sion of the university Turner can claim direct credit. The new medical buildings had relieved but had not remedied the congestion in the old college, and the problem was rendered the more difficult by its position in a crowded quarter of the city. But in 1905 the old city hospital, only a stone's throw from the college, was vacated; and Turner's cordial relations with the town council enabled the university to acquire the valuable site and buildings at a very moderate cost. Room was found there for the departments of physics and engineering, and a new chemical laboratory would have been built there but for the War. To meet the charge that nothing had hitherto been done for the arts faculty, a substantial building was acquired in Chambers Street, which ultimately housed the mathematical department. Its old quarters, where Turner had originally taught anatomy, were now made available for historical and other humane studies. There were many other changes in which Turner was a sympathetic helper rather than an originator. The arts curriculum was revolutionized by a new ordinance in 1908, when the traditional method of teaching by formal lectures was supplemented by tutorial instruction; lectureships were established not only in medical and scientific subjects but also in ancient history, geography, economic history, Indian and colonial history, mercantile law, English law, banking, and military history; professorships in bacteriology, clinical medicine, and tuberculosis were created; and finally, an agreement with the Royal Infirmary brought its surgical and medical staff into a direct connexion with the university.
In spite of his activity in academic and other administrative duties, Turner never lost interest in his own branch of science and in the kindred subject of anthropology, though the time which he could give to these studies was necessarily curtailed. He kept himself abreast of all progress in his own subjects, and from time to time he published the results of his own observations and research. Of these the most important dealt with the placentation of mammals, the comparative anatomy of sea mammals, and the craniology of man. In each of these three fields of work he did good service, clearing the ground of many fallacies and preparing the way for further advances. But while he was eminent as a man of science, as was testified by his presidency of the British Association in 1900, and by his numerous academic distinctions, it cannot be claimed that he was pre-eminent. He had none of the imagination necessary for a great pioneer. He instinctively shrank from all theories based upon inference rather than on directly provable facts; his passion was for accurate and patient observation, for careful records and measurements, rather than for original suggestions. Caution was his watchword in scientific as in academic matters. He was a collector of bricks with which other men could build rather than a builder on his own account. What made Turner memorable was not originality but his many personal merits: a manly and fearless character; a statesmanlike habit of mind which realized what could be done and the necessary method of doing it; a firm and resolute grip of everything which he undertook; great clearness of view and an equal power of expressing and enforcing his opinions; and, finally, a notable combination of geniality, which disarmed opposition and inspired affection, with a dignity which enforced respect and commanded allegiance.
Turner's last years were saddened by the European War, and all that it involved. He was intensely patriotic, and urged the enlistment of all able-bodied students and members of the staff. But the empty quadrangles and the shrunken classes, together with the enforced abandonment of his building schemes, depressed him and seemed to sap his vitality. His last illness was mercifully short. He expected to attend the university court on 13 February 1916, but this proved impossible, and he died two days later. He was buried in the Dean cemetery by the side of his wife, Agnes, the eldest daughter of Abraham Logan, of Burnhouses, Berwickshire, who had died in 1908. He left three sons, one of whom became his biographer, and two daughters. Of his two portraits, that by Sir George Reid, is in the hands of his family, and that by Sir James Guthrie hangs in the senatus hall of the university.
[A. Logan Turner, M.D., Sir William Turner: A Chapter in Medical History, 1919; private information; personal knowledge.]
TYLOR, Sir EDWARD BURNETT (1832–1917), anthropologist, the third son of Joseph Tylor, brass-founder, by his wife, Harriet Skipper, was born at Camberwell 2 October 1832, and educated at Grove House, Tottenham, a school belonging to the Society of Friends, of which his parents were members. Their second son was
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