“In arriving at a just estimation of the character of Sir W. Lawrence, it must be admitted,” says the _Lancet_, “that in most of the higher qualities of the mind he was entitled to admiration. His talents were of the highest order, seldom surpassed in our profession. As a writer, his style was vigorous, clear, and convincing. As a lecturer, in manner, substance, and expression, he had no superior in the profession of our time, if we except Joseph Henry Green. As an operator, if not among the greatest, he is entitled to hold a high position. But it must be acknowledged that ‘his principles were somewhat lax, his heart was somewhat hard.’ We speak of him now merely in a public capacity, for in all the relations of private life he was most estimable and affectionate. Notwithstanding the low estimation in which he held surgeons in general practice, it is probable no pure surgeon of modern times ever had so large a general practice as himself. If they were only competent for the ‘common exigencies of surgery,’ he at all events thought himself able to treat every class of disease, whether medical or surgical.” In physical frame Lawrence was well developed and vigorous, above middle height, with a high forehead, a cold but keen blue eye, a classic nose, a large expressive mouth, and a firm chin of some size. He was always somewhat liable to loss of nerve power in the face or in the lower limbs. In 1865 he began to become enfeebled, and finally hemiplegia supervened, and a second attack, at the Council Chamber of the College of Surgeons, laid him by completely. But he remained conscious till the last, dying on the 5th July 1867. A bust of him adorns the rooms of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, and another is in the College of Surgeons. A baronetcy was only conferred on him in the March before his death. He had long been Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen, and finally Serjeant Surgeon. It has been said of him that he kept his appointments as long as possible; but it may be answered that he was full of vitality, and died in harness. END OF VOL. I. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. FOOTNOTES: [22] _Lancet_, July 13, 1867. It has been since shown that Lawrence had nothing to do with the American speculation. INDEX. Abercrombie’s, Sir Ralph, Expedition, i. 182. Aberdeen University, i. 100, ii. 246.