BARCLAY

BARCLAY, John, M.D., a distinguished anatomist, was born in Perthshire in 1760, and died at Edinburgh in 1826. After the usual routine of parochial education, he completed his academic course at the United College of St Andrews. He subsequently studied divinity there, and was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Dunkeld. Having repaired to Edinburgh in 1789, as tutor to the family of Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, he began to give his attention to the study of medicine, and particularly to anatomy, both human and comparative. He became assistant to the late Mr John Bell, and took the degree of M.D. in 1796, after having defended an inaugural dissertation, De Anima, seu Principio Vitali, a subject which occupied his maturer powers toward the close of his life. Immediately after his graduation, he repaired to London, and studied for some time under the late Dr Marshall of Thavies Inn, at that time a very distinguished teacher of anatomy in the metropolis. Soon after his return to Edinburgh, he commenced his lectures on anatomy in November 1797; and by his

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punctual attention to his engagements, and assiduous devotion to the instruction of his pupils, he speedily attracted a respectable audience, which continued gradually to increase in numbers until the period of his retirement, a short time before his death.

Of Dr Barclay's professional writings, the earliest, we believe, was the article PHYSIOLOGY, which he furnished for the third edition of this work.

In 1803, six years after he commenced his career as a teacher, Dr Barclay attempted a reform in the language of anatomy, with a view to render it more accurate and precise; a task for which his acquirements as a classical scholar rendered him peculiarly fit. Although the Nomenclature which he published upon that occasion has not been generally adopted, we believe that the profession, with one voice, acknowledges the importance of the object which he had in view, and the talent and learning with which it was executed.

In 1808, he published his Treatise on the Muscular Motions of the Human Body, and in 1812 his Description of the Arteries of the Human Body; a work displaying much acute observation and laborious research, and which may perhaps be considered the most practically useful of all his writings. His last publication, completed only a few years before his death, was An Inquiry into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life and Organization; a work replete with learning and sound original criticism. His introductory lectures, published after his death, contain a valuable abridgment of the history of anatomy.

As a testimony of gratitude to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Dr Barclay bequeathed to that learned and public-spirited body his anatomical collection, now known as the Barclay Museum, which contains many valuable specimens in comparative anatomy, and some of the finest vascular preparations which are anywhere to be found.