452 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH E S. ‘
ALEXANDER MONRO, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, was
the third of his family who, in direct succession, had filled the Anatomical
Chair in the University for upwards of a century. He was born on the 5th
November 1773, educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh;
and, having studied under the most eminent teachers of the different branches of
medicine, anatomy, and surgery in London, subsequently repaired for a short
time to Paris. In the year 1799 he took his degree of M.D., and the year
following was appointed conjunct Professor with his father, on whose death, in
1817, he became sole Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. This chair he
occupied with unfailing perseverance and activity until the year 1847, when he
retired from public life with the title of Emeritus Professor of Anatomy.’
During the long period in which he delivered lectures, the classes of Dr.
Monro were well attended. Among the numerous pupils who benefited by his
instructions, the names of the following gentlemen, afterwards eminent in the
medical science, may be enumerated : -Professors Alison, Graham, Traill,
Christison, Elliotson, Syme, Forbes, and Low ; Drs. Abercromby, Hunter,
Marshall, Hall, Holland, Bright, Davy, and Turner j and Professors Liston,
Bransby, and Cooper, of the London University, etc.
In 1803 the class of Practical Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh
was instituted by Professor Monro, and taught by him during many years.
He was also known as the author of several anatomical, medical, and surgical
treatises, of which the following are the chief :-Essay on ‘‘ Crural Hernia,” on
“ Modified Small-pox,” the “ Morbid Anatomy of the Gullet, Stomach, and
Intestines,” “ Morbid Anatomy of the Brain,” (‘ Elements of Anatomy,” etc.
Dr. Monro was twice married ; first, in 1800, to Miss Smyth, daughter of
the celebrated Dr. Carmichael Sniyth, by whom he had twelve children ;‘ and,
secondly, about 1835, to Miss Hunter, daughter of David Hunter, Esq., of
Killelung.
ROBERT JAMESON, Professor of Natural History, was born at Leith
(where his father was a merchant, and the most extensive soap-manufacturer
in Scotland) in 177h. He was appointed Regius Professor, and keeper of the
Museum or Repository of Natural Curiosities in the University of Edinburgh,
on the death of Dr. Walker in 1804. He had previously distinguished himself
in the scientific world by the publication of two valuable and interesting
Dr. Munro died at his house, Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, in 1859, being then in his eightyfifth
year. “Although for many years Dr. Monro had, to a very great extent, retired from active
life, to the last his faculties were unimpaired, and on the day iinmediately preceding his decease he
was apparently in the enjoyment of his usual good health and spirits. It wm his fate to outlive
almost all his contemporaries, and in his death seems to be severed the last link which united us to
the past generation of Edinburgh worthies.”--~co~mm, March 18, 1859.
a Of his sons, the eldest, Alexander, was a captain in the Rifle Brigade ; the second, Dr. James,
an assistant-surgeon in the Scots Greys ; the third, Henry, a proprietor of land in Australia j the
fourth, Dr. David, resided in Edinburgh; and the fifth, Williarc, was a lieutenant in the 79th
Highlanders. The eldevt of the daughters married John Iuglis, Esq., of Auchindinny ; the second,
Sir Jaiues Stuart of Allaubank ; the third, George Skene, Esq. of Rubislaw ; and the fourth, Alexander
IvIuuro, Esq. of Auchinboure.
