Prof. Alexander Macalister, F.R.S

Abstract

IN the death of Prof. Macalister, at the age of seventy-five, British anatomy loses a singularly gentle and kindly master, who, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, exerted a great influence upon the teaching of his subject during the last fifty-nine years—for he had qualified to practise medicine, and had become a demonstrator of anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin before he was seventeen years of age !—and upon the development of the medical school in Cambridge, where he was professor of anatomy for thirty-six years. While acting as demonstrator in anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons he was a student at Trinity College; at the age of twenty-five he became professor of zoology there, and eight years later succeeded to the chair of anatomy and chirurgery. At Trinity College he developed that craving for encyclopædic knowledge which throughout his life he was continually striving to satisfy. He was especially devoted to the study of Celtic archaeology and ancient Egyptian literature, and in his own subject his wonderful powers of memory and his persistent accumulation of facts by personal observation gave him a knowledge of the details of anatomy and the literature relating to it which was almost uncanny and at times disconcerting to those who sought his advice. For, without intending to discourage youthful adventurers in anatomical research, the formidable record of what had already been accomplished, which he was able to give quite impromptu -to one who was contemplating some original investigation, was responsible for bringing to nought not a few budding aspirations. Prof. Macalister never seemed to realise the crushing effects of his vast erudition. In the latter years of his life he often discussed with the writer the efforts he had made to encourage men to do research, and his difficulty in understanding why so little came of it.