Knox was slightly above middle height, with strong muscular body and firm, upright gait. His features were coarse and marred by small-pox. His left eye was atrophied, but the right was very vivid and expressive. In speech he was agreeable and persuasive, and in lecturing he rose to high eloquence. He dressed for lectures in the highest style of fashion. He may be ranked among the greatest anatomical teachers, though, owing to his disappointments and his untamed eccentricities, he failed to produce works of permanent value. His religious opinions were deistic.
Knox wrote, besides many memoirs in scientific transactions and contributions to medical, scientific, and other journals: 1. ‘The Edinburgh Dissector,’ Edinb. 1837, 12mo. 2. ‘The Races of Men,’ a fragment, 1850; 2nd edition, with supplementary chapters, 1862, London, 8vo. 3. ‘A Manual of Artistic Anatomy,’ London, 1852, 8vo. 4. ‘Great Artists and Great Anatomists’ (Leonardo, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Cuvier, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire), London, 1852, 12mo. 5. ‘A Manual of Human Anatomy,’ London, 1853, 8vo. 6. ‘Fish and Fishing in the Lone Glens of Scotland,’ London, 1854, 8vo. 7. ‘Man, his Structure and Physiology popularly explained,’ London, 1857, 8vo. 8. ‘The Greatest of our Social Evils, Prostitution. By a Physician,’ 1857. He also translated or edited Scarpa's ‘Engravings of the Cardiac Nerves,’ with descriptive letterpress, 1829, 4to; Cloquet's ‘System of Human Anatomy,’ with notes, 1829, 8vo, 2nd edition, 1831; Béclard's ‘Elements of General Anatomy,’ 1830, 8vo; Quételet's ‘Treatise on Man and the Development of his Faculties,’ 1842, 8vo; J. Fau's ‘Anatomy of the External Form of Man,’ 1849, 8vo and 4to; Milne-Edwards's ‘Manual of Zoology,’ 1856, 8vo. His name also appeared in 1834 on the title-page of a new edition of ‘Anatomy of the Bones of the Human Body,’ after Sue and Albinus, with explanations by Dr. Barclay.
[Lonsdale's excellent Life of Knox, 1870, with two portraits; Life of Sir R. Christison, vol. i. passim; H. Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, pp. 457–8; Journal of Anthropology, 1870–1, pp. 332–8, by C. C. Blake; Lancet, 1863, i. 1, 19; Medical Times, 27 Dec. 1862 (by Dr. Druitt); Wretch's Illustrations of Shakespeare, Edinburgh, 1829; Noxiana (six caricatures), Edinburgh, 1829.]
KNOX, ROBERT (1815–1883), Irish presbyterian divine, third son of Hugh Knox, who was for forty years a ruling elder of the parish of Urney, co. Tyrone, was born at Clady, in that parish in 1815. In 1834 he entered Glasgow University, where in 1837 he took M.A. He subsequently studied at the old Belfast College, where during his student days he was an active promoter of the union between the synod of Ulster and the secession synod, which resulted in the formation of the general assembly of the presbyterian church in Ireland in 1840. He was licensed to preach in 1840, and sent as a missionary to the south of Ireland, being ordained by the presbytery of Strabane in April of that year. Several congregations owed their origin to his labours. On 10 June 1842 he was installed as assistant and successor to the Rev. John Whiteside, pastor of the second congregation of Coleraine. Next year he became minister of the Linenhall Street Church, Belfast.
Knox was soon one of the most energetic of the Belfast clergy, being particularly active in promoting the erection of new churches and school-houses, and in furthering the work of the town mission, of which he became honorary secretary. He established and edited a monthly periodical entitled the ‘Irish Presbyterian,’ and published many sermons. A prolonged newspaper controversy with the Rev. Theophilus Campbell of Trinity Church, Belfast, afterwards dean of Dromore, on the question of baptismal regeneration, brought him into much prominence. The letters were subsequently collected and published. In 1863 he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Schenectady, U.S. He was one of the founders of the Sabbath School Society for Ireland in connection with the presbyterian church, and one of the earliest and most enthusiastic promoters of the presbyterian alliance, in which all the presbyterian churches of the world are represented. While actively engaged in preparations for the meeting of this body in Belfast, arranged for 1884, he died on 16 Aug. 1883, leaving a widow, daughter of William Gilbert, esq., of Belfast, who subsequently married the Rev. George Matthews, D.D., of Quebec. Dr. Knox was buried in the Belfast borough cemetery.
[Personal knowledge; obituary notice in Belfast Witness.]
KNOX, THOMAS FRANCIS, D.D. (1822–1882), superior of the London Oratory, born on 24 Dec. 1822, was the eldest son of John Henry Knox, M.P., third son of Thomas Knox, first earl of Ranfurly. His father died on 27 Aug. 1872. His mother was Lady Mabella Josephine, eighth daughter of Francis Jack Needham [q. v.], first earl of Kilmorey. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1845, coming out in the first class of the classical tripos and as second chancellor's medallist.
