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
450
of the " Arteries of the Human Body," both of which are inestimable performances.
The last work he lived to publish was an " Inquiry into the
Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life and Organisation"-a subject
which had formed liis thesis on taking the degree of M.D. He left several
unfinished manuscripts, particularly the biographies of Aristotle and Harvey.
Dr. Barclay married, in 1811, Eleanor Campbell, daughter of Sir James
Campbell of Aberuchill, by whom he had no issue. This lady afterwards
married Charles Oliphant, Esq., W.S.
Of the late DR. GREGORY-who is urging his friend to proceed and
'' fear nothing"-a memoir has already appeared in volume i., page 339.
DR. THOMAS CHARLES HOPE, Professor of Chemistry in the University
of Edinburgh, was the third son of Dr. John Hope (of whom a portrait
and memoir have been given), for many years Professor of Botany in the
University, and founder of the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. Dr. Thomas
Hope was born in 1'166. He commenced his attendance at the High School
of Edinburgh in 17'12; and in 1779 entered upon his studies in the University,
where he graduated in 1787. In October of that year he was
appointed to the Chemical Chair in the University of Glasgow ; and, proceeding
to France in the course of the following summer, passed a short season
in the capital of that country. In 1'189 he became Assistant-Professor of
Medicine in the Glasgow College, and taught at same time chemistry and the
theory and practice of physic. He afterwards succeeded to the chair as sole
Professor of Medicine, and relinquished the chemical department.
In October 1795 Dr. Hope was elected conjunct Professor of Chemistry
with the celebrated Dr. Black, in the University of Edinburgh, on whose death,
in 1799, he became sole Professor. Dr. Hope had thus been engaged for upwards
of half a century in the arduous duties of imparting instruction in an
important branch of science ; and it may be stated, without fear of contradiction,
that he was decidedly one of the best teachers of chemistry of his day.
Of the estimation in which he was held he received a gratifying proof in
an entertainment given him on completing the fifty-first year of his academic
labours. The meeting took place in the Assembly Rooms, on the evening of
Tuesday, 15th May 1838, and was attended by more than two hundred
gentlemen of rank and learning. Lord Meadowbank was in the chair; and
from the speech of his lordship, in proposing the health of Dr. Hope, we quote
the following particulars :-
'' My honourable friend in the same way (alluding to his predecessors, Cullen and Black)
began his public career as a public lecturer in the University of Glasgow in the year 1787, and he
very soon had an opportunity of exhibiting his peculiar sagacity and penetration, by new
theories and discoveries, by his readily distinguishing that which was tnie from that which was
erroneous ; and thoroughly regardless of the reputation which he might immediately possessconfident
in his own opinion-he disregarded the sneers, the doubts, and the difficulties of
those who surrounded him, and openly taught what he believed to be true. [His lordship here
referred to the dispute respecting the phlogistic and anti-phlogistic theories, and to Dr. Hope
openly espousing the latter, when it had not another public or professorial advocate in Great
Britain.] In 1795 (he continued) Dr. Hope was brought to Edinburgh; but before that he
B I 0 G RAP I1 I CA L S K ET C HE S.
