HQS BRITISH PHYSICIANS. AVhile professor of chemistry, he also for seve- ral years delivered clinical lectures at the royal infirmary. Alston, who was professor of Materia Medica, and who has left a large work on that branch of study, died in 1763, and Cullen suc- ceeded him ; and though now in the middle of his chemical course, persevered at the same time with his new topic, and commenced it only a few days after his new nomination. Eight or ten pupils alone had entered under Alston, but Cullen at- tracted above one hundred. An imperfect copy of these hasty lectures was published by one of the hearers, and Cullen thought it necessary, in the latter part of his life, to give them to the public in a more correct and mature form : they accordingly appeared in two quarto volumes, and embraced also the important doctrines of general t/ierajjeutics, a part of the theory of medicine which has in the present age incurred unmerited neglect. On the death of Dr. Whyte, Cullen rose another step, and delivered the theory of medicine, ceding his chemical chair to Black, his former pupil. Ruther- ford* next disappeared from the chair of practical medicine : Gregory became a rival candidate with Cullen, and it was arranged that these accom- plished competitors should alternately lecture on the theory and on the practice of medicine. Their talents were of a dissimilar kind, and the students amply profited by the variety and emulation exhi- bited without any injury to friendship. After co- operating most happily for the benefit of all parties, Gregory was suddenly cut off in the prime of life, and Cidlen continued to occupy the practical pro-
- Grandfather to Sir Walter Scott.
