, pecuniarily 
 and otherwise, to Dr. Knox ; indeed many adjudged 
 him to be the Doctor's greatest plague in life. As 
 conservator of the Knox Museum, and a great stickler 
 for order and '' maintenance intact," " Fred " had a 
 horror of seeing anatomical preparations handled by 
 the pupils of the class. Now, the Doctor viewed things 
 more liberally, and the consequence was that the 
 osteological department, if I may say it, afforded vastly 
 too many bones of contention to the two brothers ; in 
 short, Fred's wilfulness and petty tyrannies cost the 
 Doctor much temper. " Fred," it ought to be said, was 
 the handsomer brother of the two, and seemed to pride 
 himself upon this outward distinction call it good luck. 
 This hasty glance at the relations of the Brothers 
 Knox will enable the reader more fully to appreciate 
 the gist of the following paragraph. 
 
 A feeling of rivalry was often exhibited between 
 the students attending Professor Monro and Dr. Knox, 
 of which many proofs might be offered. It was re- 
 peatedly said by Knox's pupils " that nothing in the 
 world could put him out;" that he could meet any 
 C07itrctcinps, or the most alarming and unexpected con- 
 tingency, with perfect composure and sangfroid. One 
 of Monro's pupils would lay a heavy wager that he 
 could disconcert Knox, or "put him out of his presence 
 of mind ;" and assuredly he made an impertinent, if
 
 214 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 not disgraceful, effort to win his bet. Watching his 
 opportunity, he met Knox on his way home, and, 
 planting himself immediately in his front and eyeing 
 him steadily from head to foot, at length said : " Well, 
 by Jove, Dr. Knox, you are the ugliest fellow I ever 
 saw in my life !" "Ah," rejoined the Doctor, while he 
 quietly patted the shoulder of the insolent intruder ; 
 "then you cannot have seen my brother Fred;" and 
 then passed on his way as composedly as if he had 
 been exchanging the ordinary civilities of the day with 
 a passing acquaintance, not the less rejoicing in his 
 own imperturbable readiness and repartee, and at the 
 grand revenge he had had for the moment by the hit 
 at his worst grievance, " Brother Fred." How Knox 
 could meet so unexpected an enemy in his walk, and 
 in a moment cast the reproach of ugliness upon his 
 "Brother Fred," almost baffles belief 
 
 The Lancet of May ii, 1839, contains Knox's "Ob- 
 servations on the Structure and Physiology of the Eye 
 and its Appendages." The operation for strabismus 
 had become fashionable, and the discussion as to the 
 action of the muscles of the eyeball had become 
 invested with great interest ; indeed .so much so that 
 surgeons from distant parts of the country repaired to 
 the anatomical schools to rub up their knowledge of 
 the said muscles, and, where practicable, to experiment 
 on living monkeys ; in short the " squint mania " pre- 
 vailed, and very extensively, in Northern England, 
 Knox's experiments induced him to state 
 
 I. The Superior Oblique turned the pupil downwards 
 and inwards, and drew the eyeball forwards, and if the
 
 MUSCLES OF THE EYEBALL. 215 
 
 muscle was more strongly acted on, it turned the eye 
 outwards. 
 
 2. The Inferior Oblique, when acted on alone, directed 
 the pupil outwards and upwards, bringing the eyeball 
 itself forzvards. 
 
 3. When both Obliques were acted on, or shortened 
 together, they pulled the eyeball forwards, and directed 
 the pupil downwards and inwards. 
 
 4. When the Recti as well as the Obliques were acted 
 on at the same moment so as to imitate their combined 
 action during life, then the eyeball became fixed, and 
 the pupil looked straight forwards. 
 
 Knox had, all his life, a natural horror ^ to experi- 
 ments on living animals, and enjoyed the opportunity of 
 showing that the experiments of Bransby Cooper and 
 Sir C. Bell, on the monkey, had led these gentlemen 
 to arrive at exactly opposite conclusions regarding the 
 action of the muscles of the eyeball. 
 
 He objected to the opinion that the Recti were 
 voluntary and the Obliqui involuntary muscles, and 
 did not believe in the commonly received notion that 
 when persons go to sleep the eyeball is under the 
 guidance of the oblique muscles alone ; nor did he 
 believe in the eye being turned upwards and inwards 
 during sleep or on the approach of death. On this 
 latter point he was the more satisfied, as he had looked 
 upon hundreds of brave men dying in hospitals. It was 
 
 1 Words can hardly convey Knox's feelings towards the experimental phy- 
 siologists Magendie, Hall, Raid, and others of his day. He shuddered 
 as he depicted the barbarity of such proceedings, and spoke of Magendie 
 and his school in no measured terms.
 
 2i6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 only in a few nervous and hysterical women, and in a 
 few children, that he had observed such a phenomenon 
 as the eye turned upwards and inwards. 
 
 On October 26th, 1839, the Lancet commenced the 
 publication of Professor De Blainville's Lectures on 
 Comparative Osteology, edited from the French, and 
 additionally illustrated with numerous notes, observa- 
 tions, and drawings, by Dr. Knox. It was very praise- 
 worthy on the part of the Lancet to introduce the 
 historical and highly philosophical lectures of De Blain- 
 ville to the English reader, and no one could have been 
 found so well prepared to do justice to the translation 
 and exposition of the Parisian Professor as Dr. Knox. 
 The footnotes so frequently attached are very character- 
 istic of Knox, and helped greatly to render the perusal 
 of the text facile and interesting, and possibly more 
 practical ; moreover, the twenty lectures being well illus- 
 trated, and conveying the opinions of two such dis- 
 tinguished ostcographers as De Blainville and Knox, 
 helped the cause of biological science among the great 
 body of English medical practitioners. 
 
 In April 1839 Knox asked John Goodsir, then a 
 surgeon at Anstruther, Fife, to join him in the lecture- 
 ship on anatomy, or, if he coujd not leave his father's 
 practice, to persuade his brother Harry to take a share 
 in the Practical Rooms. He urged upon the Goodsirs, 
 that his " Brother Fred " was about to leave for New 
 Zealand, and that they were wasting their time, energies, 
 and abilities in the small burgh of Anstruther. For 
 reasons explained in my Life of Goodsir, neither of the 
 brothers could comply with Knox's wish. In the same
 
 VACATES OLD SURGEONS' HALL. 217 
 
 month he apph'ed to myself, and urged the very same 
 reasons that he had offered my Fife friends. Feeling 
 afraid of such a responsibility, I declined ; but after 
 repeated solicitations extending over a year, and coun- 
 selled by others, I consented to join Knox as his de- 
 monstrator and partner, in May 1S40. 
 
 Owing to Mr. Alexander Lizars gaining the Professor- 
 ship of Anatomy in Aberdeen, Dr. Knox was induced to 
 vacate Old Surgeons' Hall, where he had enjoyed such 
 popularity and fame ten years previously, and join the 
 Argyle Square Medical School, and of course as anato- 
 mical lecturer. The same session, 1839-40, the Extra- 
 mural Lecturers associated themselves under one institu- 
 tion, which they termed " Queen's College of Edinburgh," 
 in the hope of exercising a stronger rivalry against the 
 University, which still rejoiced in certain monopolies by 
 no means conducive to the welfare of the medical school 
 at large, or its own special interests as a University with 
 chartered privileges. 
 
 In the Medical Gazette Oct. 12 and Nov. i, 1839, 
 appeared " Contributions to Descriptive Anatomy, 
 The Pancreas," by Knox, who appended drawings and 
 gave historical notes of the organ described. 
 
 The Lancet of May 9, 1840, contains the first part of 
 Knox's " Contributions to the History of the Corpus 
 Luteum, Human and Comparative." The second part 
 does not seem to have appeared, nor is there in his paper 
 any distinct solution of a question then undergoing much 
 discussion both at home and abroad. 
 
 On the 1 6th May, or the next issue of the Lancet, his 
 " Memoir on the Gibbon Varie, with a Critical Examina-
 
 2i8 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 tion of Professor De Blainville's Account of the Gibbon," 
 appeared. Knox possessed two authentic specimens of 
 the Gibbon, and evidently doubted the character of the 
 skeletons from which De Blainville drew his descriptions. 
 Here is a characteristic bit of Knox : " We are quite 
 aware that the greater number of skeletons to be found 
 in museums are precisely of the nature of our author's 
 (De Blainville's) Gibbon ; that is, composed or made up 
 of a variety of different animals, in many cases differing 
 not only in species, but sometimes in genera. Thus we 
 have ourselves seen the trunk of an elk standing on the 
 limbs and supplied with the pelvis of a common cow ! 
 We have seen the jaws of a young dugong filled with the 
 teeth of a horse !" 
 
 Knox gave a description of his two specimens of the 
 Gibbon, the skeletons of which had been prepared by 
 his brother Frederick ; the measurements in full, and all 
 the specially distinctive osteology of the animals. 
 
 On the following week {Lancet, May 23, 1840), 
 appeared his " Inquiry into the Present State of our 
 Knowledge respecting the Orang-Outang and Chim- 
 panzee." Looking upon De Blainville's account of the 
 Orang-Outang and Chimpanzee as scanty and far from 
 authentic, he wished to show that the natural and 
 anatomical history of the adult of these two species of 
 most interesting Simise had not as yet been laid before 
 the public. Knox goes on to prove this by quoting 
 largely from Professor Owen's papers in the first volume 
 of the " Transactions of the Zoological Society," which 
 he criticised for their want of precision. 
 
 A few years previously he had some " Remarks on
 
 KNOX AND REID QUARREL. 219 
 
 the Structure of the Gibbons," in Brewstei's Edinburgh 
 jfoiirjial of Science, New Series, vol. i. p. 155. He had 
 two specimens brought from Assam in spirits : they cor- 
 responded to the Pithcens Icnciseus of Schreber and St. 
 Hilaire. Whilst the cranial circumference of the male 
 human adult was 21 i inches, and the female 20J inches, 
 the female Gibbon was only 9I inches. The height of 
 the man was 69, of the woman ^^\, and the Gibbon 
 (female) 32 inches. 
 
 In the Medical Gazette of Oct. 30, 1840, Knox had 
 " Some Remarks on the Placental Tufts described by 
 Weber : and on their Distribution and supposed Func- 
 tions." This paper gave rise to a hot controversy in 
 Edinburgh. Dr. John Rcid, the physiologist, wrote a 
 reply, which appeared in the extra limit es of the Medical 
 Gazette of Nov. 10, in which he accused Knox of having 
 set forth certain anatomical facts which he had shown 
 him upon a preparation of his own that was afterwards 
 exhibited to the British Association Meeting at Glasgow 
 in September of the same year. In proof of his severe 
 animadversions upon Knox, Reid gave a history of his 
 preparation, its examination by Knox in the presence of 
 others, and his apparent acknowledgment of the novelty 
 of the structures offered to his notice. On the other 
 hand, Knox communicated to his class, in March 1839, 
 what he considered new views of the anatomy of the 
 placental tufts, and spoke much of Weber. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, for his cause, the leading features of the 
 anatomy had been got from Reid's preparation ; indeed, 
 he admitted this much in his communication to the 
 Gazette, and praised his former colleague for his great
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 courtesy in describing the parts. But why should Knox 
 have waited till October 1840 before he announced his 
 views, and one month at least after Reid had made 
 pretty nearly the same facts known to the British Asso- 
 ciation ? The evidence produced by Reid satisfied the 
 medical profession of Edinburgh that Knox was in the 
 wrong. The only remark that can be made in extenua- 
 tion of Knox was his marvellous power of vision, that 
 enabled him to penetrate far deeper into the minute 
 anatomy than his neighbours ; but even granting this, 
 his making public use of Reid's work and description 
 admits of no satisfactory explanation. 
 
 Knox felt much chagrined by the manifestation of 
 public opinion against him, and for a time avoided all re- 
 cognition of his old anatomical friends. Even the amiable 
 John Goodsir was passed by in the street. He wished, 
 as he often told me, to remain isolated from those who 
 had joined the Reid standard, indeed from all connected 
 with the medical school ; and when I ventured to remark 
 that it would be sad to see him narrowing his circle of 
 friends, he replied, with bitter feeling, "My dear Doctor, 
 it is better to have no friends than doubtful ones." 
 After some weeks I got Knox to meet Goodsir under 
 my roof, and to forget the annoyances of the Reid 
 controversy. 
 
 The Lectureship on Anatomy to the art students of 
 the Scottish Academy being vacant in 1841, I was 
 induced by Lord Cockburn to become a candidate. On 
 soliciting Knox's aid he showed surprise, but said 
 nothing of himself either then or afterwards. Learning 
 from Sir Thomas Dick Lauder that Knox was at work
 
 KNOX AND SIR C. BELL ILL-USED. 
 
 on his own behoof, T at once offered to withdraw my 
 appHcation, out of respect to my old master and his 
 vastly superior claims. " You need not," said Sir Thomas, 
 " as poor Knox has not a vote, whilst your claims are 
 favourably received by the trustees of the Board." Mr. 
 James Miller, who on the following year was made 
 Professor of Surgery, and Mr. James Spence, now his 
 successor in the chair, were also candidates. Knox 
 was unquestionably the fittest man, yet he would not 
 have had a vote. Mr. Miller, seeing the chances of 
 success against him, played no less a game than the 
 "artful dodger," by offering his services gratuitously! 
 The temptation was too great for a Scottish Board, 
 proverbially poor, to pass by. What followed may be 
 surmised ; Mr. Miller's patriotism cooled down in the 
 course of the year, and then he asked for his prede- 
 cessor's salary, and got it! Knox's failure recalls Sir 
 Charles Bell's metropolitan experience. No one need be 
 told that Sir Charles was the greatest artistic anatomist 
 of the day, but he failed twice, if not thrice, in his appli- 
 cation for the Professorship of Anatomy to the Royal 
 Academy in London.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Life at Home. Prince of Talkers. Ugly yet charming. Historical 
 Contrasts. The Actor and Story-teller. Rural Enjoyments. Dark 
 lines in the Portrait. Trenchant Critic. Tender-hearted and cha- 
 ritable. The Bible and "Don Quixote." Domestic Sorrows. 
 
 Dr. Knox's acknowledged residence was 4, Newington- 
 place, on the south side of the city ; there his sister, 
 Miss Mary Knox, performed the part of hostess. He 
 gave dinners and evening parties in excellent style, 
 and with good musical accompaniments. Few men 
 knew more of music and musicians than Knox, who 
 was fond of contrasting the lofty feeling possessed 
 by the Germans and Italians with the slender attain- 
 ments of the English : in the continental mind he read 
 the genius of music ; in the Britisher, but an evoking 
 of strains meet only for the Scotch bagpipes. He 
 used to say that his countrymen had never risen above 
 " Nancy Dawson " and " hum-drum ; " while, from 
 abroad, the glorious " Messiah " and the Dead March 
 in "Saul" had come to touch the chords of the human 
 heart, and to raise man to the contemplation of 
 the heavenly and glorious. It was a thorough treat 
 to .see Knox responding to the music of Schubert and 
 Rossini when developed by skilful hands ; and if the
 
 KNOX AND DE QUINCE Y. 223 
 
 taste of the hour was in favour of a dance, he would 
 readily join in an Irish jig, or the more welcome 
 Scottish strathspey. His semi-pirouetting and grace- 
 ful bowing, while he snapped his fingers consonantly 
 with the emphatic notes, used to recall David Wilkie's 
 picture of the Scotch merry-making, where fun and 
 life are so strikingly portrayed. Everybody was made 
 happy at Knox's fireside. The intellectual and the 
 humorous could not fail to be pleased with mine host's 
 talk and joke that always set the table in a roar. Knox 
 at home was Knox triumphant ; his cheery words and 
 aft"able manner were as exhilarating as draughts of 
 champagne. There was little need of the Falernian 
 cup for prandial pleasantry if Knox fell upon a suit- 
 able theme for the display of his powers ; nay, eating 
 and drinking were unworthy of the hour sparkling with 
 his wit and repartee.^ My personal knowledge of De 
 Quincey - was too limited to enable me to institute any 
 comparison between his talking powers and those of 
 Knox but others assure me, who met both these 
 noted men in society, that the anatomist was fully 
 entitled to the palm of distinction. 
 
 ^ A gentleman meeting Knox for the first time at dinner, at my lodgings 
 in Edinburgh, vas so charmed with his conversation that he l)egged for a 
 weekly repetition offering at the same time to furnish the symposium with 
 Tokay or Johannisberg, suited to elicit the higher inspirations of the un- 
 rivalled c<mversationalist. 
 
 2 De Quincey went to spend a night with Professor Wilson, and remained 
 his guest a twelvemonth and a day. During this period " Christopher 
 North" had many jovial parties, and when he wished for De Quincey's best 
 talk, he reminded the philosopher of the exact hour for his display. The 
 opium-eater took his dose accordingly, and then laid down on the hearth- 
 rug till the dinner-bell rang. When his tongue got loose o'er the walnuts
 
 224 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Music had a great charm for Knox. He used to 
 invite me to accompany him in his visits to a lady 
 pianist, and on our way would purchase a basket of 
 fruit for her acceptance an act of graciousness not 
 without its meaning. It was as natural to him to be 
 kind and sympathizing with women, whom he held to 
 be influential actors in the social world, as to stand with 
 convincing front before his public class, and there de- 
 nounce the tendencies of the age to imperfect methods 
 of learning. How he would have received the woman's 
 rights question of to-day is difficult to say ; but woman, 
 in her own circle, he considered as predominant as 
 man could be in his : the limitation or boundary line 
 of the sexes he, however, held to be clearly established 
 in modern society. As a classical scholar, a man of 
 refined taste and accomplishments, Knox was admir- 
 ably adapted for society ; in his knowledge of the 
 world, and eagerness in scanning the men and women 
 playing upon its stages, few could rival him. His 
 originality of thought, his faculty of dressing up every- 
 thing in striking freshness, and his remarkable fluency 
 of speech, showed him to be a man of rare attributes. 
 Possessing a happy diplomacy that could enable him 
 to reconcile the conflicting difierences of a strongly- 
 argued question and the spirit of disputation was not 
 
 and the wine, he would talk for hours on Greek plays and philosophy, 
 Egyptian mysteries, political economy, Shakespeare and Schiller, poets, 
 philanthropists, and lx;ggars, and '^^ de omnibus et quibusdcm aliis." People 
 listened to him as a Delphic oracle, and wondered at the unfailing source of 
 his ideas. Knox possessed the same charms, and with a greater coherency 
 than tlic opium-cater, left a larger and more lasting impression upon his 
 hearers.
 
 APOLLO ATTIRED BY THE GRACES. 22s 
 
 uncommon in the polite circles of Edinburgh Knox, by 
 his fresh interpretation of the argument, or persuasiveness, 
 was oft acknowledged as a desirable guest. He could 
 adapt himself to the conventionalisms of the world as 
 readily as take part in the intellectual arena with the 
 best men of his epoch, and in the most varied walks 
 of science. He was more English than Scottish in 
 character, and his urbanity savoured of French extrac- 
 tion : his graceful courtesy found its true place amid 
 the amenities of elegant society. 
 
 Neat in his attire, fashionable, or rather distingue, in 
 dress, he omitted nothing in the way of adornment to 
 secure attention ; but the richest costume would hardly 
 have availed had not the silvery tongue been brought 
 into play, which ever proved victorious. Dr. Macdonald, 
 now Professor of Natural History at St. Andrews, was 
 one day unexpectedly ushered into Dr. Knox's dining- 
 room, and there discovered the great anatomist subject- 
 ing the few locks of brown hair on his occiput to the 
 curling-tongs of his sister Mary. " Ah ! ah ! " ejaculated 
 Macdonald ; " I see the modern Apollo attired by the 
 Graces ! " This successful impromptu was a bit of hard 
 hitting ; nor was the anatomist far behind his friend 
 in the adroit way in which he got out of the dilemma; 
 indeed, any amount of affectedness that might be mani- 
 fested by Knox was redeemed at once by his superior 
 mind, so antipodal to what is met with in the mere 
 dandy. A calm in conversation was Knox's oppor- 
 tunity, and when obtained, the night was all his own. 
 Men, and especially women, were beguiled to listen to 
 him, and to listen was to believe in all they heard 
 
 Q
 
 226 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 from his lips, whether the narrative were simple, 
 historical, or fictional. 
 
 " Hear him debate of Commonwealth affairs, 
 You would say, it hath been all-in-all his study ; 
 List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 
 A fearful battle render'd you in music : 
 Turn him to any cause of policy, 
 The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose. 
 Familiar as his garter." 
 
 Seen in the social circle, Knox presented a figure in 
 marked contrast to his public gladiatorship. His grace- 
 ful attitudes, his " at home " feeling and happy style 
 of converse, which so soon placed him en 7'apport with 
 others, could not fail to enlist a circle of admirers 
 around him ; and that circle always widened in the 
 drawing-room till it sometimes included the whole 
 assembly. Knox gloried in this kind of tribute that 
 placed him in the focus of attraction, and singled him 
 out as the oracular man of the party. Neither his name 
 nor his physiognomy were altogether in good favour 
 out of doors ; the same feeling prevailed on his first 
 entering a reception-room ; but as curiosity was drawn 
 towards the notability of the medical school, his dis- 
 cussion of the absorbing topics of the day, his siiaviter 
 in modo recognition of the fair representatives of the 
 social gathering, in time dispelled the shadowy clouds 
 surrounding his repute ; and Knox at length came to 
 be pronounced "a delightful" or "a charming person" 
 by the prettiest of women. 
 
 The excellent portraits of Knox in this volume 
 convey a capital idea of the man in life and action ; 
 yet it might be said of him what Chauveau Lagarde,
 
 UGL V YET CHARMING. 227 
 
 the advocate of Charlotte Corday, said of his his- 
 torical client : that her portrait might be tolerably 
 shown on canvas, but could not possibly reflect " sa 
 graude ante, respirant toute entibre dans sa physio- 
 notnie." Whilst Mirabeauan in force and oratorical 
 display, Knox's face somewhat resembled that of the 
 coarse and ugly revolutionist ; the fire of genius irra- 
 diated the visages of both men. Like John Wilkes the 
 demagogue, in being ugly yet attractive, like him also 
 Knox was scrupulously attentive to dress, and could be 
 equally successful in affairs of gallantry. Both men 
 were disposed to joke ^ on their ill-favoured looks ; so 
 did Fouche in the studio of David the painter. As 
 Othello's colour proved no hindrance to the love of 
 Desdemona, who ran from " her guardage to the sooty 
 bosom," so Wilkes and Knox found no impediments in 
 their looks to various conquests of the heart. It is said 
 that women shunned 
 
 "The wealthy, curled, darHngs of the nation," 
 to converse with the rabid politician of George III.'s 
 reign : the same feeling prevailed towards onr anato- 
 mist. Knox had an advantage over men, whether of 
 the intellectual or the ugly school, in being able to tell 
 the stories of his life, 
 
 "Of moving accidents by flood and field," 
 
 in the choicest Italian, and with a gentleness of manner 
 
 ^ Knox one day called my attention to a Manx student with red hair, 
 freckled face, wry features, and lean and lank frame, and said : " Doctor, do 
 you see that person at the other end of the dissecting-room he of the scare- 
 crow looks ? Well, I always thought myself very plain-visaged ; but by all 
 that's precious, I am fairly beaten out of the field of ugliness by that fellow. " 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 directed towards his fair hearers that made them part- 
 ners in his descriptions ; no wonder his narratives, spiced 
 with the sensational, wrought as "mixtures powerful o'er 
 the blood " of women. They hung upon his sweet and 
 honeyed sentences as if he had been the prophet of a 
 new Mormonic faith, in the mysteries of which they 
 might hope to share, either as spiritual wives or minister- 
 ing angels. 
 
 Ripe in ideas and in the knowledge of men and man- 
 ners, and not less ripe in utterances bespeaking a cultured 
 mind, Knox was admirably equipped for his position. 
 Well might youths nurtured in the isolated glens of 
 Perthshire or the retired dales of Westmoreland, and 
 brought for the first time within reach of Knox, seem 
 spell-bound, when those of mature age and worldly wis- 
 dom could not withstand his inspiriting manner and 
 plausible speech. How readily he could adapt himself 
 to the thoughts of the passing hour ! Was it a piece of 
 gossip .-* he solved its character in a word. Was it a 
 ?,oc\2\ faux pas ? he would urge Uncle Toby's advice on 
 such matters, or laugh it out of court. Was it a scientific 
 dispute .'' he would condemn the ipse dixits of partisans, 
 and call for an appeal to facts. Was it a Government 
 blunder or a job .'' he would produce a tabulated series of 
 such, and drown them in a flood of invective. Whig 
 commissions, Tory shams, scientific coteries and nepo- 
 tisms, Town Council " worthies," professorial intrigues, 
 medical shopocracy, ct hoc genus ovuie, were favourable 
 targets for his well-aimed shafts of ridicule ; and his 
 shots, if not always " bull's-eyes," were rarely outside the 
 white circle. " Ah, ah ! " quoth Knox, in a smiling
 
 KNOX HIS OWN HAMLET. 229 
 
 humour, whilst addressing an old friend ; " have you 
 heard the latest news ? " This was but a prelude to his 
 description of some medical schemers whose rehearsals 
 and parts he could prefigure so well ; indeed, as he talked 
 you saw the dramatis pcrsoncE crossing the stage, and could 
 hear the prompters at the side wings, and be en rapport 
 with the varied scenes of the play, throughout its five 
 or more acts, to its moral, or more probably its immoral, 
 dcno?iciHcnt. But why speak of the simulated drama, 
 when Knox's rhetorical figures, fancies, and sentiments 
 an naturcl constituted the richest of all entertainments, 
 and, as such, far beyond all price ? What were " London 
 artistes" or "provincial stars" in full choir, compared 
 with Knox in his every-day mood, on his own platform 
 casting a dozen parts in the hour, each a happy coun- 
 terfeit of nature's players ? Who could so pointedly set 
 forth the manner of Hamlet, or so ably play on the pipe 
 that discoursed such eloquent music ? 
 
 Everybody who has moved in what is called genteel 
 society must have come across persons deemed " highly 
 agreeable men," or " charming women," whose conversa- 
 tion lay in an inflated or embellished style. Such 
 persons are not without their use in the many dull 
 and vapid circles of English life now-a-days termed 
 rthinions : their talk gives a piquancy to domestic 
 narrative, and a brighter blue to gossip and garrulity. 
 "Our hero" had this kind of thing in full measure. If 
 his sails were fairly set to the wind, were they not filled 
 with the Southern zephyrs redolent of Eastern glow and 
 spicy fragrance .-' And who could resist the temptation 
 of a voyage with such a pilot, especially if the prows of
 
 230 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the ship were pointed to that haven of bliss, the Knox- 
 Arcadia ? Privileged as the traveller of fifty years ago 
 naturally was, when African explorers were few and far 
 between, he exercised all the claims granted to such a 
 position, and not unfrequently astonished his own coun- 
 trymen as effectively as if their skulls had been tre- 
 panned for the reception of his wit.^ Knox was a Defoe 
 in story-telling ; you saw the footprints on the sand, 
 even to the impress of the toe-nails of " Friday," and 
 all the wider surroundings of Robinson Crusoe : in short, 
 his narrative was as refreshing as a clear and limpid 
 stream to a dusty, fatigued pedestrian. 
 
 He used to tell with great animation the story of the 
 Caffre whose anatomical knowledge proved so fatal to 
 a band of British soldiers. In attempting to cross a 
 ravine, it became needful to go single file down a bank- 
 thickly set with brushwood ; several soldiers passed out 
 of sight, but gave no signs of having reached the bottom. 
 The Captain got anxious, and despatched some of his 
 company by a circuitous route ; and, behold, they found 
 their comrades lying in their own gore. As the soldiers 
 stepped down, a Caffre stealthily plunged a knife into the 
 vessels at the lowest part of the neck of each man : so 
 
 ' The Doctor should not for a moment be ranked with the class of vulgar 
 boasters such as the gallant Major "just returned to town after a delightful 
 visit to a noble country mansion, situated amid extensive parks and pic- 
 turesque scenery, with loveable gardens and sculpture, all of the highest and 
 most rccherchi character ;" when the simple description, the unvarnished tale, 
 would have shown only a suburban villa with "picturesque" support from 
 a neighbour's gable wall, a dusty road, and duck-pond ; and instead of the 
 Versailles style of gardens, two small beds of Tom Thumb geraniums, 
 relieved, not by Greek sculpture, but the humbler forms of Slaflbrdshiic 
 pottery.
 
 THE CAFFRES AND WEST LOTHIAN LAIRD. 231 
 
 expert was the wild denizen in stabbing the vital part, 
 that the Britisher fell at once, and never uttered a groan. 
 
 When dining at Bathgate with Dr. Reid's friends, 
 Knox gave an account of a military expedition against 
 the Cafifres ; of 500 British rank and file engaged, the 
 precise number that fell by the way at the hands of the 
 enemy, or from coup dc soleil, the entire force at last 
 dwindling down to some units ; of his galloping among 
 the vanguard across the plain ; of the fine instinct of the 
 horses hastening to the solitary palm or bush that marked 
 a watering-place in the desert ; the rush of steeds and 
 their riders to drink the muddy water as if it had been a 
 mountain stream, &c. Whilst Knox was fascinating all 
 listeners by his graphic narrative, a West Lothian laird, 
 rejoicing in his knowledge of " Cocker," asked what 
 became of the 357 soldiers of whom no account had 
 been given, and at the same time expressed his surprise 
 at so marvellously small a remnant of the Britishers 
 being left. Knox was imperturbable to even the repeti- 
 tion of such questions ; but when the interrogator hung 
 by his coat-tails and would not be shaken off", he would 
 reply, " My dear sir, sheep require shepherds to count 
 them, but armies don't carry arithmeticians and markers 
 into the field." With this turning of the tables, followed 
 by uproarious laughter, the bucolic matter-of-fact person 
 found it best to appeal to his "whisky toddy," and leave 
 the African story-teller to pursue his own course. 
 
 Like all anatomists, Knox specially enjoyed an excur- 
 sion to the country ; and a few days at Anstruther, the 
 home of the Goodsirs, or amid friends whom he esteemed, 
 gladdened his heart, and gave fresh tone to his mind-
 
 232 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 His pleasantest holiday was spent on the banks of the 
 Tay, or by Tweed-side, with rod in hand, and a companion 
 to his Hking, such as his hearty friend Dr. Stuart, of 
 Kelso. His enjoyment of angling was only limited by 
 the Borders, for in every Scottish river he cast his fly 
 and filled his basket. After taking up his residence in 
 London he tried the southern waters, but his old love 
 was constant for the picturesque streams and heathery 
 mountains of his native land. 
 
 Knox advocated temperance, early rising, and frequent 
 change of linen. He maintained that thirst was unnatu- 
 ral to a man in a healthy state ; that he himself was 
 never ivater-'dxixsX.y , though more than occasionally wine- 
 thirsty. He was moderate in his cups under the most 
 tempting allurements of Bacchus presented in silver 
 jugs and clearest crystal. He naturally enjoyed the 
 sumptuous dinners of his friend the Marquis of Breadal- 
 bane, in the Royal Palace of Holyrood. This rich noble- 
 man had been a pupil of Knox's, and never forgot the 
 attractive lectures of his distinguished teacher; nor was 
 the Marchioness less kind, so that on their annual visit to 
 Holyrood they received Knox regularly. Though broad 
 and sympathetic in his relations, and ready to do justice 
 to a simple repast with a friend who welcomed him and 
 gave willing ear to his converse, Knox liked high breed- 
 ing and princely feasts. Whilst holding himself a true 
 Saxon or born democrat, he dearly loved the attentions 
 of a lord of ancestral name and in the possession of 
 rich perquisites. Democracy with Knox, as with many 
 others, was very well in the abstract ; it claimed for 
 itself a lofty disinterestedness that sounded of Spartan
 
 SHADOWS IN THE PORTRAIT. 233 
 
 patriotism ; but then it demanded a rigid self-denial, and 
 a lowering of the social and intellectual standard, irre- 
 concilable with Knox's aspirations after the ideal and 
 realistic enjoyments of English life. 
 
 As a portrait of the anatomist w^ithout its shadows 
 and sinuous lines would be no portrait at all, it is need- 
 ful to mention that on matters of business involving a 
 ^^;/a_^^/^ principle, Knox was prone to be evasive ; whilst 
 on matters of fact he was not always considered trust- 
 worthy, tlis prevarication at times was without any 
 ostensible ground ; at other times it seemed dictated by 
 selfish motives ; but under no circumstances whatever 
 could it be held excusable : it bore upon personalities 
 more than worldly affairs ; but, oddly enough, looseness 
 of statement was not manifested by him in his scientific 
 walk. In that direction, to the best of my knowledge, 
 he sought after truth, and was ever anxious to render 
 justice to the labours of his contemporaries in every 
 department of science. When strangers to the quarrels 
 of the profession in Edinburgh asked why such virulent 
 opposition was shown towards Knox, they were told of his 
 want of candour, his egotism, and marked disparagement 
 of other people's characters ; all which faults were recog- 
 nizable enough ; but unfortunately there was no audi 
 alteram partem to mitigate the seeming severity of a man 
 trying to repel his enemies by paying them back in their 
 own coin. He would not conform to general usages or 
 assent to the conventional and official dicta of either 
 colleges or churches ; to have done so would have been 
 a tacit submission of his own judgment to the enfeebling 
 opinions of others. The line he took was too clearly
 
 234 LTFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 innovating and independent ; and to call a spade a spade 
 forty years ago as now, was held to be offensive to 
 etiquette, and incompatible with the safe working of 
 established institutions. Knox was not free from the 
 casuistry of the schools that hunted with the hare and 
 held with the hounds ; but he erred oftener in being too 
 bold and explicit in his views, whether right or wrong ; 
 and left nothing to be inferred that was capable of inter- 
 pretation against his enemies. He had a way of his 
 own, and that not always discreet. Who, however, 
 could expect to see the analytic, penetrating, and trans- 
 mutative powers of such a man tied down to ancient 
 or modern precedent, to academic lines, or scholastic 
 dogmas } Who of those who knew his powerful mental 
 grasp could expect him, a Samson in science, to be 
 tamely submissive to the shears of the conventional 
 Delilah of the period } 
 
 It was well said by Emerson, that in England the 
 keeping of the proprieties is as indispensable as clean 
 linen ; that no merit can countervail the want of this, whilst 
 it sometimes stands in lieu of all. Knox had no regard 
 for our " Gibraltar of propriety," where " mediocrity gets 
 intrenched and consolidated and founded on adamant." 
 Saxon that he was, he saw vastly too much of the ada- 
 mant and stubbornness of his race, their impatience of 
 genius, and their disposition to cavil with any boldness 
 of expression or sallies of thought calculated to interfere 
 with the even, amiable tenor of society, or their own 
 natural instinct.s. 
 
 Robert Knox the anatomist, as a trenchant critic and 
 damaging opponent of both men and institutions, gave
 
 JOHN AND ROBERT KNOX. 235 
 
 the best proof of his descent from John Knox the 
 sweeping Radical Reformer, who spared neither Popes nor 
 Queens. On the side of the Reformer, public opinion was 
 ripe for the demolition of a system that ill accorded with 
 the growing ascendency of human thought. In the 
 limited sphere traversed by the anatomist of these latter 
 days, it was a single-handed effort against large pro- 
 fessional odds : both men had their opinions, and fought 
 strenuously to uphold them. As in the sixteenth, so in 
 the nineteenth century, who dared to oppose tJie Knox 
 of Edinburgh so ready in fence, so incisive in stroke, 
 that not even the simile of the Damascus blade could 
 set forth the w^orth of his steel .'* He was a bold knight 
 who entered the lists against either of the Knoxes. The 
 cynicism of the anatomist drew upon him lots of enemies, 
 but no one dared to meet him in the open field. Yes, 
 there was one exception to the ambush mode of attack, 
 when Knox defended his views on the SalmonidcE before 
 the Royal Society, already described in page 192. The 
 parties who acted in concert on that memorable occasion 
 levelled shaft after shaft against Knox, who withstood 
 all complacently; and when the last shot had fallen upon 
 his impenetrable armour, he advanced to the front, and 
 speedily his enemies were swept from the field like 
 stubble before the wind. 
 
 Knox did not deal in rubbishing paste ornaments; he 
 had his cameos and precious stones, and these he sur- 
 rounded with a true Tuscan setting. Such adornment was 
 displeasing to plain matter-of-fact men, who, being unable 
 to rival the Knox workmanship, cried it down as ob- 
 trusive and gaudy. Science used to be recorded in v^xy
 
 236 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 formal lines or propositions or heads of guidance, and 
 terribly dry-as-dust reminding you of the nineteenthly 
 and not always finally, of the long-winded sermons of 
 the Scotch preachers. Such a farrago of professional 
 writing was distasteful to Knox, and should have been 
 to others of lesser fame : his eschewing all the old 
 paths, the dull and dreary and monotonous, and en- 
 livening his statements with a flowing diction, instead 
 of being welcomed for its pleasantness and novelty, was 
 cited as a proof of his words being a colouring of events, 
 a varnished tale rather than the statement of a scientific 
 argument. 
 
 If disposed to be censorious of public institutions, or 
 to pick a hole in his neighbour's coat, Knox was not 
 without a kind and sympathizing nature. He combined 
 in his own person the extremes of courage and of ten- 
 derness ; and merited in" part the compliment paid to 
 Sir J. Franklin by Sir J. Parry "that he never turned 
 his back on a danger, yet was of that tenderness that 
 he would not brush away a mosquito." He was humane, 
 compassionate, and kind-hearted. People of limited and 
 vulgar thought are apt to look upon the anatomist in no 
 higher light than the butcher ; and the Law itself has 
 done no better in its refusing to accept both members of 
 the community as jurymen in our courts of justice. Of 
 the hydra-headed popular fallacies prevalent in nine- 
 teenth-century England, notwithstanding her churches, 
 her mi.ssionaries, and Reformed Parliaments, none is 
 greater than the supposition of the anatomist's familiarity 
 with the dead impairing or destroying his respect for the 
 living. Without wishing to obtrude a personal sensitive-
 
 THE CROWN-PIECE AND PENNY ROLL. 237 
 
 ness to human suffering, I can safely claim for a large 
 majority of my anatomical friends the possession of the 
 highest regard and delicacy for their species in every 
 relation of life. Knox was the very antipodes of the 
 Irish satirist, Dean Swift, and could well afford to laugh 
 at the sentimentality of Laurence Sterne weeping over 
 the dead donkey. Of his sympathies, both broad and 
 special, many instances might be cited. I shall be content 
 with one furnished me by my friend Dr. James Adams, 
 of Glasgow. 
 
 At a meeting of the Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical 
 Society (1844), Dr. Knox was present when a case of 
 fearful mutilation was being exhibited by one of the 
 surgeons. After the poor fellow had undergone the 
 examination of the meeting, a subscription for his benefit 
 was spontaneously taken up, and a hat was sent round, 
 in which "a shower of sixpences was soon collected." 
 Dr. Adams, sitting beside Dr. Knox, observed him very 
 stealthily slip a crown-piece into the hat. Soon after 
 leaving the meeting, Knox went into a baker's shop and 
 purchased a penny roll and asked for a glass of water. 
 The roll he ate in portions from his pocket, during a 
 strolling perambulation of the street with his friends 
 Drs. A. and J. Adams, who, on comparing notes, found 
 that Knox had had no dinner that day ; that he was 
 low in pecuniary means, and that his only meal since 
 breakfast was the penny roll and glass of water. 
 
 Knox's heart was as readily touched as most men's, 
 when the sympathies of our common humanity were 
 fairly put to the test. I have known him almost in tears 
 on seeing cases of disease attended by acute or prolonged
 
 238 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 suffering. He had a kind word also for animals, and 
 could not bear to see them harshly dealt with ; whilst his 
 repugnance to vivisection amounted to something like 
 horror. He admitted the great advantages gained for 
 physiology by Sir Charles Bell's experiments on living 
 animals, leading to important discoveries in the whole 
 field of Neurology, but he maintained that Sir Charles's 
 experiments were of limited extent, and afforded no 
 justification for the aimless probings and torturings 
 practised by Magendie and his disciples. The ex- 
 pression of detestation Knox used to manifest towards 
 the French experimental physiologists was by no means 
 lessened in force when their English imitators came to 
 be animadverted upon. Unquestionably he had a fine 
 sensibility in relation to physical suffering in either man 
 or brute, and would have done anything for its relief ; 
 the same generous feeling, in all probability, had to do 
 with his aversion to oppression in every shape affecting 
 man's moral or political nature. Reflecting on his large 
 sympathies and special sensibility, how grossly vile must 
 appear the vituperation heaped upon his head after the 
 West Port disclosures ! He would not have caused pain 
 to the lowest of living creatures, much less touch the 
 lives of innocent men, yet he was repeatedly spoken of 
 as if he had inherited the worst feelings that could be 
 found in the most savage barbarian. 
 
 At all times and seasons, he was alike consistent in 
 enjoining that pain should be relieved at whatever cost 
 in treating disease the same with the brute. Looking 
 one day at the Carnivora in the Edinburgh Zoological 
 Gardens, he observed a large swelling upon the fore-paw
 
 KNOX 'S S YMPA 7 'HISING NA TURE. 239 
 
 of a Hon, and drew the keeper's attention to it. No one 
 would venture to approach the animal to see what was 
 wrong. After careful watching of the lion's movements, 
 he diagnosed the presence of an abscess, and fixing a 
 lancet to the end of a long stick, succeeded in puncturing 
 the swelling and relieving the afflicted monarch of the 
 woods. He always expressed his regret that some effort 
 had not been made to treat the jaguar " Carter's great 
 tiger" that died of pleurisy in Edinburgh, and noticed 
 in another page of this volume. 
 
 Walking arm in arm along the public street with Dr. 
 James Adams, and while in the full flow of animated 
 conversation. Dr. Knox suddenly left his side, and re- 
 tracing a few steps, picked up a large crust of bread 
 lying on the pavement. A few minutes afterwards he 
 placed the crust conspicuously on the parapet of a rail- 
 ing. Being asked for an explanation, Knox said he had 
 from his youth never seen a wasted piece of food without 
 a painful visage becoming immediately present in his mind 
 of some wretch in the pangs of hunger, and that he was 
 quite unable to pass by a piece of food exposed to waste. 
 Not unfrequently he had set aside a crust of bread, as 
 on the present occasion, and then loitered about until 
 gratified by seeing it "pounced upon eagerly by some 
 picturesque specimen of our common humanity." 
 
 Knox was like the Mahometan in regard to the saving 
 of every crumb of bread ; in his eyes nothing should be 
 wasted that could be applied to the service of man. These 
 anecdotes show the kindly disposition of the anatomist. 
 His own wants were few, and happily so, as his de- 
 privations were many after the year 1842, when the
 
 240 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 tide was ebbing strongly, and his domestic life had become 
 so changed. The world was vastly less kind to him than 
 he was to the Glasgow cripple ; had it shown a tithe of 
 the bounteous charity that could unpocket a crown-piece 
 for the help of a proletariat, and reserve only a penny 
 roll for his own dinner, Knox would have been well off. 
 
 He used to say that two books were always to be 
 found on the table of his dressing-room, the Bible and 
 "Don Quixote," whom he used to style the bean ideal oi din 
 accomplished gentleman ; their positions might be incon- 
 gruous, and to some it would appear profane or immoral 
 to associate them : he could not help it ; there they were 
 for his reading and instruction. Now, whatever benefit 
 he might derive from the Bible must remain untold, 
 but undoubtedly he could quote its pages as readily as 
 any ancient divine. On one occasion, when the noble 
 part performed by the Covenanters was under discussion, 
 Knox warmed with his subject, and spoke vehemently 
 of the heroism of his countrymen, in whose ranks he 
 would above all things have wished to be enrolled ; and 
 as he pictured some of his forefathers in the conflict, he 
 quoted the strongest passages of the Psalmist, and with 
 uplifted arms and reddened visage seemed little less than 
 inspired with biblical mindedness. Under such circum- 
 stances, he would claim his descent from " the Reformer," 
 who " truly deserved that name ; the man to whom Scot- 
 land owes her liberty, freedom of conscience, exemption 
 from tithes and bishops, popery and prelacy, alike ab- 
 horred by Scot." In recalling these struggles for liberty 
 of thought, in which the ancestral blood had mingled, 
 his own democratic feeling was roused to its highest
 
 LOSS 01' HIS CHILD AND WIFE. 241 
 
 pitch ; and had the times demanded a platform for its 
 display, Knox the anatomist would have called forth 
 more national fervour and more devoted heroism than 
 the Reformer himself accomplished two centuries pre- 
 viously. 
 
 Dr. Knox having lost a favourite child from scarlatina, 
 asked me to accompany him to the interment in Newing- 
 ton Cemetery, a few hundred yards from his residence. 
 He and myself constituted the entire following to the 
 grave-side. Going along, he spoke with pain of the 
 custom of day-interments, of the tried feelings of 
 parents harassed by witnessing the procession and other 
 steps of the funeral, and of being exposed to the morbid 
 curiosity of the people in the streets. He extolled the 
 practice of the Roman and of modern Catholic countries, 
 where the burial of the dead took place in the shadow 
 of night. Inter alia he cited Daniel O'Connell's remarks 
 on Lord Brougham's mad behaviour at the grave-side of 
 his daughter ; and so beguiled the way to and from the 
 cemetery : and this helped to soften the anguish of his 
 last farewell of a child he had loved so affectionately. 
 His anxiety to restrain the sorrowful emotions of his 
 heart was an effort that must have cost him dear ; for no 
 man had deeper affections, or could feel the touching 
 sympathy of a friend more truly, than Knox. 
 
 When his wife died, in 1841, after puerperal fever, he 
 sought me early the following morning to tell me of his 
 loss. The effort to appear gracious as he approached 
 could not be sustained ; his face and eyes betrayed what 
 he had passed through, and all he could say on clasping 
 my hands in his own was " She is gone, she is gone ! " 
 
 R
 
 242 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Of the six children she bore to him, five died before 
 himself. His son Edward is the only survivor. He was 
 advised to withdraw from the rooms for a week, but the 
 day after the funeral he returned to his ordinary pursuits, 
 feeling, as thousands of suffering hearts have done, that 
 occupation and duty are the only chances of lessening 
 present griefs and diverting the thoughts till that great 
 arbiter, Time, spreads his softening wings over the 
 sorrows of the soul. Poor Knox, though wanting in 
 many things, was sound to the core when love and 
 affection stood face to face with the sufferings of 
 mortality.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Philosophy of Anatomy. Newton, Goethe, St. ililaire, Serres. &c. 
 \Vint;;s of the Angels ! Supra-Condyloid Process. Hip Jcint. 
 Surgical Opinions. Monkey and Man. Lectures in Glasgow. The 
 sad Fall. 
 
 The idea of a general unity or type in the animal 
 structure had been pregnant to Aristotle and the leading 
 minds of Natural History and Philosophy in ages long 
 gone by. William Lawrence, the most philosophic of Eng- 
 lish surgeons of this century, spoke of Aristotle's classifi- 
 cation of animals as based on the theory of analogies in 
 organs, and constituting a "vast and luminous plan to 
 which none of his successors had approached." Sir Isaac 
 Newton, who thought deeply about the Cosmic atoms 
 and the nature of organisms, as well as Physics, had 
 evidently got a ray of light on this subject when he 
 wrote, " Similiter posita omnia in omnibus fere ani- 
 malibiis" and this unity was by him referred to laws 
 similar to those which regulate the economy of the 
 universe. The theory of analogies, however, as Dr. 
 Fletcher records, or the idea that to certain corre- 
 sponding organs of all animals there is a 
 
 " Facies non omnibus una, 
 Nee diversa tamen," 
 R 2
 
 344 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 only acquired scientific import in the hands of Geofifroy 
 St. Hilaire. Now Knox appears to have been among 
 the foremost to make St. Hilaire's doctrines on the unity 
 of organic structure known to large classes of British 
 students. His lectures on osteology were all the more 
 attractive that he indicated to the pupils the structural 
 elements or essential parts of each bone in man, the 
 developmental relations these bore to other vertebrated 
 animals, the borrowing of elements, so to speak, here, 
 the imparting of elements there ; or what St. Hilaire 
 called balancement des organes, and, as he further 
 expressed, "T atropine d'ltn organe toiirne toiijonrs an profit 
 d'tm autre." Knox used to speak of a presumed unity 
 as rather that of structural elements or primitive types 
 than that of whole organs ; and here he showed his 
 scientific caution, as it was more frequently the struc- 
 tural elements alone, and not the organs, which could 
 with propriety be said to be repeated. 
 
 Bearing upon the unity and history of organic struc- 
 tures, Knox gave much attention to the laws of develop- 
 ment as illustrative of the general argument, and as 
 valuable contributions to a more philosophic anatomy. 
 With a good teaching museum, rich in osteology, he had 
 ample opportunities of setting forth his views, and im- 
 parting a large amount of physiological and surgical 
 information. Having also numerous preparations exem- 
 plifying organogcnesy, he would trace with great skill 
 the individual organs in their progressive evolution 
 through the foetal state, and seek to extend the theories 
 of Scrrcs as to embryonic forms in the higher tribes 
 repeating the permanent form of the lower orders of
 
 MAN AND ONE OF HIS PARASITES. 245 
 
 beings. Following out his own pertinent and unique 
 mode of instruction, he would hold up to his class a 
 small phial containing the Cystkercus cclliilosus, and 
 another with the first trace of the human ovum (found in 
 the Fallopian tube), and then remark : " Gentlemen, 
 there is no appreciable difference, as far as you can 
 observe, in the bodies floating in these two phials; but 
 what do you suppose would be their future history if 
 placed in their proper habitat and furnished with nutri- 
 tion ? The one the Cystkercus will remain in statu 
 quo, microscopic in the world of life, yet marvellously 
 mischievous in its way in human tissues ; the other, 
 teeming with force or the vis genetrix 7taturB, 
 
 "To ascend 
 From small beginnings to a glorious end," 
 
 would make a long journey of progression, and, after 
 passing through many phases towards his ultimatum, 
 eventually become what the poet termed the paragon 
 of animals Man himself! The opportunity of contrast- 
 ing the homicida with the honmuculus, the parasite with 
 his prey, was great for Knox ; and on such a peg he 
 could hang philosophy and moral reflections, pathology 
 and Hudibrastic satire, to your heart's content. 
 
 Looking to a prototype of form or type upon which 
 all organized bodies were based the fungus and the 
 polype being but epitomized emblems of the lofty pine 
 and reasoning man the observant anatomist might be 
 disposed to sanction the doctrine of Pascal, that " ani- 
 mated beings were, in their commencement, nothing but 
 formless and ambiguous individuals, whose constitution
 
 246 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 was originally decided by the permanent circumstances 
 in the midst of which they lived ; "^ or the modified view 
 entertained by Lamarck, and more largely dwelt upon 
 by St. Hilaire in his " P kilos op hie Zoologique" Knox 
 believed in all nature's work being admirably wrought 
 out ; in other words, a perfection in creation ; and that 
 to each individual in the scale of being the lot of 
 physical enjoyment fell in accordance with its organi- 
 zation. 
 
 In the hands of the author of the " New Heloise," the 
 great sentimentalist of his epoch, Phytology subserved 
 a new philosophical idea that Goethe, without previous 
 concert, but rather in a flashed moment of inspiration, 
 extended to the highest mammal ; a doctrine which came 
 to be unfolded by the labours of J. P. Franks, Oken, 
 A. Meckel, Spix, Carus, Bojanus, Burdach, and others 
 in Germany ; by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Burdin, Dumeril, 
 and others in France. Knox imbibed the Germanic, 
 or transcendental anatomy, as it was called, from St. 
 Hilaire, and preached the new doctrines from his earliest 
 career as a lecturer. While he spoke of the similarity 
 of constitution traceable in the osseous formation of the 
 vertebrae and cranium, the English student, fond of 
 matter-of-fact principles, was disposed to smile at the 
 " Transcendentalists." Knox rode no hobby in this 
 matter, but gave a cautious exposition of both the 
 data and the doctrines the best precursor to further 
 
 Pascal seems to have anticipated by two centuries at least the proto- 
 plasmic theory which Huxley gets considerable credit for having originated 
 'ess than two years ago. It is not too much to say that the same views had 
 long been pregnant to other minds in this country.
 
 TRANSCENDENTAL ANATOMY. 247 
 
 inquiry among men whose minds had to be prepared for 
 a further insight into the Continental philosophy. It 
 is probable that his own opinions were in accordance 
 with those expressed by M. Serres {Anatom. Comp 
 du Cerveati, 1824, p. 21) in reference to this subject: 
 " Quelques lustres se sont a peine ecouUs, et dija cette id^e, 
 devenne classiqtie, a change la face de la Science, et a fait 
 nattre tine par tie toute jtotcvelle, celle des Homologues."^ 
 Considering his natural acumen, marked individuality, 
 and enlarged views, it is somewhat singular that Knox 
 did so little in Morphology a walk so captivating and 
 fairly claimant of his higher study. Hazarding little 
 of his own, he rested content with being the chief 
 exponent of his master, St. Hilaire's views ; and as Sir 
 C. Bell and others in authority either did not see or 
 would not listen to the morphological argument, there 
 
 ^ Knox was eloquent on the science of transcendental or philosophic 
 anatomy, " whose object it was to explain in a connected chain the pheno- 
 mena of the living material world ; to connect the history of living plants 
 and animals with those which now lie entombed in the strata of the crust of 
 the globe ; to explain the mysterious metamorphoses which occur in the 
 growth of animals and plants from their embryonic state to their maturity 
 of growth and final decay ; to trace a plan of creation, and to guess at that 
 plan, these are the objects of transcendental anatomy. To the South 
 German, to the mixed race of Slavonian and German origin, we owe this 
 doctrine of transcendental anatomy; to that imaginative race to whom we 
 owe all that is imaginative, romantic, and transcendental in the so-called 
 German language and German people. In a vertebra the matter-of-fact 
 Saxon mind sees merely a vertebra ; beyond this it seldom proceeds 
 uninventive, unimaginative. Nor is the Celtic mind very peculiarly gifted 
 in this respect: the doctrines of Goethe and of Spix, of Oken and of 
 Geoffroy, were resisted to the last by Cuvier and by the Academy over 
 which he held sway. Sir Charles Bell could never comprehend the import 
 of the transcendental doctrine ; he stood by the coarse utilitarianism of 
 Paley, which with him was the m plus ultra."
 
 248 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 was but small encouragement to pursue the subject 
 beyond the wants of his class. In time, however, 
 matters greatly changed, and his pupils, Owen and 
 Goodsir, came boldly to the front, and gained high his- 
 torical position in the ranks of philosophical anatomy. 
 
 He wished anatomy to be regarded, not as a heap of 
 ultimate facts more or less isolated and detached, but 
 as a consistent and rational science, each instance of 
 which has an obvious relation to every other in the 
 series. Marking the rapid strides towards the perfection 
 of his science, he was in hopes that, in due season, 
 Nature's great organic laws, in all their harmony and 
 simplicity, would be revealed to the earnest searcher 
 after truth. 
 
 In the meantime, Morphology had to wait for further 
 interpretation. Disposed as Knox was to accord toler- 
 able latitude to novelty of doctrine, he never could 
 give countenance to the supermundane hypotheses of 
 his friend Professor W. Macdonald, whose anatomical 
 inquiries led him far beyond and above the human 
 form to the contemplation of that diviner sort of beings 
 called angels, and to a special structure the wing, 
 morphologically termed " a limb " always associated 
 with their supposed corporeity. The physical structure 
 of man had ever been looked upon as enough for man 
 to understand. Not so, thought the Scottish Professor, 
 when he occupied the attention of the Royal Physical 
 Society of Edinburgh (in 1841 Tj with an essay " On the 
 Physical Structure of the Angels."^ 
 
 1 Benjamin Disraeli, M.P., it can hardly be forgotten, in addressing a 
 large gathering of ' ' bucolics " in Buckingham three years ago, said he
 
 THE WINGS OF THE ANGELS. 249 
 
 Dr. Knox made several communications to the 
 Anatomical and Physiological Society in Edinburgh ; 
 perhaps none of his papers claimed so much interest 
 as that "On the Occasional Presence of a Supra-Con- 
 dyloid Process in the Human Humerus " {Edin. Med. 
 and Surg. Joiirii. vol. Ivi. p. 125). The history of the 
 paper was altogether a curious one. Whilst Dr. Knox 
 and myself were arranging a series of humeri for the 
 morning lecture, my finger was caught by a sharp 
 spicula of bone on the inner side of an adult humerus ; 
 and further examination revealed a process or eminence 
 of bone along the inner ridge of other specimens. It 
 was quite new to Knox, and, at first sight, difficult of 
 interpretation. Reflecting, however, on the comparative 
 anatomy of the arm, Knox, with his usual acumen and 
 readiness to grasp any anatomical difficulty, said : 
 " This is a rudimentary structure, Dr. Lonsdale, and rest 
 assured you will some day find in man a supra-con- 
 dyloid foramen transmitting the brachial vessels and 
 median nerve as you see in the Carnivora." ^ A few 
 
 "would go in strongly for the angels." The lawn-sleeves of the " Upper 
 House" fluttered at the sentiment, and "the Commons," knowing the new 
 candidate for angelic honours, considered the ascent "pretty cheeky" even 
 for the son of a Jew ! Had Disraeli read and been converted by the Mac- 
 donald philosophy ? If so, the conversion is the best Jewish one extant, and 
 highly flattering to science. If the study of the wing of the angels, viewed 
 morphologically, carried Disraeli's imagination to the seraphic longings, 
 well might his colleague, Secretary WalpoJe, show lachrymation under the 
 personal spell of Radical Beales ! 
 
 1 The structure is well seen in the Tiger, Lion, Aye-Aye, Cat, Otter, 
 Racoon, Seal, Wombat, Ant-Eater, and Opossum. The Royal College of 
 Surgeons' Museum, London, contains a beautiful series of preparations 
 illustrating the supra-condyloid foramen in different animals. It is to be
 
 250 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. ' 
 
 weeks elapsed and he showed the specimens to the 
 Anatomical Society, and called attention to two ridges 
 and a groove ^ proceeding from the process of bone 
 towards the inner condyle for the lodgment, as he 
 believed, of the humeral nerve and vessels. " It 
 happened by a singular coincidence," writes Dr. Knox, 
 " that within two days after this communication was 
 made to the Society, a case actually occurred to bring 
 the opinion to the test." The left arm of a stout 
 muscular middle-aged man was being dissected, and 
 " the pronator teres muscle was observed to have an 
 unusually high origin ; and on looking attentively at 
 the structure, my assistant immediately called my 
 attention to an anomaly corresponding strictly with 
 what I had predicted two nights previously to the 
 Anatomical Society, viz. the presence of a supra-con- 
 dyloid process : its connection with the inner condyle of 
 the humerus by means of a ligament or aponeurotic 
 expansion, and the consequent deviation of the main artery 
 and median nerve from their usual course, in order to 
 pass behind this process in the groove, half osseous, half 
 ligamentous, thus formed, afterwards to return, a little 
 lower down, so as rapidly to regain their usual relative 
 
 regretted that there is no specimen of the human semi-osseous form in the 
 collection. 
 
 I Dr. F. J. Julius Willbrand, of Giessen, found on the humerus of the 
 Carnivora the depressions and ridge described by Knox upon the human 
 humerus, similarly situated as to the vessels and median nerve. Curiously 
 enough, Willbrand saw something analogous on the femur among the 
 Edentata, Rodentia, and Pachydermata, and, as if the analogy should be 
 found higher in the scale, also in man. l^ter observations, however, do 
 not sanction Wilibrand's views the point of bone he described being held 
 in the light of an exostosis or slight thickening of the bone.
 
 THE SUPRA-CONDYLOID PROCESS. 251 
 
 position in the bend of the elbow ; in short, the 
 precise anatomy of the arm of the Jaguar,^ with this 
 difference merely, that in the latter the supra-condyloid 
 canal is entirely osseous, whilst in man it is only 
 partly so, the process not extending so as to unite itself 
 by bone with the condyle." Knox looked upon this 
 arrangement of parts as a "startling proof of the 
 strength of the analogies subsisting occasionally be- 
 tween man and the lower animals, and an undeniable 
 argument of the existence of a general scheme or plan 
 embracing the whole range of the animal kingdom, 
 even to a minuteness of detail quite inconceivable 
 by those who adopt the views and the physiology 
 of the Bridgewater Treatises." Drawings accompanied 
 the paper. 
 
 A happier generalization than that of Knox's just 
 described can hardly be found in the whole range of 
 biological science. He was mightily pleased with the 
 manner in which his discovery was received by the 
 profession in Edinburgh. It should be noted that Dr. 
 Barclay possessed arterial preparations where a supra- 
 cond3doid process existed, yet they had been overlooked 
 by himself, Knox, and others through whose hands they 
 must have passed before and after they were placed in 
 the College of Surgeons' Museum. 
 
 ^ Knox's Rooms, early in 1841, attracted numerous visitors, and not 
 without reason. The fine Jaguar, or American Panther, of the famous 
 Mr. Carter, lay on one table, with its perfect supra-condyloid foramen; 
 monkeys lay on another, which had been obtained from a travelling mena- 
 gerie, some with and others without the carnivorous type of humerus ; 
 whilst on a third table was the anomalous human arm described in the 
 text by far the most interesting of the group.
 
 252 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Tiedemann seems to have been the first to notice, 
 in 1822, the process of bone now known as the human 
 " supra-condyloid," but he considered it a disease or 
 exostosis " Excrcscentia ossis humeri insolita." A. W. 
 Otto, in 1839,^ with greater discrimination, is said to 
 have recognized it as the analogue of the supra-condyloid 
 process in the Mammalia. Within eighteen months of 
 Knox's discovery three examples of the same process 
 came under my own observation in Surgeons' Square, 
 but as my old teacher had so clearly established the 
 history of the supra-condyloid process in the human 
 arm, I did not deem it necessary to publish them.^ 
 Willbrand saw the same arrangement of parts in 1843, 
 Quain in 1844, and Tiedemann in 1846, after which year 
 this anatomical form or curious anomaly lost much of its 
 novelty. Professer Wenzel Gruber had collected up to 
 1859, partly from his own observations and from the 
 works of previous writers (my three not being published 
 
 1 Otto's thesis came into Knox's hands after his discovery. I have not 
 been able to see it, and cannot at this moment say whether Otto described 
 a case such as Knox's, or only inferred its existence from comparative ana- 
 tomy. Assuredly Knox had no help to his bold deduction, though he 
 talked of Magendie having seen the supra-condyloid foramen in the yellow 
 races of Africa. 
 
 ' In one of the three instances that fell under my observation, the 
 radial artery arose from the lowest part of the axillary, continued its course 
 downwards, and after parting with the brachial, when seeking a direc- 
 tion to reach the semi-osseous "supra-condyloid" foramen, crossed over 
 the larger trunk towards the bend of the elbow. In no case was the 
 foramen strictly osseous. In the arm of a seal, which I dissected in 
 1842, the median nerve passed through the foramen, while the brachial 
 artery ran over the bony arch and joined the nerve below the foramen. 
 Such a case would indicate that osseous protection was needed for the 
 nerve only.
 
 A HIP JOINT WITHOUT A ROUND LIGAMENT. 253 
 
 were not included), sixty-two cases. Other examples 
 have since been met with. 
 
 The discussion arising from time to time among the 
 better-educated pupils of his class often led Knox to 
 give a larger elucidation of some parts of the anatomy 
 than could be found in the best text-books extant. Let 
 him have a subject that interested his surgical penchant, 
 Knox would be sure to unravel its history. Induced by 
 some pertinent questions, he sat alongside a Newcastle 
 student to help in the dissection of the hip-joint, and 
 to give him his latest views of the uses of the round 
 ligament. To Knox's great surprise there was no round 
 ligament in the subject ! The joint was healthy in other 
 respects. This was the first time (and he believed he had 
 seen 500 hip-joints opened) that he had noted the 
 absence of this marked .structure. His "Observations on 
 the probable Use of the Round Ligament of the Thigh- 
 bone in Man " were read to the Anatomical and Physio- 
 logical Society : they are of interest anatomically and 
 surgically {Edin. Med. and Surg. Joiirii. vol. Ivi. p. 128). 
 As the laws of deformation seemed to Knox to be nearly 
 as regular as the laws of formation, he knew " no reason 
 why occasionally that arrangement, which we find con- 
 stantly in the elephant and some other mammals, should 
 not occasionally occur in man." He alluded to the con- 
 tradictory statements respecting the uses of the round 
 ligament of the hip-joint in man, the errors of Boyer, 
 Meckel, Cooper, Gerdy, and Cruveilhier on this subject ; 
 his own views apparently coincided in part with those 
 expressed by Mr. Mayo. He held that rotation of the 
 thigh, either outwards or inwards, can be carried only to
 
 254 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the extent allowed by the round ligament; whilst "all 
 attempts to combine to any great extent the element of 
 rotation with the other movements of which the joint 
 is capable, receive a complete check from the presence 
 of the said ligament ; and more especially the motion 
 of adductio7i, which cannot be performed at all when the 
 limb is at the same time rotated outzvards or inwards^ 
 He thought it by no means improbable that, as the round 
 ligament may vary in length in different persons, a 
 congenital comparative shortness of this ligament may 
 contribute to the production of the deformity of "m-/(?^^." 
 He remarked upon the congenital laxity of the round 
 ligament in some persons either per se or as forming a 
 part of a general laxity of all the ligaments and fibro- 
 cartilaginous structures throughout the body. 
 
 His comments "On Fracture of the Radius Bone near 
 its carpal extremity, with and without complication " 
 {Edin. Med. and Surg. Jonrn. vol. Ivi. p. 330), are 
 worthy of attention. His views, though chiefly drawn 
 from the dissecting-room and museums, bore the prac- 
 tical character that experience drawn from the living 
 subject only can confer. He suggested that many cases 
 of supposed dislocations of the ulna, and even of the 
 wrist-joint, refer merely to a fracture of the^ radius close 
 to its distal extremity, accompanied by a displacement 
 of the lower fragment of fractured bone, set partially free 
 by a rupture or laceration of the inarticular cartilage of 
 Wcitbrccht. To this latter condition, along with a disloca- 
 tion of the carpal end of the bone, he attributed the 
 remarkable shortening of the radius after certain frac- 
 tures. His paper, as usual, was illustrated by drawings.
 
 HIS PENCHANT FOR SURGER V. 255 
 
 Few people were aware of Knox's strong penchant 
 for surgery, and his great ability in that direction. It 
 was impossible to look at his examination of a limb with- 
 out being struck with the method of his manipulation, 
 so elegant and yet so effective, whether as testing the 
 finer movements, what the mechanicians would term the 
 sweetness of the adjusting surfaces ; or in eliciting the 
 greater actions, say of forcible abduction, rotation, &c., 
 of the joint. In handling injured and diseased limbs he 
 reminded me most of Sir C. Bell among his compeers ; 
 whilst he stood in striking contrast to Velpeau and 
 Breschet, and other continental surgeons. Had his sur- 
 gical aim been cultivated, Knox would have risen to 
 great eminence. He disliked the knife, that opprobrium 
 of the art betraying the butcher rather than the sur- 
 geon ; in short, he was an advocate of true Conservative 
 Surgery. When one of his pupils in the North of 
 Scotland showed him a diseased knee-joint that others 
 beside himself had condemned for amputation, Knox 
 advised his friend to put the limb in splints, to assuage 
 suffering, and attend to the general health of his patient 
 for two months longer, and see the effects. The limb was 
 thereby saved, and his intelligent pupil speaks of the 
 case till this day as exemplifying Dr. Knox's surgical 
 acumen and diagnosis. 
 
 In the early spring of 1841, numbers of monkeys that 
 had died of phthisis in a travelling menagerie in Edin- 
 burgh were obtained for the practical rooms. Impressed 
 with the apparently close approximation of the Simian 
 to the Human type, I solicited Dr. Knox's attention to 
 several points in their respective anatomies, and to the
 
 256 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 brain in particular, assigning my reason that the time 
 was at hand when zoological questions bearing on man's 
 development would render such inquiries of vast interest; 
 and who so likely as himself to anticipate the discussion ? 
 Though admitting a part of my argument, he stoutly 
 maintained that there was a wide gap between the lowest 
 man and the highest ape. Having shown him the chim- 
 panzee in curious juxtaposition with the body of a lad 
 of Scoto-Hibernian features of the animal type, and 
 also some dissections of the two forms for further com- 
 parison, he remarked : " True, they are like, painfully 
 like caricatures if you will ; but man is man, after all." 
 John Goodsir came purposely to see these comparative 
 anatomizations, and endorsed his master's views. It has 
 been said, but no proof is adduced, that Knox subse- 
 quently modified his opinions. Goodsir unquestionably 
 stood by the high dignity of man and his moral and 
 psychological attributes, and viewed these as isolating 
 man entirely from the rest of the animal creation 
 (Memoirs, vol. i. p. 182). If Knox accepted the Roman 
 poet's dictum, 
 
 ' ' coclumque tueri 
 
 Jussiis," 
 
 it must have been in a theological sense, for with the 
 rest of the quotation, " et erectos ad sidcra tollcre vuitus," 
 he used to fence, or rather attack the arguments of the 
 " Bridgewater School " in regard to man's characteristic 
 biped form and head erect, or his privilege of looking to 
 the heavens. " These writers," he used to say, " could 
 never have been in a farm-yard, or they would have seen 
 the biped bantam cock, with head erect, strutting along 
 with star-like gaze, and crowing to the very echo."
 
 MARCHING THROUGH COVENTRY. 257 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1841, Dr. Knox 
 was superintending and editing for Messrs. Chambers, 
 the spirited pubhshers of Edinburgh, Ouetelet's work on 
 Man {"Siir r Homme ct le Dcvcloppemcnt de scs Facidtcs." 
 M. A. Quetelet, Secretaire perpetuel de I'Academie Royale 
 de Bruxelles). The name of Knox was a passport to a 
 work but little known in this country (it had been pub- 
 lished in Paris in 1835), and Messrs. Chambers had 
 much reason to be pleased with the success of the work, 
 which has long been out of print. 
 
 Regardless of both legal and moral obligations, he 
 commenced lecturing on anatomy in Edinburgh, in 
 November 1842, but got no class. He attempted a 
 course of physiology in the following session with as 
 little success ; and, what must have been more degrading, 
 had to march through Coventry with men of inferior 
 stamp as colleagues.^ Being thwarted in Edinburgh, 
 he looked in various directions for an opportunity of 
 lecturing, but could find no vacancy in Scotland. To a 
 man of his powers, what could be more trying or more 
 sickening than compulsory inertia and seclusion } He 
 had voluntarily disposed of his interests in Edinburgh, 
 in the expectation, it is fully believed, of emigrating to 
 more favoured shores ; but when the day of decision 
 came, possibly he felt like Danton, that as he could not 
 carry the soil of Scotland under his feet, he had better 
 bear the ills of life at home. It is not unlikely that his 
 
 1 One of his colleagues was in the habit of designating himself A. H. 
 Esquire, F.R. C.S. Ed.; and of the character of this person, when his 
 opinion was asked, Knox said : "In everything pertaining to himself, A. H. 
 has all the sagacity of a poodle-dog." 
 
 S
 
 258 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 children weighed very much in his decision. Whatever 
 may have been his guiding circumstance, he committed 
 a great mistake in staying upon the course when the 
 race had been run : there could be no chance of a second 
 heat in his case, and all probability of regaining public 
 confidence was lost. 
 
 Had he gone to the United States of America, 
 where his fame had preceded him, he would there 
 have found the very platform for his abilities, and un- 
 doubtedly succeeded in establishing his fame as the 
 anatomist of the Far West. His democratic penchant, 
 his scientific acquirements, his originality both as 
 teacher and thinker, and his grand rhetorical displays, 
 so suited to the atmosphere of a republic, would all 
 have told in his favour, and gained him the iclat 
 so freely awarded to intellectual vigour and special 
 excellence. 
 
 Knox delivered the introductory lecture to the Port- 
 land Street School of Medicine in Glasgow Session 
 1844-45. He was associated with Dr. Macdonald and 
 Mr. Lyon, now the eminent consulting surgeon of 
 Glasgow. Having to contend with the old-established 
 University and the Andersonian Institution, his class was 
 small. As usual, he delighted his audiences ; and to-day 
 Dr. Weir speaks of his lecturing as a fascination beyond 
 reading "Robinson Crusoe" in his youth; that of all the 
 lecturers he ever heard, Knox was facile princcps in rich- 
 ness and abundance of illustration. One evening, Knox 
 came late to lecture, the class was highly impatient, and, 
 what was worse, no subject had been prepared for him. 
 He caught up a humerus, and, as if nothing disconcerted.
 
 GLASGOW UNPROPITIOUS. 259 
 
 stepped gracefully into the class-room ; what that bone 
 became in the hands of a master was soon evident in 
 the intense attention that rapidly stole over the audience, 
 and in the vivid impress it stamped so indelibly on the 
 mind of Dr. Weir, who relates the story. 
 
 His objection to the use of diagrams has been dwelt 
 upon. One night in Glasgow, owing to deficient /rt//n>/, 
 he attempted a sketch with white chalk on a black 
 board ; the gas went out at the moment, and with the 
 darkness there was uproar in the class. The light being 
 restored, Knox was seen standing in the same attitude 
 as before the contretemps ; he, however, went no further 
 with his drawing, but reverted to his anatomy. He 
 looked upon the gas going out as a judgment upon his 
 attempting an illegitimate mode of instruction; and in 
 speaking of it, continued 
 
 " It saved a world of talk 
 To resort to board and chalk, 
 
 a stupid enough doggrel, but very applicable to the fact.' 
 In Glasgow he gained some friends and admirers, but 
 no bread and butter. So small was his class, that he 
 returned his fees to his pupils before November was out. 
 The city of big chimneys, bigger piety, and biggest of 
 all in the use of alcoholic liquors in Scotland, was not 
 for Robert Knox, the heterodox man of science and the 
 claimant of individual right. Where so obviously seen 
 in Glasgow material interests, shopocracy, and a fervid 
 Calvinism overshadowed all other considerations, could 
 hardly be the place for a man of genius. As no University 
 would appoint him to a Chair, and no medical school 
 
 S 2
 
 26o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 would open its gates in Scotland, he was no better than an 
 ostracized citizen ; at an age, too (for he had passed his 
 meridian) when the best place in the anatomical world 
 should have been at his feet. Accomplished in every 
 department of his profession, he nevertheless could get 
 no employment and no countenance. Either the world 
 was hard to please, or he had lost caste. In early life he 
 was held of repute in the army. He had taught ana- 
 tomy to some thousands. He had obtained French 
 honours, and could appeal to original works in the 
 Transactions of the Royal and other Societies. He had 
 associated with the great of the land men of judicial, 
 scientific, and medical fame, and made himself known 
 to the world of letters ; yet all these qualifications 
 seemed of no weight in the balance of opinions that 
 tested his adaptability to office by another standard than 
 intellectual force, namely, the moral and the Christian. 
 It is painful to look back upon this descensus Averni 
 of a great man, and Knox's fall was little less than 
 that which the phrase indicates. He who had risen 
 to the highest top, been surrounded with so many 
 admiring, nay, idolizing students, was now without a class 
 at all a history, indeed, upon which to point the 
 moral and adorn the talc ; but it is needful to pass on 
 to another page.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Edinburgh Physiology Chair. The Historic Man. His Onslaught on 
 Institutions. The Chivalrous Knight. The Orator. Hero Worship. 
 ^Introductory Lectures. Distinguished Pupils. Name talismanic. 
 No Home. 
 
 Professor Alison of Edinburgh retired from the Chair 
 of Physiology in 1841,^ to take the more onerous one of 
 Practice of Physic, and Dr. Knox offered himself for the 
 vacancy. In setting forth his claims, he adverted to the 
 decline of the University, and the danger of untried 
 lecturers; that if he were appointed to the Chair of 
 Physiology public confidence might be restored, seeing 
 that his success as a Professor could not for a moment 
 be doubted. In despite of every effort to crush him, he 
 retained the good opinion of thousands of his professional 
 brethren, whose support could not fail to be serviceable 
 to the University. He condemned the mode of bolstering 
 
 1 Chronologically the contest for the Physiology Chair should have been 
 noted in the last chapter ; in other respects it fits better here. The letter 
 to the Town Council, of which the text contains but a brief abstract, is one 
 of the grandest specimens of Knox-art on record. Its biting, sarcastic 
 tone implied that the writer had fully meant to leave Edinburgh, and 
 wished to cast his heaviest stone of indignation at the door of the Council 
 Chamber of the city. His criticism of the opposing candidates was not less 
 stinging. No one attempted a reply to his letter.
 
 262 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 up artificial reputations by testimonials wrung from polite 
 foreigners, and added : " I will not, my lord, sanction, in 
 so far as regards myself, one of the most infamous 
 impostures of modern times I mean the ' Testimonial 
 System,' by putting forth any such disgraceful documents, 
 stalking-horses under covert of which the foulest jobs 
 have been perpetrated." He was most unsparing in his 
 comments upon the rival candidates : one, Dr. Allen 
 Thomson, an " ex-prof esso physiologist, that is, he was 
 nothing else, neither a comparative anatomist, human 
 anatomist, nor even a medical practitioner, who, after 
 three attempts to obtain a class, disappeared about 
 mid-winter and was pensioned on a noble English duke ; 
 another. Dr. John Reid, equally unsuccessful as a lec- 
 turer, had taken refuge in the Endowment Scheme of 
 the country ; and a third. Dr. W. B. Carpenter, whom he 
 styled 'an old dog at physiology,' distinguished for his 
 failures as a lecturer, his plagiarisms, and his powers 
 of mystification." 
 
 " Nothing throughout this whole business," continued 
 Knox, " has surprised me so much as the resemblance 
 between the three candidates ; their repeated and extra- 
 ordinary failures, their bolstered up reputations, their 
 total want of all originality, their unpopularity with the 
 student or the taught ; their powers of mystifying the 
 plainest facts. They must unquestionably have all studied 
 in one school, and that school I could name ; but, be this 
 as it may, there is a resemblance clearly amounting to an 
 identity in character ; the possibility of which identity 
 in mctaphysicis and individuality in pJiysicis I beg leave 
 to throw out as a hint to this gentleman (Dr. Carpenter),
 
 HIS FIERCE PHILIPPIC. 263 
 
 which, if carefully studied, may be the humble means 
 through grace and faith, of removing certain conscientious 
 scruples exceedingly dangerous in character when held by 
 anatomists (supposing him to be one, though he be not) 
 and by physiologists ; perilous moreover to their temporal 
 and eternal welfare : he failed in Edinburgh as a lecturer, 
 causing a heavy loss to a popular institution here, and 
 he failed in Liverpool, reducing his audience in ten days 
 from 1,000 to ten ! . . . . Admitting, for argument's 
 sake, that these opinions of mine were mere prejudices, 
 they would still be entitled to respect, seeing that they 
 come from one who may without vanity lay claim to a 
 greater amount of experience in the practical education 
 of the medical student than has fallen to the lot of 
 any person now alive. A reference to the number of 
 distinguished physicians and surgeons whom I have 
 educated practically would, I am persuaded, surprise 
 your lordship and the Council." He then gave the fol- 
 lowing list of names, as he said, "quoted hastily and from 
 memory," to satisfy the Town Council on this point : 
 " R. Boyd, W. Fergusson, T. W. Jones, John Goodsir, 
 Harry Goodsir, Henry Lonsdale, John Reid, J. W. 
 Balfour, James Duncan, Douglas Maclagan, Patrick 
 Newbigging, John H. Bennett, &c." 
 
 Every sentence of Knox's letter conveyed a home- 
 thrust at private individuals or corporate bodies. He 
 spoke of the Chairs of the University as having " fallen 
 much below the income of a steady-going retail grocery 
 or bakery," and as much sunk in public estimation ; 
 and feels sure that the Provost and Town Council will 
 merely see in all this the straightforward opinion of a
 
 264 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 fellow-citizen. If the decay of the medical school went 
 much further, " the most prudent course," thought Knox, 
 " would be to follow rapidly the steps of the Listons 
 and Fergussons, the Turners and Grahams, and seek in 
 the metropolis of the empire that return for exertion 
 and hard-earned reputation denied us here." He men- 
 tioned that between 1838 and 1841 the number of the 
 medical classes had declined from 556 to 356, being a 
 total loss in these {q.\n years of 2co students ; which de- 
 cline he attributed to three causes: viz. " the overloading 
 of the curriculum, the absence from the University of all 
 men of originality and of European reputation, and the 
 baneful effects of a monopoly exercised by the University, 
 whose sure result, like all other monopolies, is first to 
 ruin itself and afterwards its neighbours." 
 
 Knox called on Mr. Adam Black, the well-known 
 publisher and influential citizen, with the view of sound- 
 ing him as to the impending election and obtaining his 
 vote. Mr. Black observed : " Of your remarkable abili- 
 ties. Doctor, and your fitness for the Chair, I have no 
 doubt ; but you know that our Town Council have strong 
 religious scruples." "Well," replied Knox, "am I not 
 
 as good a Christian as Baillie , or any of my 
 
 neighbours?" "It may be," said the publisher; "had 
 you only been an Elder of the Kirk, Doctor!" "Ah, 
 ah, I see," rejoined Knox ; " the Calvinistic credentials 
 are wanting," Then both joined in a hearty laugh. 
 
 The candidate of "remarkable abilities and fitness for 
 the Chair " had not a vote. Dr. Allen Thomson was 
 elected, and Dr. John Rcid was a good second in the 
 contest.
 
 " HEARTS OF OAK." 265 
 
 Such instances of want of favour, arising out of cir- 
 cumstances foreign to the teaching of science, might 
 well provoke the anatomist to cast ridicule upon his 
 opponents, and in doing so he would quote Scriptural 
 texts, or the authority of high divines : this was worm- 
 wood of the bitterest kind. For what could equal in 
 galling influence the satire of a man without religious 
 profession using Bible passages to crush his enemies 
 with ? 
 
 His irony used to crop up in various ways. At one of 
 the medical societies, the case of a boy was described, 
 whose chest had been injured by the explosion of a 
 small cannon mounted on a piece of wood. A few 
 weeks afterwards the boy died, and on examination the 
 right ventricle of the heart was found distended by a 
 piece of stick stretched across its interior. How had it 
 got there } There was no cicatrix or wound of the heart, 
 a small cicatrix only on the surface of the chest. After 
 making some suitable remarks, Dr. Knox quietly said 
 that he " thought this case must have occurred in 
 England ; hence the origin of the phrase, gentlemen, 
 ' Hearts of oak ! Hearts of oak !' " 
 
 The real historic interest of the man Knox is centred 
 in himself; it derives nothing from his medical and social 
 fraternizations, and nowhere reflects the influences of 
 other men's companionship and counsel. Self-made, and 
 resting on no ancillary support, he achieved a remark- 
 able position as an anatomical teacher ; and it should be 
 always borne in mind that this was truly his forte and 
 grand distinctive merit. His work in science (I am 
 speaking of his Edinburgh history up to 1842) was pretty
 
 266 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 nearly buried in the archives of the Royal Society and 
 the little-read pages of the Edhibiirgh Medical afid Stcr- 
 gical yournal. 
 
 His citizenship, his public position, and high popu- 
 larity belong to the place of his birth, so that before 
 tracing his immigration southwards it may be well here 
 to complete the chapter of his Edinburgh life a life of 
 unequalled prosperity and almost unequalled reverse. 
 Medical history could hardly fumish so brilliant an 
 advance as Knox obtained in the third year of his 
 anatomical lectureship. A world of fame lay before 
 him, and he marched in Alexandrian fashion to the 
 conquest ; and that conquest would have been complete 
 had not circumstances inconceivable in civilized life, the 
 slightest connivance with which was as thoroughly alien 
 to Knox's nature as to any man's on earth, arisen to 
 mar the historical figure and deface its best proportions. 
 There was, it is true, something in the figure itself not 
 free from blemish, and that blemish became heightened 
 in the focus of a Scottish inquisitorial microscope. The 
 personal flaw, however, was trifling compared with the 
 advent of affairs of the most untoward character asso- 
 ciated with the carrying on of his establishment, 
 in casting the beam against the anatomist. Society, 
 standing aghast, was in no mood to listen to evidence, 
 either of the Chief Justiciary Court, or of a committee of 
 inquiry composed of the best citizens of Edinburgh, 
 much less to reason dispassionately and soberly on the 
 events. The guilty culprit Burke met his fate at the 
 gallows of the Lawnmarket ; but the brunt of a lasting 
 and national reproach fell upon the head of the innocent
 
 ONE OF THE FREE SPIRITS OF THE AGE. 267 
 
 Robert Knox. And so deep-rooted is prejudice, that it 
 is doubtful if these pages, compiled from authentic data 
 and personal experience, and with a view to sustain the 
 entire truth, will altogether eradicate forty years of 
 unfounded aspersion and perverted feeling. 
 
 Like all men who venture upon excursions into fresh 
 realms of thought, or seek to divert the human mind 
 from ancient precedents and the cherished dogmas which 
 senility is apt to hug so closely, Knox came in for a 
 large share of detraction. He who would found new 
 principles of action or culture, should calculate the cost 
 the creation of jealousy in mediocre minds, and, not 
 infrequently, the operations of a worse malignity. Knox 
 dwelt upon the shortcomings of medical education and 
 the inefficiency of the public boards entrusted with the 
 keys of the gates of the profession ; he sought to infuse 
 fresh blood into the "time-honoured," or rather the 
 somewhat time-worn, institutions of the country. His 
 attempt was a bold one, and, as his words were bolder, 
 they roused a swelling indignation and hate. He 
 was one of the free spirits of the age ; if he saw an 
 abuse he showed it up. Now, any encroachment upon 
 the old stage-work, any enlargement of the proscenium 
 or shifting of the players, was sure to give rise to clamour 
 behind the scenes : our " privileges," our " established 
 precedents," our "vested rights," came forth in deep- 
 mouthed barkings against the champion for progressive 
 science. Knox saw in most corporations a prevailing 
 fogeyism, coteries, and nepotism, and a want of vigour 
 and non-recognition of the higher aspirations of the 
 school. He sought for a greater expansion of the legis-
 
 268 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 lative and executive functions in the medical institutions, 
 and to make the places of honour therein subservient to 
 mental superiority and promise. All such ideas as these 
 were looked upon as rank heresy forty years ago in 
 Edinburgh. There were Beatons in the medical cor- 
 porations as strongly opposed to Robert Knox of the 
 nineteenth as the persecuting Cardinal had been to John 
 Knox of the sixteenth century ; and quite as readily 
 disposed to banish or to burn at the stake the anatomical 
 innovator. 
 
 To attack the traditional doctrines and the social and 
 religious standards in their stronghold of infallibility, as 
 Knox did so poignantly, by asking their raison d'etre, 
 was sure to bring down upon him the epithets " atheist " 
 and " infidel," familiar terms among the would-be 
 saintly in their charitable construction of other men's 
 opinions. If you have no case, abuse the plaintiff's 
 attorney; if you fail in argument, you can at least 
 throw dirt, and some of it is sure to stick, especially if it 
 be taken from the heaps of the Record and Scottish 
 Banner. The Doctor might have understood this, yet 
 for long he laboured under the impression that the path 
 which he saw so clearly could be pointed out to others ; 
 and that the inexorable logic of events must in time 
 convince his opponents. He seemed blind to the cravened 
 ignorance of the masses and the uncultured thought of 
 the higher ranks even of the profession itself; and that 
 gods and men fight in vain against inborn stupidity and 
 superstition. 
 
 If he cannot be said to have commanded the stronger 
 virtues, many of his comments upon the men and the
 
 THE BARK WORSE THAN THE BITE. 269 
 
 events of his epoch rested more with the fit of his humour 
 and outspokenness than a tendency to malice prepense. 
 Had he been less critical, less candid, and more truthful, 
 he would have been in happier relations with his contem- 
 poraries, several of whom, feeling his stinging remarks, 
 railed at him in return, and must have verified 
 
 " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
 Make instruments to scourge us." 
 
 Instead of a tongue that speaketh no evil, and the soft 
 word that turneth away wrath, he showed an almost 
 habitual disregard for prudent reticence. Yet at all 
 times his bark was worse than his bite. His touches of 
 irony, or ridicule, if you will, breathed less of sarcastic 
 and evil thoughts than many supposed. Persons on the 
 qui vive for Knox's utterances oft mistook the emphasis 
 and bold avowal of opinion for fierceness of assault ; 
 and the repetition of his words from mouth to ear 
 necessarily gave rise to much misrepresentation, till at 
 length that which might have been a playful retort 
 came to be construed into personal enmity and the 
 worst form of ill-nature. A hardy personality, marked 
 by unmistakeable courage, a cynicism, and a kind of 
 neo-platonism, were perhaps too demonstrative in Knox's 
 public character, and these unfortunately obscured the 
 tenderer qualities of the heart manifested in his social 
 and private life. 
 
 Knox had a fair amount of egotism in his constitution ; 
 then he had also great powers of mind to sustain it. In 
 acumen, in scholarship, and in his own science, few men 
 of the day were more highly credited ; and pari passu
 
 270 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 with his exaltation arose the carping jealousy of his less 
 favoured compeers, ready at all times and seasons to de- 
 preciate his worth. Attacked on many sides, he unhesi- 
 tatingly cast the glove of defiance against all comers, 
 and as certainly as he combated he unhorsed the foe. 
 To compare Knox with his assailants in the Edinburgh 
 medical tournament a life of antagonism ab initio usque 
 ad finem would be to lower the Coeur de Lion of a 
 chivalrous age to the buckram and fustian of the nine- 
 teenth century, marked by the huckstering of medical 
 degrees and the elevation of fifth-rate men to College 
 presidential chairs.^ The anatomist was not of the order 
 of knights-errant) but a constant champion of interests 
 more ennobling than the "white ensign" of ''our St. 
 George," that bacon-curing and not too clean-handed 
 Cappadocian whom England, unwittingly it is presumed, 
 elevated to the position of a nation's patron saint! Knox 
 fought for his own individualism and faith in science, 
 
 1 This train of thought recalls a conversation with Knox in the library of 
 the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1841, on my asking his opinion as to 
 the propriety of joining the Society. He called my attention to the list ol 
 Fellows hanging on the wall, and after pointing to the names of Sir D. 
 Brewster, Sir C. Hell, and a few others, swept his hand across the rest as 
 'nobodies." "There," said he, " is a pupil of mine excellent fingers, 
 but," raising his finger to his forehead, " nothing here." Another "never 
 could comprehend the meaning of the word ' generalization,' " &c. " Why 
 would you throw money away upon a Society rapidly hastening to the 
 guidance of banker's clerks, fifth-rate medical practitioners, and the like ? 
 You gain nothing of science, and as little honour." lie then animadverted 
 upon the two Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, whose professional 
 dignity he considered to be on the wane : he augured their coalition for 
 their own ends and gains, their granting of dijdomas and degrees for the 
 ;^. s. d. consideration, and the coming time when mediocrity would prevail 
 over medical interests and scientific emulation.
 
 THE PYRAMID OR THE SPHINX. 271 
 
 and for a time with great success ; for who can be said 
 to have held higher ground than the noted naturahst of 
 the North, the anatomical teacher with 500 pupils under 
 one roof; the bold exponent of biological doctrines based 
 on facts consonant or not as they might be with Hebraic 
 signs, traditions, and belief? Among his contemporaries 
 he stood as pre-eminent as the pyramid of Cheops amid 
 the smaller and ruder constructions of the Gheezeh group 
 on the edge of the desert ; or, as some would have him 
 to be, the Sphinx at the base, struggling with the drifting 
 sand anomalistic yet attractive, mythic yet historical. 
 
 Not a few of his contemporaries, whilst admitting his 
 oratorical grandeur, would have it that he was too much 
 of an actor in his public appearances. Now, almost all 
 oratory, be it of the pulpit, or plebeian, or parliamentary, 
 is full of arts, if not of tricks ; and the style of oratory 
 that does not disdain to be artificial at times is often 
 winning and effective. Guided possibly by what Demos- 
 thenes held to be an essential element in public speaking 
 "action " and again "action " Knox enjoyed the rare 
 accomplishment of gaining the entire attention of his 
 audiences. He possessed grace, and tact, and supple- 
 ness, and these most valuable adjuncts to his public 
 efforts were often made visible in his apt diversions, and 
 equal readiness to cope with any difficulty that might 
 untowardly arise. Opportunities for eloquence are rarely 
 afforded the anatomist, whose work is full of details and 
 descriptions, so that the fact of any one earning dis- 
 tinction in that line is all the more remarkable. If Knox 
 could invest the osteology with an historical meaning, 
 and revive the geological past, or make arteries and
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 muscles reflect the laws of natural philosophy and the 
 visibly living action, what might he not do with his 
 thoughts engaged on a more fitting and popular theme ? 
 If the component parts of a dead organism sufficed 
 for the exhibition of a rare descriptive power that 
 could clothe them in motory action and real life, what 
 greatness might he not achieve on the political plat- 
 form, pointing out the proverbial blunders of the War 
 Office, the red-tapeism of officials, and the " organized 
 hypocrisy " of Governments ! The great impression pre- 
 vailing among those who had studied and knew his 
 character thoroughly, was Knox's fitness to meet any 
 emergency, or to accomplish anything within the range 
 of human intellect, or in the more exciting arena of 
 medical debate. 
 
 The crucial test is wanting, but the inference is suffi- 
 ciently strong to warrant the belief that Knox might 
 have cut a great figure in public life ; nay, more, had he 
 taken to the tribune, would hardly have been matched by 
 John Bright. M.P., George Dawson of Birmingham, and 
 Henry Vincent^ of London, the three men who during 
 the last twenty years have obtained most largely the con- 
 fidential approval of democratic England. As political 
 agitator, Knox would have been a pungent thorn in the 
 side of any Government that failed to respect popular 
 rights. The careless grace which he would at one time 
 exhibit as to his own individuality and importance, then 
 
 ' The doctor asked me to accompany him to a lecture by Henr}' Vincent 
 one ni{;ht in Kdinlnirjjh, and his remark on coming out wa.s : "Weil, 
 Lonsdale, with four such men as H. Vincent I would undertake to revolu- 
 tinni/e England in less than six months."
 
 THE ORATOR. 273 
 
 the lively egotism of another hour, charmed by their 
 contrast ; and these were varied again by the display of 
 a grand trenchant style, the effects of which in discom- 
 fiting the opposition surpassed all belief. No prepared 
 philippic of Bright's could ever reach the height and force 
 of Knox's impromptus. Take the instance of the mob 
 surrounding his lecture-room, when his life was in peril, 
 or the attack of the " professorial clique " in the Royal 
 Society. There might be a singular combination of ten- 
 dencies, of great defects and of greater faculties, but as a 
 man for a tribune, to rouse the popular feeling and to 
 carry the popular voice, Knox could hardly have been 
 surpassed. Having listened to every noted public speaker 
 in the British Isles, to the Ministers and Opposition of 
 Louis Philippe's regime, and the greater celebrities of the 
 French Institute ; also to the leading men of the revo- 
 lutionary epoch of 1848, I am disposed to think that 
 with the exception of Louis Kossuth's historical efforts, 
 beyond all comparison the grandest of their kind, Knox 
 would have measured well with the best men of his day at 
 home or abroad. Assuredly he eclipsed all anatomical 
 and medical teachers in Britain and France. Most orators 
 show their full strength on every public occasion ; now, 
 whatever effort Knox made, you felt that he had a eo7'ps 
 dc reserve that could be brought to the front when need- 
 ful to bear upon special points, and with sweeping effect 
 upon his enemy's lines. 
 
 From long observation of his character, Knox was 
 led to designate the medical student "a most curious 
 and troublesome person to deal with," often flying off 
 at tangents, or soliciting a royal road to learning. Yet 
 
 T
 
 274 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 no lecturer could boast of so warm an attachment to 
 his person, amounting almost to a devotional feeling, 
 as Knox had from the vast majority of his pupils. 
 Of Bibliolatry, Scotland knows enough, and of Mariolatry 
 the world is daily getting more informed ; but neither 
 of these affecting theological interests only could vie 
 with the demonstration of Knoxolatry of anatomical 
 Edinburgh from 1826 to 1836. Within the collegiate 
 precincts, in the Halls where medical fraternities met for 
 discussion, or amid the social gatherings of students, 
 one name figured superlatively, and that name was 
 Robert Knox. Various classical and historical cogno- 
 mens were applied to the anatomist, often, too, in 
 significant portraiture of some of his characteristics as 
 well as his grander parts on the world's stage. It was 
 highly amusing to read the various interpretations of 
 the man Knox, and to listen to the comments made 
 upon him by his motley class. The reader of the 
 " Iliad " saw Knox amid the Trojan warriors ; the 
 Manxman tracing the historic Mona, found a parallel to 
 the daring Norse Sea-kings in the bold Scot, and 
 named him accordingly ; the student who had the 
 night previous witnessed Vandenhoff, the tragedian, in 
 his fine portrayal of Coriolanus, next morning verified 
 the noble Roman on the boards of Surgeons' Hall ! 
 When the anatomist was in his high philosophic 
 moods, he was likened to Socrates the ugly husband 
 of Xantippe ; if warmly enthusiastic, to Vesalius ; if 
 satirical, to Juvenal, or, as the Irishman would have it, 
 Dean Swift ; if highly eloquent, worthy to occupy the 
 Iknia and lead the Athenians, or to rival Cicero in
 
 VARIOUS COGNOMENS. 275 
 
 frustrating conspiracies against the Republic. A clever 
 pupil of Knox's (R. M. Glover) named him " Old 
 Cyclops :" many knew him by his Christian name only, 
 and spoke of him familiarly as Robert so far objection- 
 able, however, that the enemy took advantage and 
 added le Diable. Known by a host of aliases, but 
 always invested with the highest attributes 
 
 " In all this world ne was there none him like 
 To speak of physic and of surgery," 
 
 and what a delightful companion he would have been 
 in the pilgrimage to Canterbury, as the Doctor of Physic, 
 the story-teller, and beguiler of time's dreary hours. 
 
 Knox had numbers of graduation theses, " Proba- 
 tionary Essays," and poetical effusions of students 
 dedicated to him. The present distinguished Professor 
 Sharpey, though not a pupil of the Doctor's, acknow- 
 ledged his regard for the great teacher in this way ; and 
 Sir W. Fergusson, on joining the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, naturally offered homage to his master. A 
 youthful poet dedicated a poem to " Dr. Knox, the first 
 lecturer on anatomy," &c. Here is a specimen of his 
 preface in the form of a sonnet : 
 
 " Immortal genius ! may thy brow for ever 
 Be bound with laurels verdant, fresh, and green ; 
 Scorn back the paltry minions who endeavour 
 To wound thy fame so fair with envious spleen. 
 I cannot laud thee more than say Be what thou'st been. " 
 
 Knox had more substantial offerings in the way of 
 fish, fruit, and the dainties of the country forwarded to 
 him during the season ; indeed the specialities of each 
 
 T 2
 
 276 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 county's produce were regular offerings on the part of 
 students to the man they loved. 
 
 Here was hero-worship filling the Knox cup and 
 running over, and due entirely to the recognition of the 
 talents of a great master. His reputation was in no 
 way fictitious, but rested on intellectual strength, and a 
 native vigour and force of character that swept past 
 ordinary obstacles in the struggle for life and life's 
 ennobling rewards. The spirit of the man was visible 
 in every action ; he was restless and impetuous, ever 
 on the forward march to reach the goal of success. His 
 exhortations to self-reliance, conveyed in the most 
 inviting way, had the happiest effect upon his class. 
 Seeing in him the exaltation of merit, they would 
 drink of the same Pierian spring that had refreshed 
 their master's soul, crediting themselves with the hope 
 of imbibing part of his enthusiasm and noble emulation. 
 
 Knox passionately loved the approbation of his class, 
 and faithfully tried to earn it. The cheers that greeted 
 his appearance, or arose during the hour in hearty appre- 
 ciation of his sentiments, were to him ample guerdon 
 for all his pains and study and labour. He nev^er 
 stooped to commonplace, to weak platitudes and washy 
 colouring, much less to vulgar parlance ; his forte lay in 
 smart epigram and classical similes, the logical defini- 
 tion and historical parallel, or the zoological generaliza- 
 tion of impressive interest. 
 
 Over the portals of Old Surgeons' Hall, a standard 
 inscribed in bold letters Excelsior might have waved 
 with significance in honour of Knox, the grand chief, 
 his lieutenants, Fcrgusson and Reid, and the rank and file
 
 KNOX FACILE PRINCEPS. 277 
 
 of some thousands of good men and true. Many worthy 
 Esculapii, the Monros, Bells, and others, had passed 
 through these portals since 1697 ; but at no time perhaps 
 in the Collegiate history of the building in which Knox 
 lectured, had there been such marked anatomical zeal in 
 the aspirants for surgical honours, such public ardour 
 and success in a teacher, and such high promise for the 
 future of the Edinburgh school, as was displayed by 
 Robert Knox and his pupils. If the sun had set upon 
 the habitation of the old chirurgeons, its setting was 
 rendered glorious by Knox, its last representative, of 
 Avhom there had been no prototype in the history of 
 the College. If each of the anatomists from the days 
 of James IV. of Scotland had had a pillar erected to his 
 memory in the great hall, Knox would have been 
 entitled to a noble design the fluted column, with the 
 spiral ornates and emblem crowning capital, as signi- 
 ficant and distinctive as the famous Apprentices' Pillar 
 in the chapels of Roslin and Melrose. 
 
 Country practitioners thought nothing of riding to 
 Edinburgh from a distance of twenty miles and upwards 
 to hear "Knox's Introductory," and expressed them- 
 selves amply repaid for their journey, were it made 
 through November frost or sleet. A previous perusal 
 of the reports of the London opening session enabled 
 them the better to appreciate the anatomist of 
 another atmosphere ; for no more marked contrast 
 could be met with in the range of medical thought 
 and expression thirty-five years ago than the Metro- 
 politan prefatory lectures and Knox's oral Introductory. 
 The Southern, as a general rule, was formal and stereo-
 
 278 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 typed, beginning with the definition of dva-Ti/jivio, then 
 traversing the alphabet of osteologies and myologies, 
 and ending with the paternal counsel of " Be good 
 boys, and you will get diplomas." Knox, on the other 
 hand, was always fresh, free, and flowing : he offered 
 no hard lines, no repulsive detail, and no sermonising. 
 Without a note, and with no further preparation than 
 " thinking of it " in his walks a day or two previously, 
 every November Introductory appeared like a new 
 coinage from a new dye. Having on one occasion 
 ventured to speak to him of the memoranda he meant to 
 make for his " Introductory," he said that if he took 
 notes he might be tempted to read them, and if he read 
 a dozen lines he would assuredly spoil his lecture. 
 
 There was point and significance in all his remarks, 
 which told upon his juniors and seniors alike ; then 
 the vigour, the confidence, and hopefulness of his 
 strain, his winning, impressive, and elevating manner, 
 stood antipodal to the flat, stale, and unprofitable so 
 common in the schools. He naturally kept the divisions 
 of his course in view, but in his prefatory lecture he 
 cared less for definition and classification, and more for 
 the opportunity of coaxing the student within the 
 laboratory of his art, and giving him a direction 
 sciencewards. The historical allusion based on a trite 
 example, the distinction between true and pseudo- 
 science, and the high aim of the surgeon, were graphically 
 delineated ; indeed, his lectures were like panoramas of 
 varied interest. So far from painting a leaden surface 
 and pluviose sky, sheep on the moor, and a shepherd 
 with his conventional crook and " collie," the ruminants
 
 A MASTER OF HIS ART. 279 
 
 and the " plaided " bucolic being much akin to the 
 students and teachers of certain anatomical schools, 
 Knox furnished a glowing landscape with colour in the 
 foreground reflected in the pebbly stream, human figures 
 in human attitudes, a columnar edifice seen through 
 pensile foliage the Temple of Esculapius, if you will.; 
 the distant vale, the cloud-capt hills and azure vault ; 
 and all in harmony and good taste. His pencil was 
 of the ready sort, his tones were light and warm, and 
 his work, if at times sketchy, was ever pleasing and 
 effective. 
 
 Too much is apt to be assigned to the influence of 
 the teacher upon the taught, and many an incompetent 
 lecturer, marking the success of one of his pupils, has 
 mounted the stilts of the pedant, and exclaimed, " See 
 what my instructions have done," when the young 
 gentleman spoken of had advanced himself, and shown 
 his greatest advance in escaping from the bonds of his 
 master's tuition. In the majority of instances self- 
 reliance and Saxon industry carry the day with English 
 lads ; in others, again, an impetus is essential to the start. 
 The Doctor hesitated not to claim a good deal of per- 
 sonal influence over his pupils, and it must be admitted 
 that he seldom over- rated his powers in that direction. 
 The student saw in him a high fervour, and love of 
 science, and became persuaded of the value of his work 
 and its adaptability to the interests of humanity. The 
 persuasive force of his example and rhetoric upon 
 others was like a transfusion of healthy blood to the 
 semi-collapsed veins of a choleraic or ha,'morrhagic 
 patient; there was a response at the student's heart to
 
 2So LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 every stroke of the Knox piston propelling the flow of 
 the invigorating stimulus to the brain.^ 
 
 My intercourse with Knox's pupils has been consider- 
 able, and I cannot recall a single instance of doubt being 
 expressed by any one as to the direct encouragement 
 and suasory power of the master. The student thought 
 it a piece of good luck to be thrown in Knox's way, and 
 proudly valued any prize or honourable distinction won 
 in his class. Hundreds of those who thronged the 
 benches of Old Surgeons' Hall still live to speak in 
 rapturous terms of the " great teacher," and in the rank 
 and file of these are to be found men of high distinc- 
 tion in the practice of their art, in zoology and 
 natural history, in the walks of literature and general 
 science. 
 
 Large space would be required to enable me to name 
 the distinguished " Knoxites," and to allude specially to 
 some and not to all would involve me in a delicate task. 
 Among those who lent ear to Knox's first course of 
 lectures were two youths who have since risen to the 
 height of their selected calling, and as they are 
 admirable representatives of his school in zoology and 
 surgery, I may be permitted without bias to name them. 
 One was Richard Owen, of Lancaster, who truly received 
 zoological inspiration from " lectures the most brilliant 
 ever delivered on anatomy," and to-day speaks of 
 
 ' I may he pardoned for using this simile, drawn from ohservation in the 
 treatment of cholera, and a striking case of successful transfusion after 
 l)ucxi)eral hemorrhage a case which my deei)ly-lamented friend .Sir J. Y. 
 .Simpson used to cite as the most satisfactory example of the kind in British 
 o >si trie medicine.
 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF HIS SCHOOL. 2S1 
 
 Knox's influence in prompting him to visit the Jardin des 
 Plantes, and seek the teachings of the French savans. 
 Any words of mine regarding Professor Owen would be 
 but a faint echo of the verdict of Europe at large; nor is 
 it necessary to dwell upon the " Lothian lad," William 
 Fergusson, who owed nearly all to Knox, and now 
 occupies so proud a surgical position in the metropolis. 
 How many others there are of great and distinctive 
 merit in Edinburgh, in Glasgow, and throughout Scot- 
 land ; whilst from Cumberland to Cornwall, and in the 
 large towns of England ; in Ireland, the United States, 
 British America and British Colonies ; everywhere the 
 majority of medicals who were educated previous to 
 1842, and who have reached superior positions, were 
 " Knoxites." The provincial medical schools, the 
 Queen's Colleges of Ireland, had men of the same order 
 to represent their anatomy, physiology, and surgery at 
 starting ; whilst numbers of leading men in the public 
 services owed their advance to the influence of their 
 great anatomical teacher. Many are gone who held up 
 the " Knox light " to the advantage of their times ; but 
 others remain in whom their master's spirit has kindled 
 a true love for science. Among those whom I remember 
 to have called forth the Doctor's hopes are Professors 
 J. H. Bennett and George E. Day ; Dr. Boyd, of Lon- 
 don ; Dr. Adams, of Glasgow ; Mr. R. T. Lightfoot ; 
 Dr. Kelburne King, of Hull, &c. British anatomy 
 and surgery owes no little to Knox's methods, and his 
 inoculation of the minds of thousands whom he educated 
 for every walk of professional life. Professor Goodsir's 
 letter (Anatom. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 142), to his old master
 
 2S2 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 on this very subject, in 1854, might be cited, but 
 abundant evidence exists throughout the country in 
 support of this opinion. 
 
 A pause in the narrative would have been more con- 
 sonant with my feehngs than noting those who occupied 
 Knox's benches, the noting which implies the recall to 
 memory of dearly attached friends, and many noble sons 
 of science gathered to the dust. Having enjoyed the 
 closest intimacy of the men, how can I write without 
 emotion of John Reid, of John and Harry Goodsir, of 
 Edward Forbes, of Samuel Brown, among the chiefs of 
 " the Brotherhood " .'' Who more distinguished in British 
 physiology, in manly, honourable character, than Pro- 
 fessor John Reid .-' Who more scientific than Professor 
 John Goodsir, the true successor of Knox.' Who offered 
 more promise as a naturalist than the big-framed, big- 
 hearted Harry Goodsir } Who won the hearts of men 
 more than Professor Edward Forbes } Who lighted 
 anew the torch of philosophical chemistry in the spirit 
 that guided Dr. Samuel Brown ?^ Sharing in the fame of 
 their master were Hugh Falconer, one of the most genial 
 of men and among the ablest of palaeontologists ; the 
 famous Perceval Barton Lord, who figured so nobly in 
 India; the clever chemist, R. Mortimer Glover, of New- 
 castle ; the gracious James Duncan; the lively Archie 
 Cockburn ; the excellent brothers George and Patrick 
 
 ' I have flscwherc (Goodsir's Memoirs) spoken of these distinguished 
 sons of scienee, and would willingly have said something of Falconer and 
 P. B. I.ord, K. M. Cilover, and others named in tlie text ; but a suitable 
 in tmmoriam would probably have extended this chapter beyond the 
 wishes of my readers.
 
 HIS NAME TALISMANIC. 283 
 
 Nevvbigging. Of those personally unknown to myself, 
 and belonging to a different path, were Lord Glenorchy, 
 Sir George Sinclair, and greater than all others among 
 the literati and strictly non-medical who assembled 
 under the Knox roof, was the logician. Sir W. Hamilton, 
 Bart., all of whom spoke in the highest terms of their 
 anatomical teacher. 
 
 The name of Knox was like a sign of freemasonry ; 
 and his Edinburgh associations often proved a bond of 
 attachment to the veriest strangers in all parts of the 
 world. By the camp-fires of Canada, under the Indian 
 verandahs, in the tented field, on the heights of Balaclava, 
 and wherever military or naval surgeons have congre- 
 gated for forty years past ; hours of cnmii, anxiety, and 
 danger have been robbed of their trials, and even made 
 cheery, by the introduction of the famed anatomist's 
 name. If perchance one of the party could call up the 
 visage, the style of elocution and mannerism of the 
 teacher, the effects were exhilarating. " Another pipe, 
 another story of the queer old soul," and with the 
 revival of their students' days, surgeons forgot their 
 pressing hardships, in reflecting on the world of the 
 past enlivened by Knox. If anecdotes of the anatomist 
 could stir the circulation of his pupils thousands of miles 
 from home, the last mot or story, fresh from the mint of 
 Old Surgeons' Hall, enlivened with treble force the 
 dinner and supper parties of Edinburgh, of the medical 
 class especially. 
 
 Time, it is said, occasionally makes sad havoc of per- 
 sonal reputation, and Knox was a melancholy instance of 
 the truthfulness of this. If the tide of his prosperity
 
 284 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 rose higher on the beach than any other anatomist of 
 the century, the ebb of his adversity receded to the utmost 
 verge of the sands, the very shoal. Like his great mihtary 
 idol, he had had his Austerlitz, and now had come his 
 Moscow. Unsettled from 1842 to 1846, and moving to 
 and fro on both sides of the Tweed ; now living with an 
 old pupil, now searching for employment in London, 
 he was at length induced to give a few lectures on 
 the " Races of Men," in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Man- 
 chester, &c. This peripatetic philosophizing made him 
 known to the general public, and helped his finances ; 
 but it was not exactly the position for a man of Knox's 
 calibre to occupy in England, that had its " Royal 
 Institution" and many chartered corporations under 
 whose wing he should have played a part equal to 
 the best-cultured minds of the day. His letters at 
 this period express disappointment, and no wonder. 
 Possessing the highest gifts of intellect, he obtained no 
 acknowledgment in the ranks of his own profession ; the 
 greatest teacher of anatomy could find no chair and no 
 lectureship in the mighty metropolis; and the Govern- 
 ment, not knowing the meaning of the word science, 
 could not possibly see the merits of a man of genius.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RACES OF MEN. 
 
 TloWdi. TO SfivcL, KOvSiu du- 
 Bpciirov SfiuoTepov irt'Xei. 
 
 The antiquity of Man, his geographical position and 
 migrations, his capacities and beHefs, have engaged the 
 thinking minds of every age; it is only in these latter 
 days, however, that his true characteristics as a com- 
 ponent part of the zoological chain have received due 
 recognition at the hands of Science. Long prior to the 
 reign of Queen Anne, or any other British queen, philo- 
 sophers, as well as poets, had conceived the idea that 
 "the proper study of mankind is Man;" but of what 
 avail were poesy, theology, and the speculations of the 
 schoolmen till Vesalius and his successors mapped out 
 the human anatomy, and gave a philosophical direction 
 to Biology ? 
 
 Taking the biblical genesis as the text of man's 
 natural history, there was but one genus Hovio, and 
 but one species Homo styled the Sapiens; and in ac- 
 cordance with the cry "Am I not a man and a brother.^" 
 men of every hue and dye were to be viewed as alike
 
 2S6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 I 
 
 partakers of the fee-simple of the earth. As long as 
 Science limited its prerogative to Mosaical traditions, the 
 legends of the Saints, and the doctrines of the infallible 
 Church, Adam and Eve were its anthropological idols, 
 and the wily-tongued serpent a miraculous conception 
 nondescript and terribly wicked. This mythic credence, 
 or Eastern allegory, judged by the laws of ratiocination 
 and geological insight, could not possibly last. With 
 the growth of Western civilization questions naturally 
 arose as to Man being a single species, or if his first 
 genesis, "Eden's lovely pair," were black or white, brown 
 or red ; and how far his mental and moral nature were 
 reconcileable with his physical structure. 
 
 Looking upon the human family at large, it might well 
 be asked : Were the Southern Islanders luxuriating 
 upon their enemies' warm vitals or an occasional relish 
 of "cold Missionary" the Esquimaux peering out 
 from beneath his bearskin coverings like a timid 
 hedgehog, yet feeding with a forty-parson stomachic 
 power, on whale blubber the black-ebony African in 
 his nude, chewing the sugar-cane the countless families 
 of deep olive, sooty, and ochre-red, grandly feathered and 
 tattooed, some with noses rung like a Durham ox, others 
 with lower lips fashioned like egg-cups, or seeking 
 beauty in paint, mutilation, and deformity, fetish wor- 
 shippers and other animalized anthropoids : were all 
 these sprung from the loves of Adam and Eve, and were 
 they to be held of the same stock as Socrates, Galileo, 
 and Newton } Many and ludicrous were the attempts 
 to solve these and other questions pertaining to Man's 
 position, but to no effect till Johann Friedrich Blumen-
 
 THE NAPOLEOmC EPOCH. 287 
 
 bach's dissertation, " De Generis Hiimani Varictate 
 Nativa" was read at Gottingen in the autumn of 1775. 
 A few months prior to Blumenbach, John Hunter,^ an 
 Edinburgh graduate, selected for his thesis the Varieties 
 of Man ; so that Edinburgh and Gottingen made the 
 first advance to ethnology. As the Scoto-Britannicus 
 proceeded no further in the work, the German got the 
 field to himself, and maintained it beyond his profes- 
 sorial jubilee. Blumenbach's labours formed the text- 
 book of Cuvier, Lawrence, Pritchard, Nott and Gliddon, 
 Latham, Waitz, Morton, Pickering, and others. 
 
 Anthropology may now be said to be in a promising 
 way : accredited facts and a stricter observation and 
 analysis of humanity in well-trodden fields are being 
 accumulated, and, what is of more import, are freely 
 discussed and interpreted on scientific grounds alone. 
 
 Knox, as a youth, was greatly influenced by the 
 stirring events of the Napoleonic epoch. Pressed for- 
 wards by the tide of human thought that swept away 
 so many of the effete formulas of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, Knox came to view the passing events of his 
 adolescence as having a more lasting influence than 
 popular passion concentrated upon a revolutionary 
 storm and a national conflict. The spirit of the Old 
 Gaul, though springing from a single city, the capital, 
 it is true, had been sufficient not only to upset the 
 
 1 This John Hunter has by some continental authors been mistaken for the 
 great surgeon, comparative anatomist, and founder of the museum of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, London. The former had a very ephemeral 
 fame, whilst the philosophic labours of the latter placed him in the very- 
 front rank of medical discovery, and there he will stand as the historical 
 John Hunter.
 
 288 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 oldest dynasty in the world, but to make Europe stand 
 aghast at the dazzling blaze of French aggression. Well 
 versed as Knox was in historic lore, and the progress 
 of modern polity and civilization, nothing in past times 
 appeared to him so strange as the impetuous force of 
 the Celtic wave rushing from the banks of the Seine 
 across the Alps, spreading over the southern plains of 
 Europe, and even traversing the " Great Sea " to the 
 land of the Pharaohs and the Solomons. Then arose 
 the opposing forces, the marchings and countermarchings 
 of the Allies from Madrid to Moscow, and all directed 
 to crush the Corsican phenomenon at the head of his 
 Celtic tribes. Why should the French become so for- 
 midable at the close of the eighteenth century, that 
 they could tear State treaties to rags, set alliances at 
 defiance, and make havoc in Europe .'' Some other 
 source than geographical position, mere numbers, or 
 cunning diplomacy, ruled events ; and Knox sought 
 for the rationale in the blood of the race. It was the 
 Celt who had broken loose from his Bourbon chains, 
 and, fired by the old spirit, military and marauding, 
 had carried the revolutionary torch from Alp to Alp, 
 from city to city, till the tocsin of war resounded 
 through Europe. The ''Marseillaise'' with its '' Citoyens 
 aux anncs" the bonnet rouge, and " Goddess of Liberty " 
 idols were but the thcrmidor efflorescence of French 
 glory ; the loftier and more ambitious design of carrying 
 the tricolor triumphantly to the ends of the earth lay 
 in the sap of the race the blood of the Gallic Celt. 
 
 As proving an early penchant for the study of Man, 
 Knox, immediately after graduating in 1814, visited
 
 RACE AND NATIONALITIES. 289 
 
 the Highlands of Scotland for the purpose of observing 
 the Caledonian Celt at home. In the military hospitals 
 of Brussels, crowded with Waterloo victims, he studied 
 the "Pruss" and "Frank," the Sclavonic, the Basques, 
 and other waifs and strays of the rank and file engaged 
 at Mont St. Jean. In Africa, at the Cape, he had more 
 specific data for observation. 
 
 Knox sought to give a new direction to the study 
 of Race. In the first place, he wished to have a faithful 
 record of Man's normal structures, his osteology, ner- 
 vous system, &c., then the deviations, rudimentary, 
 excessive, or abnormal, so as to make the history of the 
 physical man as complete as possible : this, he main- 
 tained, could only be done by competent persons, 
 thoroughly educated for the work by a knowledge of 
 comparative anatomy as well as the human. He 
 aimed at a knowledge of Man in all his entirety 
 geographical, historical, and physical. Being debarred 
 from taking part in the greater inquiry that involved 
 much travel and years of devotion, he occupied himself 
 mainly with the history of Man, as far as that history 
 bore upon the rise and fall of nationalities in the pre- 
 sent century. The questions involved in this pursuit 
 than which nothing could well be more deeply interest- 
 ing to both governments and peoples, were so adroitly 
 entered upon by Knox that in time he gained the 
 distinction of having made them very much his own. 
 
 He argued for the strictly scientific path of inquiry 
 in studying Man, and through all his varied relations, 
 savage, social, or intellectual ; and this entirely apart 
 from all preconceived Mosaical and Aristotelian notions. 
 
 U
 
 290 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He saw in the coalescence, the dynastic growth and 
 " solidarity of peoples," a manifestation of the blood 
 affinities of Race. The historical patriotism and con- 
 servation of public feeling or a national life were to be 
 found with those of unmixed blood ; indeed, he looked 
 upon the homogeneity of Race as the only reliable basis 
 of a well-founded nationality. Race was the instru- 
 ment in Napoleon's marvellous rise ; it was not less 
 the cause of his disastrous fall. With differences of 
 race came diversity of thought, contfentions, and war ; 
 and no rule, however autocratic, could long maintain 
 the status quo against such discordance and blood 
 temper. Espionage, prisons, and the scaffold might 
 serv^e for a time, but would not kill the hydra-headed 
 power that demanded government in sympathy with 
 racial predilections. 
 
 In offering a synopsis of the history of his own epoch, 
 Race quoad the polity of Europe formed the main basis 
 of his argument. He saw the operations of Race upon 
 the wheel of Fortune all over the world's area, and as 
 clearly, patent in the foreground of savagery as of 
 civilization ; he held that each political move in Central 
 Europe revealed facts in support of his doctrines. Ten 
 years before Knox lectured to any popular audiences on 
 the subject I had been made partaker of his views on the 
 history of races, and been much struck with their novelty 
 and force ; but what surprised me most was his bold 
 asseveration of what he felt sure must come to pass in my 
 time, if not in his own. He saw with the eye of the 
 seer what was looming in the distance of Continental 
 affairs, and unquestionably indicated the approach of
 
 CASTING THE EUROPEAN HOROSCOPE. 291 
 
 the most stormy events in modern times ; nay, more, he 
 saw the fulfilment of his rashest prognostications. His 
 prefiguring "the inevitable course of events" simulated 
 the constancy of purpose that characterized the Roman 
 Sybil, and, like her, he encountered a world of doubting 
 and disbelieving Tarquins. The bold avowal of his 
 sentiments implied the power to look into the seeds of 
 time, whilst his prophetic warnings, fraught with interest, 
 were at times as startling to his listeners as the "All hail" 
 of the weird sisters on the blasted heath to Macbeth and 
 Banquo. The actions of men, and the parts performed 
 by the rulers and the ruled in Europe, were to Knox 
 like a game of chess : here were kings and pawns on the 
 board, and castles behind which were sheltered statecraft 
 and priestcraft ; the knights might be military, diplo- 
 matic, or revolutionary, but ever sought to top over the 
 pawns or to crush the people ; and all the movements 
 obtained direction from Race. 
 
 Happily for the character of Knox's " stars," and 
 casting of the European horoscope, the dismemberment 
 of the Austrian Empire, and the rise of the Italian King- 
 dom, that he had foreseen, are now patent facts ; and no 
 better example need be cited of his clear insight into the 
 future, his guide to which rested exclusively upon the 
 likes and dislikes of Race. There was neither fancy nor 
 guesswork in the Knox programme that pointed to a 
 new interpretation of the world's history. His predic- 
 tions had no alliance with the Keiths of the past, much 
 less the Cummings of the present day, whose patchwork 
 of Daniel, the Pope, and the Devil, with earthquakes to 
 boot, are only suited to scare old women of both sexes. 
 
 U 2
 
 292 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Knox based his views of the coming time earthly, be it 
 understood upon the type and disposition of the actors 
 in the world's drama ; and Race he held to be unchanged 
 and unchangeable. The stage, the orchestra, and the 
 scenic reliefs might vary with the fashion of the times r- 
 the Consulate, the Commonwealth, or the coups d'etat of 
 history but the living forces would remain the same in 
 essence and manifestations : another drop of the curtain, 
 fresh buckram and hose, a loftier declamation, and the 
 moral epilogue was neither more nor less than Man 
 acting in accordance with the impulses of his race. 
 
 No one could converse with Knox without recognizing 
 the great space that man's nature filled in the schedule 
 of the anatomist's philosophy. Race would set aside 
 geographical position and boundaries, protocols, auto- 
 cracies, and the like ; it overtopped restraints of every 
 kind, diplomatic or dynastical. Knox could not glance 
 at a cranium for the common descriptive anatomy 
 without speaking of its ethnological bearings ; it was the 
 same with the external features and form of man gene- 
 rically and specifically. However much he might owe to 
 study and acquirements, Knox seemed to the manner 
 born to investigate distinctive anatomical characters : 
 even when walking along the streets, thronged with 
 men and women, he was always on the qui vive for 
 Race features. He could see at a glance what ordinary 
 men could hardly distinguish at their leisure ; if his eye 
 was penetrative beyond most, his more gifted vision lay 
 within an alert and discriminative mind. Previous to 
 his time, little or nothing was heard about Race in the 
 medical schools : he changed all this by his Saturday's
 
 THE NEW VIEWS RECOGNIZED. 293 
 
 lectures, and Race became as familiar as household words 
 to his students, through whom some of his novel ideas 
 became disseminated far and wide, both at home and 
 abroad. The terms " peoples," "nationalities," and the 
 like, used to constitute the staple vocabulary of writers, 
 without, however, any tangible groundwork or ideal 
 perception of the larger truths involved. Knox, travel- 
 ling like a peripatetic from one great city to another, 
 helped to convey to the English mind a larger meaning 
 than hitherto existed of the history of peoples ; and this 
 he accomplished by holding up a mirror that reflected 
 not only the names and colours of humanity, but the 
 inherent virtues and vices call them the distinctive 
 qualities of Race. Though slow to admit any doctrine 
 not springing from its own loins, " Cockaigne " at last 
 came to recognize " there was something " in Knox's 
 arguments, and that his scientific texts might be 
 preached from; even the Times, where few men would 
 look for any semblance of philosophy, began to write 
 of Race with as much pretension as any " old dog at 
 physiology." 
 
 He may have glanced at the plan of Daubenton, 
 founded on the structure of the head and on the rela- 
 tion which it bears to the trunk ; or the older plan 
 of Albert Durer, who used a frontal, nasal, and maxil- 
 lary line for his cranioscopic survey ; and the better 
 known facial lines of Camper as modes applied to 
 the discrimination of national crania as well as distin- 
 guishing them from the higher mammalia ; but beyond 
 a criticism of the weaker points in the doctrines of 
 Camper and his predecessors, Knox offered no further
 
 294 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 elucidation of their views. The diversities in the osseous 
 head of different nations, like of those of national coun- 
 tenance, were, according to Blumenbach,i reducible to 
 five principal varieties. To this classification Knox 
 objected, but he seemed less averse to Blumenbach's 
 " vertical rule," deduced from observing crania from 
 behind the vertex, having their cheek-bones placed 
 in the same horizontal line, arranged in a series : this 
 " vertical rule " claimed attention very markedly when 
 the head of a Georgian woman, distinguished by the 
 symmetry and beauty of all its parts, was placed be- 
 tween the cranium of a Tungoose from the north-east 
 of Asia, and that of a negress from the coast of Guinea. 
 As " the facial angle " led Camper to propose three 
 varieties of Man Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian 
 Blumenbach obtained mtcr alia the same notions from 
 his "vertical rule;" the superadded American and 
 Malayan holding middle places between the Caucasian 
 and Mongolian, and the Caucasian and Ethiopian. 
 Alexander Walker, a distinguished anatomist, looked 
 to the physical form and moral habit of man, and in 
 
 1 There is a singular coincidence in the nature of the inquiries which 
 engaged Knox and Blumenbach ; e.g. the Comparative Anatomy of the Eye, 
 the Ornithorhyuchus Paradoxus ; even beyond tlie biological field, as in 
 medical and surgical practice, Knox ran in the Blumenbach groove when he 
 discussed the frequency of hernia, &c. 
 
 Both Blumenbach and Knox had the art of calling things by their right 
 names, and of not sparing the rod when pseudo-science and charlatanism 
 deserved it. In speaking of the .Sloth, Blumenbach said the animal could 
 n-jver be brought to move both feet at the same lime. "When it goes, it 
 moves first one foot, stops, and sighs. Ah ! it could not have been in the 
 universal menagerie of Mount Ararat, because it lives in Brazil only; if it 
 had to come from Ararat to Brazil, it would not have been there yet."
 
 HIS PUBLISHED WORK. 295 
 
 some respects he claimed Knox's adhesion as better 
 indications than those of Camper or Blumenbach. 
 
 From an early period in his career as an anatomical 
 lecturer, he had pointed out the import of the study of 
 Race, and, after 1834, had indoctrinated the majority 
 of his friends with his more advanced views ; it was 
 in the year 1846 that he ventured to appear on a 
 public platform to address a non-medical audience. 
 In the language of the day, these lectures caused a 
 sensation by their novelty, and led to much talk out 
 of doors, and no small amount of controversy in the 
 press. For the first time English mixed audiences 
 listened to an original construction of human history, 
 to the tracing of human character, individual, social, 
 natural, to the all-pervading, unalterable physical cha- 
 racters of Race. In 1850 Dr. Knox published his lectures 
 under the title " The Races of Men : a Philosophical 
 Inquiry into the Influence of Race over the Destinies 
 of Nations." A second edition was issued by Mr. 
 Renshavv in 1862 : considering the nature of the work, 
 its cleverness, originality, and the bold onslaught of 
 the author on stereotyped prejudices, it should have 
 sold in thousands. 
 
 )CKnox based his anthropological views on the physical 
 structure of Man, or his zoological history. " Men are of 
 various races ; call them species, if you will ; call them 
 permanent varieties ; it matters not. The fact, the 
 simple fact, remains just as it was : men are of diffe- 
 rent races. Now, the object of these lectures is to show 
 that in human history Race is everything." He believed 
 that the mind of the Race, instinctive and reasoning,
 
 296 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 naturally dififered in correspondence with the organization. 
 He doubted if civilization had made much progress 
 since the decline of the Roman Empire, and seemed 
 disposed to think that Christianity was losing ground. 
 Human history was not a chapter of accidents, " Race 
 was everj'thing, yet we know not the history of one 
 race on the earth. All is conjecture, pretension, error, 
 obscurity." He classified the history of Man with the 
 history of the organic world, " as by the unity of orga- 
 nization Man is connected with all life past, present, 
 and to come. Other animals have but one history, 
 their zoological ; Man has two, the zoological and the 
 intellectual." He objected to the philosophic formula 
 of Blumenbach as being but an external -character 
 naturalistic method of studying Man. To the Slavonian 
 or to the South and Middle German, to Goethe, Oken, 
 Von Martius, and a host of others, he attributed a truer 
 theory of nature based on Transcendental Anatomy. 
 
 In his first lecture he astonished his hearers by 
 saying that the Celtic race does not, and never could 
 be made to comprehend the meaning of the word 
 " liberty " an opinion deduced from past history 1791, 
 181 5, and 1830 and which received ample confirmation 
 by the events of 1848 and 1851. On each of these 
 occasions supreme power was in the hands of the Celtic 
 French, but to no avail. To-day France is under a 
 Napoleon and arbitrary power. Knox was specially 
 strong, if not dogmatic, on the character of the Celt 
 his " furious fanaticism, love of war and disorder, 
 hatred for order and patient industry, and no accumu- 
 lative habits," and as clinching the contrast between the
 
 PROCLAIMS ins SAXON FEELING. 297 
 
 Saxon and the Celt, from personal character and 
 feeling, said : " As a Saxon, I abhor all dynasties, 
 monarchies, and bayonet governments, but this latter 
 seems to be the only one suitable for the Celtic man." 
 
 In matters pertaining to the history of Man he was 
 not sparing in his criticism of universities, colleges, 
 and schools, to whom the world owed " the perpetua- 
 tion of error, and of neatly-formuled untruths : " he had 
 as little sympathy with the "trashy, popular physio- 
 logics " that would attribute the dulness and phlegm 
 of the Dutch to their living amongst marshes, or the 
 vigorous calf of the Frenchwoman's leg to there being 
 no side pavements in Paris opinions that had been 
 advanced by Andrew Combe and Sir Charles Bell. 
 
 He held that as regards individual existence, time is a 
 short span ; a few centuries, or a few thousand years, more 
 or less : this is all a man can grasp, and for that period, 
 at least, organic forms seem not to have changed. " So 
 far back as history goes, the species of animals, as we 
 call them, have not changed ; the races of men have 
 been absolutely the same." Again, he says : " Look 
 more narrowly into the races of men, and you will find 
 them to be subject to diseases peculiar to each ; that 
 the very essence of their language is distinct, their 
 civilization also, if they have any." Two questions, he 
 thought, remained beyond human inquiry : First, the 
 origin of life on the globe ; secondly, the secondary 
 laws which create out of primitive forms, the past, the 
 present, and the future organic worlds. Wishing to 
 confine his remarks to Man merely as a material 
 being, the most perfect, no doubt, that exists, Knox
 
 298 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 concluded his introductory chapter as follows: " In 
 woman's form I see the perfection of Nature's works ; 
 the absolutely perfect, the beautiful, the highest mani- 
 festation of abstract life, clothed in a physical form, 
 adapted to the corresponding minds of her race and 
 species." 
 
 In his lecture on the " History of the Saxon and 
 Scandinavian Race," Knox's satire is manifested against 
 ingenious priests, Jesuits, and subtle casuists, from St. 
 Cyril downwards to Dr. Buckland of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and the framers of treaties, protocols, and alliances. 
 "The Scandinavian or Saxon," wrote Knox, who wished 
 to avoid the words " German " and " Teuton," as liable 
 to equivoque, "was early in Greece, say 3,500 years ago. 
 This race still exists in Switzerland, forming its Pro- 
 testant portion ; whilst in Greece it contributed mainly, 
 no doubt, to the formation of the noblest of all men 
 the statesmen, poets, sculptors, mathematicians, meta- 
 physicians, historians of ancient Greece." He attri- 
 buted to the Saxon inordinate self-esteem, love of 
 independence, which makes him dislike the proximity 
 of a neighbour, hatred for dynasties and governments, 
 and considered him democratic by nature, indeed the 
 only democrat on earth who comprehended the mean- 
 ing of the word "liberty." Of the origin of the Saxon 
 race, and not less its English portion, he was by no 
 means clear, yet he quoted Livy as to their physical 
 character; e.g. fair hair, blue eyes, fine complexion, 
 " not a well-made or proportioned race, falling off most 
 in the limbs ; the torso being large, vast, and dispro- 
 portioncd." The Saxon was not suited to America
 
 THE CELTIC RACE. 299 
 
 and Australia, and a real native permanent race of pure 
 Saxon he held to be a dream which never could be 
 realized. Here is his description of the Saxon : 
 " Thoughtful, plodding, industrious beyond all other 
 races, a lover of labour for labour's sake, he cares not 
 its amount if it be but profitable ; large-handed, me- 
 chanical, a lover of order, of punctuality in business, 
 of neatness and cleanliness." Again : " This genius is 
 wholly applicative, for he invents nothing. In the fine 
 arts, and in music, taste cannot go lower ; " but they 
 delight in " prize-fights, bull-baiting with dogs, sparring 
 matches, rowing, horse-racing, gymnastics." 
 
 In his "History of the Celtic Race" he maintained 
 that whether French, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh, the 
 Celt was always the same, unaltered and unalterable. 
 Civilization and education may modify, religious formula 
 is the result of Race ; morals, actions, feelings, &c., 
 flow from physical structure. Long prior to Caesar's 
 time the Celtic race had overflowed its barriers, crossing 
 the Alps, sacking Rome, invading Greece, and plunder- 
 ing Delphi. From Brennus to Napoleon, the war-cry 
 of the Celtic race was, " To the Alps to the Rhine." 
 War is the game of the Celt. Herein is the forte of 
 his physical and moral character ; in stature and weight, 
 as a race, inferior to the Saxon ; limbs muscular 
 and vigorous ; torso and arms seldom attaining any 
 very large development hence the extreme rarity of 
 athletai ; hands broad ; fingers squared at the points ; 
 step elastic and springy ; in muscular energy and 
 rapidity of action surpassing all other European races. 
 His natural weapon is the sword. Jealous on the point
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of honour, his self-respect is extreme ; admitting of no 
 practical jokes ; an admirer of beauty of colour and of 
 form, and a liberal patron of the fine arts. The musical 
 ear of the race is tolerably good ; in literature and 
 science he follows method and order ; in the ordinary 
 affairs of life he despises order, economy, cleanliness ; 
 regular labour he holds in contempt. Irascible, warm- 
 hearted, full of deep sympathies, dreamers on the past, 
 uncertain, treacherous, gallant, and brave. 
 
 In discussing the physiological questions Do races 
 ever amalgamate .'* What are the obstacles to a race 
 changing its original locality } he answered the first 
 query by a direct negative, and pointed to Spanish 
 America, also to Ireland, where the Celt and Saxon hate 
 each other. Contrary to current Evangelical of)inions, 
 he held that Protestantism did not alter the Celt, and 
 that the Presbyterian Caledonian Celt had the same 
 faults as his Papal brother across the water; that Chris- 
 tianity had little or no influence over human affairs, 
 further than a State engine serving political purposes. 
 His second query took him back to the Phcenician, 
 Greek, and Coptic colonies; but what was of more import 
 to modern history, he had poor hopes of John Bull's 
 future as a denizen of North America, instancing the 
 changes going on in the United States man, and his 
 different appearance from the European. The ladies 
 early lose their teeth ; in both sexes the adipose cellular 
 cushion interposed between the skin and the aponeu- 
 rosis and muscles disappears, or at least loses its adipose 
 portion ; the muscles become stringy and show them- 
 selves ; the tendons appear on the surface, &c. The
 
 GUIZOT AND METTERNICIL 301 
 
 French Celt he maintained would never become a colo- 
 nist in Algeria, and that he did not thrive in Corsica. 
 
 In his second lecture, embracing the physiological 
 laws regulating human life, he pointed 'with triumph 
 to Guizot and Metternich among the converts flocking 
 to his standard, and admitting " that ' race,' as well 
 as ' democracy,' or socialism, or bands of peripatetic 
 demagogues, or evil spirits,^ may have had something to 
 do with the history of nations, and more especially with 
 the last revolutions in Europe." Mere climate could not 
 by any process of time form a new race ; the Bosjeman 
 could not be convertible into an Amakoso Caffre or 
 Saxon Hollander. Any change in structure or colour 
 can at once be traced to intermarriage, but he did not 
 believe that the new product arising from intermarriage, 
 or a mixed race, would stand its ground : " i. By 
 reason of the innate dislike of race to race, preventing a 
 renewal of such intermarriage ; 2. Because the de- 
 scendants will of necessity fall back upon the stronger 
 race, and all traces, or nearly so, of the weaker race 
 must in time be obliterated." 
 
 Knox looked upon human history as but of yesterday 
 compared with the period through which the globe has 
 rolled in space, "through which life has undergone its 
 ever succeeding developments ; yet Man, up to the 
 earliest recorded time, did not differ materially from 
 what he is now ; that there were races then as now ; that 
 neither over them, nor over the living world around, has 
 climate or external circumstances effected any serious 
 
 1 Metternich had spoken of "evil spirits," and Lord John Russell of 
 " peripatetic demagogues," in their explanation of the events of 1848.
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KS^OX. 
 
 changes, produced any new species, any new groups of 
 animal or vegetable life, any new varieties of mankind." 
 
 Looking at the two sides of St. George's Channel, 
 where two nations equally civilized and favoured by 
 climate had lived for hundreds of years almost ccBteris 
 paribus, and finding one nation respecting, the other 
 despising the law ; " the one Protestant and tolerant, the 
 other Catholic, fanatical, and persecuting ;" Knox could 
 not believe that distinctions so wide wre the result of 
 accidental circumstances, or that the British and French 
 could be " spoken of in the abstract as the branches of 
 one great family, of some ideal Indo-Germanic stock, 
 of some fabulous Caucasian family, who would never 
 have differed had no seas divided them." 
 
 His description of the gipsy on the southern borders 
 of Scotland, the intermarriage of the gipsy woman with 
 the Saxon, and all the speculations expressed as to the 
 nature of this wandering tribe, are set forth in Knox's 
 usual style. 
 
 The Coptic, Jewish, and Phoenician races, of course 
 come under his cognizance ; but it cannot be said that 
 he throws any light upon them. Of the history of the 
 Coptic, the ancient or modern Egyptian, Knox, like 
 hundreds of others who have preceded him, offers 
 nothing tangible or satisfactory ; he has his hypothesis, 
 around which he weaves a large amount of weft, more 
 coloured than substantial. The best German minds 
 have been devoted to Egyptology, and the French helped 
 a little in the same direction ; but the ethnological 
 history of Egypt, of surpassing interest to mankind, as 
 yet remains untold.
 
 NO BELIEF IN CONVERTED JEWS. 303 
 
 And this is all the more curious, as of the fertile 
 and inhabited lands of the earth, Egypt is held by 
 latest observers to be of the most recent geolog;ical 
 formation. Human history extends only to the Egyptian 
 dynasties, a kind of evidence not to be overlooked in 
 showing that Man has had his most ancient resting-place 
 by the banks of the Nile ; how long antecedent to the 
 building of the Pyramids, and the enjoyment of life's 
 luxuries, physical and aesthetic, will ever remain beyond 
 all record. If grounds for speculation daily arise as to 
 the past and present history of Man, they come with 
 more marked force to the mind absorbed in the study of 
 the ruins of the Pharaohs and their predecessors in the 
 Temple of Columns at Karnac, or in the dark caverns 
 of the Tombs of the Kings on the heights above the 
 plains of Thebes. 
 
 Knox was facetious upon the Jews, whom he looked 
 upon as composed of more than one race Coptic, 
 Chaldean, and Phoenician and his opinions gave rise 
 to much newspaper discussion at Manchester, the great 
 emporium for both Jews and Gentiles. He would not 
 admit of the true Jew ever marrying with the Saxon or 
 any other people, so that the elopement of Jessica with 
 Lorenzo from old Shylock's house was a Shakesperian 
 fancy, without the slightest ethnological support. Yet 
 Knox might have allowed with Lancelot Gobbo 
 
 " There will come a Christian by, 
 Will be worth a Jewess' eye. " 
 
 He had no belief in the conversion of the Jews, and if 
 his description of their race be at all correct, they are
 
 304 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 hardly worth the pains. It was his solemn conviction 
 " that a real Jew would never alter, for nature alters not, 
 and therefore conversion was impossible.^ As for their 
 being a dispersed race, they were so in Cicero's time, 
 and hundreds of years before the taking and destruction 
 of Jerusalem by Vespasian." "The question always 
 returns," says Knox, "why were they a dispersed race, 
 and why are they now a dispersed race .< No sane person 
 doubts their power to seize Judaea if they thought fit. 
 One of their capitalists might actually buy it from the 
 present Turkish Government." 
 
 His "Remarks on the Jewish and Coptic Chronology" 
 imply no belief in the generally accepted views on this 
 subject : the Coptic and Mosaic records were not trust- 
 worthy ; their authors, like the Chinese, Hindoos, and 
 others, wishing to appear the earliest in history, sought 
 to identify themselves with the great creative power. 
 
 Knox's description of the Jew seems to have been 
 drawn from Amsterdam, and Shoreditch, London. 
 Oriental travel, it need hardly be said, would have 
 profited him more. Could he, on an early spring 
 morning, have observed the " Jewish household outside 
 
 1 Having made personal inquiries in the Judwan stronghold of "converted 
 Jews," where English sympathies have been strongly enlisted, and where, 
 more wonderful to say, Scotch money has been most incautiously spent on 
 the same "cursed tribe," I have no reason to doubt Knox's opinions. 
 The fact of sf> rare a phenomenon as a converted Jew, even at an Exeter 
 Hall May meeting, might make the sanguine Christian pause before he 
 throws away his money on Hebrews. The so-called "converts" presented 
 to my notice in Talcstine (and they could be counted on the fingers) had 
 none f)f the features of the " unmistakcable Jew;" they appeared of a 
 spurious breed ; jirubaljly Knox would have classified them with the Coptic 
 division, with whom they ranked for cunning.
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM. 305 
 
 the gates of the city of David," inhaling the incense- 
 breathing morn, and gathering the wild roses of Sharon, 
 he would have enjoyed another sight, imposing of itself, 
 and more truly characteristic of the race. There the 
 patriarch and his spouse realize the ancient type ; there 
 the daughters of Jerusalem, robed in the purity of brides 
 possibly waiting for the bridegroom's coming, present 
 the regular fine chiselled features, the bland and 
 bewitching eyes, the exquisite bust and Medicean Venus 
 form, gushing in feminine attributes and attractiveness. 
 Of Syrian women, who are, as far as my observations go, 
 among the fairest on earth, the young Jewess budding 
 into womanhood is the cream of joy and loveliness. 
 A "Sabbath morning" in the Ghetto of Rome, or a few 
 hours any day of the week on the bridge connecting 
 Stamboul proper with Pera (Constantinople), along 
 which the nations of the earth seem to pass to and fro, 
 revealing the best and worst of their kind, would also 
 have modified Knox's picture of the Jew's physiognomy. 
 " The Dark Races of Men " occupy upwards of 100 
 pages of Knox's work. He was disposed to think that 
 there must be a physical and psychological inferiorit}' 
 in the dark races generally, as since the earliest times 
 they had been the slaves of their fairer brethren.^ He 
 describes the exterior of the dark man, his physical 
 characteristics, the non-amalgamation of the Saxon 
 
 ^ The late lamented Dr. James Hunt, founder and president of the 
 Anthropological Society, read papers on the Negro's place in Nature, to 
 the IJritish Association, which he afterwards jiublishcd in the Anthrof>o- 
 logical Rciiav. His views coincided with those of Knox, and perhaps are 
 more amplified in detail than his coadjutor the anatomist's. 
 
 X
 
 3of) LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX 
 
 with the dark race, the threatened extermination of the 
 race by the organized hypocrisy of the said Saxon ; 
 here and there interspersing his anthropological views 
 with remarks upon governments, missionary schemes, 
 and the Hke. Looking upon the black man as differing 
 from the white man "in everything as much as in colour, 
 he is no more a white man than an ass is a horse or 
 zebra." He has much to say about the Chinese, and 
 the praise bestowed upon the race by Humboldt and 
 Schlegel : the latter thought them highly civilized, 
 and instanced their canals, bridges, &c. ; but, writes 
 Knox, " this is a great error ; the beaver, the bee, and 
 the wasp and ant would, in this case, be civilized ; the 
 hillock of the African termites is a more remarkable 
 labour, comparatively, than the pyramids to Man ; Man 
 builds, cuts canals, makes roads, instinctively, exactly 
 like an animal; these are no proofs of intellect or pure 
 reason ; each race builds after its own kind. The Saxon 
 is not disposed to build; the ancient Copts, Phoenicians, 
 and Greeks were, on the other hand, remarkably so, and 
 builders par excellence!' The doom of the dark race was 
 sealed ; nothing but the tropics could save him from the 
 .sword of the Celt, and the conventions, treaties, and 
 law of the Saxon. 
 
 Knox seems to have overlooked the fact of English 
 coloni.sts carrying with them to unknown lands more 
 than the .sabre and rifle, the law and the prophets ; 
 namely, alcohol, smallpox, and other forms of physical 
 disease and distemper. Whisky and other social evils 
 arc the accompaniments of modern Christianity; they 
 are the latest emblems or croppings out of civilization,
 
 MODES OF CHRISTIANIZING. 307 
 
 and assuredly they are the most potent agents of all in 
 civilizing the aborigines off the face of the earth. How 
 effectually they have done their work in the present 
 century may be gathered from the history of every 
 British foreign possession. Look at Tasmania, with its 
 7,000 aborigines in 1803, sabred and Christianized by 
 the English till not a single individual is left ! For 
 several years back there had been but one black re- 
 presentative of a population that under ordinary in- 
 crease should have reached 20,000 ; and he, known as 
 " Lanney," ^ or " King Billy," the very last of his tribe, 
 died early in the year 1869. It was the same with 
 the Botany Bay blacks, who, in little more than sixty 
 years after the occupation of their lands by the Anglo- 
 Saxon, became extinct.^ 
 
 ^ There has been a colonial fight over "Lanney's" dead body. The 
 Colonial Secretary had promised Lanney's head to the Tasmanian Royal 
 Society, while Dr. Crowther wished to send the entire skeleton to tlie 
 College of .Surgeons, London. The old days of body-snatching, or rather 
 mutilation, have been revived at the antipodes. Some one ran off with 
 the cranium, and Dr. Stokell, surgeon to the hospital, made sure of the 
 hands and feet ; hence it would appear that " Lanney " dead is a greater 
 bone of contention to the doctors than " Lanney" alive, seeking salvation, 
 was to the missionaries. 
 
 2 A body of benevolent Christians, many years ago, determined to evan- 
 gelize the Botany Bay blacks, and told off a band of missionaries for the 
 purpose. Behold, there was but one of the aborigines left ! a dark "grinning 
 Diogenes," who used to crawl out of his tub to beg coppers of the passers- 
 by ; he was called " Rickety Dick," and died in 1840. 
 
 X2
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RACES OF MEN. 
 
 Professor Tiedemann noticed the great size of some 
 African skulls in Knox's museum, and was disposed to 
 question the opinions proclaimed by the historian 
 Gibbon as to the inferiority of the Negro. Knox 
 thought there must be a physical, and consequently a 
 psychological inferiority in the dark races, not depend- 
 ing altogether on deficiency in the size of the brain 
 en viasse, but rather perhaps on specific characters in the 
 quality of the brain itself. In all discussions as to the 
 respective merits of brain-power he saw that the quality 
 of the brain structure be it firm, fibrous, with more or 
 less of grey matter should be fully considered. An 
 instance of the import of such inquiry was shown to 
 the Royal Society of Edinburgh by the late Sir W. 
 Hamilton, Professor of Logic, already spoken of as a 
 pupil of Knox's, when he was contravening the doctrines 
 of the phrenologists. He had two noteworthy skulls 
 upon which to found his comparisons : one was that of 
 a Malay robber and cut-throat, who ended by murdering 
 his wife and getting hanged for his villany ; the other
 
 MALA V ROBBER- SCOTTISH HISTORIAN. 309 
 
 was the skull of George Buchanan, the Scottish historian, 
 preserved in the museum of the University of Edinburgh. 
 One skull was presumably a bad specimen of a nation 
 reckoned bad ; the other a very good instance of a nation 
 reckoned good. The calibre-compasses were applied 
 and bump after bump measured ; and affer balancing all 
 in accordance with a phrenological survey, the Malay 
 was declared to transcend in goodness the Bjidianan 
 example by such-and-such a cipher of inches. Thomas 
 Carlyle, from whom I partly quote, might well say to 
 Sir William the next time he met him : " Malay cut- 
 throat versus Buchanan : explain me that ; till then I 
 say nothing," 
 
 Knox's seventh lecture on the History of the Celtic 
 Race abounds with interesting matter. His pictures of 
 the French, Hibernian, and Caledonian Celt are drawn 
 to the life ; their character is summed up in the brevity 
 of epigrams ; and as you read his description you walk 
 the streets of Paris with Mojisicuir, or you sit by the 
 hut fire or on the potato-heap with the children of 
 Connemara, or stand on the coast of Dornoch from 
 which the Caledonian Celt departs with the exclamation 
 " We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more." Knox 
 had but a poor opinion^ of the Celtic race compared 
 
 1 Dr. R. Druitt read some passages of Knox's work to the late Lord 
 Lyndhurst, whose "aliens in blood, in language, and religion" speech to 
 the House of Lords had been severely handled by the O'Connellite party 
 and the press. In Knox's description of the Celt the ex-Lord Chancellor 
 found consolation to his wounded feelings. Both Lord and Lady Lyndhurst 
 wished their estimable medical friend, Dr. Druitt, to express to Dr. Knox 
 the delight they had in perusing "The Races of Men," and their wish to 
 see the work freely circulated in the best English society.
 
 3IO LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 with the Germans, whose general characters occupied 
 another chapter. 
 
 "As early as 1820-21 I became convinced that the 
 elements of mind to which the German owes his vast 
 reputation as the most philosophical of all men, the most 
 abstract in reasoning, the most metaphysical, the most 
 original, and, in a word, the most transcendental, the 
 element of mind which produced Kant, and Goethe, &c., 
 is not, cannot be Saxon cannot be Scandinavian." 
 
 Withdrawing a part of his praise from " the Saxon, or 
 North German," he bestowed it upon the Central German 
 race, a darker and a differently shaped race ; and to 
 them and the pure Sclavonic race belong German litera- 
 ture, science, and art. He calls the Sclavonic " a noble 
 race, the most intellectual probably of all." Inferior in 
 external form or physique, short in stature, and of dark 
 hair and complexion, they are superior to the Saxon 
 and Celtic races in their taste for music, architecture, 
 and the fine arts generally. Knox evidently augured 
 great things from the Sclavonic race eighty millions in 
 number, under the despotism of three dynasties Haps- 
 burg, Brandenburg, and the Muscovite demanding a 
 political unity and only in need of a leader. After 
 asking the amalgamation theorists and others to look 
 at Central Europe, its state in 1815, its condition now, 
 Knox goes on : " The Sclavonian wants a leader ; so 
 docs the South German ; so docs the true Saxon or 
 North German. They are quite sensible that at present, 
 though broken into fragments, the day may come when 
 Nature must again assert her rights in spite of treaties 
 and protocols, partitions and adjustments. The balance
 
 XORMAN GO VERNMENT OF ENGL A ND. 3 1 1 
 
 of power in Europe must ultimately rest, not with 
 families, but with races : the question of European civili- 
 zation must repose on the same basis." 
 
 In his brief sketch of the Sarmatian race he seems to 
 have imbibed the Napoleonic dogma of either a Cossack 
 or a Republican Europe the balance of opinion weigh- 
 ing towards the dominance of the Muscovite power, to 
 be exercised through the Sclavonian as the nearest path 
 to the gates of Constantinople. He had no sympathy 
 with the Russ, low in the scale of humanity and low in 
 morals. 
 
 No chapter of the " Fragment," as he chose to call 
 his volume on the " Races of Men," will be read with 
 greater interest than the one headed " Question of 
 Dominancy : England : her Constitution and Colonies : 
 Nationalities." He viewed the present Norman govern- 
 ment of England as antagonistic to her presumed Saxon 
 population : that the land of Ireland and of Caledonian 
 Scotland was in the hands of the hereditary descendants 
 of the Norman, and that England was daily following 
 the same steps. When Sheffield was agitating for 
 " financial reform," Knox advised the reformers to look 
 at the land question not forgetting, by the way, to call 
 the " Church rampant, Norman, bloated with wealth 
 corrupt beyond imagination, and a population priest- 
 ridden." As the Saxons are democrats, nothing will ever 
 satisfy them but self-government, and no Government 
 can long hold a Saxon colony. The really momentous 
 question for England as a nation is the presence of three 
 sections of the Celtic race still on the soil : the Irish 
 Celt is the most to be dreaded.
 
 312 LIFE OF ROBERT K.VOX. 
 
 His concluding lecture embraced : " Ancient Greece^ 
 The Fine Arts The Perfect and the Beautiful Relations 
 of Philosophy to ' the Perfect and the Beautiful ' 
 Theory of Species, or Indivadualism Theory of Unity, 
 or Universalism Application of the Laws of Transcen- 
 dental Anatomy to the Past, the Present, and the Future 
 of the Organic World Unity and Variety." Having 
 such texts as these, Knox might well preach one of 
 his largest and most telling discourses. Let the 
 reader imagine a chapter in Knox's best style on the 
 Homeric ballad, the Parthenon, the Apollo and Venus, 
 Athenian Philosophy and Philosophers, the picturesque 
 banks of the Koonap, the human form divine and 
 especially beautiful women, embryology and cyto- 
 genesis, the Goethian and Sclavonic ideas in contrast 
 to Palc}- and the Bridgewater Treatise schools, history 
 and logic, error and Transcendentalism, glances at the 
 earth's history from the muddy waters holding the 
 Megatherium to these latter days in human history, 
 with its daiio and other ocracics, its theologies: fully 
 realizing dc omnibus ct qiiibusdam aliis ! 
 
 In an appendix, he treats of the " Origin, Civilization, 
 and Extinction of the Dark Races of Man," and " The 
 Antagonism of Man to Nature's Works." To " the 
 Bridgewater school, the sturdy utilitarian, the dogmatic 
 Jew," he left " the Jesuitical task of discovering in physical 
 and moral suffering a benefit and a pleasure." Looking 
 to " mental and bodily diseases, pestilence and famine, 
 wars of opinion ! war to the knife ! &c." he held Man's 
 fate to be " severer than that of the lower animals : they 
 have no aristocracy, no priests, no kings ; they are
 
 THE TRIPLE CURSE AND DEMONS. 313 
 
 spared this triple curse ; nor can a dark and fearful 
 future be depicted on their brains, in terms so strong as 
 to make them believe that millions of invisible beings 
 walk the lower regions of the atmosphere, wholly occu- 
 pied in leading them to destruction." His notes are as 
 enlivening as his text, and nothing more need be said. 
 
 A second edition of "The Races of Men " appeared 
 in January 1862 ; it differed from the first only in 
 having attached to it a supplement, consisting of four 
 chapters: i. "An Inquiry into the Laws of Human 
 Hybridite ; " 2. " On some Ancient Forms of Civili- 
 zation ; " 3. " Africa, its Past, Present, and probable 
 Future ; " 4. " The Present Phasis of Ethnology." 
 
 After quoting largely from Livy, as to the history of 
 the Gauls, and Paul Broca's definition "a hybrid is a 
 living being, the product of a mixture of two species 
 more or less remote " Knox seems to agree with 
 Buffon, Voltaire, and Cuvier, " that species have not 
 altered since the earliest historic times. Confining 
 himself to human hybridite, he asks : '* Is it true that 
 all the races of mankind intermingle freely with each 
 other, giving rise to a fertile progeny t Look over the 
 world as it now exists, and say where such a hybrid 
 exists ; for to prove that all races mingle freely with 
 each other, it must be shown, not only that this is 
 so, but that there results a self-supporting progeny, 
 characterized by all its newly acquired moral and 
 physical properties, without recourse being had to 
 either of the primitive races. Now this has never 
 happened either in respect of dogs or men the two 
 genera which have been chiefly appealed to in this
 
 314 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 inquiry." He believed that from the earHest historic 
 times mankind were already divided into a certain 
 number of races, perfectly distinct. In reference to 
 the Biblical theory of the origin of the Negro race, 
 he quoted M. Broca's clear refutation of that theory 
 from the Hebrew writings themselves, but doubted if 
 it would "put a stop to the infamous hypothesis which 
 had been engrafted on the Book of Genesis by modern 
 divines." As the law of living beings was obviously 
 that every living being should bring forth after its own 
 kind, Knox was of opinion that the various species of 
 animals, Man included, have never varied, are immu- 
 table, unchangeable, if not eternal ; that as they are 
 now, so were they when Man first commenced to 
 engrave on stone or record on parchment what he saw 
 in the external world." He would not sanction the idea 
 of a human hybrid being permanently fruitful, and 
 inter alia appealed to the hybrid produced between the 
 male European and female Australian as seeming 
 altogether sterile from the first : in this view he would 
 appear to be supported by M. Pouchat. 
 
 "The races of man," writes Knox, "differ from each 
 other, and have done so from the earliest historic 
 period, as proved 
 
 " I. By their external characters, which have never 
 altered during the last six thousand years. 
 
 " 2. By anatomical differences in structure. 
 
 "3. By the infertility of the hybrid product, originating 
 in the intermingling of two races. 
 
 "4. By historic evidence which shows that no distinct 
 hybrid race can be shown to exist anywhere."
 
 THE STERILITY OF HYBRIDS. 315 
 
 Again he says: "Though of distinct species, all the 
 races of men belong to the same natural family, the 
 embryo of each species containing within itself the 
 rudiments of all the others. The human family stands 
 profoundly apart from all others, implying that in the 
 great chain of beings constituting Nature's plan, some 
 natural family filling up the link has disappeared. 
 
 In concluding his chapter on Human Hybridite, he 
 states that ' the mingled races of Europe are not 
 hybrids ; the Basque remains distinct from the popula- 
 tion of Old Gaul, and the Sclaves retain everywhere 
 the peculiarities of their race. The ' old Pruss ' is 
 still distinct from the Scandinavians, Sclavonians, and 
 Teutons who groan under his abhorred rule. . . Of all 
 countries Italy is the one which ought to have proved, 
 by its population, the substitution of a hybrid for a 
 pure race. Nothing of the kind exists. The sterility 
 of hybrids is the check which Nature emplo\\s for the 
 preservation of her primitive forms of life. There is a 
 cojisanguinite, no doubt, in all that lives ; for life, being 
 a property inherent in matter, must at its origin have 
 been one ; but this coiisaiigninitc does not extend to or 
 exclude specialities. It goes no farther than their 
 genera, and most commonly not so far." 
 
 In his brief notice of " Some Ancient Forms of Civi- 
 lization," he discusses the " origin of Art," and then 
 goes on to " the Arab race," whose history he traces 
 in his usual graphic wa}-. With Mahomet as their 
 leader, they conquered a great part of the civilized 
 world, and had they not been checked by Charles 
 Martel, Knox fancied, the Koran might now have been
 
 3i6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 taught at Oxford and Cambridge as " the Book " which 
 must supersede all others. He seized the chance of 
 showing how the history of the Arab brings out' the 
 questions of the future of intrusive races into continents 
 of which they are not the aboriginals and the influence 
 exercised over the invading race by coming in contact 
 with those of a higher or lower civilization. " Brought 
 in contact with many races, they adopted the inventions 
 of none. The Koran was the tomb of truth in science, 
 literature, and art. Though conquerors of many races, 
 they gave origin to no hybrid race. They attempted 
 settlements or colonies on three continents, and failed. 
 Nature gave them desert Arabia as their home, and 
 there only do they thriv^e." 
 
 His views of "Africa, its Past, Present, and probable 
 Future," are stated with great boldness, and, whether 
 altogether or only partially correct, are worthy the 
 attention of both the politician and philanthropist. As 
 a sojourner in Southern Africa, he claimed the privilege 
 of writing from personal observation, and a long life's 
 interest in all matters pertaining to the history of an 
 important English colony. There is, as indeed prevails 
 everywhere in Knox's writings, much reflection, both 
 in form and statement, and large notice of the Celt 
 and Saxon, in their relations to the Negro and other 
 races. 
 
 "The present phasis of Ethnology" afforded him the 
 opportunity of speaking more directly of his own endea- 
 vours to indoctrinate the English mind with a knowledge 
 of Race from an original point of view. Before 1848, not 
 a thought was bestowed upon Race by the English press.
 
 THE PLAGIARISMS OF THE "TIMES." 317 
 
 Pie accused the Times of plagiarizing all his ideas 
 without the slightest acknowledgment.^ 
 
 In surveying the affairs of Europe, the progress of 
 the Italian question, and the breaking up in part of 
 the Austrian Empire, Knox had reasons to congratu- 
 late himself, for in a few short years there had been a 
 fulfilment of the most important of his predictions. 
 Those who felt disposed to laugh in 1846 at Knox's 
 theories of Race, were surprised at the historical endorse- 
 ment they obtained in i860. The idea of supporting 
 ethnological propositions by the testimony of ancient 
 monuments seems to have occurred to Knox long prior 
 to IMessrs. Nott and Gliddon, in proof of which he 
 referred to M. Milne-Edwards, the French physiologist, 
 and M. Thierry, the historian. 
 
 No w^ell-educated person could look at the " Irish 
 difficulty" of British statesmen, the conflicting interests 
 on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, or the 
 larger field of American politics, without acknowledging 
 the significance of the anthropological views enunciated 
 by Knox. Reasoning from geographical and philological 
 data, as much as from the individual being, Man, the 
 ethnologist was led to an ideal grouping of the families 
 or races. This was but a conventional assumption or 
 
 1 In a characteristic preface to his work, Knox said : " Physiologists will 
 dispute with me the great laws I have endeavoured to substitute for the 
 effete commonplace of the schools ; geologists will think me hasty ; theo- 
 logians but here I stop ; a reply shall not be wanting. As to the hack 
 compilers, their course is simple : they will first deny the doctrine to be 
 true ; when this becomes clearly untenable they will deny that it is new ; 
 and they will finish by engrossing the whole in their next compilations, 
 omitting carefully the name of the author."
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 mode of treating a noble theme ; it had no claim to be 
 viewed as a zoological classification. Moreover, it failed 
 to convey any truth that could be made applicable to 
 the solution of many problems affecting humanity. 
 Knox saw the inadequacy of a mere formula wanting in 
 scientific purpose, and offering no explanation of the 
 mighty events clustered around the growth of the first 
 French Empire, much less the disturbing influences at 
 work during his own more peaceful epoch. Blumenbach 
 and his successors did not foresee the threatening storms 
 which burst over Europe in 1791, in 1830, and in 1848; 
 and they failed to comprehend the proximate cause of the 
 varied revolutions of the century. What was the science 
 of Man worth, if it rested content with the mere linea- 
 ments of form, the colour of the skin, and the outward 
 life of a people .- Each generation will rise higher in the 
 belief that the proper study of mankind belongs to the 
 philosophic anatomist who could marshal the data around 
 him, and grasp the psychological criteria (or evidence) 
 along with the physique oi Race. It was idle to expect any 
 indications of value, much less reliable data, from poli- 
 tical economists, military chiefs, and diplomatists, who 
 looked to intrigues in the administrative bureaux and the 
 game of hazard in the hostile field for the status quo of 
 nationalities. Man per sc had no significance to govern- 
 ments beyond the "heavy battalion" work or as load to 
 the dice, one throw of which might decide an autocracy 
 or a constitutional monarchy for the joy or hate of 
 peoples. Previous to Knox, writers on ethnology had 
 made no advance to solve the circumstances affecting 
 Italy and Germany after the Congress of Vienna (1815),
 
 HIS PREDICTIONS FULFILLED. 319 
 
 and, like thousands of others totally unconcerned with 
 the history of Race, looked upon Austria as one of the 
 strongest and best-disciplined powers in Europe. Nay, 
 the sun had to set on the bloody field of Sadowa 
 (1866) before the self-opinionated diplomats could see 
 the position of the House of Hapsburg. 
 
 Blumenbach's writings had not reached the core of 
 anthropology, or Metternich, the fitting instrument of 
 Austrian tyranny, would hardly have talked of Italy as 
 a "geographical expression." Had Knox's views been 
 understood on the Continent in 1849, ^^ Austrian's 
 boast of Novara would have been tempered by the 
 probable contingency of a Solferino, or the more ap- 
 plicable instance of Garibaldi's campaign and success 
 from the Sicilian coast at Marsala to the banks of the 
 Volturno. 
 
 Knox aimed at the pith and marrow of the question 
 at issue, or the blood of the Race : there he saw the true 
 history of Man, his struggles and his aspirations ; one 
 set of men praying for a king Saul and the prophets ; 
 another demanding a republic, but all governed by a 
 natural impulse that would prevail sooner or later 
 against the edicts of Councils or military despotisms. 
 Peace prevailed in a community consisting of one race 
 only, and there public sentiment was respected ; on the 
 other hand, empires like Austria, composed of many 
 and diverse ethnological elements, must in the course of 
 time go apart, or succumb to greater and more lasting 
 disintegrations. 
 
 To attain the veritable of Race, the physical structure, 
 the actions and demeanour of the man, and his adap-
 
 320 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 tation to peace or war, the industrial or fine arts 
 had first to be grasped ; in short, the pJiysiqiie in its 
 entirety, and the man in his ethical, intellectual, and 
 social relations. Then the brain power, the capabilities 
 of the people as reflected in their literature and science, 
 their penchants for home or colonization, their moral 
 sentiments, national traits, historical manifestations, 
 naturally completed the groundwork of the study of 
 the anthropologist. This was pretty much the mode 
 pursued by Knox in reading Man's position and place 
 in the great Cosmos. He cared little for the Natural 
 History classifications met with in acknowledged authors ; 
 he looked for the marked traits or attributes of a 
 people, those basial elements, the genius, the tempera- 
 ment, and the instincts of Race. In the analogy of true 
 or structural elements among a body of men, in their 
 common adhesion to matters of polity and observance, 
 in their unanimity of sentiment and healthy fraterniza- 
 tion call it patriotic or, as in some, communistic were 
 to be found the faithful indications of Race. It could 
 only be by examining the physical, artistic, educational, 
 and historical developments of Man that you could hope 
 to comprehend the individual species and his congeners. 
 A common error prevails in speaking of peoples hving 
 under one dynasty as being a distinct race or nation- 
 ality forgetting that dynasties are family arrangements 
 where might prevails over right, and quite regardless of 
 the wishes of the governed. The Hungarians, Slavs, 
 Croats, &c., under the ban of Austria, are oft designated 
 Austrians : even Ministers and the House of Commons 
 talk in this way. Though ethnologists and men of thought
 
 MAN'S HISTORY BASED ON RACE. 321 
 
 knew otherwise, it fell particularly to Knox to put the 
 matter more broadly and intelligibly before his country- 
 men. He did a good part in showing up the fallacy 
 of imperial rule being viewed as pertinent to the 
 character of the people under its control. Austria, just 
 instanced, has reaped bitter experience and as yet untold 
 humiliation from its ignorance, or self-will, and its total 
 abnegation of the rights of her people to be ruled 
 according to their natural instincts. 
 
 In the application of his knowledge of Race to past 
 and present history, he hoped also for enlightenment as 
 to the future history of Man, particularly in Europe. 
 No one can question that he succeeded in demon- 
 strating from a new base line the construction of a 
 larger survey than had ever been taken of Man's history 
 as deduced from Race. The age had hardly been edu- 
 cated to the belief of history being dependent on the 
 blood and temper and natural proclivities of Man. The 
 undying influence or inevitable tendencies of Race con- 
 stituted the Knox text, and no text was ever better 
 handled ; it was the Alpha and Omega of numerous 
 disquisitions ; it always turned up afresh like the ever- 
 changing aspect of the sea's surface, influenced or not 
 by tide or zephyr. If assertion and dogma appeared 
 to prevail in the advocacy of the new theory, did the 
 earnest appeals to history made by Knox not show his 
 profound conviction of the soundness of the doctrines he 
 sought to establish } Neither force nor reiteration of 
 statement would ever found a theory, but Knox, it may 
 be fairly said, enunciated truths from data open to the 
 scrutiny of all men, and as patent as current history 
 
 Y
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 itself. Allowing for slight trespass to the right and left 
 of his argument, or beyond the logical verities, his 
 theories, so novel and instructive, deserved greater atten- 
 tion than was awarded them. They would have been 
 of large value to the Cabinets of the Great Powers since 
 the adv^ent of the nineteenth century; and could they 
 have been acted upon at the Congresses of Vienna^ and 
 Verona, assembled to solder the broken fragments of 
 kingdoms and duchies left by Napoleon le Grand, there 
 would have been less dissimulation and fraud, and 
 vastly less protocolling and check-mating during these 
 latter days of European history. Moreover, many of 
 the rankling sores of the body politic, the inheritance 
 of "Constitutional mongers" of "the Holy Alliance" 
 sort, which might have been healed if honest races had 
 got their own, were subjected to constant irritation, till 
 at length the ichor of discontent prevailed over the 
 bonds of Metternich, and revolutions disturbed the 
 whole Continent. 
 
 Look at the present disquietude abroad ; it was also 
 predicted by Knox, who, though dead seven years, 
 seems yet to speak from the tomb. Whilst living, 
 he fulfilled too strongly the adage applied to the 
 
 1 Talleyrand never believed in the permanency of the balance of power 
 established by the Congress of Vienna. He saw there would be a tendency 
 on the part of the Germans to unity, and he argued that one of the Great 
 Powers of the Confederation would spring up, and that Power could not be 
 Austria, composed as she was of distinct and conflicting elements, which 
 prevented her from being united at home, or capable of acting efTectually 
 abroad. This arch-diplomatist understood the influence of Race in history, 
 and could, in 1837, foresee what came to pass in 1866, the victory of 
 I'russia in her struggle with Austria for predominance in Germany.
 
 ALGERIA AND THE FRENCH. 323 
 
 fate of prophets, the commercial and legislative publics 
 having their Delphic oracles in the Stock Exchange and 
 Ministerial portfolios for why should the salt of the 
 earth countenance an English ethnologist basing his 
 views of nationalities on Race ? Moreover, Europe had its 
 saviour in "the man" of the co2ip d'etat, and why more 
 saviours than one for one epoch ? "Qiiosqtie tandem" &c. 
 The correctness of Knox's views as to indigenous 
 races holding their own against their conquerors is well 
 instanced in Algeria. The French got possession of 
 Algiers in 1830, and meant to establish an important 
 colony and to make it a paying concern ; the produce of 
 its southern climate, the fruits and condiments, were to 
 contribute to the markets of Paris and the luxuries of 
 the aristocracy. Administrations, governorships, and 
 military training for 100,000 troops Zouaves and Spahis 
 to don the semi-oriental costume Imperial visits and 
 mighty complacency to the tribes once led by Abd-el- 
 Kader, were part of the scheme ; and, to crown all, 
 the " oldest son of the Church " fraternized with the 
 Mahometan banners and complimented the green- 
 turbaned Ulemas, and all for the glory of France ! What 
 is the result of nearly forty years of Viceroyalty, aided 
 by scores of thousands of bayonets .-* The colony of 
 Algiers contains only 220,000 Frenchmen, and these are 
 so dissatisfied that great numbers meditate change of 
 quarters. On the 17th October, 1868, some of the best 
 agricultural class sold their stock and land and emigrated 
 to Brazil ; and a thousand others were prepared to follow. 
 This fact is highly significant ; as Cobbett would have 
 said, "the straw is moving," and the French rat may 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 LIFE OF ROBERT KI^OX. 
 
 have to yield his forty years' foraging to the native or 
 true Algerine animal. 
 
 He saw the futility of Missions, and oft described the 
 charlatanism of such schemes. Christian Missions to the 
 followers of Islam ! To benefit or destroy .'* Mahometan- 
 ism has its book, that does not require to be elaborated 
 by millions of sermons. Mahometanism is peaceful, 
 sober, and virtuous. Can this be said of the denizens 
 of British cities 1 If light weights and measures, food 
 adulterations and poisonings, baby-farming, limited lia- 
 bilities, Overends and Gurneys, commercial Quakerisms, 
 social evils, divorce courts, church squabblings, and 
 endless modes of deceit be desirable to propagate 
 abroad, then Christian England, as a perennial fertilizer 
 of such commodities, has a great mission before her. 
 Perhaps the heathen may prefer his status quo and a 
 respectful distance from Exeter Hall indoctrination. 
 
 Knox differed greatly from some of our modern writers 
 whose ingenuity enables them to explain everything in 
 the history of Englishmen, from the paint and tattoo of 
 their aboriginal life, be it that of the Druid, the cannibal, 
 or the holocaust, down to the Victorian crinolines and 
 chignons. Such gifted persons speak in ex catJiedrd 
 fashion, and as often without trustworthy data. The 
 pages of Caesar are quoted as if the Roman had been a 
 learned authority on the varieties of man ; even Huxley, 
 as if forgetting the inductive philosophy and the patent 
 facts under his own cognizance, binds himself to Csesar. 
 Now, considering the reputed origin of the Britisher 
 Taranis-worshippers, Celtic tribes, Romans, Jutes, Angles, 
 Danes and Norsemen, et cetera; then the mythic and
 
 THE NORSE AND NORMAN STOCK. 32 
 
 the traditional blending with the semi-historical and 
 fanciful record, Knox might well have doubts as to the 
 component parts of what is styled " the English Race." 
 Neither anatomically nor metaphysically can they be 
 readily understood ; on the other hand, the Irish Celt 
 need not be confounded with the so-called Teuton, what- 
 ever locality be fixed upon within the four seas for 
 observation. 
 
 If Defoe, in his wrath against the Stuarts, said that 
 Englishmen were the mud of races, Knox hesitated not 
 in his leisure to call them a mongrel crew. Emerson 
 thought there was an anthology of temperaments suiting 
 the sky and soil of England, and he compared them to 
 the varieties of pear-trees suited or unsuited to tlie soil 
 of the orchard in which they are planted. In our dis- 
 cussions (Knox and self) as to the Norman invasion 
 by 20,000 European vagabonds, Knox was highly 
 diverting at the taste of the hour for the pride of descent 
 from men who showed their merits on their shields 
 the wolf, the swine, the jackal, and snake being fitting 
 emblems of their human characters and tendencies. If, 
 as Alfieri said, " the crimes of Italy were the proof 
 of the superiority of the stock," he may have borrowed 
 this paradox from the founders of the English House 
 of Lords, who refer the ornaments of their birth to 
 the Norse piratical crews and the Norman free-lances ; 
 men of whom the best that can be said is, that they 
 were chevaliers d'mdustrie, having in their trail the scum 
 of Europe. 
 
 The questions affecting man's hybridity so frequently 
 engaging Knox's mind, also the permanence or decay
 
 326 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 of the fresh products from the admixture of races, bid 
 fair to be solved in the course of time, and that time 
 not so very far distant. The United States of America, 
 now traversed by a Hne of railway from sea-board 
 to sea-board, its mighty commerce and mightier ag- 
 gressiveness, its growing population that daily receives 
 accessions from almost every quarter of the globe a 
 flow tide of peoples without an ebb, and these peoples 
 the very motley of creation would appear to offer the 
 elements upon which the types (if such a term is ad- 
 missible) of hybridity will one day be revealed in 
 unmistakeable colours. Look to the past and present 
 history of the States ; its wild Indian or parent stock, 
 the English Puritans and their slaves, the run of British 
 immigration since the peace of 1815, the great exodus 
 of the Irish Celt in 1846 and onwards to the "land of 
 freedom," the tide of Germans, Scandinavians, French, 
 Chinese, Japanese, and Mexicans ; and all marshalled 
 under the " stars and stripes," and working for the 
 almighty dollar and the continuance of their species, 
 pure or collateral. Analyse its millions its European, 
 its Asiatic, and its African graftings upon the original 
 stock. Such a conglomerate the world never saw before 
 of white and brown, olive and black humanities, and all 
 free to roam in polyandrous or polygamous fashion. 
 The Vale of the Mississippi will indeed beat all creation ; 
 for where does history reveal such gathering or assimila- 
 ting of peoples, such association of interests, and such 
 consanguinity ; to say nothing of the outer forces 
 directing the commerce and agriculture, and not less the 
 politics, the ethics, and the beliefs of New America } As
 
 THE HYBRIDS OF THE FUTURE. 327 
 
 " miscegenation" is one of the grand topics of "women's 
 platforms " in the States, and the fair girls of the New 
 Agapemone period stand forth as abettors of coloured 
 connubial unions for the millennium of spinsterhood ; 
 hybridity is not only going ahead, but advancing to 
 Niagara and far beyond. 
 
 Who is to divine from the aspect and tendency of the 
 present times what will come to pass before the dial 
 points to the year 2000 A.D. ? Let the mind reflect on 
 the basis of the new Genesis in the broad expanse of the 
 far West, the Agapemone of the " mighty creation " in 
 all its colours, types, and forms. Fancy John Chinaman 
 seduced from kith and kin and yoked to Widow Malone, 
 " ochone, ochone;" Cornelius O'Dowd mingling his pure 
 Phoenician blood with the dark pigments of an odorous 
 African; the black-ebony "Pompey" and "Caesar," so 
 much alike in white chokers and blue coats and yellow 
 pants, leading two fair-complexioned girls from " fifth 
 aveue," Philadelphia, to the altar, or portals, if you 
 will, of miscegenation; "Tomahawka" forsaking his 
 back-woods, war-whoops, and savagery to espouse a 
 philanthropic Quakeress, the pure white and drab of art 
 setting off the red brown of nature's nude, and creating 
 aesthetic thoughts in the wedding guests as to the pretty 
 hybrids of the future ; the big raw-boned Scotchman 
 dividing his basin of brose with a dwarfish squaw from 
 the Polar regions ; the Dutch Boer tripping it to the 
 lively guitar of his hot-blooded Mexican spouse ; and 
 lastly, the Anglo-American of 300 years' growth, Puritan, 
 Quaker, Prelatic, or Papal, looking on and hardly know- 
 ing whether to join hands with the coy Welsh maid of
 
 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Wesleyan piety, or the voluptuous girl of Cadiz, or the 
 unadorned beauty of Japan. 
 
 Such assumptions are by no means exaggerated. 
 Already the Mormonitcs from all lands rush to the arms 
 of Brigham Young, the prophet of Utah, and everywhere 
 communities of " holy brothers," and holier sisters, 
 spiritual wives, Perfectionists, and other orders of the 
 mutual love sort, are being founded under circumstances 
 most alluring and sensual: such promise in their way to 
 emulate the concubinage of David and the Israelites, or 
 the warmer Egyptians, to say nothing of the loves of 
 " burning Sappho" and the heydays of voluptuousness 
 at Baiae ! If in our good Protestant and monogamous 
 times he be a wise child that knoweth his own father, 
 what chance will there be for wisdom itself, when New 
 America realizes to the full the tide and free admixture 
 of peoples, to proclaim even the race of the individual 
 man, much less his special genesis ? 
 
 As if driven along by the impetuosity of his ideas, 
 and the relish for saying startling things in a startling 
 way, Knox was apt to break the thread of his dis- 
 course in sundry entertaining modes. " Sailing orders " 
 with Knox were but a general manifesto of his good 
 intentions ; for being his own Jupiter and .^olus 
 to boot, he would now enjoy an hour of the gentle 
 zephyr the delicate irony ; then have a turn of the 
 stormy blast or strongly denunciatory ; indeed, nothing 
 could be more curious and diversified than the records 
 of his log-book. "The Fragment" is exceedingly 
 characteristic of its author, his vices and his virtues. 
 His discursiveness and repetitions are vastly too
 
 rilE FLAWS IN ''THE FRAGMENTS 329 
 
 common ; even the pictorial part, the woodcuts, are 
 made to do duty over and over again, and for what 
 purpose the said deponent knoweth not. His definition 
 of species and their varieties is not always precise, and 
 there is an occasional hiatus in the argument ; also a 
 rash statement and a rasher inference. Writing ciirrente 
 calaino and very much as he used to address an audience, 
 he advanced his first thoughts with the same authority 
 as he should have advocated a well-digested opinion. 
 His style is happily the very antipodes of that in vogue 
 in medical literature ; it is exceedingly pointed and 
 racy, and thoroughly fulfils the Knox desideratum of 
 Iiitting the right nail on the head and driving it home. 
 His love of epigram and greater love of satire often 
 merited rebuke, for in this latter respect his injudicious- 
 ness cropped out pretty freely. Some of his historical 
 statements were loosely set forth ; and it may be said 
 of "The Fragment" generally, that it wanted revision 
 at other hands than the author's. But, givang all 
 prominence to these blemishes, who can read a page 
 of the book without pleasure and profit and singular 
 delight .'' The suggestiveness of his remarks, the graphic 
 narrative, and the raciness of style, are Knox's own ; 
 then the scenic-like pictures he presents pass before 
 your eyes with all the novelty of a lively panorama 
 to infantile minds. In your general admiration you 
 overlook the lines of incongruity, the deficient perspec- 
 tive, the too-heightened colours, or too-glossy varnish 
 of the artist ; because the general effect of his pictures 
 is so grandly suggestive. 
 
 " The Fragment : or, Sketches of the Races of Men,"
 
 330 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 can hardly fail to obtain a place in history ; and when 
 it comes to be read by the light of another century, by 
 which time human prejudices, now very much on the 
 wane, will no longer affect a free expression of thought 
 on all matters affecting the social and religious position 
 of our species, it is more than probable that Robert 
 Knox will have accorded to his memory a higher praise 
 than his contemporaries willingly conceded to him during 
 life. General consent has awarded him an exalted plat- 
 form as an anatomist, and he was undoubtedly the 
 greatest teacher of his day, but posterity will probably 
 figure him as the chief anthropologist of his epoch, and 
 a pioneer of a philosophy that sought to recognize 
 the true nature of Man, his instincts, his passions, his 
 psychological leanings, and social influences.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Congenital Deformity of Joints. Contributions to Anatomy and Physiology 
 in Medical Gazette. Cervical Ribs. Lectures on Physiology, &c. 
 Museums. Potato Disease. Agricultural Schemes. Seeks Govern- 
 ment employment. Sphenoid Pone. Fau's Anatomy. liip Joint, &c. 
 
 In all that related to fact and observation in reference 
 to or in illustration of science, Knox was scrupulous to 
 a degree that nothing but the truth should be emitted. 
 In describing the results of his own investigations, he 
 was ever anxious to keep prominently in view the ten- 
 dency that preconceived notions or "idols of the mind" 
 had in swaying inferences, or in disturbing the fair ex- 
 pressions of a fact. Speaking of an eminent anatomist, 
 the author of a work on the arteries, and who had done 
 much to illustrate the anatomy of the iris, but who from 
 his peculiar bent of observation could see or describe 
 nothing but blood-vessels, Knox referred to his own 
 inquiries, by saying " Here was a great difficulty; he 
 could see nothing but blood-vessels ; while I, gentlemen, 
 I declare to you, had long the utmost difficulty in 
 recognizing any organic structure but neyves." 
 
 Though unable to vindicate Dr. Knox's behaviour 
 towards his pupil and colleague Professor John Reid in 
 1 841, I feel warranted in saying, and possibly repeating.
 
 332 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 that he always appeared solicitous to give honour to 
 whom it was due, and a large meed of praise to deserv- 
 ing merit. Sir George Sinclair, in one of his letters to 
 the anatomist, writes : " One of the most prominent 
 features which characterized your prelections was the 
 frankness, or rather the eagerness, with which you did 
 justice to the ^r</ discoveries and immortal writings of 
 those who had preceded you in the career of scientific 
 investigation." Sir George, who attended very regu- 
 larly two winter and two summer courses of Knox's 
 lectures, wrote from experience : " By your teaching you 
 have succeeded in furnishing to your country many 
 eminent and esteemed practitioners. You always con- 
 trived by the judicious exercise of genius to keep up the 
 attention of your pupils, even when dwelling upon the 
 least interesting branches of your course. No lecturer 
 was, I believe, ever surrounded by a more attached or a 
 more attentive audience." 
 
 He published a memoir "On Abrasion of the Diarthro- 
 dial Cartilages by Friction, and on their Atrophy from 
 other causes," in the London Medical Gazette, November 
 4th and nth, 1842. One of his propositions was, "that 
 whatever alters materially and permanently the system 
 of leverage natural to any joint, must, in the end, rub 
 away, or destroy by wasting, or want of use, the carti- 
 lages and synovial tissue of that joint, and even the 
 surfaces of the bones themselves, unless the injury were 
 arrested by a timely eburnation of the bone ; and that 
 this effect might happen altogether independent of in- 
 flammation, ulceration," &c. 
 
 He gave an admirable description of the foot of the
 
 BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY. 333 
 
 child at the fourth or fifth year : " Everything is taper, 
 soft, gently traced ; neither sinews nor veins nor bones 
 are visible; the whole, in fact, is eminently beautiful, 
 and in keeping with all those pleasing and graceful forms 
 which render the child an object of gentle attraction 
 even to the sternest natures of mankind." He was of 
 opinion that the female foot, if finely formed, like that 
 of the Venus, for example, retains in part " the infantile 
 character associated in our minds with youth and health, 
 grace, simplicity and truth, loveliness and confiding 
 h clplcssness of the person." 
 
 He next adverted to the congenital deformity or pecu- 
 liar dislocation of the great toe, or change in its direction 
 from a straight line with the inner plane of the foot to 
 that of an angle, more or less acute, with the metatarsal 
 bone supporting it, until at last it produces a plaiting, 
 as it is called, of the toes. This deformity he thought 
 more common in the Saxon than the Celtic races ; and 
 seen " oftenest in large, raw-boned, ill-proportioned, tall 
 persons nature seemingly leaving in such persons the 
 extremities unfinished." The deformity did not depend 
 on tight shoes, as it exists among the poor who seldom 
 wear shoes in Scotland, but on a congenital tendency. 
 
 He gave cases and drawings to illustrate his theory 
 derived from some of the larger joints. An interesting 
 paragraph in this paper refers to the rupture or dis- 
 location of the bicipital tendon within the capsular 
 ligaments of the shoulder-joint, and also brings out the 
 case of Louis XV. described by Portal, and the success 
 of the quack bone-setter in similar instances. Nor is he 
 slow to defend the originality of his observations against
 
 334 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 all comers to wit, Professor Richard Partridge, who had 
 described a similar case to Knox, but omitted all men- 
 tion of his ''earliest mejJioir on the pathology of the 
 biceps tendon;" and who, "true to his class (Londoners), 
 was bound to strike out of his paper any view not of 
 London growth." 
 
 He remarks upon the interstitial absorption of the 
 neck of the thighbone, and cites cases related by Mr. 
 Geo. Gulliver,^ " one of .the most distinguished patho- 
 logical observers of the present day," and whose memoirs 
 he held " to merit the deepest attention from all surgical 
 pathologists." 
 
 His "Contributions to Anatomy and Physiology" occu- 
 pied several numbers of the London Medical Gazette from 
 Midsummer to Christmas 1842. His first contribution 
 (June 23rd) was entitled " Some Remarks on the Struc- 
 ture and Arrangement of the Spinal Arachnoid." Then 
 followed, " On some Varieties in Human Structure, with 
 Remarks on the doctrine- of the Unity of Organization." 
 I. Osseous System the Cranium. 2. The Humerus ; 
 its supra-condyloid process ; which was pretty nearly a 
 repetition of what appeared in 1841, already described 
 in page 294. 3. Osseous System ; under which head he 
 describes the case of a young man of 25 years of age 
 with two episternal or presternal bones, occupying 
 precisely the position in which they were first noticed 
 by Bcclard and Brcschct, and Mr. King, of London. He 
 
 1 Mr. Gulliver, !'. R.S., so well known in the history of physiology 
 during the last thirty years, writes in very flattering terms of Dr. Knox's 
 abilities as a lecturer and man of science. He attended Knox during part 
 of a winter session.
 
 JOHN HUNTER'S PHILOSOPHY. 335 
 
 doubted M. Breschet's opinion as to these presternal 
 bones representing the rudiments of a cervical rib of which 
 the vertebral portion is very usually found in connection 
 with the seventh cervical vertebra. Knox had never 
 seen but one instance of these bones. He held it to be 
 more philosophic to suppose them rudimentary " than to 
 adopt the Bridgewater and Guy's Hospital physiology/ 
 which argues that every animal is made for itself alone, 
 stands alone, and has nothing to do with any other, and 
 that the individual organs of man and animals are to 
 be explained by a physiology whose highest stretch of 
 generalization is to represent the mamma of the human 
 female as having been purposely created double, that 
 the accidental loss of one, by milk abscess or otherwise, 
 might occasion no interruption to their function ! Pro- 
 found philosophy ! but proving, at the same time, to 
 how little purpose Mr. John Hunter lived and laboured, 
 and bequeathed to Britain his immortal museum, seeing 
 that into the educational institutions of his adopted city 
 he failed to introduce a single spark of his philosophy." 
 
 Under " Muscular System " he described the muscidus- 
 hepatico-diapJiragmaticiis, and the scalenus antiais divided 
 into two portions, betwixt which the subclavian artery 
 passed across the rib, which arrangement was found 
 in the subject with the episternal bones. 
 
 In future numbers he discussed the " Variety in the 
 Form of the Human Pelvis and its component parts, and 
 the Transcendental and other Physiological Laws as 
 applicable to the Pelvis and its Varieties." He stated 
 
 1 Knox here gave a reference to Sir A. Cooper on the Mammce and 
 Bridgewater Treatises, passim.
 
 336 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 that he had examined the pelvis of five women of 
 different ages who died soon after dehvery, and found 
 in all of them a relaxation of the articulations of the 
 pelvis to a greater or lesser extent, so that he was 
 disposed to look upon it as a regular and healthy 
 process. In September his contributions were 
 
 1. " Obliteration of the Cavity of the Tunica Vaginalis 
 Testis in middle and aged persons." 
 
 2. " On a Congenital Deformity of the Head and 
 Neck of the Femur." 
 
 3. " Observations on the Muscle of the Lachrymal Sac, 
 or Tensor-tarsi." 
 
 4. " A Reply to M. Malgaigne's memoir, entitled ' Re- 
 cherches sur la Frequence des Hernies selon les Sexes, 
 les Ages, et relativement a la Population.' " 
 
 On November 3, 1843, his memoir on "the Cervical 
 Ribs in Man " appeared. After noting that M. Hunauld, 
 in 1740, had the merit of discovering the nucleus of 
 bone anterior to the transverse process of the seventh 
 cervical vertebra, " so frequently present, so varied in 
 its form, and which is, in fact, a rudimentary cervical 
 rib," he instanced his own obser\'ations, illustrated by 
 numerous drawings. "The pedicle or footstalk of the 
 transverse process of the seventh cervical vertebra 
 may, and probably always does, comprise the following 
 elements : i. A germ for the posterior arch. 2. One 
 for the anterior. 3. A short nucleus for the articular 
 surface. 4. A separate and distinct germ for the rib. 
 These different germs are developed in a great variety 
 of ways. Sometimes the rib extends to the sternum," as 
 Hunauld reports to have seen ; " more frequently it stops
 
 CERVICAL RIBS IN MAN. 337 
 
 short, and terminates by a rounded free extremity, or 
 unites with the first true rib ; sometimes it is very 
 short and rudimentary, but still distinct from the 
 anterior root of the transverse process ; at other times 
 so intimately united with it that there is no distin- 
 guishing between them. Lastly, the rib may be 
 wanting altogether, and so may the anterior root of 
 the process ; or this latter may be wanting, and then 
 the rib seems to take its place by completing the 
 foramen: it was that misled Hunauld." He looked 
 upon tlie anterior roots of the transverse process of 
 the seventh cervical vertebra as resembling the dorsal 
 processes, and wished the attention of anatomists to 
 this view. 
 
 In his second memoir, Nov. 10, 1843, he described 
 more minutely the anatomical preparations illustrating 
 the cervical ribs. He also described the cervical 
 vertebra; of the Ai" (Three-toed Sloth Bradypiis Tri- 
 dactylus, Linne), and instead of wishing to alter the 
 nomenclature of the human osteology, on account 
 of the eighth and ninth vertebrae of the Three-toed 
 Sloth being supposed to be dorsal vertebrae, he pre- 
 ferred the theory of M. De Blainville, " which, by 
 arranging the cervical vertebrae into three or more 
 groups, admits of an increase or decrease in their 
 number, without the violation of any other well-esta- 
 blished philosophic theory." 
 
 In his concluding paper (Nov. 17) he divided the 
 seven cervical vertebrae of Man into three groups. In 
 the 1st and 2nd groups, the first, second, third, fourth, 
 fifth, and sixth vertebrae were alike in both Man and 
 
 z
 
 338 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the At ; whilst the 3rd group showed the seventh 
 cervical vertebra of Man opposed to the seventh, 
 eighth, and ninth of the Aif. 
 
 "That the transverse processes present probably in 
 all the vertebrae a double root presenting various stages 
 of development. 
 
 " That the anterior roots of the transverse processes 
 contain the elements of at least two structures, viz. 
 a process which in the intermediate cervical vertebrae, 
 extending outwards, unites with the posterior root, and 
 so forms the foramen for the vertebral artery ; and a 
 shorter or stronger part, which ultimately becomes the 
 facet for the articulation of another element ; that is^ 
 the head of the ribs." He looked upon the seventh 
 cervical vertebra as combining the characters of both 
 regions, viz. cervical and dorsal. 
 
 As regards the genus Bradypus, the eighth and ninth 
 vertebrae he considered to be analogous to the seventh 
 in Man, carrying ribs more rudimentary than in Man, 
 being limited in their development to the tubercle and 
 a portion of the body, whereas in Man the cervical 
 ribs had a head and neck, tubercle, and body complete. 
 Those who wish for a more complete history of the 
 Cervical Ribs should consult a memoir by Professor 
 Wenzel Griiber, of St. Petersburg, published last year. 
 
 In the same Medical Gazette, vol. xxxiii. (Session 
 1843-44), he published six essays "On Hermaphro- 
 ditism," which were professedly reprints of papers he 
 had communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
 in 1827 and 1828. Also five contributions on the Corpus 
 Lntemn, in which his brother takes part. His observa-
 
 WANT OF MUSICAL TASTE IN ENGLAND. 339 
 
 tions on t?ie anatomy of the Inguinal Canal, p. 536 
 of volume just cited, tend to confirm the accuracy of 
 Mr. Guthrie's dissections. 
 
 At the end of the Session 1843-44, the students of 
 the Edinburgh Veterinary College presented Dr. Knox 
 with a handsome gold medal " as a token of their 
 gratitude for his long-continued kindness in affording 
 them free access to his valuable lectures on Human 
 Anatomy and Physiology ; and for the unremitting 
 interest he had uniformly manifested in advancing 
 and advocating veterinary science." The written testi- 
 monial was on parchment, to which the signatures of the 
 students were affixed. 
 
 Dr. Knox's " Lectures on Physiological Anatomy, the 
 Special Physiology of Man, and on the Anatomy of 
 Tissues, Morbid and Healthy," appeared in the Medical 
 Th/ies, vol. xii., extending from April 5 to July 12, 
 1845. These lectures sometimes bear out their title of 
 anatomical, physiological, and pathological essays, and 
 contain much of value to the student of medicine ; but 
 divergences into other paths are far from being un- 
 common, and the fine arts and " pictorial anatomy " 
 teachers now and then come in for a sly hit. Here is 
 a reference to music : " To thousands, nay, to millions, 
 the Norwegian airs of Rule Britannia, the Duke of York's 
 March, and God save the Queen, appear to be musical ; 
 they fancy them even grand and beautiful ; but what is 
 passing strange, they really imagine them to contain a 
 good deal of music in their composition. Now, those 
 having really a musical ear, and who feel that the 
 frightful noise made by an ' orchestra and the whole 
 
 z 2
 
 340 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 strength of the house,' in performing (so they call it) 
 one of these 'coarsest of all successions of simple 
 sounds ' (for airs we can scarcely call them), is, in point 
 of fact, not music, are not bound to alter their 
 opinions merely because a race destitute, as a race, 
 of a musical ear fancy such things to be musical ; 
 neither is there a necessity for those possessing a 
 sound eye and taste for beauty in high art, being 
 obliged to give way to the opinions of those not gifted 
 with such feelings" (p. 21). 
 
 His fourth lecture contains a number of measurements 
 of the cranium, including the face, of individuals of all 
 nations. His notions as to bulk of brain being the 
 measure of ability and power and genius are expressed 
 thus : " The largest-headed men of my own acquaint- 
 ance have been town councillors and jobbers about 
 public offices men of energy no doubt, calculating men, 
 unscrupulous, dishonest, but destitute of genius or elevated 
 thoughts ; a small-headed vain man is usually selected 
 as chairman. This class must, I think, also include all 
 statesmen who are found competent to hold office, the 
 least inkling of honesty of purpose being a total and 
 absolute disqualification " (p. 56). 
 
 His fifth lecture contains further measurements, "the 
 absolute height of the cranium and face when placed on 
 a horizontal surface, from the base to the vertex." The 
 table would indicate that the Scotch head " possesses an 
 elevation of probably a quarter of an inch over that of 
 tlic Hindoo head; an important dift"crence, no doubt, and 
 yet scarcely adequate to the explaining wh}'' a handful 
 of adventurers, whose doings have at times been sufl^i-
 
 " MEDIOCRITY IS YOUR OXLY CIIAXCEr 341 
 
 cicntly clumsy, should be able to hold in the most 
 abject slavery a hundred millions of their darker 
 brethren" (p. 75). Other measurements of the cranium, 
 and a description of the osseous component parts, afford 
 him opportunities of blending physiological and patho- 
 logical comments, and these are not altogether without 
 interest. 
 
 His two last lectures, "On the Supposed Advantages 
 of a knowledge of Anatomy to an Artist," are highly 
 characteristic of his historical survey, from Da Vinci to 
 liaydon and Sir C. Bell, and to the great damage of 
 many reputations and of persons who had long been 
 cited as authorities on English art, and on theories of 
 beauty. Mr. Haydon's lectures are severely handled. 
 Haydon had written, "Industry will improve mediocrity, 
 but will never elevate mediocrity to power." Upon this 
 Knox adds : " By power is of course here meant genius ; 
 for as to elevation to real power, why, mediocrity is your 
 only chance ; it secures your entrance into good society, 
 ii fautcuil dit the council table of all Royal Societies and 
 Academies. In town councils it secures the mayoralty 
 for its possessor, in universities it is the only sure pass- 
 port to a chair " (p. 266). 
 
 His paper on the Nostrils of the Horse, published in 
 the Veterinary Record, is copied in p. 287 of the Medieal 
 Times, vol. xii. 
 
 In December 1845 ^c attended a meeting of the 
 J^irmingham Pathological Society, and explained the 
 advantages of modelling specimens of pathological 
 anatomy according to the plan of Dr. Felix Thibert. 
 Some time afterwards the Doctor was engaged in
 
 342 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX 
 
 Thibert's Museum (when established in London), show- 
 ing from wax models the more instructive parts of the 
 human anatomy to popular audiences. However profit- 
 able the pay, the engagement must have been of the 
 most irksome nature to a man of Knox's capacity. 
 
 Two lectures by Knox on "Anatomical Museums, 
 their Objects and Present Condition," appeared in the 
 Medical Times, July i8 and 25, 1846. They contain 
 much sensible advice, which is all the more valuable 
 as coming from a man of thorough experience in the 
 formation and direction of museums. In 1820, the 
 College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, according to Knox, 
 contained from 200 to 3CX) preparations put up in a 
 fashion entirely antiquated and useless. Though the 
 first and second Monros had made a collection of phy- 
 siological, pathological, and zoological specimens, the 
 first scientific or Comparative Anatomy Museum in 
 Scotland was made by Dr. Barclay. In 1821, not a 
 single skeleton of a fish was to be found in the Hun- 
 terian Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. 
 
 Like many other men, practical or theoretical, 
 agricultural and scientific. Dr. Knox had Ids words on 
 the potato disease of 1845-46 {Medical Times, Jan. 3, 
 1846). The theory he propounded was, that " organic 
 changes, dependent on atmospheric causes, had exposed 
 the tubers to an attack of a parasitic fungus, destroying 
 its substance, and unfitting it for the food of either man 
 or beast." 
 
 In February 1846, Knox was gratified by a letter 
 received from Professor Robert Harrison, of Dublin, who, 
 after examining the works of Cuvier, Carus, and others,
 
 HOPES AND HOPES IN VAIN. 343 
 
 li^ave Knox the credit of having been the first to discover 
 and make known the peculiar air-bag in the Emeu. In 
 the tenth volume of Meckel's Comparative Anatomy 
 the structure is alluded to, but by no means accurately 
 described ; and whilst Knox's name is mentioned, Pro- 
 fessor Harrison considered that Meckel had not shown 
 " the credit and respect due to the discoverer of such a 
 very anomalous structure." 
 
 In the autumn of 1846, Knox was in London seeking 
 a Government appointment. He tried both Lord John 
 Russell and Earl Grey for employment in a survey 
 of Africa, and though his claims were supported by 
 the Marquis of Breadalbane and Sir George Sinclair, 
 he met with no success. Knox's scientific attainments 
 were of too high an order for the Whig mind to under- 
 stand ; moreover, nepotism and party ruled official life. 
 Knox was not a Border Elliot or a Highland Campbell, 
 or he would have been made to fit any vacancy in 
 the State. 
 
 Writing from Birmingham (Dec. 9, 1846), where his 
 lectures on Race had been so well received, Knox con- 
 demned the rush to the press so marked in London, 
 and then called Goodsir's attention to the "immense 
 dissections " made by his brother and himself, which had 
 not been published. The opportunity was now come 
 for Edinburgh as a school regaining its position, as De 
 Blainville had proposed to him (Knox) to translate his 
 works with additional remarks ; all his own drawings for 
 illustrating the series would be done in Paris. As Sir J. 
 McGregor and others were favourable to the scheme, he 
 hoped Goodsir would join him in issuing a quarterly
 
 344 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 fasciculus on the Vertebrata. Nothing came of this 
 proposal.^ 
 
 Knox's mind was fertile in resources, and no depart- 
 ment of knowledge escaped his attention. About 
 Christmas {1847), when residing for a short time in 
 Clarke Street, Edinburgh, he submitted to Mr. David 
 Milne, of York Place, a proposal to establish " an Agri- 
 cultural School or College, within the walls of which 
 should be taught the sciences bearing on Agriculture, 
 and in particular the sciences of Chemistry, Vegetable 
 Physiology, Veterinary Medicine, and Geology." Mr. 
 Milne replied in very pleasant terms, remarking, inter 
 alia : " It is a bold conception, and the execution of it 
 might well fire the ambition of a patriot. ... I believe 
 there is now sufficient intelligence in the country to 
 see the importance of an institution which proposes 
 to promote the art of Agriculture by the lever power 
 of science." 
 
 In the autumn (August of 1847), Knox wrote Lord 
 Lincoln, then Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 
 respecting South Africa and its applicability to an ex- 
 tensive scheme of colonization. His Lordship expressed 
 himself greatly obliged by the interesting details fur- 
 nished him, but made no further reference to Knox's 
 application. Twenty-five years before he addressed "the 
 State officials," he had advocated such colonization, and 
 dwelt much on the advantages of Africa to English 
 phthisical patients and others as a sanatorium. 
 
 In the summer of 1848, Knox began a series of Lec- 
 tures on the Races of Men, in the Medical Times. 
 ' See Gooilsir's Anatom. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 142.
 
 AWOX AND VIRCIIOW ON THE SPHENOID. 345 
 
 They appeared from week to week, and constituted 
 twenty-four in all. As in 1846 he had publicly foretold 
 the coming approach of that great struggle between the 
 dominant races for supremacy that burst over Europe 
 after the days of February 1848, the flight of Louis 
 Philil)pe, and Austria's Metternich, he was proud to 
 revert to the accuracy of his prophecy. He pointed 
 out with special self-satisfaction the views he had held 
 as to Austria having no existence as a nation, and 
 hardly a habitation or a name, and that Germany had 
 still to be formed, limited, and consolidated. It need 
 hardly be said that these lectures were worked up for 
 his " Races of Men." 
 
 Dr. Knox never had an abnormal structure submitted 
 to his examination without being able to throw some 
 light upon its nature. In the apparently most ambiguous 
 instances he was sure to ferret out some fact that would 
 lead to a further cclaircisscviait. The originality of his 
 observations and the breadth of his generalizations were 
 frequently proved. When he found the sphenoid bone 
 particularly small in size, and a distinct narrowness of 
 the base of the cranium, he argued that there was a 
 relation between the development of the sphenoid and 
 the activity of the cerebral functions. So far-fetched an 
 hypothesis excited the laughter and ridicule of the hard 
 matter-of-fact kind of persons, who asked, " What next.-*" 
 Later observations, however, especially those of Virchow, 
 confirmed Knox's views, and showed that the size of 
 the bone has much to do w ith the configuration of the 
 head, and, necessarily, its capacity for containing nervous 
 matter the fatuous and insane having but a small
 
 346 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sphenoid compared with the man of intelHgence. Though 
 Knox had pubHcly spoken of the great import of the 
 sphenoid as far back as 1834, it was 1848 before he 
 published anything on the subject. His paper on the 
 "Importance of the Sphenoid Bone, and its due develop- 
 ment in Alan," appeared in the London Medical Times 
 for July 1848. In a previous number of this periodical 
 he had described an adult cranium of a fatuous person 
 in whom there was nothing amiss but the incomplete 
 dev^elopment of the sphenoid it being no larger than in 
 a boy of ten or twelve years of age. He got Mr. Hallett, 
 Professor Goodsir's demonstrator, to make measure- 
 ments of the sphenoid in different races of men, and of 
 different ages : eighty measurements were taken. 
 
 Virchow, in his Treatise on the Development of the 
 Base of the Skull (Berlin, 1857), drew special attention 
 to the early ossification of the sphenoid as affecting the 
 formation of the skull, or, as he termed it, " strongly 
 shortening the base." This condition he noted along 
 with the deep fossae of the nose and prognathous face 
 met with in the Cretin, thus corroborating the views 
 expressed by Knox upwards of twenty years previously. 
 The plates given by Virchow to illustrate the ossification 
 of the three embryonic portions of the sphenoid are very 
 conclusive in character. 
 
 In his " Library of Illustrated Standard Scientific 
 Works," Hippolyte Bailliere published " Fan's Anatomy 
 of the External Forms of Man," for the use of artists, 
 edited with additions by Dr. Knox, 1849, 8vo. text, and 
 an Atlas of 28 plates 4to. plain and coloured. Both 
 text and illustrations were admirably done, and if Eng-
 
 FA IPS ANATOMY FOR ARTISTS. 347 
 
 Hsh artists cared to study the science of form, they 
 had it faithfully set before them in Fau edited by Knox. 
 The Appendix, constituting one-third of the entire 
 text of 313 pages, is from Knox's pen; it embraces 
 his observations, (i) "On the Elgin Marbles;" (2) 
 " Egyptian Gallery Coptic Race ; " (3) " The Antique 
 Statues of Greece compared with the Living Model the 
 Athlete of Ancient and of Modern Times ; " (4) " An 
 Analysis of the Beautiful in Form ;" (5) "The History 
 of Artistic Anatomy, and its utility to the Artist ; " 
 (6, and finally), " On the Ecorchee, or Plastic Anatomical 
 Figures of the Schools on the Dead and Living 
 Anatomy." \\\ these six chapters Knox gives a fair 
 abstract of his views of Anatomy quoad Art ; and perhaps 
 few men in England were better entitled to advance an 
 opinion on the relations of the human form to true art 
 than himself He had his ideal of the beautiful, like all 
 men wdio have written on the subject, and whether that 
 ideal be right or wrong in its construction, it is worthy of 
 study as emanating from a man thoroughly conversant 
 with all the data upon which an artistic theory can 
 legitimately be based. He showed that the anatomy of 
 the schools was not properly the anatomy for the artist ; 
 and that the success of Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and 
 Raphael in representing the human form, rested more 
 upon the study of the model than dissections. 
 
 In the Medical Times (June 28, 185 i), he had some 
 " Observations on Excision of the Pelvic Extremity of 
 the Femur." He spoke of recommending the excision of 
 the trochanter in a soldier of the 14th Regiment, then at 
 Melsea Hospital (Hampshire), in 1816. It was not done,
 
 348 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 but the post mortem showed him to be right in his 
 diagnosis. He cited other cases, as if claiming priority 
 in the suggestion of the operation of excision of parts 
 of the femur, and of the trochanter in particular. He 
 wrote in high terms of Mr. Fergusson's operations upon 
 the hip, and the -suggestive pathological questions per- 
 taining to them. From other and quite independent 
 sources there are good grounds for believing that Knox 
 was the first surgeon to recommend excision of the 
 head of the femur in this country. 
 
 Dr. Knox in 1853, or thereabouts, either purposed lec- 
 turing on or publishing "The Descriptive and Surgical 
 Anatomy of the Fascire and Aponeuroses of the Human 
 Body." His notes from cases in the surgical practice 
 of Liston and Syme, now before me, would imply 
 publication, but on the next page is the following: 
 "Lecture ist. Of the general Cellular Envelope of the 
 Body. The methods of teaching anatomy, whether b\- 
 oral instruction or by published treatises, have all more 
 or less this disadvantage ; they do not, nor can they be 
 expected to describe and group together the organs, 
 such as those I am about to speak of, in a way at once 
 practical and philosophical ; minutely accurate in detail, 
 yet neglecting not those large views first taught by 
 liichat and confirmed by all subsequent anatomists ; 
 supporting each important fact of detail by a reference 
 to the practice of ancient or of modern surgeons ; 
 alike instructive, whether successful or unsuccessful ; 
 judicious, though bold ; timid, yet mischievous, scholastic, 
 or empirical." He then argued that rational practice in 
 surgery at least must be, or ought to be, based on
 
 WOA'KS CONTEMPLATED. 349 
 
 minute accurate descriptive anatomy ; and in the hope of 
 supplying what seemed to him wanting in respect of 
 the anatomy of some parts of man, he had selected the 
 fasciai and aponeuroses for his description. 
 
 Another memoir he purposed writing was " On the 
 Laws regulating Human Production, Mortality, and In- 
 crease. By an Anatomist." A few pages w^ere written 
 out, but in too fragmentary a form to be noticed here. 
 
 In October 1853 he gave the introductory lecture to 
 the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, and was 
 said to have made an impression upon his audience. 
 He alluded to the circumstances which had borne down 
 upon his Edinburgh career, and showed the gravity of 
 the anatomist's position in England previous to the 
 year 1830.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Great Artists and great Anatomists. Manuals of Anatomy and Zoolog)'. 
 Proposals to Publish. Fish and Fishing. Papers in the Lancet. 
 Bichat. Aztecques. Philosophy of Zoolog)'. Crimean War. Food 
 question in France.- Contributions to the Zoologist. The .Social Evil. 
 
 Those who wish to see Knox in his own humour, 
 jaunty, free, egotistical, and happy, should read his 
 "Great Artists and Great Anatomists: a Biographical 
 and Philosophical Study," 8vo. (V^an Voorst, London, 
 1852). It was said that the boldness if not hcterodoxical 
 flavour of some of the author's statements alarmed one 
 or more of the London publishers. However this may 
 have been, John Van Voorst, with his usual public 
 spirit, issued the work, and it is one that should be 
 read by every man who can relish an intellectual treat, 
 whether interested or not in art and anatomy. The 
 biography and philosophy of the work remind you of 
 his "Races of Men;" and both volumes should be re- 
 garded as rare specimens of "high art" in literature 
 painted by a knowing hand, whose brush permits of 
 no cobweb and gossamer, and no mazy perspective. 
 The English reader of to-day would appear to relish a 
 different style of art than Knox's the "high falukin" 
 of the Bcales and Bradlaugh "spouters," or the Braddon
 
 GREAT ARTISTS GREAT ANATOMISTS. 351 
 
 " Brummagem ware" so much the worse for pubHc taste 
 and morals to boot. 
 
 Along with the central figures of Cuvier, Geoffroy St. 
 Hilaire, Da Vinci, Angelo, and Raphael, are grouped 
 men of every age and clime, and fragmentary remarks 
 of the most varied description. No man of the diviner 
 sort in history is passed by, and each portrait done by 
 the limner Knox is surrounded by the art, the literature,' 
 and the science of the epoch in which the genius lived. 
 His canvas is like one of John Breughel's big copper 
 .sheets, where human figures blend with landscape, and 
 animals, and flowers, and insects, testifying even to the 
 whole "creation": oddly enough, a further comparison 
 could be instituted between the anatomist in his showy 
 attire and the decorative person of the artist known as 
 "Velvet Breughel." In reading the "Great Artists and 
 Great Anatomists," you are now side by side with the 
 savans of the Institute ; now listening to Napoleon 
 under the shadow of the Pyramids of Egypt ; now 
 with Linnaeus in his wanderings; now examining "Zr.v 
 Osscincns FossiAs," or made spectators of the Shake- 
 spearian drama ; and so on. Men of every type, with all 
 their passions and prejudices, and all the varied cosmo- 
 politan phases of life, are presented on the Knox panel 
 with a fair share of the Breughel colouring. In one 
 page you are I'is-d-zns with Laplace and Arr.go, in 
 another, among the pedants of Oxford and the cliques 
 of London. The curtain rises upon " La Belle France" 
 carrying her sons of genius in lo trhnnpJie fashion, 
 whilst the master minds of England are retiring from 
 sight being frowned down by the theologians of
 
 352 UFE OF R0DER7 KNOX. 
 
 Exeter Hall and the "nobodies" of a British ParHament. 
 Nature's transitions of organic Hfe are not more varied 
 in time and circumstance than Knox's narrative ; more- 
 ever, the racy style, the pointed satire, the sweeping 
 generalizations, all add to the charm of the book. 
 
 In January 1852, Knox, who was then applying for 
 an appointment in the British Museum, was advised by 
 his excellent friend Mr. Murray, of Great Stuart Street, 
 Edinburgh, to be cautious how he spoke of the manage- 
 ment of the Museum or those holding office. " You will 
 make enemies who may do you infinite mischief, and 
 not the less because all you say against them is true." 
 Turning to another subject, and also a letter he had 
 received from Knox, he writes : " The affairs at the 
 Cape are getting worse and worse. You are too true a 
 prophet ; for all you have told mc has completely come 
 to pass. Your letter on that subject, with a little altera- 
 tion, would make a good letter for the TivicsT 
 
 "A Manual of Artistic Anatomy for the use of Sculp- 
 tors, Painters, and Amateurs," by Dr. Knox, was published 
 by Mr. Rcnshaw in 1852. The text was illustrated by 
 numerous woodcuts designed by Dr. Wcstmacott. This 
 manual contains a great deal of information ct forth in 
 Knox's best style: the third part of the volume is 
 specially interesting, where tile author dwells on the 
 object and aim of art, and his analysis of beauty and 
 his theory of the beautiful. He opposed the idea of 
 poetry and music, the drama or the pantomime, belong- 
 tng to the l*"ine Arts ; nor did he show much more 
 favour to architecture: with him sculi;turc alone is 
 high art.
 
 MANUALS OF ANATOMY AND ZOOLOGY. 353 
 
 In the same }'ear, at the instigation of his friend Mr. 
 Renshaw, Knox wrote "A Manual of Human Anatomy, 
 descriptive, general, and practical," illustrated by 200 
 engravings. In sending a copy of this well-got-up work 
 to Professor Goodsir, and asking him to make it his 
 text-book, he said that though he had always enter- 
 tained a dislike to Vadc Mccmns and Manuals not 
 written by anatomists, he was obliged to comply with 
 the spirit of the age. After praising the printing, paper, 
 and woodcuts, he spoke of "the text as the old story, 
 the descriptive anatomy of Man, a kind of anatomy that 
 few teachers here understand." In his preface, Knox 
 calls it his latest work, and, inter alia, says : " For the 
 medicine which appeals not to anatomy is empiricism, 
 and the zoology not based thereon is not a science;" 
 and of descriptive anatomy, " as the broad portal stone 
 of that doorway by which all must enter who purpose 
 exercising conscientiously the arts of medicine and 
 surgery. Scarpa and Hunter, John Bell and Dupuytren 
 entered by this gate." Professor Goodsir praised the 
 manual very highly, and recommended it to his pupils. 
 
 Under the auspices of the same publisher, Dr. Knox 
 translated Milne-Edwards's " Manual of Zoology," in 
 1855. A second edition appeared in 1863, edited by 
 C. Carter Blake. Milne-Edwards's work, so popular in 
 I'rance, required but an English translator of Knox's 
 breadth of mind to become as acceptable to British 
 readers. Knox's additional observations enhanced the 
 value of the volume, as many of these were strictly 
 original and illustrative of his own zoological expe- 
 rience. Professor Goodsir wrote that it was " by far 
 
 A A
 
 354 I-IF^ OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the best manual on the subject, and infinitely better 
 than its numerous imitators." He and Professor Allman, 
 also Mr. Sedgwick, of Cambridge, made it their text- 
 ^book, and, if I am rightly informed, Oxford and other 
 examining boards adopted the manual. 
 
 Referring to the status quo of England and the Con- 
 tinent in 1853, Knox writes: "Strange revolutions are 
 taking place in the world, which still moves in a circle^ 
 for in my younger days I remember precisely similar 
 war and other cries ; Invasion Buonaparte our Altars 
 and Hearths Church and State ! To me it is perfectly 
 amusing to hear the same thing repeated after nearly 
 half a century. It is much the same in medicine : 1 
 used to read the journals until I found them stuffed 
 with matters discussed thirty years ago and more, and 
 now brought forward as something new." He alludes to 
 some dissections engaging him, and adds : " So you 
 see that I am still the same as when you first saw me, 
 full of life, mad after the discovery of the unknown in 
 science, and as respects these matters as regardless of 
 the diggings and the diggers as if they were situated in 
 the moon. It is the first time, I believe, in human 
 history that mere brute labour is to take the ascendant of 
 all other qualifications." 
 
 About this time, Knox issued a prospectus announcing 
 the publication, on the 1st of October, of " Researches, 
 Anatomical, Physiological, and Pathological," to be 
 completed in four parts. The work was to be " published 
 by the Messrs. Longman, in the style and of the size 
 of Lardner's Encyclopaedia, and by subscription." He 
 assigned good reasons for collecting all the memoirs he
 
 FISH AND FISHING. 355 
 
 had contributed to the dififerent societies, and making 
 the medical public aware of his "theories and opinions ;" 
 but I cannot learn that anything was done to fulfil the 
 promise of the prospectus, upon one page of which the 
 titles of no less than forty-five papers are recorded. The 
 absence of subscribers' names, it may presumed, stood 
 in the way of accomplishing it. Nor was this to be 
 wondered at in England, when, as Liebig wrote to 
 Faraday, " works of a practical tendency alone awaken 
 attraction, while the ' purely scientific,' which possess 
 far greater merit, are almost unknown ; yet the latter are 
 the proper and true source from which the others flow." 
 
 In May 1854, Robert, the son of Dr. Knox, died 
 of heart-disease in Edinburgh. It was a great blow 
 to the father, from which he did not recover for months. 
 The young man was exceedingly like the Doctor in 
 looks and manners, and promised well in point of ability' 
 and conduct. 
 
 In 1854, Messrs. Routledge and Sons published 5 
 shilling volume for Knox " Fish and Fishing in the 
 Lone Glens of Scotland ; with a History of the Propa- 
 gation, Growth, and Metamorphoses of the Salmon." 
 The edition was soon disposed of, as every angler of the 
 Tweed and its tributaries, the lairds of the " lone glens," 
 as well as the lads of " Gala water," had their copy of 
 Knox on Fishing. If there was not so much to learn 
 of Izaak Walton's craft from its pages, the reader could 
 count upon the science of the anatomist, his description 
 of British fishes, their characteristics external, dental, 
 and osteological and many useful hints besides ; to say 
 nothing of the picturesque landscapes, the funny maxims 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 and moral reflections. His old pupil, Dr. Robert M. 
 Glover, said he read the book with exquisite delight, and 
 felt as if " the green leaves rustled in the song, and the 
 streams murmured pleasantly with all their waters." 
 The book revived some old friendships, and got Knox 
 invitations from "fishing folk" in every district of Scot- 
 land, none of which could he avail himself of Yet he 
 wrote for the dweller in towns, who " instinctively feels 
 that, ceasing to be a man as nature made him, he is 
 becoming a citizen a cit ! Abhorred word ! I would 
 rather dwell, as I once did, amidst the wild and now 
 desolate dells of the Anatolo, leading at the base of the 
 beauteous Boschberg the life of the wandering Caffre, 
 than listlessly pace London's idle busy streets, with 
 nothing to look at but miles of hideous brick walls, with 
 holes in them called doors and windows. Odious com- 
 monplace ! You mask humanity, and mar the better 
 part of human nature." 
 
 In the Laficet of November 19th, 1853, Knox has 
 .some remarks on " The Cholera Fly." Attention having 
 been called to the coincidence of swarms of flies and 
 the advent of Asiatic cholera, Knox spoke of his expe- 
 rience in 1831-32, and his visits to Fishcrrow, a few miles 
 east of Edinburgh, of a lady calling his attention to a 
 number of dead flies of a peculiar form and colour, with 
 yellow stripes on the abdominal region, and numerous 
 minute opaque particles evidently discharged by the flies ; 
 that a person in bravado took a quantity of this depo- 
 sited matter, which brought on an attack of cholera. In 
 reference to an appearance seen by hundreds, and which 
 was much talked of at the time, Knox and his brother.
 
 BICHATHIS LIFE AND LABOURS. 357 
 
 whilst fishing in the Annan and examining the banks of 
 the Sohvay, " saw in the extreme distance, as if hovering 
 over the town of Dumfries, a vast cloud in motion : it 
 extended from earth to heaven, and resembled a cloud 
 of flies." The cholera reached Dumfries that day, and 
 did not leave the town till it decimated its population 
 of 15,000 inhabitants ! 
 
 In the Lancet oi November 4th, 1854, " Xavier Bichat, 
 his Life and Labours: a Biographical and Philosophical 
 Study," contained an exceedingly characteristic essay of 
 Knox's, in which Bichat stands surrounded by the poli- 
 tical and dynastic associations of the French Revolution ; 
 Bourbonic and Hapsburg discouragement of science ; 
 medical teaching, and the like, or rather the unlike. He 
 looked upon the history of anatomy as wrapt up in 
 Bichat. He stated that anatomy was a haphazard sort of 
 study in 18 10, when he began it, and that it was not much 
 better in 1825, when he gave his first course of lectures 
 on Descriptive Anatomy. He traced Bichat's history as 
 a child of the Revolution ; his precocious intellect, when 
 at the age of twenty-eight he wrote his essay, "Sur la 
 Vie et la Mort," and all the salient points of his remarkable 
 career. " It was by the force of genius, instinctive, pro- 
 found, that, arriving at certain generalizations, he found a 
 new era the era of facts : he taught the scientific world 
 to speak and think as he did. If he did not succeed in 
 laying a true basis for biology, it must be remembered 
 that the laws of life transcend, in seeming complexity 
 at least, the laws of inert matter : in living bodies all 
 is mystery their origin, persistence, extinction. He 
 failed where Hunter failed ; he attempted physiologie
 
 358 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 positive, but it would not do. Is Cuvier's merit the less 
 that he could not explain the successive zoologies which 
 have appeared on the globe but by the clumsy inter- 
 position of a succession of miracles ? " Knox boasted 
 that he introduced Bichat's teaching of anatomy into 
 Britain. Comparing Bichat with Cuvier, Knox said, 
 "Cuvier spoke to mankind, but it was Bichat's fate and 
 misfortune to limit his researches to one animal : that 
 animal, it is true, was Man, great and all-powerful only 
 in his own conceit." 
 
 His remarks "On the Aztecque and Bosjesman chil- 
 dren now being exhibited in London, and of the Races 
 to which they are presumed to belong," appeared in the 
 Lancet, April 15, 1855. Taking the figures which Cas- 
 tenada the Mexican employed by Dupuis, the Spaniard, 
 when exploring the ruined cities of Central America in 
 1805-8 copied from the bas-reliefs of Palenque, Knox 
 saw the closest resemblance between these and the 
 Aztecque children, and believed that he saw an identity 
 of race. Considering the remoteness of the period when 
 these bas-reliefs and paintings were figured on the ruined 
 temples of the cities of Guatemala, he sought support to 
 his views in what he called the law of " interrupted 
 descent," which he thus explained : " A race of men 
 or animals may be so reduced as to be thought extinct ; 
 still some remain, and such as do are of course the direct 
 descendants of an ancient race. Or the race may be 
 quite extinct in that locality, and should individuals 
 appear, having an identity of features and form with 
 the ancient, such a phenomenon is explicable only on 
 the physiological law of interrupted descent." As negro
 
 THE AZTECQUES. 
 
 blood once introduced into a family will reappear after 
 some hundreds of years without any new infusion, the 
 same with the Jew and Gipsy." He believed there was 
 Jewish blood in the Aztecque children, and thought the 
 primitive races of men might be detected in the features 
 of the inhabitants of localities where a mixed population 
 predominates. 
 
 In another article upon the Aztecques, he alluded to 
 the supra-condyloid foramen and webbed toes and 
 fingers, and maintained "that the human family as it 
 exists is one quite apart from the highest four-handed 
 animals." Again : " Some men are born to grow up with 
 webbed fingers and toes, and others with the median 
 nerve and humeral artery and bone of the arm arranged 
 as in the cat and tiger. Do these deformations prove an 
 approach to the lower animals of an affiliation with a 
 lower class of animals .-' Not in the least ; they arc 
 merely characteristics of ' retrograde development ; ' for, 
 failing in the development of a specified zoological 
 form, Nature produces another, but it does not follow, 
 nor indeed is it true, that all such developments are 
 necessarily the affiliation of a natural family with the 
 one next in serial unity." 
 
 At no time could Knox perceive any serial affiliation 
 between the human family and the highest apes existing. 
 " I do not mean by this that Man stands apart from the 
 living world, and that a gap exists in Nature's works. 
 But what I mean is this, that the seeming gap must not 
 be offered as proof that such really exists. Apes are 
 not convertible into men, and for this simple reason, 
 they do not belong to the same natural family."
 
 36o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He followed out these speculations still further in 
 his " Introduction to Inquiries into the Philosophy of 
 Zoology," in the Lancet for June 1855. Should fossil 
 Man be discovered, Knox thought that his relations 
 to the present or living world would be the same as 
 the extinct Solidungula and Carnivora to the living 
 ^enerically identical, specifically distinct. " For who, by 
 examining merely the skeleton of the Hottentot, could 
 have re-constructed, had the race been extinct, that 
 singular specimen of humanity ? I go further : were 
 the Jew extinct, no zoologist that ever lived could 
 have re-discovered in the cranium and skeleton those 
 unaltered and unalterable features of a race the most 
 remarkable perhaps on the globe." 
 
 He believed that the existing species of men be- 
 longed strictly to one great natural family ; that the 
 species are separated from each other by anatomical 
 and natural history characteristics, as wide as those 
 marking species in any natural family ; but would not 
 admit of Man's affiliation with the highest Quadrumana, 
 nor vice versd. 
 
 His "Contributions to the Philosophy of Zoology," 
 extending over June, July, August, and September, 
 bore more especially on the natural history of Man, 
 and afforded him abundance of texts from which he 
 might preach sico more. Here is a specimen of his style 
 and thoughts : " In every embryo of every species we 
 have the possible of all forms appertaining to that family 
 at least. The destruction, then, by geological or other 
 phenomena, of all the species, saving one, of any natural 
 family, would not necessarily extinguish that family,
 
 '^''SELF-CREATED, SELF-CREATING WORLDS 361 
 
 since in the embryo of the remaining species there 
 exist the elements for the re-appearance, perhaps 
 under modified forms, of all the extinct species. As 
 of fishes, so of Man : one natural family one embryonic 
 form, equal to the production of all species in accord- 
 ance with the essential conditions of existence in time 
 and space." 
 
 Among other crude opinions hazarded by Knox, one 
 related to the Jews, whom he thought were becoming 
 extinct, as "their children cannot be reared even in 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 He dwelt largely upon dentition, and Natural History 
 character, and in writing of the Salmonidai, inter alia, 
 expressed himself thus : " The living zoological world, 
 as it now exists and has existed, is a self-created, self- 
 creating world, ever alive, never decaying, never old. 
 Life is coeval with the globe." 
 
 Knox remarked upon Goethe's idea of "the germ of 
 any animal being the germ of every other." " This is 
 the highest generalization. It connects the living and 
 extinct world into one great self-created chain ; it con- 
 nects it with the physical history of the globe itself 
 formed by a word, developing in its history an idea that 
 idea the universal and the eternal. Physically speaking, 
 it means the development of the eternal germs of life 
 in time and space, agreeably to laws inherent in their 
 nature ; the material form they assume is the combined 
 result of these laws, and of the external circumstances in 
 which they are placed." 
 
 He communicated several papers to the Lancet in 
 1856, and commenced in January with what promised to
 
 362 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX, 
 
 be a series of " Contributions to Surgical Anatomy and 
 Operative Surgery." His second paper (May 17) was 
 more a history of cases derived from various sources, civil 
 and military, both at home and abroad. In his third 
 (July 19), he recounted instances of bad operative surgery, 
 and urged the advantage of anatomy. On August 30th, 
 September 6th and 13th, he wrote "On Organic Har- 
 monies : Anatomical Co-relations of Methods of Zoology 
 and Palaeontology." He reverted to the opinions 
 he had expressed in 1830 to the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh, and which controverted Cuvier's ideas that 
 there exist certain anatomical co-relations which, when 
 once detected in one animal, furnish a law applicable to 
 all. Knox wished to show that he never mistook the 
 method by direct observation for any laws of co-relation 
 or organic harmonies admitting of any a priori reason- 
 ing. In his third chapter on this subject, he condemned 
 F. Cuvier for omitting to notice in his work on the 
 Cetacea, both his (Knox's) papers on the Dugong and 
 Cetacea. In opposition to Baron Cuvier, Knox had 
 shown that the Dugong did not belong to the 
 Cetacea. He felt the littleness of F. Cuvier the more 
 that, like John Hunter, he (Knox) had spent much labour 
 and time, and hundreds of pounds sterling, in the dissect- 
 ing of the Cetacea. 
 
 The war with Russia and the siege of Sebastopol 
 roused Knox's patriotism to fever heat ; the military 
 ardour of his adolescence was revived in his " sixties ; " 
 and from time to time he addressed himself to the 
 heads of departments in the War Office and Admiralty. 
 The dire antagonism of the Saxon to the Sarmatian or
 
 HIS PA TRIO TISM DISCO URA GED. 363 
 
 Russ was as strongly manifested by Knox as by any 
 subject of her Majesty's ; and at length he became 
 desirous of serving his country either as physician in the 
 Crimea or staff-surgeon. His application to the Govern- 
 ment was backed by Lord Murray, of Edinburgh, in a 
 note to Lord Panmure. He was sixty-three years of age, 
 yet as active as ever ; so that his friend Mr. (now Sir 
 Wm.) Fergusson had no hesitation in stating in his letter 
 to Knox : "You seem to me as full of energy as ever, 
 and I need hardly say that your intellectual powers 
 seem equal to any of those former efforts which in early 
 days made you dux of the High School of Edinburgh, 
 and the first teacher of anatomy in Europe." Mr. 
 Coulson and numerous friends spoke to the same effect 
 on Knox's behalf, but those in power were too prone 
 to nepotism and " taking care of Dowd " to heed the 
 application of a man of genius like Knox. Considering 
 the class of medicals sent out to the Crimea to aid the 
 strictly military staff, it said but little for those in the 
 sunshine of office that so distinguished a man as Knox 
 should be left out in the cold. His age, it might be 
 supposed, could hardly be an object with a sexagenarian 
 Administration at home and Peninsular Generals in the 
 field forty years after Waterloo, and these Generals red- 
 tapists of the reddest dye ! Lots of civilians, and some 
 of them not worth their rations, had been appointed, 
 yet Knox, the teacher of thousands, and of those too 
 who held high place in the Crimea, could not be accepted! 
 He had military experience, had been present in two 
 campaigns in Cafifraria, and in many dangerous cuin- 
 rnandos, and was the sole surgeon in charge of posts
 
 364 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 forming the left division of the African frontier for 
 nearly three years. All these recommendations went 
 for nothing ; such was the mode adopted by British 
 Secretaries of State to make the Crimean struggle the 
 most disastrous to our prestige and honour the world 
 had ever witnessed. 
 
 He had correspondents in the Crimean Army, and 
 was well posted on all the movements of the besieging 
 force. He knew the hardships to which his profes- 
 sional brethren were exposed, the faulty commissariat, 
 and all the evils of the situation ; and used his pen 
 pretty freely to show up the errors of the Govern- 
 ment in the Morning Advertiser and other newspapers. 
 He also addressed himself frequently to the Secretary 
 of War and Sir James Graham at the Admiralty, giving 
 various suggestions well worthy the consideration of 
 those in power. 
 
 He had communicated his views on the needful 
 reforms to be instituted in the Crimea to render our 
 army healthy and efficient, to his old pupil. Sir George 
 Sinclair, who replied, inter alia : " I have read with 
 very lively interest your recent remarks on the state of 
 matters in high places with respect to the public pro- 
 visions for medical and chirurgical aid, in connection 
 with the army and navy, and it appears to me that the 
 gratitude of the country is due to you for pointing out 
 so plainly the defects which it would be most important 
 and most opportune to rectify or to remove. If the dis- 
 tinguished men who have it in their power to bring you 
 forward in some public capacity, as superintendent of a 
 professional department, or as an instructor, on a great
 
 COA^DEMiVS HORSE-FLESH. 365 
 
 scale, of the surgeons and anatomists of a future age, 
 they would, in my opinion, reflect great honour upon 
 their own discernment, afford high gratification to your 
 numerous pupils, and make a grateful though tardy 
 reparation for past slights and shortcomings to one 
 who has most truly rendered good service to the State 
 by training up so many men of eminence in the most 
 useful of all departments Medicine." 
 
 On the 22nd of September, 1856, the Academy of 
 Sciences of the French Institute received from Dr. Knox 
 in manuscript an essay entitled " Travaiix sur V Adapta- 
 tion focalc de roar,' and appointed a Commission con- 
 sisting of MM. Quatrefages and Claude Bernard to 
 examine the said essay. 
 
 On the 1 8th October, 1856, Dr. Knox was appointed 
 Pathological Anatomist to the Cancer Hospital at 
 Brompton. "The committee of the Hospital, impressed 
 with the benefit likely to accrue to the Hospital by 
 Knox's eminent name and talent, deemed themselves 
 personally obliged by his acceptance of office." 
 
 In the Lancet of May 1857, Knox wrote a letter to 
 Isodore Geoffroy (St. Hilaire), member of the Institute, 
 on " The Food Question in France," in which he strongly 
 condemned the use of horseflesh. He maintained that 
 the use of such food would argue an unwholesome con- 
 dition of the social positions of a nation. On the Scythian 
 desert, the Mongol, the Calmuck, or the Tartar were 
 horseflesh eaters ; and so were the African yellow or 
 Bosjesman races ; but the savage Caffre and not over- 
 nice Negro never touched horseflesh. He had tasted 
 the flesh of the wild horse, and pronounced it carrion.
 
 366 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He advised France to improve her breeds of cattle and 
 sheep, and to imitate the Enghsh feeding of both rumi- 
 nants. He did not hke the French artificial mode of 
 rearing fish practised at Thuringen. " Look to Africa," 
 was his counsel to France, not without some sly hints 
 as to the inroads of the Saxon Boer from the extreme 
 south being met by the Gaul. 
 
 On August 23 {Lancet) appeared his " New Theory of 
 Race" Celt versus Saxon. Dr. McElheran had read 
 a memoir to the New York Academy of Medicine, in 
 which he claimed for the Celtic race predominance in 
 America. This idea being in opposition to Knox's 
 views, he replied to his former pupil, and in a very 
 characteristic way. Dr. McElheran had called "the 
 carnivorous Saxon" the "outer rind of humanity:" this 
 was enough to call forth the Anatomist. 
 
 Dr. Knox communicated no less than eight papers to 
 the Zoologist during the years 1855, 1856, and 1857. 
 " Some Observations on the Salmo Estuarius, or Estuary 
 Trout," appeared in vol. xiii. p. 4,662 (1855). He de- 
 scribed the estuary trout taken at the mouth of the 
 Nith where it joins the Solway, and in the Tyne in East 
 Lothian, as being a foot in length generally, and feeding 
 on small shrimps. He distinguished this trout from the 
 true salmon found in the same net, the food of which 
 &;dmon consisted of the eggs, or remains of eggs, of the 
 Echinodcrmata ; and from the sea-trout, or Salmo fario, 
 living on the sand-eel and small herring; and from the 
 common river trout and parr, which had been feeding 
 abundantly on flies, cod-bait, &c. As food for man the 
 estuary trout was excellent; the flesh is of a pink colour,
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 367 
 
 and quite equal to the finest river trout of England and 
 the celebrated Lochleven trout. He showed the specific 
 characters of the said trout, external and internal, and 
 formulizcd the dentition. 
 
 In the same paper he described the law of edentulation 
 (loss of teeth) as regards the vomerine teeth in the 
 Salmonidse ; also the natural family of the Salmonidae, 
 and of the different trouts caught in Scotland. He 
 used the dentar formula of M. Valenciennes as his guide 
 in the description ; admitting, however, that it was a 
 partial law applicable to some continental species, but 
 inapplicable to the great family of the Salmonidae as 
 they now exist in the creations of the globe. 
 
 His paper "On the Food of certain Gregarious Fishes" 
 (^toc. cit. p. 4,709), which had been read to the Linneau 
 Society in 1854 [Proc. Linn. Soc, No. Ix. p. 354), sup- 
 ports the views he had originally made known to the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh on the salmon, vendacc, 
 herring, &c. discussed in Chap. X. of this work. 
 
 His " Inquiries into the Philosophy of Zoology {loc.cit. 
 p. 4,792) led him to discuss the views of M. Valenciennes 
 {Histoire Natnrelle de Poissons), particularly as to the 
 dentition of the Salmonidae, to which he was opposed. 
 He gave measurem.ents of three distinct families, and 
 the arrangement of their dentition. He believed the 
 colouration of the Salmonidae obeyed fixed laws. He 
 discussed the proportions of the Salmonidae as compared 
 with each other and the generic animal, and continued : 
 " Species are only real in so far as regards Man's 
 observing powers: they seem to form no part of Nature's 
 scheme or plan, which obviously fills up all gaps, leaving
 
 368 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 no link deficient in the chain. . . . Unless we are pre- 
 pared to adopt the doctrines of chance, there can exist 
 only one creative idea, and consequently one creation. 
 The theological doctrine of Socrates, worked into a 
 system by Philo-Judaeus and his followers of 'the 
 final cause' school, applies merely to simple mechanical 
 laws of obvious significance and application : it has 
 nothing to do with the great laws of life, the laws of 
 formation and deformation, the laws of unity of the 
 organization in all that ever lived ; the law of serial 
 unity, which makes the living and past organic worlds 
 one, and not many." 
 
 In his essay " On the Growth of the Salmon from 
 the Egg to the Adult " (Joe. cit. p. 4,792), he speaks of his 
 own observations, and those of Hutchinson of Carlisle 
 in 1782, of liis contemporaries, Andrew Young of 
 Invershin, and Shaw of Drumlanrig, of the great 
 Willoughby in 1686, and other authorities. 
 
 His "Contributions to the Philosophy of Zoology" 
 (Joe. eit. p. 4,837)^ are but a text for advocating the 
 transcendental in anatomy ; nor is there much to- be 
 learned from " The present Condition of the Salmon 
 Question considered Physiologically " (vol. xiv. p. 4,985 : 
 1856); or " Some Remarks on the Skeleton of the Head 
 of the Urns Seotieus, or White Ox, obtained from the 
 park of Cadzow, the property of the Duke of Hamilton " 
 (vol. XV. p. 5,417 : 1857.) 
 
 He had a long article on " Zoology, its present Phasis 
 and future Prospects " {Zoologist, vol. xv. pp. 5,473-5,502 : 
 1857), which afi'orded him the opportunity of speaking 
 his mind on various matters affecting zoological study
 
 THE PRIESTS OPPOSED TO SCIENCE. 369 
 
 and pursuits. He accused the parti-pretre of having 
 degraded science in England ; the same existed in 
 France, but was swept away by the French Revolution. 
 " With us on tlje favoured side of the Channel, sot George 
 succeeded idiot George ; the English mandarins, with 
 whom, of course, was the English parti-pritre, success- 
 fully resisted the claims of man to be free ; the progress 
 of science, especially of zoological science, was suc- 
 cessfully resisted. . . . Gibbon's name could only be 
 mentioned in a whisper, and to speak of Voltaire 
 otherwise than to vituperate, was sure to entail on the 
 speaker or writer a torrent of abuse." 
 
 He admitted that all this had changed. The paper 
 is a capital example of Knox's pictorial, disquisitional, 
 and discursive writing, embracing the Historia Ani- 
 maliiun and the latest of the Gumming prophecies done 
 up in high sarcastic method. He held that "sound 
 zoological science never existed in England ; that it 
 vacillated between the extreme of utter scepticism and 
 the most slavish of doctrines, the theory of final causes. 
 .... Continental scientific men look on with wonder, 
 and ascribe it to the climate, and to the temper of the 
 islanders : a hypocrisy which has been called 'organized,' 
 but which must mean 'organic,' has no doubt something 
 to do with it. The question resolves itself into this; 
 Is life an inherent quality of matter from the beginning, 
 an essential to it, and requiring but certain circumstances 
 to call it forth .-' This is a simple enough proposition, 
 perfectly intelligible, and in every way probable ; so 
 soon as it has been demonstrated it will take its place 
 in science but not till then." 
 
 B B
 
 370 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 He gave BufFon the credit of the theory of primitive 
 worlds, and to Voltaire the expression that had been 
 applied to the physical world, "the laws of deforma- 
 tion are as constant as the laws of formation." 
 
 In the endeavour to obtain a clue to the whole of 
 Knox's writings, I visited the shop of H. Bailliere in 
 Regent Street (June 1869), and from a remark made 
 to me a few hours previously, was induced to inquire 
 if Knox had ever written on the Social Evil ; the reply, 
 as I expected, was in the negative. Seeing the urgency 
 of my request, the obliging foreman handed me the only 
 volume ever published by H. Bailliere on this subject. 
 Opening three pages at random, I unhesitatingly de- 
 clared Knox to be the writer of the bracketed portions 
 of the volume entitled "The Greatest of our Social 
 Evils : Prostitution, as it now exists in London, Liver- 
 pool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin : an 
 Inquiry into the Cause and Means of Reformation, 
 based on statistical documents. By a Physician." (Lon- 
 don: Bailliere, 1857.) The "Physician's" style could be 
 none other than Knox's, and documents are now in my 
 possession to prove the accuracy of my first conjecture. 
 The work is based on L6on Faucher's ^^ Etudes sur 
 r Angleterre," and Dr. Richelot's "La Prostitution en 
 Angleterre," and Parent Duchdtelet's "De la Prostitution 
 dans la Ville de Parish The subject could hardly be to 
 Knox's liking, but being cast on the literary world for his 
 bread and butter, he had, at Mr. Bailliire's suggestion, 
 undertaken to translate and extend the labours of the 
 P'rcnch authors given above, and to introduce along 
 with his own observations the opinions of accredited
 
 FRAIL WOMAN EVERYWHERE. 371 
 
 English authors. Knox's own portion is not the least 
 interesting part of the work, as containing statistical 
 and other information on population, manners, emigra- 
 tion, tendencies of race, historical criticism, and the 
 like. Among other curious statements in the book, 
 Knox attributes a great deal to fortune-telling as a 
 cause of prostitution. 
 
 "Immorality and libertinage," wrote Knox, "belong 
 to all countries and to all times ; nor would it be easy 
 to determine under what forms of society, under what 
 kinds of government, under what systems of religious 
 belief, immorality, using the term in its widest accepta- 
 tion, has most prevailed. Rigid Presbyterianism and 
 Sabbath worship avail nothing towards mitigating the 
 evil ; they clothe it simply with the garb of hypocrisy, 
 and driving it from the open streets, force it into the 
 domicile. , . Society will and must, sooner or later, have 
 recourse to a system of control ; that control in free 
 countries can only be exercised over the more daring 
 and profligate, who, throwing aside the ties of family, 
 the respect for society, self-respect as well, and that 
 modesty which, when natural, exalts woman above all 
 price, chooses to set up for herself and on her own 
 account, without a partner of the other sex, a traffic 
 which, although sanctioned and legalized by some nations 
 who, I believe, claim to be Christian, society will not 
 tolerate in her when it assumes this independent form. 
 Against this open prostitution, society, in general, 
 claims a right of control ; in England it has hitherto 
 been merely denounced. The time is sure to come 
 when society must adopt more active measures against 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 the growing evil. But before attempting this, might it 
 not be advisable to employ with more energy the 
 existing modes of repression which continental writers 
 admit and prove have never, in the United Kingdom, 
 been fairly brought to bear against this the greatest 
 of Social Evils ? " 
 
 In an appendix he quotes St. Augustine, who looked 
 upon bad women " as a natural constituent and essen- 
 tial part of the order of human affairs as instituted by 
 Providence, as contributing to the sum total of human 
 happiness, and as a natural arrangement not admitting 
 of correction by human means." Whilst the Saint 
 pointed out the infamy of the whole class of prostitutes 
 and panders, he continued : " A7ifer nieretrices de rebus 
 humanis, turbaveris om?tia libidinibus : constitue ma- 
 tronariim loco, labe ac dedecore dehonestaveris ; " thus 
 he held prostitutes to be part and parcel of the great 
 Providential arrangements. 
 
 Since Knox wrote, the question has absorbed a large 
 share of attention, and the "Contagious Diseases Act" 
 would imply a determination on the part of the Govern- 
 ment to meet the worst features of the Social Evil. 
 To-day (April 1870), some of our leading politicians 
 and divines, spinsters young and old, wives as well as 
 matrons, are in the field discussing a dirty subject : the 
 Westminster Review has also reviewed the whole ques- 
 tion at length. If, as has been conjectured, 56,000 
 persons of the productive class in London alone are 
 annually more or less incapacitated from profitable 
 labour by this malady of the sexes, and that from the 
 same cause our army loses in the course of a year six
 
 DELICACY OF FEELING LOST. 373 
 
 days' service of the whole force, it seems high time for 
 a people's Parliament to interfere. The question is one 
 of extreme gravity to the nation at large, and not 
 likely to be settled by aproned ecclesiastics, spinsters 
 of a certain age, and matrons seeking publicity at the 
 cost of delicacy of feeling. Where is the shade of 
 Mrs. Ellis, and where are the model " Women of Eng- 
 land" in these days of grace .''
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Popular Physiology. Whales. Basil Hall, Acclimation. Natural 
 History of Man. Ethnological and Anthropological Societies. Lite- 
 rary Projects. Darwin. Geographical Society. Popular Lectures. 
 Manuscripts. Practice. Latter Days and Death. 
 
 In 1857 ^^- Knox issued his brief work, "Man, his 
 Structure and Physiology ; popularly explained and 
 demonstrated, with eight moveable dissected coloured 
 plates, and five woodcuts" (Bailliere, London). This 
 work was quite elementary in design, yet meant to be 
 educational : he held, that without a knowledge of the 
 facts and deductions it contained the general student 
 could make no sound progress in zoology, and the 
 professional student would become an un.safe practi- 
 tioner, and the palaeontologist a mere dreamer. The 
 dissected coloured plates remind me of the work of 
 Dr. Alexander Ramsay, a lecturer on anatomy in 
 Edinburgh early in the century ; where, probably for 
 the first time in Britain, this kind of illustration was 
 adopted. This little volume added nothing to Knox's 
 fame ; it fell short in value of the " Popular Physiology" 
 of his distinguished pupil Dr. Perceval B. Lord issued 
 by J. W. Parker twenty years previously. Considering
 
 A GULF BETWEEN MAN AND THE APE. 375 
 
 their size, the plates convey a great deal of informa- 
 tion ; and here and there in the text are Knox's 
 characteristic touches. He held that Man stood apart 
 from all other natural families, that between him and 
 the highest of the Apes or SimicE there is a gulf, even 
 as regards structure, which renders wholly inappropriate 
 the fashionable term of "anthropomorphous apes." It 
 is curious to observe M. Pruner Bey travelling over the 
 the same ground ^'Soci^t^ d'A nthropologiey An abstract 
 of his paper appears in the Cosmos of May 28, 1870. 
 
 From time to time Knox reverted to his "old hobbies" 
 in Natural History. The Cetacea, upon which he had 
 written so ably, seem to have engaged his attention to 
 his last days. In the autumn of 1857 ^^ inquired of 
 Professor Goodsir as to the exact arrangement of the 
 cervical vertebrae in the true whales, and referred him 
 to his own preparation of the "young Mysticctus" for 
 examination ; as he was wishful to see if Eschricht and 
 G. M. Van Beneden, who had lately published a memoir 
 in the Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Brussels, were 
 right in their views. Van Beneden held that in true 
 wJiales the cervical vertebrae at every age form one 
 mass, never showing even in the foetus any traces of 
 division into district bones, or cartilages, as the case 
 may be. The anatomical facts furnished by the young 
 Mysticetiis, afforded, as Goodsir observed,^ no support to 
 the views of G. M. Van Beneden ; so the conclusion 
 arrived at by Knox was, that the actual number of 
 
 1 Professor Goodsir's letter is in my hands ; but as a copy appears in the 
 Proceedings of the Linnean Society, London, vol. iii. 1858, pp. 63-76, it is 
 unnecessary to quote it here.
 
 376 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 cervical vertebrae in the Mysticetiis, as in most other 
 mammals, is seven. 
 
 Knox's last " Contributions to the Anatomy and 
 Natural History of the Cetacea " were read to the 
 Linnean Society, October 6, 1857. He spoke first of 
 the Dolphins, and secondly of the Balaena Whales. In 
 this paper he held that the number of vertebrae com- 
 prising the vertebral column exclusive of the cephalic, 
 should determine the species of the Cetacea. He gave 
 a tabular view of the number of vertebrae determined 
 by himself and others ; thus his own were Mysticetus 
 borealis, Greenland, 48 ; Great Northern Rorqual, 65 ; 
 Lesser Rorqual, 48 ; Delphmits Dclphis, 65 ; Delphimis 
 Pliocmia, 65. He wished to divide the Cetacea into 
 whales with whalebones, and whales with teeth. Those 
 with whalebone have rudimentary teeth in both jaws 
 in the foetal state. In certain species of Delphimis the 
 vertebral column is composed of 61 vertebrae, in others 
 of 65, in others of 66, in others of 81, in others of 90. 
 
 Speaking of the Balaena Whales, he refers to the 
 Queensferry instance (February 1834), and that the 
 number of vertebrae in the Balaenopterous whale was 
 48, while the Rorqual gigantcus had 65, and held the 
 difference to be specific. In this whale he saw a canal 
 in the centre of the spinal marrow. The nerves of the 
 lung and stomach terminated in loops. The arterial 
 plexus surrounding the spinal marrow and extending into 
 the chest was an intercostal artery that never gave off 
 any branches, but continued of the same calibre through- 
 out, making innumerable flexuosities or turnings. 
 
 Writing from Colchester (no date), where he had been
 
 TIRED OF THE WORLD AND ITS HUMBUG. 377 
 
 lecturing, to his nephew in Edinburgh, and enclosing 
 post-office orders for the maintenance of his family there, 
 he remarks : " You cannot think what pleasure I have 
 in making you all comfortable. I do believe that were 
 it not for this pleasure I would not take the trouble to 
 take another meal ; for I am tired of the world, its 
 humbug and commonplace. . . , The morning is, as 
 usual, misty, cold, rainy, dark ; and I hear the east winds 
 singing mournfully through the crevices of my bed-room. 
 Let US' fly to finer climates, where we may at least see 
 the sun." 
 
 In a letter from Guildford: "Do not forget to make 
 all round you comfortable. Mary (his eldest daughter), 
 I suppose, manages chiefly; let bonny Bre and Bob have 
 some pocket-money for sweets." Again : " I wish you 
 were all here in London, but I know you are all com- 
 fortable and happy " in Edinburgh. 
 
 On various anatomical questions, human and compara- 
 tive, Knox was consulted by both lay and clerical 
 correspondents throughout Britain. Captain Basil Hall, 
 who had been discussing the anatomical arrangements of 
 the tiger's claw with Knox, makes an allusion to his own 
 pencliant for science, and in a way that had nearly cost 
 him dear : " I once entered a lion's den (old Nero's), 
 and while I was sitting on his back, thought it a good 
 occasion to lecture on this favourite fancy of mine. But 
 the monarch of the woods, not having the love of science 
 in his royal breast, gave such an infernal growl that it 
 lives in my recollection to this hour." 
 
 In January 1859, Dr. E. Zimmerman junior asked 
 Knox for information of his "late colleague, Dr. Vesalius,
 
 378 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 a native of Brussels, who died at Zante in 1564:" in 
 justification of his question he appealed to Knox on the 
 ground of his " well-known and well-merited position in 
 the literary world." 
 
 When opportunity offered, he took care to ventilate 
 his views on Race and Acclimation in the Lancet and 
 other medical journals. He did not believe that the 
 widespread Roman colonies succeeded to any great 
 extent in altering or modifying the character of the 
 original races of the conquered countries. " None of 
 them ever became Roman or Italian, properly so called ; 
 the intrusive race, in fact, after a few centuries, dis- 
 appeared, and the population regained its primitive type 
 or character a process of depuration hastened, in all 
 probability, by the circumstance that the Italian youth 
 alone emigrated to foreign lands, intermarrying with the 
 races amongst whom his lot was cast." 
 
 " The question of acclimation, which to many may 
 seem a merely theoretical and philosophical question, is, 
 on the contrary, to Britain, one of the most pressing 
 nature, and eminently practical. On its solution de- 
 pends the existence of what some are pleased to call 
 "the Colonial Empire of Britain." 
 
 " The opinion gains ground that after some centuries 
 the fate of all intrusive races is to die out, whether the 
 land of their adoption be within or without the tropics, 
 unless their numbers be fed by continual immigration 
 from the parent stock. But be this as it may, the 
 question which interests Britain at the present moment 
 is, the maintenance of armies of Europeans in such a 
 state of efficiency in her colonies as to render unneces-
 
 A CCLIMA TION AND NA TIONAL INTERESTS. 379 
 
 sary the employment of natives, enlisted amongst the 
 aborigines of the land thus held by military occupation. 
 The revolt in India presents on a gigantic scale all the 
 dangers of such a policy as the disciplining and arming 
 races of men wholly and for ever antagonists to our own : 
 whilst the same process namely, the calling the peace- 
 ful labourer and merchant of European descent from 
 vocations on which all civilization ultimately rests must 
 assuredly end in the speedy disjunction of these colonies 
 from the mother country. Events productive of the 
 same results, though springing from a different cause, 
 lost to Britain the greatest colonial empire the world 
 ever saw the United States of America. To hold 
 distant countries in any kind of subjection to Britain, 
 her armies must be composed simply of the natives of 
 Britain, born and educated in the land of their fore- 
 fathers, proud of their nationality and of their European 
 birth and education. . . . Armies are ever healthiest on 
 the move an observation which is true in more senses 
 than one ; and on this theory, supported as it is by 
 innumerable facts, we ground our belief in the possibility 
 of maintaining the armies of England in a healthy con- 
 dition all over the world, simply by judicious and well- 
 timed frequent transference from one climate to another. 
 . . . Are we to have another expedition to China on 
 the model of the Crimean } If any reasonable fears 
 be entertained on this head and numerous precedents 
 warrant the reasonableness of such apprehensions then 
 the nation cannot too soon insist on the formation 
 of a Conseil de Sattttf dcs Armees, to see to the due 
 administration of a portion of the twelve millions
 
 38o LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 sterling which the country has voted for the main- 
 tenance of the power and dignity of England at home 
 and abroad." 
 
 Under the name of "A Traveller," he wrote " Contri- 
 butions to the Natural History of Man," in the London 
 Illustrated Magazine y in 1854 or thereabouts. The 
 magazine was conducted by Richard Brinsley Knowles. 
 In his first chapter, headed " The American Race the 
 Aztecques," he objected to the word Caucasian, as there 
 was not a shadow of proof that the European races" 
 originated in the mountain country of the Caucasus ; 
 that the term had risen into an unexpected and un- 
 merited celebrity in consequence of its adoption by a" 
 modern novelist, Disraeli ; adding, as if to swamp the" 
 ^osewater duchess'-cTeative M.P. for Bucks, " that the 
 theories of the vulgar are the cast-off speculations of 
 philosophy." He speaks in another passage of Blu- 
 menbach's mantle being " new, glossy, shining, and 
 substantial," but that Pritchard wore it threadbare, so 
 that " none but an enlightened Quarterly Reviewer 
 could venture to call it a mantle at all. Not so the 
 bold and chivalrous author of ' Tancred ' and of 
 ' Coningsby.' True to his race, he picks up the worn- 
 out, threadbare rag, and declares it to be a sound 
 and excellent garment *as good as new.' And now, 
 patched with scraps and bits of Literature and Science 
 curiosities in their way, no doubt here we have it 
 palmed on the world as a new garment. With its 
 renovation and restoration, it has got a new name : it 
 is now called ' the Caucasian theory ' ! " 
 
 In another article he treats of " the Earthmen tribe
 
 HONOURS OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 381 
 
 of the Bosjesman and Hottentot races of Southern 
 Africa," and upon this subject, as upon all others of 
 African growth, he fulfils the remark of the Roman 
 poet from whom he quotes 
 
 " Africa semper aliquod novi offert," 
 
 interspersing his remarks on the physique of the different 
 humanities with the grand scenes before him Nature in 
 all her wondrous beauty and variety. 
 
 Knox was made Honorary Fellow of the Ethno- 
 logical Society of London, "the highest honour the 
 Society had in its power to bestow," said the secretary, 
 during the session 1860-61, along with Von Baer, 
 Boucher de Perthes, Nott, Renan, and other savaits. 
 On March 6, 1861, he read a paper " On the Collection 
 of Human Crania and other Human Bones preserved in 
 the Crypt of the Church at Hythe, Kent ; " and on the 
 19th of the same month his observations "On some 
 Ancient Forms of Civilization." 
 
 Excepting the president, Crauford, and the indefati- 
 gable secretary, Dr. James Hunt, few men took so 
 active a part in the service of the Ethnological Society 
 as Knox did at this period of its history. The Society 
 showed its approval of his marked interest by electing 
 him " honorary curator" of its museum on the 20th 
 May, 1862. 
 
 In the spring months of 1861, it will be remembered 
 that Du Chaillu was " the lion " of the London Geo- 
 graphical Society : in Knox's opinion the Frenchman 
 was also in the hands of a clique. In speaking of Du 
 Chaillu, he reverted to some intercourse he had had
 
 382 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 with the greater traveller Dr. Livingstone, and of 
 Dr. L.'s expressions of regret to him that he had not 
 read "The Races of Men" and studied the history of 
 Man more than he had done ; and further, that he had 
 not placed his manuscripts in Dr. Andrew Smith's and 
 Knox's hands : " as it was," said Knox, " Livingstone's 
 book was unreadable, but it suited the Geographical 
 and the Missionary bodies." I should have had some 
 doubts as to the propriety of quoting Knox's state- 
 ments upon Dr. Livingstone and the Geographical 
 Society, had not corroborative evidence come within 
 my knowledge only a few months ago, in Edinburgh 
 (December 1869). No one need be told that the great 
 traveller's book was imperfect in many matters per- 
 taining to science, and that it could not well be 
 compared with works of a similar nature published by 
 French and German authors. 
 
 To the Empire, apparently a weekly Radical print, 
 Knox contributed several articles, chiefly political or 
 condemnatory of the Sanitary Commissioners. "A 
 Plea for the Thames " was a hard hit at the " Sewage 
 Agitators," the Board of Health, Commissioners of 
 Works, &c. ; and his article on the " Sanitary Move- 
 ment " of the following week is still more characteristic 
 of his slashing style, as the following quotations will 
 prove : 
 
 " The surplus population, and what to do with it, has ever been a 
 favourite subject of speculation with the metaphysician and the statistician. 
 Already, in the fourth or fifth century, St. Cyprian, looking around him 
 at the profusion of human life in Northern Africa, where now there are 
 not half a dozen persons to the square mile to those places, now desert, 
 where Carthage once poured its thousands and thousands of armed men
 
 ST. CYPRIAN, MALTHUS, AND DERBY. 383 
 
 St. Cyprian defended the establishment of monastic institutions on the 
 ground that the earth (meaning a few miles around his diocese) was over- 
 populated ! Malthus followed to the same tune, but the good man, also a 
 kind of monk, however, really believed in what he wrote. Not so the 
 priest, St. Cyprian ; his white lies were his own invention, intended to 
 delude mankind, and lead them into deep and damnable error. About 
 ten years ago Lord Derby tried the stale and oft-repeated trick ! As 
 Colonial Secretary, he showed by statistics that in the wide colonial 
 domains of that queendom on which the sun never sets, there was not a 
 spot whereon a labourer could reside with the smallest hopes of bettering 
 himself ! And yet this man enjoys the confidence of England ! 
 
 " Such are statistics in the hands of the talented zxiA unscrupulous. St 
 Cyprian, in the fifth century, asserted the world to be over-populated. 
 Lord Derby, in the nineteenth, did the same. The excuse for the Saint 
 was his profound ignorance ; the British lord could have no such excuse. 
 .... Holiness is a great gain to bishops and priests, no doubt still more 
 to the governing body ; it is also an engine of great power when cleverly 
 handled by a Sabbatarian nobleman, as a Shaftesbury, Ebrington, or Gros- 
 venor. It is not the first time that men of this stamp have succeeded by its 
 means in trampling out the very intellect and soul of a nation of free men. 
 Free men ! what nation can be called free, governed by such laws, and 
 trampled on by such men ! But the Sabbatarian host, having ' made 
 common cause with God,' act in His name, and at times irresistibly." 
 
 He had commenced a memoir " On the Laws 
 regulating Human Production, Mortality, and Increase," 
 and it was his intention to arrange his matter under 
 three heads: " i. Man's productive powers, and the 
 laws which seem to regulate them. 2. The laws of 
 his mortality" or annihilation. 3. His increase." 
 
 Another idea of Knox's was to re-edit Alexander 
 Walker's work, " Intermarriage ; or the Influence of 
 Physical Laws over Health, Beauty, Intellect, Deformity, 
 Disease, Insanity ; " with " numerous notes and addi- 
 tional observations." Several fragmentary notes which 
 he had made on intermarriage would imply that he 
 meant to carry out his plan.
 
 384 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 As Secretary to the Ethnological Society of London, 
 and afterwards President of the Anthropological Society, 
 Dr. James Hunt^ had frequent communications with 
 Knox, both personally and by letter. The following 
 excerpts from his notes to Dr. Hunt may interest the 
 reader. Writing in August i860, Knox observes as to 
 the Hatchet question, flint-headed arrows, &c. as being 
 the precursors of bronze, iron, and steel : " I confess to 
 you that I doubt the theory. It depended on the race, 
 the locality, and the exigency ; they do not imply in 
 themselves a great antiquity : nothing of the sort 
 appears in the Homeric Ballad, in the Tombs of 
 Karnac [Thebes ?J, nor on the Obelisks." In a post- 
 script referring to Race, he adds : " I observe in a 
 critique on Gervinus's work on the history of the past 
 half-century, in a late number of the Saturday Review, 
 that Gervinus had adopted to the full the views I 
 took many years ago of the causes leading to the 
 demoralization and breaking up of the so-called 
 Spanish Republics of America ; he ascribes it to the 
 hybridity of the people. The reviewer was bound in 
 justice to me to have said that Gervinus had merely 
 adopted my views, but he does not say so." 
 
 Referring again to Spain (Dec. i860), he asks : "Did 
 you see Don Pacheco's candid speech to the Cortes } 
 
 ^ Dr. Hunt, the indefatigable anthropologist, who founded and for 
 some years ably directed the London Anthropological Society, is now 
 beyond my thanks. His attendance at the Exeter meeting of the British 
 Association, and his zeal for the science he so diligently espoused, obliging 
 considerable exertion during intensely hot weather, proved too much for 
 his delicate constitution. He was suddenly seized with cerebral symptoms, 
 which proved fatal in a few days, at his residence, Ore House, Hastings.
 
 HONOURS OF THE NEW YEAR. 385 
 
 He confesses that the Spanish race in Mexico are 
 reduced to 8,000 ! that the half-breeds are worthless, 
 &c. ; but was not all this foretold nearly twenty years 
 ago in the Fragment on the Races of Men ? " 
 
 One of the pleasures of the New Year of 1861 to 
 Knox was his being unanimously elected Foreign Cor- 
 responding Member of the Anthropological Society of 
 Paris : moreover, as the learned secretary, M. Broca, 
 informed him in a very kind and handsome letter, he 
 was the first foreigner who had obtained the honour. 
 
 On the 18th January he wrote: "How the present 
 state of Europe proves my theory of Race ! Look at 
 Ireland and Austria. The Times of this morning admits 
 that the theory has always been acted upon by Louis 
 Napoleon, and that it will break up Austria and Mexico 
 when the present mongrel race will die out in about a 
 hundred years!" 
 
 He stated in his letters of this period that he was 
 busy collecting facts " On the Antiquity of Man on the 
 globe, the grandest of all scientific inquiries." Every 
 now and then he hit the " parsons " very hard, and 
 probably they merited it. Thus he writes : " I do not 
 wonder at priests and Governments not liking ethnolo- 
 gists ; the hard matter-of-fact statements lately brought 
 forward make short work with the Utopias of Church 
 and State." 
 
 Knox had been criticised for speaking too freely of 
 our relations to the coloured races of India, and for his 
 un-English feeling ; and on seeing the Times in the 
 same vein, he asked Dr. Hunt if he had seen Russell's 
 remarks on the conduct of the English to the coloured 
 
 C C
 
 386 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 races of India, and continued : " When you next hear 
 of my un-English feelings on these matters, you can 
 point to the much stronger language of Dr. Russell 
 and the Times. But the truth is, the clergy do not 
 like the inquiry into Race, and so they get up any 
 objection against its advocates. They assert that I 
 disparage their efforts at Christianizing Africa ! What 
 do they think of the Christianity of Virginia and Georgia, 
 and of the doings of the English in India .'' " 
 
 In reference to Darwin and his opponents, Knox in 
 May 1 86 1 wrote: "A serious onslaught has been made 
 on Darwin by Mr. Sedgwick at Cambridge ; also by 
 Dr. Clarke, both great men, the former especially ; but 
 priests in holy orders. That is enough. I continue 
 of the same opinion in respect to Darwin's work, 
 namely, it leaves the question precisely where it was 
 left by Goethe, Oken, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire." 
 
 Some of his ethnological inquiries and observations 
 read, or intended to be read, to the Ethnological Society 
 were published after his death by Dr. James Hunt in 
 th.Q Anthropological Reviezv, vol. i. 1863: i. "Inquiry 
 into the Influence of Climate and of Hybridity over 
 Man," pp. 246-263. 2. " On the Application of the 
 Anatomical Method to the Discrimination of Species," 
 pp. 263-270 (copied from the Medical Times and Gazette, 
 March 14th, 1863) ; and 3. "On the Deformations of the 
 Human Cranium, supposed to be produced by Mecha- 
 nical Means." 
 
 The meetings of the Geographical Society used to 
 amuse him greatly. Under Sir Roderick he witnessed 
 from time to time the " lightness " of the proceedings
 
 DU CITAILLU AND OTHER " LIONSr 387 
 
 and gaiety of the assembled, the dilettanteism of science 
 if not buttered and sweetened, the " grand exhibitions " 
 with Chaillu and the gorilla to boot, and other lions and 
 lionesses, as the case might be, in pants or petticoats. 
 Nothing diverted him more than the appearance of a 
 negro "black massa" pitted against the white man, and 
 prompted by Dr. Hodgkin, the Quaker, for the fight. 
 The negro, in defence of his own order and their possible 
 liking to " cold missionary," cited history, and talked of 
 British cannibals. "Now," said Knox, "the story of the 
 cannibalism of the natives near Glasgow rests on the 
 very questionable authority of Saint Jerome. I would 
 not have believed the Saint on his oath, nor any other 
 saint r 
 
 Full of literary projects, Knox was preparing an 
 essay "On the Origin of the Arts," Avhich he intended 
 to make his best memoir, and to present it to the 
 Academy of Belles Lettres in Paris. " Deep reflection 
 on the subject has convinced me," says Knox, "that the 
 question is really an ethnological one." Probably he 
 would have gone along with Mr. Fergusson (History of 
 Modern Architecture), who stated that the true glory 
 of the Celt in Europe is his artistic eminence. The 
 same ideas crossed my mind when writing the first 
 pages of the "Life of Watson, the Sculptor," in 1865 
 and if my memory aids me, Mr. Ruskin has' given ex- 
 pression to similar opinions. 
 
 In 1 861 he was " maturing some new views on the 
 functions of the brain." It would have been gratifying 
 to find in his writings any indication of the nature of his 
 thoughts on a method so deeply interesting to the phy- 
 
 C C 2
 
 388 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 siologist, and upon which he had bestowed so much 
 attention. He had previously admitted that there were 
 not sufficient facts to attempt, with any success, a classi- 
 fication of the races of men. 
 
 Towards his last days he contemplated publishing 
 a large work in two volumes, with the title, " Contribu- 
 tions to the Scientific and Educational History of my 
 Times." It is greatly to be regretted that he did not 
 live to carry out such a work. 
 
 A more fertile pen than Knox's was seldom if ever 
 wielded, and its scope was far from limited indeed 
 much too general, for with greater concentrativeness on 
 his part greater results might have been obtained. 
 Unfortunately, his pen was too often driven by the 
 necessities of life, and occasionally in a direction but 
 little consonant to its master's feelings, and therefore 
 less likely to contribute to his scientific reputation. It 
 was all the more painful to reflect on such opposing 
 circumstances, as no man had fewer wants or less regard 
 for filthy lucre ; whilst his heart was hourly linked with 
 an intense regard for the advancement of professional 
 knowledge. One day in the office of his friend Mr. 
 Renshaw, Knox said with great energy and manifesta- 
 tion : " I would rather be the discoverer of one fact in 
 science, than have a fortune bestowed upon me." Here 
 he spoke most truly and advisedly as to the principles 
 which had guided him through life. 
 
 Knox had no regard for the English Universities ; and 
 he used to cite Lord Palmcrston's remark to the House 
 of Commons, namely, that all he ever learned was in 
 the University of Edinburgh, under Dugald Stewart ; that
 
 CUPID FAILS IN HIS AIM. 389 
 
 during the first year he was there he was busily engaged 
 in unlearning all that he had acquired at Cambridge. 
 Knox believed that the members of the Ethnological 
 Society "who stood up for English Universities never 
 were there, and probably were not aware that these in- 
 stitutions are strictly theological institutions based on 
 the edicts of Pope Boniface." 
 
 He frequently gave popular lectures on Race, Civili- 
 zation, the Origin of the Arts, Leonardo da Vinci, and 
 other notabilities in history. When lecturing at Hendon, 
 near London, on Race, he showed some skulls in support 
 of his views. When he spoke of the crania of the lower 
 orders of civilization, where space for brain was wanting, 
 he compared such to persons who go to Oxford to chop 
 theology and logic for five years. He of course ignored 
 the Mosaic record quoad Man. 
 
 His visits to Southampton as a lecturer proved too 
 much for a lady in the neighbourhood, who became 
 enamoured of his person and cleverness, and evidently 
 looked forward to marriage with the weird anatomist. 
 Cupid won the spinster entirely ; Knox had had ex- 
 perience, and knciv the byways of womanhood. Maria 
 was comely, and comfortable in means ; Robert, how- 
 ever, had passed beyond his sixtieth summer. In this, 
 as in too many cases, true love did not run smoothly; 
 at any rate nothing came of the promised conquest of 
 our hero. 
 
 In his latter years Dr. Knox took to practice in the 
 Hackney district, and, marvellous to say, did a great 
 deal in the obstetrical department. Let the old pupils 
 of Knox picture their teacher trying to fill the his-
 
 390 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 torical page, tracing the growth of the Egyptian dy- 
 nasties and the formation of the Assyrian marbles, 
 and recording in graphic line the progress of race 
 and civilization, whilst his ears were dinned by the 
 voluble Mrs. Gamp and puerperal groans. Whoever 
 employed Knox professionally, liked him exceedingly. 
 Ladies in expectation would "expect" too soon, that 
 they might secure the services of the delightful doctor 
 in good time, and not unfrequently they would not 
 tolerate his leaving for days after the event. Having 
 his papers by him and every home comfort, he had 
 the pleasure of complying with the wishes of his friends. 
 He was kind to the poor, and prescribed gratuitously, 
 and often found them food and luxuries ; then, he used 
 to say, he was the happiest of practitioners. 
 
 He lectured at various public institutions, in and 
 around London, frequently, and at some of the large 
 towns, e.g. Sheffield, Southampton, &c. His style of 
 lecturing was so novel and captivating, that many 
 who scarcely sanctioned his doctrines and flings at 
 the ecclesiastics, attended him for a treat. Others 
 were so pleased that, though strangers to him, they 
 asked if he would come and dine, and stay all night. 
 Invitations of this kind were frequently offered to 
 him, nay, were extended far beyond all reasonable 
 limit ; so that Knox might literally have lived with 
 private friends, and found a comfortable home in 
 every district in London. " Plang up your hat in 
 the hall, Dr. Knox; call for what you want; we dine 
 at six ; our evenings and Sundays are entirely at 
 your disposal, and above all we shall be delighted
 
 THE COURTEOUS HOSPITALITIES. 391 
 
 to have you here !" Such were the character of his 
 invitations, and the modes adopted to get hold of the 
 conversationaHst Knox, the best of story-tellers, and 
 the most sympathizing of mortals. 
 
 In the last year of his life his pen seems to have 
 been as active as ever in controverting the errors of 
 others, and in the advocacy of his own opinions. 
 Professor Schaaffhausen, in a communication made to 
 the Society of the Lower Rhine, holding its meetings 
 at Bonn, in March 1862, endeavoured to show that 
 there was a continual increase in the rate of the pul- 
 sations of the heart from morning to evening. In the 
 London Medical Times and Gazette of May 31, Knox 
 goes over his old ground, and cites Dr. Guy, Dr. 
 Graves, and M. Ouetelet, as supporting the views first 
 expressed by him in 1814, and oft confirmed since; 
 and naturally expresses his surprise at the German's 
 unacquaintance with his theories of the diff"erential 
 pulse. 
 
 On August 2, 1862 {loc. cit.), he had "Some Remarks 
 on the Formation of Membranous Cysts in the In- 
 terior of the Urinary Bladder." This paper shows his 
 marvellous retentive memory even in his seventy-first 
 year, his referring to cases treated by Liston in Edin- 
 burgh thirty years previously, and the pathological 
 specimens in the Museum of the College of Surgeons. 
 
 Knox left heaps of manuscript written on small 
 pieces of paper, and in the most perplexing manner 
 on both sides of the sheet ; and as if to make con- 
 fusion more confused, he would occasionally carry 
 on two subjects on the same sheet of paper : the
 
 392 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 writing on one side being arranged vertically, and on 
 the other side longitudinally. Nothing could well be 
 more varied than his literary scope ; and the same 
 might be said of his scientific walk. Descriptions of 
 varieties in the form, direction, and number of muscles, 
 also of arteries ; in short, all the anomalous human 
 structures that he had met with in his Practical 
 Rooms during twenty years' observation were noted. 
 He looked to the "numerical anomalies of parts of 
 muscle " with as much nicety as he did to the points 
 of the osteogenesis, and with an eye to specific zoo- 
 logical features or type. In this department of in- 
 quiry he was followed by Goodsir ; indeed, the scraps 
 of MS. lying before me recall the packages of the same 
 sort so lately turned over for the purpose of writing 
 Goodsir's biography : the like masses of waste paper, 
 emblems of waste labour and futile expenditure of brain 
 power. 
 
 The " threescore and ten of man's years " were felt 
 and acknowledged by Dr. Knox as having a true 
 meaning. His mind might seem as fertile and active 
 as ever; but the freshness of intellectual thought, the 
 acute perception, and the grander generalizations at 
 one time so apparent to the world of medicine had 
 become more or less impaired, and at all events 
 robbed of their gloss and attractiveness. 
 
 He talked with greater calmness of his contempo- 
 raries, and of the few, very few enemies that remained ; 
 and seemed comforted in the possession of all that 
 nature required for the sustentation of his physical 
 man. He also expressed an affectionate regard for the
 
 THE PEACEFUL DECLINE. 393 
 
 peaceful attitude of his latter days. Happily for him, his 
 wants were few and easily supplied, now that the love of 
 applause and the fiery ambition in life's fretful aim had 
 quite passed away. His only son and survivor, and his 
 attached friends in No. 9, Lambe Terrace, Hackney, 
 sat around him, and listened with delight to his varied 
 talk, his worldly experiences, his reviews of the diffe- 
 rent epochs of human opinion through which he had 
 lived, and the part he had sustained amid a life of 
 severe competition and contention. They were grati- 
 fied above all other considerations to hear him express 
 his satisfaction with what he had done in the cause 
 of medical education and science, and to see his cheer- 
 ful contentment in a sphere so little consonant with 
 the heydays of his popularity and success. He went 
 to bed surrounded by a household that never wearied 
 of his talk ; he rose to a simple meal which was to 
 him as good as a feast ; he then set to work with his 
 pen and paper, and covered sheet after sheet with 
 a flowing diction that no printer could keep pace 
 with. If his mental energies seemed inexhaustible, 
 his physical strength and walking powers were evi- 
 dently on the decline. He complained of the enfeebled 
 action of the heart, and his inability to ascend a stair- 
 case ; he was fully aware of the approaching shadows of 
 death ; but this made no change in his conv^ersation, 
 and led to no religious manifestation. 
 
 In the autumn of 1862, he spoke of writing his 
 life, and gave as a reason that he could explain the 
 terrible events of 1828 better than any other person 
 living, and further, that he would be able to prove his
 
 394 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 entire innocence of all and everything pertaining to 
 the West Port atrocities. 
 
 He attended to his duties at the Cancer Hospital 
 on the 9th December, and came home tired and ex- 
 hausted. After a glass or two of champagne he seemed 
 refreshed, and went to bed. In a short time the noise 
 of laboured breathing was heard proceeding from his 
 room : he was found apoplectic, and with little or no 
 rallying of the powers of consciousness he continued 
 till his death on the 20th December, 1862. 
 
 As he had spoken of the heather and wild flowers 
 blooming in great beauty in Woking Cemetery, and 
 his wish to be interred there in some spot where the 
 sun might shine longest on the green sod above his 
 grave, his remains were deposited in accordance with 
 his desire, on the 29th December. The funeral was 
 strictly private. 
 
 Sir William Fergusson is about to erect a suitable 
 memorial over the grave of his renowned teacher and 
 friend, to whom he owed so much. It need hardly 
 be said that some sepulchral /;/ mciiwriam is due 
 to the greatest anatomical lecturer ever heard in 
 Britain, the man of rare intellect, commanding elo- 
 quence, and genius.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Notices of his Death. The Knox Scliool of Anatomy. His varied 
 Labours in London. Religious Beliefs. Llis Enemies, layand clerical. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 SiiVERAL newspapers noticed Dr. Knox's death. A 
 leading- article in the Lancet contained, inter alia: 
 " His death was a shock to those friends and acquaint- 
 ances who had seen him in tolerable health two or 
 three weeks previously, but it was and is more espe- 
 cially felt by his few relatives and associates, who 
 loved the old man for his most affectionate and cheer- 
 ful disposition, for his promptitude in doing any kind 
 action which could serve another, and for his high 
 intellectual qualities. Like all of us, he had his faults ; 
 but, as with most earnest men, those faults were 
 superficial, and it is no abuse of language to say that 
 a better-hearted man never existed. . . . He was a 
 man, not to look at, but to converse with ; though 
 no mere clothes-horse, such were his gifts of speech 
 that his harmonious voice and earnest manner won 
 the close attention of each listener. . . . His words 
 always bore thinking of, and not uncommonly the
 
 396 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 more they were thought of the more was the speaker 
 admired." 
 
 Dr. Druitt wrote the admirable notice of Knox 
 in the Medical Times (Dec. 27, 1862). The following 
 excerpts are quite to the purpose : " In gifts of 
 speech he was unequalled. His voice bland and har- 
 monious, his manner earnest and persuasive, his, facimdia 
 or by whatever other name we may call that seem- 
 ingly inexhaustible flow of the choicest and most 
 apposite language ; his clearness, his logical precision 
 in speaking, and the enormous amount of information 
 on all subjects connected with natural history and 
 fine art, which flowed without efl"ort from his lips, all 
 conspired to make him justly a favourite with all who 
 formed his acquaintance. ... In spite of his savage 
 Radicalism, and that during a part of his career he 
 was not free from all blemish, he was, in private life, 
 pre-eminently tender, friendly, and affectionate. . . . 
 Fine art, its cultivation and estimation, were regarded 
 by Dr. Knox like a lofty literature, a test of the true 
 character of any race, of their power of appreciating 
 truth, philosophy, and science. All mere fashion, all 
 utility, perish from the face of the earth ! Those races 
 only leave abiding memorials, who follow Nature and 
 truth. Of course Dr. Knox loathed teleology, or the 
 utility principle. . . . His grandest point is his incessant 
 sarcasm at the blindness, the self-conceit, the utilita- 
 rian tendencies, the specious hypocrisies, the self- 
 gratulation which is exhibited by us, who call our- 
 selves the Anglo-Saxon race, and to a still greater 
 degree by our unhappy relatives in America."
 
 THE SCIENCE OF MAN IN BRITAIN. 397 
 
 Dr. Knox was a member of several learned bodies or 
 societies both at home and abroad. He appreciated 
 the foreign distinctions which were conferred upon him 
 as honorary tributes to his position in the scientific 
 world : his British titles were of little or no value in 
 his eyes. 
 
 Since the dawn of this century, when Geherner 
 Hofrath Loder lectured at Jena on " Physical Anthro- 
 pology," and sought to give a new direction to the 
 study of man's nature by the application of a higher 
 anatomy, no one had been more conspicuous than Knox 
 in this special department of public teaching, or had 
 done more to advance the study of Race within the 
 medical circles, and among the educated classes of this 
 country. The science of Man, as far as it is under- 
 stood in Britain, owes much to the Doctor's advocacy of 
 the question, or rather of one particular phase of 
 Anthropology, and that of practical application to the 
 national interests. Before his time the Races of Men 
 were hardly heard of except in special works ; now 
 the hebdomadal and daily press discuss Knox's theme 
 with an ability that shows the growing strength of the 
 doctrines he laid down, and at a time, too, when it was 
 dangerous to speak of Man's genesis and position, except 
 through the reflection of ^' tJie Book " and the interpreta- 
 tion of pulpit declaimcrs and other blowers of the soap- 
 bubble sort in Science. 
 
 Dr. Knox possessed a happy versatility of genius that 
 should have led to great results ; such endowment, it 
 is true, occasionally proves as much a hindrance as a 
 gain to scientific work requiring steady and thoughtful
 
 398 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 application. Caught by the sentiment of the hour, so 
 tempting to men of his cast of mind, or striving to 
 obtain fresh growths from one of his old leavens, a 
 practice often betrayed, he showed himself less regardful 
 of his programme and of the steps needful to initiate a 
 theoretical doctine, or to establish a more apposite 
 principle in biology. In the display of his abilities over 
 a large range of literary and artistic observation, there 
 was more of the instinctive dash than an earnestness of 
 purpose. With greater precision, and a better-directed 
 energy, his walk would have been higher and more 
 commensurate with his rare intellectual gifts. He 
 achieved much, it is true, and had a ray of concen- 
 trativeness fallen upon his work and been reflected on 
 his page, he would have attained a higher eminence, 
 and left a bolder inscription in the annals of British 
 Anatomy and Physiology. Few men of this century 
 had better brains, or held out greater promise of 
 effecting right good work in science, than Robert 
 Knox. It has been proved that his early years were 
 exceedingly fruitful, and that anatomy in his hands 
 derived a beneficial impetus, not only felt to-day in 
 numerous medical schools of the kingdom, but likely 
 to continue to be felt for generations to come. Who 
 of the many distinguished teachers of anatomy gone 
 before or culminating in Dr. John Barclay, have had 
 such a noble following as the Owens, the Goodsirs, 
 and others noticed in this volume .-* 
 
 Dr. Robert Knox laboured strenuously to educate 
 academic youth as thinkers and workers in zoology ; 
 and succeeded in establishing a great school of anatomy.
 
 THE KNOX SCHOOL OF ANA TOMY. 399 
 
 His indoctrination will live ; indeed, he had the pleasure 
 of seeing its fertile operations in the hands of Professor 
 John Goodsir, who, during his twenty years' reign in the 
 University of Edinburgh, must have taught upwards of 
 5,000 pupils, and very much on the Knox method of 
 instruction. In the noble spirit that guided him through 
 life, Goodsir gloried in his acknowledgment of the source 
 of his own inspirations. Sir W. Fergusson, when so un- 
 fairly attacked by Professor Syme in November, 1856 
 (Vide Lancet), was also guided by the same grateful spirit, 
 and publicly expressed the pride he had in having been 
 associated with a teacher of such eminence as Knox 
 the greatest anatomist of his epoch. 
 
 A thousand regrets have accompanied my humble 
 efforts to portray the historical Knox regrets that his 
 early promise was not sustained through his whole career. 
 What might he not have been had the Fates been ordi- 
 narily propitious ! The Knox system of opinions, like 
 the threads wrought by the Lachesis spindle, grew in 
 junction and beauty, and bid fair to constitute a web 
 of strength and durability, when the affair of 1828, 
 the Black Atropos, came and impaired its integrity. 
 It is possible that this might have been got over in 
 time, had not the rivalry and personal enmity to which 
 he was exposed proved too sadly disastrous. Relative 
 to this hostility of feeling, it is curious to note Dr. 
 Knox's dedication of his College of Surgeons "proba- 
 tionary essay" (1825) to Surgeon Wishart, of whom he 
 speaks in high terms for his upright conduct towards 
 his professional brethren, and as forming " a striking 
 contrast with the unmanly, dishonourable, but too pre-
 
 400 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 valent feeling which causes its possessor to sicken at 
 the mention of another's success, and stimulates him 
 to calumniate and detract from that reputation he cannot 
 hope to obtain." 
 
 His London life was in marked contrast with that 
 of Edinburgh, inasmuch as he had no class and no 
 platform ; whilst the res angiistcE doini drove him from 
 the path of scientific inquiry and the higher aims of philo- 
 sophy. Forced contributions to medical and literary 
 journals or the daily press usurped the hours that should 
 have been devoted to the extension of biology, and to 
 the elevation of a name that might have proved a 
 British adornment to the progressive science of the 
 nineteenth century. He had too much to do in the 
 currente calaino fashion ; indeed, from time to time, he 
 discharged the duties of a dozen " editorials." He was 
 at home on the social, the sanitary, and the political 
 aspects of the day, the affairs anatomical and medico- 
 chirurgical, the Horse Guards, and Somerset House, 
 colonization and geographical discovery, priests and 
 petticoats, arts and artists, travel, natural history, and, 
 above all, Race. One day he figured as Spartacus writing 
 slashing articles for a Radical print, condemnatory of 
 parsons, politicians, and tuft-hunters that was \\\s forte ; 
 another day he was discoursing in the pages of the 
 Morning Advertiser, that odd representative of a dualistic 
 faith beer and bigotry ; and though he did not write 
 for Licensed Victuallers or to please the Pharisee, 
 this must have been his foible. In these instances the 
 guinea stamp prevailed o'er the man. How far other- 
 wise when he wrote for the Linnean Society, the
 
 TOO AfAA'V /Ji!OA'S IX THE FIRE. 401 
 
 Zoologist, and the medical journals ; there, science pre- 
 vailed o'er the guinea, and Knox was then " a man 
 for a' that, and a' that." 
 
 No person had so many irons in the fire at once as 
 poor Knox. " A Dissertation on the Origin of the Arts" 
 "A Critical Inquiry into the Nature of Beauty" "On 
 the Intercalation of the present Living World with the 
 Fossil or Extinct," may be cited among the works he 
 had on hand and in progress towards completion ; and 
 only a few days before his death he had commenced 
 "A History of the African Travellers, Sparman, Le 
 Vaillant, Burchell, &c." One difficulty must have pre- 
 sented itself, that of finding publishers for works of this 
 kind, when the feeling of the day was by no means 
 favourably disposed towards the science and the varied 
 themes that he sought to expound. Perhaps the 
 world is much the same to-day that it was thousands of 
 3'ears ago, when the most ancient literature of the Vedic- 
 Rig-Veda set forth 
 
 " How multifarious are the views which different men inspire ! 
 How various are the ends wiiich men of various crafts desire ! 
 The leech a patient seeks ; the smith looks out for something cracked ; 
 The priest seeks devotees, from whom he may his fees extract : "' 
 
 yet who can believe in the successful competition of a 
 philosophic-mindedness like that of Knox, with the high 
 and low sensational, the bigamies and bastardies of the 
 fashionably current literature of these days of debase- 
 ment ! What chance has true science, the science of life, 
 or the scrutiny of material forms, or the higher philosophy 
 of Man himself, with the mesmeric trance, the spiritual 
 " mediums," the calling of table-rapping spirits through 
 
 D D
 
 402 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 vile knaves " in the cellarage," the Exeter Hall intru- 
 sions into the councils of Providence, the " organized 
 hypocrisies" of Disraeli Cabinets and Lothair-Caucasian 
 myths, the hurdy-gurdies of art, and other go-rounds of 
 the World's Vanity Fair ? The simple truth is, that the 
 aesthetic aspirations, the broad science, the historic 
 temperament and philosophic methods of Knox, came 
 too soon upon the world's stage to be either understood 
 or appreciated by the general public. His reasonings 
 sounded of transcendentalism, whilst his talk breathed a 
 doubting theism terribly incongruous with human creeds 
 and low idealistic faiths. The anatomist was fifty years 
 ahead of his time, hence his isolated position and the 
 experience of neglect he sustained at the hands of 
 Governments, chartered bodies, collegiate or corporate. 
 
 Dr. Knox may be said to have represented the in- 
 tellectual qualities and the moral deficiencies of our 
 nature. He made no religious declaration, and therefore 
 belonged to no Church ; he nominally ranked with a 
 large body of people designated " outsiders," or " Chris- 
 tians unattached." Well catechized in youth, as is the 
 custom in Scotland, he knew the Bible intimately, and 
 occasionally quoted it when wishing for an easy outlet 
 to a pressing difficulty. Thus, in discussing the vital and 
 chemical theories offered in explanation of the pheno- 
 mena of respiration, none of which carried his entire 
 conviction, he would cut the Gordian knot by saying 
 " But then, gentlemen, let us remember that He breathed 
 the breath of life into man's nostrils. How exquisite 
 the sentiment!" All this was done with the gravity 
 of an orthodox divine, and made a more profound
 
 RELIGIOUS TRAINING AND DOUBTS. 403 
 
 impression upon his pupils than a long doctrinal 
 sermon. 
 
 There were various speculations afloat as to his reli- 
 gious faith ; and though this is a delicate subject to 
 handle, especially if the man sub judice be charged with 
 what the world in its wisdom calls heterodoxy, I 
 hesitate not to disclose the whole truth known to me : 
 half-truths only give rise to absurd innuendos and mys- 
 teriousness. In doing so, I shall but carry out his own 
 wishes^ namely, to be known as he was on earth, and 
 not as the " unco guid" of the Presbyterian Synods would 
 have liked him to be. Knox, it need hardly be said, 
 was as fully entitled to form his own religious belief as 
 any man in broad Scotland. He had been brought up 
 in the most rigid forms of the Christian faith, and had 
 carefully studied all that pertained to its history, not un- 
 influenced, perhaps, by the example of his great ancestor, 
 John Knox the Reformer ; he had been thrown among 
 the paid advocates of the Churches, and knew the nature 
 and merits of their advocacy, nowhere writ or upheld in 
 the pages of the New Covenant : he noted the occupants 
 of the chief seats of the synagogue, and the groups of 
 feminine and emotional believers, yet the longer he lived 
 the less he trusted to Sabbath respectabilities, and the 
 proclamations of Zion from the housetops of a Mammon- 
 built Church. 
 
 ^ A true Protestant in every walk of life, I hold that the world has 
 nothing whatever to do with the beliefs of living men, if they choose to be 
 reticent or non-demonstrative themselves. In these days of theological 
 controversy, it is however of interest to know the opinions held by men of 
 superior minds like Knox, particularly when the grave shelters them from 
 the rancorous condemnation of would-be interpreters of Providence. 
 
 DD 2
 
 404 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 Some looked upon him as a Unitarian ; if it were 
 true, he then shared in the opinions held by Sir Isaac 
 Newton/ John Milton, and John Locke, and a large and 
 goodly company of noble names the noblest, it may be 
 said, in English history ; opinions, too, endorsed by 
 Channing and Emerson, and other leading minds of the 
 United States of America, and by Herder and numerous 
 noted Germans. Whilst he obviously sympathised with 
 the fate of Servetus, and had no liking for the author 
 of the rigid Calvinism that has tried many a young heart 
 with its catechisms and unintelligible dogmas, he did 
 not belong to the Unitarian school of thinkers. 
 
 He seemed to view all religious sects and denomi- 
 nations, from the Mummy-maker Egyptian down to the 
 worshippers of the "Winking Virgin of Rimini" of these 
 latter days, as much alike in character, having their 
 origin in idolatrous credulity and ignorance. National 
 Churches in his eyes were but part and parcel of the 
 statecraft and priestcraft that crops out in every age and 
 in every clime. In the fetichisms of the savage, the Dii 
 Majores of the Greek and Roman, the Prophets of the 
 Mahomedan, the Trinities of the Hindoo and Christian, 
 he saw but the superstitious instincts of Man tamely 
 submissive to artful schemers, whose purposes are best 
 served by enslaving humanity and binding it down to 
 the yoke of governmental and priestly tyrannies. 
 
 Without any outward religious manifestation, Knox 
 was nevertheless a man of high reverence and belief 
 
 ' Some thirty years ago, when Newton's orthodoxy was being discussed, 
 the impression 1 received was in favour of his being a pure Deist, rather 
 than a Unitarian.
 
 SOCRATES AND ''THE UNKNOWN GOD:' 405 
 
 Walking out by the southern suburbs of Edinburgh 
 and underneath the basaltic columns^ of Arthur's 
 Seat, his conversation would fall upon the constitution 
 of the earth and the mighty physical changes it had 
 undergone preparatory to its becoming the habitat of 
 life ; the countless ages that had passed ; the insig- 
 nificance of Man, though he would boast of his being 
 the adorned capital in the temple of creation. He 
 dwelt on Man's finiteness and inability, after tens of 
 thousands of years' experience and increasing gain of 
 knowledge, to fathom the mysteries of life past, present, 
 and future. In our sea-side rambles by the Firth of 
 Forth, Knox, looking to the tidal wave falling at his 
 feet, and wishing to interpret it in all its fulness of asso- 
 ciation, would become eloquent on the higher relations 
 of Man towards his Creator, He expected the advent 
 far distant, it might be of a clearer vision into the laws of 
 the organic world, to enable " poor mortals" to grasp the 
 grandeur of the great Creative scheme. Under a silence as 
 serene as any " academic grove," and listening to Nature's 
 music playing upon the pebbly beach, Knox would revert 
 to the teachings of Socrates, and the greatness of a mincF' 
 that could propound so bold and not less divine a senti- 
 ment as that pertaining to the "Unknown God." Though 
 constant in his support of Aristotle's achievements in 
 Natural History, and ready to uphold the prestige of 
 
 1 Knox did not believe in such exaltations as Sir John Leslie, the natural 
 philosopher, who forty years ago was afraid to pass underneath these columns, 
 known as "Samson's Ribs," owing to his foolish credulity in the words of 
 an old witch, who said that the said ribs would be sure to fall on the 
 greatest philosopher of Scotland. Sir John owned this soft impeachment, 
 and avoided the risk of fulfilling the old hag's prophecy verily a safe one.
 
 4o6 LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 that noble work the Historia Animalium, Knox liked 
 to dwell upon the exalted genius of Socrates, who would 
 have but one God, and not a Trinity or Pantheon ; " the 
 Unknown God " rather than the many gods and god- 
 desses but too well kjtozuu at Eleusis and elsewhere. 
 His views of Man, as part of the great organic scheme, 
 might be dogmatically asserted, as it has been by others 
 " On earth there is nothing great but man : in man 
 there is nothing great but mind." But as the human 
 mind has never been able to comprehend the true God, 
 and is necessarily limited to the interpretation of His 
 works, Knox, with every respect for the declaration of 
 St. Paul on Mars' Hill, held by the philosophy of the 
 Greek sage, who would have raised an altar " To the 
 Unknown God ;" upon which good men might con- 
 secrate good thoughts the highest aim in religious 
 worship, and the best security for good works. 
 
 It would have been desirable to speak at greater 
 length of these conversations, so happily conceived and 
 so charmingly expressed ; but so many years have 
 elapsed since I listened to the anatomist, that I am 
 tfraid they would lose much of their freshness and 
 interest in the narrative. In attempting to recall these 
 communings with Nature alongside .so choice a com- 
 panion, the man Knox himself, in deep earnestness, 
 pouring out enlightened talk with the fulness of a 
 libation offered to the gods, comes before me like a 
 living and veritable presence. Could his words be re- 
 corded they could only appear in formal lines wanting 
 altogether the brilliancy, the life, tind the inspiration of 
 the speaker himself. He was " a being made of many
 
 THE DEISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS. 407 
 
 beings," and shone alike in every part of his multipled 
 nature. You felt a genuine and immediate personal 
 interest in his unflagging converse, and realized Words- 
 worth's lines 
 
 " His gestures note, and hark ! his tones of voice 
 Are all vivacious as his mien and looks." 
 
 In his hours of communicativeness, and where more 
 was meant than meets the eye, on matters of reve- 
 lation, the Deistic feeling seemed to predominate in 
 Knox's mind. His historical instances, the men whom 
 he prized for their psychological gifts, their researches 
 in science and philosophy, were reputed Deists ; e.g. 
 Bayle, Voltaire, Hume, Condorcet, Goethe, Alexander 
 von Humboldt, and Arago. Indeed, if the evidence of 
 concurrent opinion be w^orth anything at all. Deism is 
 the prevalent belief of all the leading minds in France, 
 and probably of the Continent generally the favoured 
 Protestant Albion being by no means exempt. In 
 confirmation of this view a late writer, as quoted by a 
 London Episcopalian clergyman, states that " Rational- 
 ism had made such progress in Germany that 10,000 
 volumes have been issued during this century denying 
 the immortality of the soul." 
 
 If Knox ranked with those who preferred geological 
 data to the traditions of Moses ; natural to revealed 
 theology ; the laws of genesis to the doctrines of the 
 " immaculate conception," the reader may rest assured 
 that it must have been on a clear conviction that he 
 founded his beliefs. Now, sincerity, as Sheridan said of 
 virtue, is a fine thing, and ought to be respected in
 
 4oS LIFE OF ROBERT KNOX. 
 
 these days of unspeakable cant and hypocrisy. Unfor- 
 tunately for the anatomist, living in the midst of a 
 vaunting Protestantism called liberal and Christianized, 
 his sincerity cost him very dear, as it had done 
 thousands of others before and since his time. It 
 was impolitic on his part, nay, adverse to all success 
 in the world, to stand aloof from the Churches, whether 
 established by law, or upheld by prophets of the 
 Cumming and Tupper school. Perhaps in looking at 
 these purely human inventions or institutions in all 
 their professed integrity and orthodoxy to boot, he 
 thought it better to take his stand with philosophers 
 like Goethe and Humboldt than hang by the lawn 
 sleeves and " holier than thou's " of the " self elect." 
 Among the " eminently pious," Knox had no better 
 repute than Goethe, who was talked of as a "Belial 
 or corrupt spirit," whose dangerous character rested 
 on a combination of genius and learning with demo- 
 niacal influence. The same charitable and Christian- 
 like construction was put upon Knox, who, however 
 much opposed to creeds, never dreamt of disturbing 
 any man's faith. Knox was neither a Pericles nor an 
 Anaxagoras, but he was as often arraigned before the 
 gossiping tribunals of Edinburgh as if Lampon and other 
 soothsaying sycophants of the Greek period had trans- 
 mitted their malice from Lycabettus to Arthur's Seat. 
 
 " Under an Augustus or an Antonine, man was free 
 to worship the deity of his choice or of his belief, to 
 practise whatever religious folly he preferred : through- 
 out Europe, at the present time, to cease to be orthodox 
 to cease to conform is to forfeit all or most of the
 
 NONCONFORMITY IS RUINOUS. 409 
 
 privileges of citizenship." In penning these words in 
 1847, Knox had a home example of their truthfulness ; 
 and many others less known to fame have suffered a 
 similar ostracism. 
 
 The deeply meditating anatomist would rise to his 
 own opinions, and with a rare courage believe and act 
 independently of the prevailing sentiment ; to affect such 
 a privilege he might have foreseen would not be held 
 commensurate with the tone of British society. He may 
 have hoped that the boasted civilization of the nine- 
 teenth century would, in time, come to recognize a true 
 Protestantism, and that in shaking off the trammels of 
 rudimental beliefs as persistent as paganism itself, the 
 spirit of progressive thought would rise to a higher 
 platform, and one broad enough to accept all men living 
 honestly within the pale of their country's jurisdiction 
 and the circle of approved morals. The history of our 
 country was fraught with lessons calculated to teach him 
 to be less credulous of either a charitable or a forgiving 
 spirit in the world. Strong in his own individuality and 
 the light that he possessed, he could not brook the re- 
 strictions imposed by men whose whole education was 
 circumscribed by religious, and necessarily dogmatic, 
 standards. Freedom of opinion in Knox was held to 
 be egotism, waywardness, and wickedness. 
 
 " Oh that mine enemy would write a book!" and Knox 
 might have added, " inscribe his name on the title-page;" 
 but his opponents were more wily. It suited their tactics 
 to deal in innuendos, suspicions, and the pious forms of 
 sapping and undermining personal character, so preva- 
 lent in cathedral and Evangelical coteries. Not caring to
 
 4IO LIFE OF ROBERT KXOX. 
 
 suit himself to the temper of the times, or to molHfy 
 the rabidity evinced by Christians, he would hold 
 Iiimself unshackled and unfettered; and Edinburgh, not 
 liking this, first criticised, then censured, and finally 
 ostracized him from its high places of trust and dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 Knox lived to see great inroads made upon the old- 
 established Christian formulas and faiths, and consider- 
 ing what he himself had suffered, must have enjoyed a 
 hearty laugh on being told of his old friend the Zulu 
 accomplishing the conversion of a " Reverend Father in 
 God " from a belief in the inspiration of Moses, and, 
 oddly enough, by no greater argument than tlie simplest 
 rules of a Colenso arithmetic !
 
 I N D E X.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Act (Warburton's), io6, 196. 
 Adams, Dr., Edinburgh, no, 115. 
 , Dr. James, Glasgow, 237, 
 
 281. 
 Agricultural College suggested, 344. 
 A 1', or Three-toed Sloth, vertebra; of, 
 
 337-8. 
 Alexander, Dr., Director-General, 
 
 '99; 
 
 Algeria, exemplifying Knox's views 
 on Race, 323. 
 
 Alison, Professor W. P., Edinburgh, 
 29, 261. 
 
 Anatomical and Physiological So- 
 ciety, 29, 249. 
 
 School of Edinburgh, 41, 
 
 54- 
 Anatomist, The Pocket, condemned, 
 
 139- 
 
 Anatomists, difficulties and persecu- 
 tions of, 50, 58, 62. 
 
 , the enthusiasm of, 64. 
 
 Anatomy applied to Art, 341. 
 
 , Manual of Artistic, 352. 
 
 Human, 353. 
 
 , Comparative, 143-4,195. 
 
 , General, 145. 
 
 , Transcendental, 246-7. 
 
 Angelo, Michael, 52. 
 
 Angels, the physical structure of the, 
 
 248. 
 Annulus albus, or ciliary muscle, 
 
 28-30. 
 Anthropological Society of Paris, 
 
 Corresponding Member of, 385. 
 
 Antiquity of Man, 385. 
 Apodal Pachyderms, 161;. 
 Apollo attired by the Graces, 225. 
 Arab Race, 315-16. 
 Arachnoid, the Spinal, 334. 
 Arnold, Professor, 29. 
 Art Students, Lectureship on Ana- 
 tomy to, 220. 
 Ascarides lumbricoides, 18. 
 Asterias glacialis, 184. 
 
 papposa, 184. 
 
 Aztecques, the, 358. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baillie, Dr. Matthew, 57. 
 Balrcna Maximus Borealis, 167-70. 
 Minimus , 170-1. 
 
 173- 
 
 Mysticetus, 175. 
 
 Ballingall, Sir George, 43. 
 
 Barber-surgeons, 49. 
 
 Barclay, Dr. John, 41-4, 56, 120, 
 174, 211, 251. 
 
 Bass, Surgeon, 117. 
 
 Beaver, Anatomy of, 23. 
 
 Beclard, M., General Anatomy of, 
 121, 145-6. 
 
 Bell, Sir C, 38, 221, 247. 
 
 Bennett, Professor J. H., 133, 263, 
 281. 
 
 Biceps tendon, Altered Condition of, 
 202. 
 
 Bichat, M., 121, 145. 
 
 -, his life and labours re- 
 viewed, 357.
 
 414 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Black, Mr. Adam, the publisher, 
 
 on Knox's claims, 264, 
 Blackwood'' s Afagazine hostile to 
 
 Knox, 81. 
 Blumenbach, Professor, 166, 286, 
 
 294. 
 Body-snatching, 55. 
 Bonny Mary Paterson, 101-2. 
 Bosjesman, the, 12. 
 Bowman, Professor \Vm., 30. 
 Boyd, Dr., London, 263, 281. 
 Brain, Malay and Scottish, 340. 
 Breschet, Professor, 174. 
 Brewster, SirD., 181. 
 Brisbane, SirThos., 116, 191-3. 
 British Museum, seeks appointment 
 
 in, 352. 
 Brotherhood of Friends of Truth, 
 
 133- 
 Brougham, Lord H., 5, 43. 
 Brown, Dr. Samuel, Edinburgh, 
 
 133, 282. 
 Bruecke, Professor, 30. 
 Buchanan, cranium of George, 52, 
 
 309- 
 Buckland, Dr., 23. 
 Burdie House, organic remains from, 
 
 199. 
 Burke, "William, the murderer, 
 
 chapters iv. and v. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cachelot, teeth of, 179. 
 
 Caffre, the, 12, 17, 148-9. 
 
 Caledonian Mercury, Knox's letter 
 to, 82-5, 98, 
 
 Caligus product us and curtus, 183. 
 
 Cancer Hospital at Brompton, pa- 
 thologist to, 365. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, lO, 16. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, on " Malay cut- 
 throat," 309. 
 
 Carpenter, Professor W. B., severe 
 criticism on, 262-3. 
 
 Cassowary (New Holland), Trachea 
 of, 25. 
 
 Catacombs, Roman, 47. 
 
 Catalogue of Anatomical Prepara- 
 tions of the Whale, 168. 
 
 Celtic Race, chapters xv. and xvi. 
 
 Cervical Ribs in Man, 336-8. 
 
 Vertebrae in Bradypus Tri- 
 
 dactylus, 337-8. 
 
 Cetacea, the, chapter ix., passim, 
 
 PP- 375-6. 
 Chaillu, Du, at the Geographical 
 
 Society, 381. 
 Char, the, 189. 
 Chimpanzee, the, 218. 
 Chirurgeons, Incorporation of, 36. 
 Cholera fly, 356. 
 
 , resurrectionist's case, 71. 
 
 bodies for the anatomical 
 
 rooms, 64. 
 Christian Missions objected to, 324. 
 Christianizing the Blacks, 307. 
 Christison, Professor, 94, 108. 
 Ciliary ligament, or muscle, 28-30. 
 Climate at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 
 IS- 
 Cloquet's Anatomy, 1 18-19. 
 Clupeidje, the, 183, 186. 
 Cockburn, Lord Henry, 107, 220. 
 
 , Dr. Archibald, 107, 282. 
 
 Cognomens applied to Knox, 274-5. 
 Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 
 Edinburgh, on the wane, 270. 
 Colonial Empire, views regarding 
 
 its maintenance, 378-9. 
 Colonial fight over Lanney's body, 
 
 307- 
 Colymbus septentrionalis, 34. 
 Committee of inquiry into the 
 
 "Burking affair," 85-8. 
 Conservator of Edinburgh Surgeons' 
 
 Museum, 37-9, 41. 
 Conservator, Honorary, of London 
 
 Ethnological Museum, 381. 
 Conservative surgery, a case of, 255. 
 "Contagious Diseases Act," 372. 
 Contributions to Anatomy and Phy- 
 ^ siology, 334-5. 
 Contributions to Surgical Anatomy, 
 
 &c., 362. 
 Contributions to the Natural History 
 
 of Man, 380.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 415 
 
 Contributions to the Scientific and 
 Educational History of my Times, 
 388. 
 
 Cooper, Sir Astley, 91, 208. 
 
 Coptic Race, chaps, xv. and xvi. 
 
 Corpus Luteum, Human and Com- 
 parative, 217. 
 
 Corregonus, 183, 186. 
 
 " Court of Cacus," 105. 
 
 Cowper, glands of, 209-11. 
 
 Crimean war, 362-3. 
 
 Cuvier, Baron, 17, 26, 191. 
 
 Cysticercus cellulosus, 208, 245. 
 
 D. 
 
 Da Vinci, Leonardo, 48, 52, 120. 
 
 Park Races of Men, chapter xvi. 
 
 Darwin, Mr., 386. 
 
 Davy, Sir H., on Salmon, 188, 193. 
 
 , Dr. John, 198-9. 
 
 Day, Professor G. E., 133, 281. 
 
 De Blainville, Professor, 26, 216, 
 
 218. 
 Deists and philosophers, 407. 
 Delpliinus, the genus, 176, 376. 
 
 tursio, 176. 
 
 Dens of Edinburgh, 99. 
 De Quincey, Mr., 223. 
 Desmoulins, M., on the food of 
 
 whales, 173- 
 Diarthrodial Cartilages, Abrasion 
 
 of, 332-3- 
 
 Dick, Professor W., Edinburgh, 
 118, 205. 
 
 Disraeli and the angels, 248. 
 
 true to his Race, 380. 
 
 Dissection, antipathy to, 47, 50. 
 
 Domestic griefs of Knox, 241, 355. 
 
 Donders, Professor, 30. 
 
 Druitt, Dr. R., 309. 
 
 , notice of Dr. Knox's 
 
 death, 396. 
 
 Dugong, dentition of, 163-5. 
 
 , anatomy of, 178-9. 
 
 T^uncan, Dr. James, Edii. burgh, 282. 
 
 Dutch Boers, 12, 16, 149. 
 
 Dux of the High School of Edin- 
 burgh, 5. 
 
 Echidna of New Holland, 118. 
 Edinburgh Dissector, the, by Knox, 
 
 197. 
 Eel, electric, 34, 181. 
 Egyptian embalming, 40. 
 Elephant, Bullets in theTusk of, 180. 
 Emeu, air-bag in, 343. 
 Empire, letters to the, 382. 
 Entomostraca, 183, 186-7, 193-4- 
 Entozoa affecting human muscles, 
 
 204. 
 , affecting intestines ot 
 
 horse, 205. 
 Eschricht, Professor, 171, 375. 
 Etiinological Society of London. 
 
 381. 
 Etienne, Charles, 48, 112. 
 Eye, adaptation of, 365. 
 , Comparative Anatomy of the, 
 
 28-9, 30-1. 
 Eye and its Appendages, 214. 
 
 F. 
 Falconer, Dr. Hugh, 282. 
 Fan's Anatomy of the External 
 
 Forms of Man, 346. 
 Femur, Deformity of Head and 
 
 Neck of the, 336. 
 Femur, excision of, suggested by 
 
 Knox, 347-8. 
 Fergusson, SirWm., 63, 97, 157-8, 
 
 195, 275, 281, 348, 363, 399. 
 " Fish and Fishing," a shilling 
 
 volume on, 355. 
 Fleming, Rev. Dr. John, 192. 
 Fletcher, Dr. John, 195, 243. 
 Food of certain Gregarious Fishes, 
 
 367- 
 salmon, herring, and 
 
 vendace, chap. x. 
 
 of the whales, 172-3. 
 
 Food Question in France, letter to 
 
 Geoffroy St. Hilaire on the, 365. 
 Foramen centrale of the Retina, 26-7. 
 Forbes, Professor Edward, 133, 140, 
 
 147, 282. 
 Eraser, Mr., on the Salmon, 188.
 
 4i6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gairdner, Dr. John, Edinburgh, 
 
 his Historical Sketches, 50. 
 Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 17, 173-4. 
 
 211, 244. 
 Gibbon, the, 217, 219. 
 Glasgow, lectures in, 258. 
 Glover, Dr. R. M., Newcastle-on- 
 
 Tyne, 275, 282. 
 Goethe, 246. 
 
 Goodsir, Harry, 189, 193-4, 282. 
 , Professor John, 170, 180, 
 
 190, 216, 256, 282, 353, 375, 399- 
 Gordon, Dr. John, Edinburgh, 42, 
 
 121. 
 Government appointments sought 
 
 after by Knox, 343-4. 
 Graaf Reynet, in Africa, climate of, 
 
 15- 
 Grainger's Elements of General 
 
 Anatomy, 121. 
 
 Grant, Professor, London, 143. 
 
 Gray, Dr. J. E., on the Cetacea, 167. 
 
 "Great Artists and Great Ana- 
 tomists," 350-2. 
 
 Grew, Nehemiah, 52. 
 
 Gymnotus electricus, 34- 
 
 H. 
 
 Halicore, the genus, 177-9. 
 Hall, Capt. Basil, on the tiger's 
 
 claw, 377. 
 Hamilton, Sir W., 283, 30S-9. 
 Hanged criminals restored to life, 
 
 49, 50- 
 Hare, William, the murderer, chaps. 
 
 iv. and V. 
 Harrison, Professor, Dublin, 342. 
 Harvey, Dr. William, 51. 
 Heart, Action of, in Fishes, 20. 
 " Hearts of Oak," 265. 
 Heathenish sacrifices in Scotland, 
 
 53- . r , 
 
 Hemorrhagic Hepatization of the 
 
 Lungs, 206. 
 
 Herling, the, 1 82. 
 
 Hermann von der Hardt on Jonah 
 
 and the Whale, 166. 
 
 Hermaphrodism, 338. 
 
 Hermaphrodite structures, 210. 
 
 Hernia, statistics of, 202-4. 
 
 Herring, the, 182-6. 
 
 Hip-joint, round ligament of, want- 
 ing, 253. 
 
 Horseflesh as human food, con- 
 demned by Knox, 365. 
 
 Hottentots, 15. 
 
 Hulke, J. W., on Knox's discoveries, 
 32. 
 
 Hunt, Dr. James, 305, 381, 384-5. 
 
 Hunter, John, the great surgeon, 
 
 57, 63, 173-4- 
 Hyrena, Habits of, 23. 
 Hybridity, On Human, chap. xvi. 
 
 James the Fourth, King of Scot- 
 land, 49. 
 
 Jameson, Professor R., 17, 162, 
 167. 
 
 Jardine, Sir W., 188. 
 
 Jaundice from moral causes, 206. 
 
 Jerusalem, the daughters of, 305. 
 
 Jews, the, chaps, xv. and xvi. 
 
 John Bull contrasted with theCaffre, 
 149. 
 
 Joints, congenital deformity of, 
 
 332-3- 
 Jonah in the whale s belly, 166. 
 Jones, Professor Kymer, 143. 
 , Dr. T. W.,97. 
 
 K. 
 
 King, Dr. Kelburne, of Hull, 281. 
 
 Kirkdale, caves of, 23. 
 
 Knox, John, the Reformer, l. 
 
 , Jolm Frederick, 4, 195, 213. 
 
 , Robert, the Mathematician, 
 
 and his wife and family, 3, 4, 7. 
 
 Knoxes, the, of Ranfurly and Kirk- 
 cudbright, 2.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 47 
 
 ' Knoxites," the, 131-4, 263. 
 Knox Catalogue of Whales, i( 
 Koala, the, 11 7-8. 
 Koran, the, 315- 
 
 L. 
 
 Lachrymal sac, Muscle of,' 336. 
 Lama, Peruvian, Stomach of, 122. 
 Lancet, The, on the death of Knox, 
 
 395- 
 
 Lateral Curvature of the Spine, 45. 
 
 Lanney, the last Tasmanian, 307. 
 
 Lavoisier, the French chemist, 112. 
 
 Lawrence, Sir William, 63, 242. 
 
 Lernaja, 184. 
 
 Lightfoot, R. T. , surgeon, New- 
 castle-on-Tyne, 158, 281. 
 
 Liston, Robert, Professor, surgeon, 
 43, 63, 156. 
 
 Livingstone, the geographical dis- 
 coverer, 382. 
 
 Lizars, Professor John, 70, 156. 
 
 , the brothers, 153. 
 
 Lochmaben fish, 183. 
 
 Lonsdale, Dr. Henry, 217, 220, 
 249, 263. 
 
 Lord, Dr. P. P., 282, 374. 
 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, on the Races of 
 Men, 309. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macdoxai.d, Professor W., 225. 
 , "On the 
 
 Physical Structure of the Angels," 
 
 248. 
 Mackintosh, Dr., Edinburgh, 70, 
 
 156. 
 Alaga, the Students', 133, 140. 
 " Maidre," the, of Firth of Forth, 
 
 194. 
 Malay cut-throat, cranium of, 30S-9. 
 Man, his Structure and Physiology, 
 
 374- 
 Manual of Human Anatomy, 353. 
 Artistic Anatomy, 352. 
 
 Manual of Zoology, after Milne-Ed- 
 wards, 353. 
 
 Marriage of Dr. R. Knox, 36. 
 
 Master Knox and his idle appren- 
 tices, 160. 
 
 McDougal, Helen, 75. 
 
 McElheran, Dr., New York, 366. 
 
 McGregor, Sir James, 17, 198-9. 
 
 Medical and Quizzical Journal, 1 33. 
 
 Medical Times and Gazette, on the 
 death of Knox, 396. 
 
 Miller, Dr. Alexander (Knox's as- 
 sistant), 97. 
 
 Miller, Professor James, Edinburgh, 
 221. 
 
 Mitchell's anatomical plates, 119. 
 
 Mob, the threats and attacks on 
 Knox by the Edinburgh, 79, 
 1 1 1-3. 
 
 Monoculus piscinus, 184. 
 
 Monros, the Professors, 42, 54. 
 
 Midler, H., 33. 
 
 Murchison, Dr., London, 64, 108. 
 
 , Sir Roderick, at the 
 
 Geographical Society, 386. 
 
 Muscles of the eyeball, 214. 
 
 Muscularity of the hepatic and 
 cystic ducts, 206. 
 
 Muscular system, varieties in the, 
 
 335- 
 Museum, Dr. Knox's, 211, 342. 
 of the Royal College of 
 
 Surgeons, Edinburgh, 37-9, 41. 
 
 N. 
 
 Narwal, the, 165. 
 
 Nasmyth, Mr. R., Edinburgh, 43. 
 
 , Mr. Alexander, l-oncion, 
 
 180. 
 Necrosis, Observations on, 19-20. 
 Newbigging, Drs. Patrick and 
 
 Cieorge, 282-3. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 243, 403. 
 Norman government of England, 
 
 311- 
 
 Norman titles of descent, 325. 
 
 E E
 
 4i8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 O. 
 
 " Ol-NEROMATHIC SOCIETY." I33. 
 
 Song, by Professor 
 
 Edward Forbes, 133. 
 Orang Outang, 218. 
 Origin of the Arts, 387. 
 Ornithorhynchus paraaoxus, 25, 
 
 294. 
 Os femoris, fracture of, 208 
 Osteology, Comparative, De Blain- 
 
 ville's Lectures on, 216. 
 Owen, Professor, 165, 180, 281, 
 
 398. 
 Ox, the Wild, of Scotland, 209. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pachyderms, the Apodal, 165. 
 
 Painful Crepitation of the Radial 
 Extensor Muscles, 205. 
 
 Pancreas, Anatomy of the, 2 1 7. 
 
 Pare, Ambrose, 51. 
 
 Paterson, David, Knox's door- 
 keeper, 98. 
 
 Pathological Anatomist to the Can- 
 cer Hospital at Brompton, 365. 
 
 Paul Jones, the Pirate, 3. 
 
 T'ericarditis, cases of, 19. 
 
 Philosophy of Anatomy, 243. 
 
 of Zoology, 360. 
 
 Phoca Vituliiia, Vasa EfTcrentia and 
 Afl'crenlia in, 33 ; fossilizeil re- 
 mains of, 35. 
 
 Phoca-na luniniunis, 176 7. 
 
 Pict')rial Anatomy School, 153^4- 
 
 Placental Tufts of Weber, by Knox, 
 219. 
 
 "Pocket Anatomist" exposed, 139. 
 
 Portrait of Dr. Knox, by Professor 
 Ivlward Forbes, 140. 
 
 Potato-disease, supposed cause of, 
 
 342. 
 Pulse, the Human, 7-8, 207 8, 391. 
 I'upils of Knox, numbers of, 130 4. 
 , the distinguished, 
 
 2O3, 281. 
 
 QUETELET, Professor, of Brussels, 
 207, 257. 
 
 R. 
 
 Races of Men, chapters xv. and xvi. 
 
 -y Men, lectures on, 148. 
 
 -^ Southern Africa, 24. 
 
 Radius, Fracture of, near Carpal 
 
 Extremity, 254. 
 Fvaphael, 52. 
 Rehearsal, a strange, by Knox, 
 
 134-6. 
 Reid, Professor John. 95, 133, 147, 
 
 157-8, 195. 208, 262-4, 282. 
 Reinhardt, Professor, 171. 
 Rennie, Professor, 189. 
 Religious opinions, chapter xx. 
 
 persecutions, 53. 
 
 Resurrectionists, 55, 60, 62, 65. 
 , stories of, 67-71, 
 
 103-4. 
 Resuscitation of the hanged, 49. 
 Rete vtirahile in the ("ranium, &c. 
 
 of the Cetacea, 170-1, 173-4. 
 Rctzius, Professor, 180. 
 Robertson, Dr. Argyle, Edinburgh, 
 
 132. 
 Rorqual, the great, 166-70. 
 
 , the small, 171. 
 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh, 36, 
 
 191 -3, 270. 
 Roval Physical Society, Ednilnirgh, 
 
 5, 36, 248. 
 Royal CVillege of Surgeons, Edin- 
 burgh, 37. 
 Royal I'lce Hospital, London, 349. 
 Ruysch, I'rederick, 40, 52. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saint Jerome doubted, 387. 
 Salmonid.e, growth of, chapter x. 
 Salmon I'isheries, Report on, 187-8. 
 Saxon Knee, chapters xv. and xvi. 
 Scarj)a, J'tihula; N^einologka o^, 1 19.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 419 
 
 School of Anatomy, Edinburgh, 54. 
 Science in En;^land, degraded by 
 
 the parti pretrc, 369. 
 .Selkirk, Lord and Lady, 2-3. 
 Sense, the sixth in fishes, 34. 
 Sepia loligo. Retina of, 35. 
 Serjients, Poison Fangs in, 33. 
 Serres, ^L, 247. 
 Servetus, the Anatomist, 112. 
 Sham Mourners, 103. 
 Shandean episode, 148. 
 Sharks without brains, 209. 
 Sharpey, Professor, 156-275. 
 Simia' contrasted with the Human 
 
 type, 256. 
 Sinclair, Sir George, 283, 364. 
 Simpson, Sir J. Y., Bart., 49, 201. 
 Sloth, movements of, remarks on, 
 
 by Blumenbach, 294. 
 Social Evil, 370-3. 
 Soemmering, Foramen of, in Rep- 
 tiles, 26 7, 31-2. 
 Soosoo, the, 177. 
 
 Spence, Professor James, 158-221. 
 Sphenoid IJone, its Development 
 
 in Man, 345 6. 
 Stanley, Stephen, surgeon, 159. 
 Stark, Mr., printer, on the food of 
 
 the herring and salmon, 190-2. 
 Story of tlve Caffre anatomist, 230. 
 
 war, 231. 
 
 Story of Knox's ugliness, 214. 
 of die tllasgow cripple and 
 
 Knox's charity, 237. 
 Story of the lion operated on by 
 
 Knox, 239. 
 Story of the crust (jf bread, 239. 
 of tlic child affecting Knox 
 
 emotionally, 1 15. 
 Stu<lent, the, accosting Knox on his 
 
 ugliness, 214. 
 Students, meetings of the Ana- 
 tomical, 196. 
 S/iiii<iits' J/(rX''<i, I3o. MO- 
 Su])ra-C,'ondyloid Process of tin- 
 
 Iluman liumenis, 249 51. 
 Supra-Condyloid I'rocess, Tiedc- 
 
 niann. Otto, Grub'', and others 
 
 on, 252. 
 
 Sue, Plates of, 1 19. 
 
 Syme, Professor, 63, 65, 156. 
 
 T^NI.\ SOLIUM, 18. 
 
 Temperature of North Atlantic 
 Ocean, 10. 
 
 Theory of Analogies, 243. 
 
 Thibert's Museum, 342. 
 
 Thomson, Professor John, 200-1. 
 
 , Professor Allen, 262-264. 
 
 Tiedemann, Professor, 175, 192. 
 
 Town Council of Edinburgh, letters 
 to, 200-1, 260-4. 
 
 Traill, Professor, 175, 192. 
 
 Trout, different species of, 
 chapter x. 
 
 Tunica Vaginalis Testis, Oblitera- 
 tion sf, 336. 
 
 Turner, Professor, 34, 167. 
 
 Tyson on the Porpesse, 173-4. 
 
 U. 
 
 U.MTF.D States OK America, ex- 
 emplifying Race and Ilybridity, 
 , 326-7. 
 
 Urinary bladder, cysts in the interior 
 of, 391- 
 
 Urus Scoticus, or White Ox of 
 Ca<l/.ow, 36S. 
 
 Van liKNKDKN, I'rolcssor, 375. 
 
 Vasa Aflerontia and I'ilfercntia in 
 /'//(ltd I'ilitliiia, 33 5. 
 
 Vcndace, the, 182 3, 1S6. 
 
 X'cnous Sinuses of IVaver, 24. 
 
 Vtsalius, 48, 51, III 12. 138 9. 
 
 N'etcrinary College, iMlinburgh, tes- 
 titnonial from, to Knox, 339. 
 
 I'i/ih/iiiry AWon/, paper on Nos- 
 trils of the Horse in, 341. 
 
 Vivisection, horrors of, to Knc-x, 
 215. 238.
 
 420 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 W. 
 
 Walrus, the, 165. 
 
 Waterloo, 9. 
 
 Wernerian Natural History Society, 
 16, 23-27, 33-34. 
 
 Whales, the, chapter ix. pp. 375-6. 
 
 Wilson, Professor John, Edin- 
 burgh, 81. 
 
 Wishart, John Henry, Edinburgh, 
 
 45. 399- 
 Witches, burning of, 54. 
 Wombat of Fhuders, 11 7-1 8. 
 Wormius, Olaus and William, 52. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yarreli., Mr., his admission of 
 Knox's claims to the discovery of 
 the food of the vendace, 188. 
 
 Zimmerman's (Dr. E.) inquiry on 
 
 Vesalius, 377. 
 Zoologisl, contributions to, 366-9. 
 Zoology, the philosophy of, 360-I. 
 Zulu, the, converts a Bishop, 410. 
 
 London: K. CLAV, sons, and TAYLOR, PKINTKRS, I!REAI> STUEIiT HtLI. 
 
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