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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 449 Dunkeld. Subsequently he spent a few years as tutor in one or two respectable families ; but abandoning his prospects in the Church, probably from some new impulse given to an early bias, he now embraced the medical profession ; and after due attendance on the prelections of the medical Professors in the University of Edinburgh, he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1796. Immediately thereafter he repaired to London, and attended for a short time the anatomical lectures of Dr. Marshall of Thavies Inn. The number of his pupils at the outset was limited ; but his talents and industry soon secured for him a reputation and a success which length of years only tended to strengthen and augment. In 1804 the Royal College of Surgeons adopted a resolution highly in his favour, by which it was declared that attendance on his lectures should in future qualify for passing at Surgeons’ Hall; and in 1815 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and a resident fellow the following year. Dr. Barclay was an enthusiast in his profession ; and besides his eminent qualifications, acquired by extensive and careful study, he was peculiarly happy in gaining the esteem, and carrying along with him the attention, of the student. Possessed of the most inflexible goodhumour, his discourses were not less profound and luminous than lively and interesting, from the appropriate anecdotes with which he seldom failed to illustrate whatever topic he might be engaged in discussing.’ In 1825 Dr. Barclay entered into partnership with Dr. Robert Knox, at that time Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. He had for some time previously been in a declining state of health, and his speech latterly became indistinct from the effects of palsy. He died on the 21st of August 1826, and his remains were interred in Restalrig Churchyard. His funeral was attended by many of his friends, and by the members of the Royal College of Surgeons in a body. Besides his Introductory Lectures, published since his death by his friend Sir George Ballingall, Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh (who prefixed to the volume a Memoir of Dr. Barclay), he wrote the article Physi+ logy in the third edition (completed in 1797) of the Encyelopcedia Britannica. In 1803 he gave to the world a new anatomical nomenclature-a desideratum much felt by students in the science. It has not, however, been generally adopted, though the advantages to be derived from a precise and consistent vocabulary are universally admitted. In 1808 appeared his treatise on the “ Muscular Motions of the Eody,” followed, in 18 12, by another, descriptive Dr. Barclay began his first course of lectures in Edinburgh in 1797. Dr. Barclay was the author of several valuable medical works. Connected with this Print we have heard the following anecdote, characteristic of Dr. Barclay’s habitual good humour :-Having learned that the artist was engaged in the Caricature, the Doctor, accompanied by his friend Sir George Ballingall, called on Mr. Ray, to whom he waa unknown ; and being ushered into his working-room, was immediately recognised and named by the late Earl of Buchan, who happened to be sitting there. This occasioned some degree of embarrassment, from which Mr. Kay waa instantly relieved by the Doctor obsewing that he understood he waa engaged in a print, in which he, the Doctor, was to have a conspicuous place, and that he had come to inform Mr. Ray that, if he had not already got his likeness, he was prepared to sit for his portrait whenever the artist pleased. VOL 11. 3M
Volume 9 Page 600
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