“Towards the end of his third course, Mr. Monro, encouraged by the success that had attended his exertions, and with the concurrence and urgent recommendations of his friends, which indeed in this instance were only an echo of the opinion of the public, presented a petition to the honorable patrons, in which he set forth the usefulness of the study of anatomy, and the advantages it might be of to Edinburgh; and in order thereto, the necessity of putting the commission of a professor on such a footing as might encourage him effectively to follow out the design for which he was appointed.”
The following extract from the response to this petition evinces the ready acquiescence on the part of the Council: “being fully convinced of the fitness and sufficiency of the said Mr. Alexander Monro, in all respects for the said profession, and well acquainted with his diligence and assiduous application in the exercise of it, they therefore for his better encouragement, of anew, again nominate, &c., him sole Professor of Anatomy within this city and College of Edinburgh, and that, ad vitam aut culpam, notwithstanding any act of Council formerly made to the contrary.”[1]
The success of Mr. Monro’s lectures encouraged the magistrates to extend their liberal patronage in favor of public medical teaching, and induced them, in 1724, to appoint Dr. Potterfield the Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, and two years afterwards (1726) to elect Dr. Andrew Sinclair and John Rutherford Professors of the Practice of Medicine, and Andrew Plummer and John Jones Professors of Medicine and Chemistry. In subsequent arrangements, to these gentlemen Dr. Alston was added, who, although a teacher of Materia Medica and Botany at the Botanic Garden, was not appointed
- ↑ Bower’s History, vol. ii. pp. 181, 182.In the No. of the Dublin Medical Press and Circular for May 9th, 1866, is an interesting lecture, by Prof. Struthers, of Edinburgh, before the Royal College of Surgeons, on the History of the Edinburgh Anatomical School. The details of this lecture, with reference to Mr. Monro, are in accordance with what has been given from the authorities cited. Mr. Monro was in his twenty-third year when he was elected Professor of Anatomy by the Town Council of Edinburgh.
“Early History of the Medical Profession in Edinburgh,” written by Dr. John Gairdner, has been published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, vol. ix. Part II.
