began to teach medicine immediately upon his return from the continent, at
the beginning of the winter session 1758-59. During that winter, his father,
Dr Monro primus, gave the introductory lectures, and a very few others. But
by much the greater part of the course was given by the young professor; and
for forty succeeding years he performed the arduous duties of the anatomical
chair without any assistant. No teacher could attend to the business of his
chair with more assiduity. Indeed, during the whole of that period, he made
it an invariable rule to postpone to his academical duties every other business
that could possibly admit of delay.
While we thus state Dr Monro's character as an author and a teacher, his worth as a man and a citizen must not be forgotten. With his brethren of the profession, and his colleagues in the university, he lived on the most amicable terms. He seems to have had constantly in his mind the admirable observation of Seneca: "Beneficiis humana vita consistit et concordia; nee terrore, sed mutuo amore, in fcedus auxiliumque commune constringitur." No man could enjoy to a higher degree, or more successfully lead others to enjoy, innocent mirth at the social board. He was one of the earliest members, and most regular attendants of, the Harveian Society, a society which was formed with the intention of encouraging experimental inquiry among the rising generation, and in promoting convivial mirth among its living members. In every respect Dr Monro was an honest and an honourable man. He was no flatterer; but he did not withhold applause where he thought it was merited. Both the applause and the censure of Dr Monro upon all occasions, demonstrated the candid, the open, and the honest man. As a citizen, a friend, and a parent, his conduct was amiable and affectionate in the highest degree; and as a medical writer and teacher, he had few equals among his contemporaries. His various published works may be recapitulated as follows : Treatise on the Lymphatics, 1770; On the Anatomy of Fishes, 1785; On the Nerves, 1783 ; On the Bursae Mucosae, 1788; and three Treatises on the Brain, the Eye, and the Ear, 1797.
Dr Monro's chief amusements lay in the witnessing of dramatic performances, and in the cultivation of his garden. Not many years after his establishment in Edinburgh he purchased the beautiful estate of Craiglockhart, on the banks of the Water of Leith, within a few miles of the city. He planted and beautified some charmingly romantic hills, which afforded him such delightful prospects of wood and water, hill and dale, city and cottage, as have seldom been equalled; and here he spent many hours stolen from the labours of his profession. In 1800, finding his health declining, he began to receive the assistance of his son, Dr Alexander Monro, tertius, who succeeded him as professor of anatomy; but he continued to deliver the most important part of the lectures till 1808-9, when he closed his academical labours, to the regret of his numerous students. At the same time he gave up his medical practice, but survived till the 2d of October, 1817, when he died in the 85th year of his age.
MONTEATH, George Cunningham, author of a Manual of the Diseases of the Human Eye, was born, December 4, 1788, in the manse of Neilston, Renfrewshire, of which parish his father, the Rev. Dr John Monteath, (latterly of Houston and Killallan,) was then minister. After passing through the medical and surgical classes in the university of Glasgow, the subject of this notice attended the hospitals in London, where he attracted the notice of Sir Astley Cooper, and other eminent anatomists, and received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1809, by the recommendation of Dr M. Baillie, he was appointed surgeon to lord Lovaine's Northumberland regiment of militia, in which situation he remained four years, honoured with the affection and esteem of all
