No. LV.

ALEXANDER MONRO, M. D. AND F. R. S.

OF EDINBURGH; PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THAT UNIVERSITY, AND FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

THIS gentleman was the son of that great anatomist, Dr.

Alexander Monro, born in Scotland, in 1697. He studied, for some time, at Leyden, and became the friend of Boerhaave; after which he returned to the capital of his native country, and delivered lectures there. His zeal, talents, and discoveries, soon rendered Edinburgh a school for *anatomy; and although materials for dissection are there less frequently obtained than in London, yet he attained no common degree of celebrity, in consequence of his scientific knowledge and pursuits.

His son Alexander was born in 1732, and lived to be considered the Nestor of northern physicians. Treading in the footsteps of his father, who died in 1767, he also became an eminent professor, and in 1781 collected and published all his works. His own professional labours were not inconsiderable, as may be seen from the following list:

1. Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System, 1783, fol.

2. The Structure and Physiology of Fishes, 1785, fol.

3. A Description of all the Bursa Mucose of the Human Body, 1788, 4to.

4. Experiments on the Nervous System with Opium and Metalline substances, 1793, 4to.

He penned the Anatomical Class, in the University of Edinburgh.

5, Three Treatises on the Brain, the Eye, and the Ear, 1797, 4to.

6. Observations on Crural Hernia, with a general account of the other varieties of that complaint, 1803, 8vo.

7. The Morbid Anatomy, of the Gullet, the Stomach, and the Intestines, 1812, 8vo.

8. Outlines of the Anatomy of the Human Body, 1813, 4 vols. 8vo.

9. Observations on the Thoracic Duct, 1814, 4to.

Dr. Monro, after outliving all his contemporaries, died Oct. 2, 1817, in the 85th year of his age.

No. LVI.

MR. WILLIAM RUSSEL,

OF BRANCEPATH-CASTLE, IN THE COUNTY-PALATINE OF DURHAM.

It is impossible to contemplate such a man as this was without a mixture of love and veneration. Born in the county-palatine of Durham, in the year 1734-5, happily for the interests of humanity, he possessed a considerable fortune early in life, and lived long enough to administer it, as if he had been the steward of the public rather than the owner.

This gentleman, among many other acts of beneficence, founded and endowed an hospital in his native county, for aged persons of both sexes; to which he annexed a school for the education of the young. During the late distresses, arising out of a scanty harvest, as well as a variety of other concurring causes, he actually gave orders for the construction of places of reception for the poor, needy, and forlorn. Being an owner of extensive collieries below, as well as large estates above ground, he wisely contrived to excite the industry of the young and middle aged, by finding them constant employment.

Nor was he deficient in his duties as a patriot and citizen. In 1795, he contributed alike by his purse, his presence, and his influence, to the raising of a large body of infantry within the county-palatine, while at a more recent period, he actually collected and equipped a corps of sharp shooters, who in case of an invasion of the coal-district, would have proved essentially serviceable against the common enemy.

This gentleman united his fate to that of Miss Millbanke,

and lived to a patriarchal age. In consequence of this, he saw all his children happily settled in life; for of his two daughters, one is the lady of Lieut.-General Sir Gordon Drummond, G. C. B. and the other of Lieut.-Col. Bunbury, brother to Sir Charles Bunbury, Bart., while he beheld his only son, Matthew, represent Saltash several times in Parliament, and who, after marrying Miss Tennison, settled at Hardwickehouse, near Durham, the estate around which he had purchased from the late Sir Henry Vane Tempest, Bart.

Mr. Russel died at Brancepath-Castle, in the county of Durham, at the good old age of eighty-three, leaving behind him the character of a man, who to many amiable qualities, superadded a pure benevolence and truly disinterested public spirit.

No. LVII.

THE REV. JOHN LYON, B.A. F.L. S. AND F.S. A.

MR.

R. Lyon was born September 1, 1734; but the early part of his life is not exactly known, as he outlived all, or nearly all, his contemporaries, both at school and college, and beheld no fewer than three if not four generations of the burgesses of Dover.

We are well aware, however, that he was educated at an English University, and that he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Arts there, about the middle of the last century. In 1772, Mr. Lyon was inducted into the living of St. Mary the Virgin, at Dover, which he retained during a period but little distant from half a century.

At an early epoch of his life, this clergyman appears to have imbibed and cultivated a taste for natural history. Of plants, the heights in the immediate vicinity of his own parish church, presented him with an ample store; he also obtained a pretty good collection of insects, shells, and minerals, of all which he was very fond. But he still more prized his books: for being an author himself, these served, in some measure, not only as the tools and instruments of his occupation, but also for his recreation and instruction.

When Dr. Franklin at once aroused and astonished the world by his electrical discoveries, Mr. Lyon was one of the first to apply the whole bent of his mind to this subject. He himself accordingly obtained an apparatus, and engaged in a long course of experiments. On this occasion, the results do not appear to have been exactly the same with those deduced by the celebrated American; he accordingly broached certain heterodox opinions on this subject. He made many pertinent remarks,