| Activity | Alexander Monro was born in 1697 in London, though his father was an Edinburgh army surgeon. He studied in London and in Paris and Leyden, then was apprenticed to his father in Edinburgh and graduated MD from Edinburgh University. He was appointed to the chair of anatomy there in 1720, based on his reputation for the collection of anatomical specimens on his travels. He remained in post until 1764, and even after than continued to lecture. Though he wrote on many medical subjects he was not just a theorist, and tended to the wounded after the Battle of Prestonpans, close to Edinburgh, in 1745. He died of cancer in 1767. He was the first of three generations of Alexander Monroes to hold the chair of anatomy at Edinburgh, and other members of the family were also in the medical profession. |