The gift of the chair was in the hands of the Town Council, and to that body an address from the students of medicine was sent after the death of Dr Whytt, Professor of the Theory of Medicine, suggesting the advisability of asking Professor Gregory to resign the Chair of the Practice of Physic, which he then held, and accept the less important one of the Theory of Medicine, in order to make room for Cullen in the Practical Chair. ‘We who make this application are students of medicine in your University.... We are humbly of opinion that the reputation of the University and Magistrates, the good of the city, and our improvement will all in an eminent manner, be consulted by engaging Dr Gregory to relinquish the Professorship of the Practice for that of the Theory of Medicine, by appointing Dr Cullen, present Professor of Chemistry, to the practical chair, and by electing Dr Black Professor of Chemistry.’ After a dissertation on the qualifications of Dr Cullen, they proceed. ‘Nor is this our opinion of Dr Cullen meant in the least to detract from the merits of Dr Gregory. On the contrary, a principal motive to our expressing the sentiments we do on this occasion is the high opinion we entertain of that gentleman’s capacity. By a late very elegant and ingenious performance, by everybody attributed to him, we imagine it is evident what advantages the University must reap from lectures on the Theory of Medicine, delivered by a thinker so just and original, and so universally acquainted with human nature. With pleasure too, we reflect, that his character is not less respectable as a man, than as a Philosopher. We therefore cannot suppose, that were the public emolument to be obtained even at the expense of his private interest, he would not rejoice to make the honourable sacrifice, far less that he would, in the least hesitate to favour a scheme for promoting the public utility, when his private advantage is consistent with it.’ This can hardly have been pleasant reading for Gregory, and the whole proceeding was so entirely out of order that the Town Council took no action in the matter. Meanwhile Gregory was made First Physician to the King for Scotland in the place of Dr Whytt. He lectured for three years on the Practice of Physic, and then he and Cullen agreed to give alternate lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine. The university possessing three such able teachers as Gregory, Cullen and Black, grew more and more prosperous. It is impossible to go over the records of these years without admiration for John Gregory, who, amidst all the strife that waged around him and around Cullen, has not left a record of any bitterness. That he must have felt these annoyances is obvious, but his worries were only Edinburgh worries, and outside he knew that both he and Cullen were appreciated and valued for their individual work. On his appointment to the Edinburgh chair he had resigned his King’s College professorship.