Memories of eighty years / by John Beddoe M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

  • Beddoe, John, 1826-1911.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Memories of eighty years / by John Beddoe M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    adopt any recognised system, I shall always, in addition, take the radii from the meatus [earhole], which I feet convinced was created as much for measuring as for auditory purposes, and is absolutely the only means of comparing the living head with the skull. 1 I think it was in the course of the next year that I received another honour; it was that of the LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh. It came to my knowledge that some of those who had the chief voice in the matter had got it into their heads that I had it already : anyhow, they promptly made up for the mistake when discovered. Among my fellows was one very interesting man—Paton, the Polynesian evangelist. I believe he was a descendant of Captain Paton, of Meadowhead, the valiant old Covenanting warrior, who at last perished in the Grassmarket, but whose sword and chair and Bible are preserved among his descendants, and who is mentioned by Scott in Old Mortality as present at Loudon Hill or Bothwell Brig. A large number of ordinary bachelors’ and masters’ degrees were afterwards conferred; and I sat watching the countenances of the recipients as they trooped up to the dais. I suppose all crowds look ugly— certainly this one did. Since that time I have had a controversy with a formidable antagonist, Professor Karl Pearson, as to the marked correlation between size of head and intellectual superiority, which he denies and I affirm, though I regard the latter as only one of several factors in the question. I must i The Germans, and Karl Pearson and his school, lose sight of this great advantage by not measuring from the centre of the meatus.