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, Dr ι Barclay was entered as a student at the United College of St Andrews, where he distinguished himself as a classical scholar. He subsequently studied divinity in the same university, 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, Dr Barclay 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 doctor of physic in the university of Edinburgh in 1796, after having defended an inaugural dissertation, De Anima, seu Principio Vitali. This subject seems very early to have engaged his attention; and his last work, on Life and Organization, in which his views are more fully developed, affords a proof of the continued [7:4:378]assiduity with which Dr Barclay prosecuted his inquiries in this interesting field of research.

Immediately after his graduation, having determined, it is believed somewhat suddenly, to come forward as a teacher of anatomy, 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 from London, Dr Barclay commenced his lectures on anatomy in Edinburgh in November 1797; and by his 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 yet 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. Some of his illustrations of the defects in the existing language of anatomy, particularly in the terms expressive of position and aspect, were peculiarly striking, and highly characteristic of his overflowing humour. “The terms above, below, behind, and before” he used to observe, “would be sufficiently definite if the body were uniformly to preserve the same position; and so,” said he, “would be the expression in Hudibras, where the author makes Crowdero apply a squeaking-engine to the north-east side of his neck; this would be sufficiently definite if one could ascertain, by compass, in what particular position the fiddler stood.”

His next work, published in 1808, was a Treatise on the Muscular Motions of the Human Body, calculated to encourage a more attentive study of the simple and combined actions of the muscles, with a view to a more scientific and successful treatment of fractures and luxations; a department of surgery which, even now, although illustrated by his distinguished friend Sir Astlcy Cooper, can scarcely be said to be rescued from those popular prejudices under which it has so long laboured.

In 1812 Dr Barclay published the first edition of 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. The labour which this work must have cost him may be judged of by the fact, that he wrote no description of any artery until he had studied its delineation, as given by Haller, and every other standard authority, and until he had actually examined its course and distribution in every preparation to which he had access; in some instances repairing to Glasgow to examine the excellent collection of vascular preparations then in the possession of his friend Mr Allan Burns.

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 original criticism, and well calculated to check the progress of those idle and dangerous speculations by which some of our modern philosophers have been distinguished. This, like all his former publications, is dedicated to Dr Ihomas Thomson, professor of chemistry in the university of Glasgow, one of the earliest and most distinguished of his numerous friends.

These several works, which afford such remarkable proofs of the inexhaustible energies of Dr Barclay’s mind were undertaken and completed amidst the incessant and laborious toils which his courses of anatomical lectures necessarily imposed upon him. Of these he gave two very full ones every winter, commencing each of them early in November, and terminating at the end of April. For several years previous to his death he had also given a course of comparative anatomy during the summer months. To this branch of study Dr Barclay had always shown a marked partiality, not only as an object of scientific research, but of great practical utility. He pressed upon the Highland Society of Scotland, of which he was a distinguished member, the propriety of giving encouragement to the study of veterinary medicine; and to him, in conjunction with his friend Mr Robert Johnston, the public is chiefly indebted for the establishment of the-veterinary school, so successfully conducted by his pupil Mr Dick, under the auspices of the liberal and patriotic body above mentioned.

At the period of his death Dr Barclay was engaged in revising and preparing for the press his introductory lectures, which have since been published, and contain a valuable abridgement of the history of anatomy.

His successful progress as a teacher of anatomy Dr Barclay always gratefully attributed, in a great measure, to the patronage which, at an early period, he received from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; and to that learned and public-spirited body he bequeathed his anatomical collection, now known as the Barclayan Museum, which contains many valuable specimens in comparative anatomy, and some of the finest vascular preparations which are anywhere to be found. (q. q.)