Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darling, William
DARLING, WILLIAM (1802–1884), anatomist, was born at Demse in Scotland, in 1802. He was educated at Edinburgh University, and in 1830 went to America and began to study medicine in the University Medical School, New York, where he took a degree in 1840, having devoted the whole of his time during the intervening years to the teaching as well as the study of anatomy, in which branch of the profession he acquired a considerable reputation. In 1842 he came to England, and in November 1856 was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was already well advanced in age when he passed the examination for the fellowship of the college. In 1862 he returned to New York, and was soon afterwards appointed professor of anatomy in the medical school in which he had been a student. His anatomical collection was considered one of the finest in the city. Besides his knowledge of anatomy, Darling had a thorough acquaintance with mathematics, and exhibited an unusual taste for poetry, which he occasionally essayed to write himself. His only publications are ‘Anatomography, or Graphic Anatomy,’ London, 1880, obl. fol., ‘A Small Compound of Anatomy,’ and ‘Essentials of Anatomy.’ He also edited Professor Draper's work. He died at the university of New York on Christmas day 1884, at the advanced age of eighty-two.
[Times, 7 Jan. 1885; Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, cxii. 22.]