MONNOYER, Jean Baptiste, a celebrated flower painter, born at Lille in 1635, was educated at Antwerp, but settled at Paris, where he was elected a member of the Academy of Painting in 1665. In 1680 the duke of Montague, then English ambassador at Paris, invited Monnoyer to London to decorate his house in Great Russell Street, after the manner of some decorations executed for Le Brim at Versailles. Old Montague house served some time for the British Museum; the last of it, the entrance, was pulled down only a few years ago. Monnoyer was so successful in the employment he found in England that he settled here, paying only a few short visits to Paris during the rest of his life. He died in London, February 16th, 1699. Hampton Court possesses many of the works of Monnoyer, here commonly called Baptiste. His pictures are not laboured like those of Van Huysum, but are executed with the utmost spirit and skill; they have, however, now darkened and lost much of their original brilliancy. The prints after Monnoyer's works are numerous; some etched by himself are signed "J. Baptiste, sculp." There is a print of him by G. White from a portrait by Kneller.—(Essay towards an English School, 1706.)—R. N. W.
MONRO, Alexander, M.D., commonly known as Monro primus, a celebrated physician and professor of anatomy and medicine in the university of Edinburgh, was born in London on the 8th September, o.s., 1697. His father, John Monro, younger son of Sir A. Monro of Bearcrofts, was a practitioner of medicine, and served as surgeon with the army under King William in Flanders; his mother was a Miss Forbes, of the family of Forbes of Culloden. Three years after the birth of the subject of this memoir, his father quitted the army and settled at Edinburgh, where he practised as a surgeon. Determining that his son, who early manifested considerable talent, should adopt the profession of medicine, after giving him the best education that Edinburgh could afford, he sent him to prosecute his studies in London, Paris, and Leyden. In London he studied anatomy under Cheselden; he dissected diligently, and made numerous anatomical preparations which he transmitted to his father in Edinburgh, who exhibited them to the College of Physicians, and afterwards deposited them in the museum then existing at Surgeons' Hall. It is said that Mr. Adam Drummond, the then professor of anatomy to the Surgeons' Company, was so struck with the skill displayed in these dissections that he intimated his intention of retiring in the young anatomist's favour, should the latter continue to progress as he had begun. Whilst studying in London he also read before a society of which he was a member, the first sketch of his work on the bones. At Leyden he was a pupil of the celebrated Boerhaave, who particularly distinguished him and wrote in his commendation to his friends. He returned to Edinburgh in the autumn of 1719, and being offered by Messrs. Drummond and Macgill the lectureship on anatomy to the Surgeons' Company, he accepted it, becoming enrolled as a member. It is related that on the occasion of his first lecture, his father brought the president and fellows of the College of Physicians, together with the whole company of surgeons, to hear him. Not having been informed of the probable attendance of so large and critical an audience, the young lecturer lost his presence of mind, and entirely forgot the address which he had previously written and committed to memory. Having left his manuscript at home, he was at first at some loss what to do. He, however, began by showing and explaining some of the preparations he had sent home from abroad, and gradually gathering up the thread of his discourse, he went on expressing himself in the first words which occurred to him. He succeeded so well as to gain considerable applause, and from that time he resolved never, in lecturing, to repeat the words of a written discourse, but to acquire by practice the art of expressing what he knew and understood with ease and readiness. In 1720 he commenced giving regular courses of lectures in conjunction with Dr. Alston, at that time professor of botany in the university; Monro lecturing on anatomy and surgery, Alston on botany and materia medica. These were the first regular courses of lectures on medical science that were given in Edinburgh, and from their commencement dates the rise of one of the most celebrated schools of medicine in Europe. In the following year regular professorships of anatomy and medicine were instituted in the university. Dr. Monro was the first who filled the chair of anatomy; he held it for nearly forty years, resigning at last in favour of his son. His fame as a teacher and skill as an anatomist attracted to his class-room students from all parts of the United Kingdom. Dr. Monro's father, who had been very active in promoting the establishment of anatomical and medical chairs in the university, was soon after engaged, in conjunction with others, in founding the infirmary. To this institution the son became physician, and in that capacity he engaged in clinical teaching, which he continued after he had resigned the chair of anatomy in the university. Although elected to the professorship of anatomy in 1721, it appears that he was not received into the university until 1725. Soon after the opening of the infirmary the medical professors, together with many of the physicians and surgeons of Edinburgh, formed themselves into a society for the publication of medical observations and essays. To this society Monro was secretary, and, as frequently happens in such cases, the whole labour of collecting and superintending their publications fell upon him. The six volumes of medical essays and observations which were published under his editorship, contain many papers of considerable value even in the present day, and especially is this true of the contributions from the editor's own pen. One of these on the articulation muscles and luxation of the lower jaw, involved the author in a controversy with the celebrated Winslow. Dr. Monro was a loyal subject of the reigning monarch. After the battle of Prestonpans he was actively engaged in attending and succouring the wounded; but faithful to the duties of his calling, his aid was dispensed to the sufferers of both parties; and we are told that he was one of the most active intercessors for the life of the unfortunate Dr. Cameron. He died after a long and painful illness on July 10, 1767, and left behind him a high reputation both as a physician and a man. Amongst his principal works are his "Treatises on Osteology," and the "Anatomy of the Nerves." His last publication was an "Account of the Success which had attended the Practice of Inoculation in Scotland," in answer to inquiries of the Faculty of Physicians of Paris.—F. C. W.
MONRO, Alexander, M.D., secundus, was the third son of Alexander Monro primus. He was born at Edinburgh in 1732. Having embraced his father's profession, he appears to have studied first at Edinburgh, and afterwards at Berlin. On his father's resignation of the professorship of anatomy about the year 1760, he was elected to the vacant chair. He was an eminent anatomist, and distinguished himself by several discoveries in anatomical science. He was the first to point out a communication between the lateral and third ventricles in the human brain, which has since been known as the foramen of Monro; he also traced the ultimate distribution of the auditory nerve. His researches on the anatomy of the ear in whales and cartilaginous fishes, led him into controversies with professors Camper and Scarpa. He also engaged in a controversy with William Hunter on the discovery of the office of the lymphatics; and with Hewson on the discovery of those vessels in oviparous vertebrates. Amongst his numerous anatomical treatises are the following—"The Structure and Physiology of Fishes;" "A description of the Bursæ Mucosæ of the Human Body;" three treatises on the brain, eye, and ear; "Outlines of the Anatomy of the Human Body;" "Observations on the Thoracic Duct." He died in 1817. His son, Dr. Alexander Monro tertius, succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Edinburgh.—F. C. W.
MONRO, Donald, M.D., was the second son of Alexander Monro primus, professor of anatomy in the university of Edinburgh. He was born in 1731, and obtained his medical education at Edinburgh, under his father's superintendence. He graduated there in 1753. Soon afterwards he was appointed physician to the army, and in 1758 was elected to the office of physician to St. George's hospital. It was not long, however, before his military appointment called him abroad. He served in the military hospitals attached to the British army in Germany from the commencement of 1761 to the spring of 1763. On his return to London he published an account of the diseases prevalent in those hospitals during that period; he was likewise the author of treatises on "Preserving the Health of Soldiers," on "Dropsy," on "Mineral Waters," and on "Pharmaceutical and Medical Chemistry." He received the honour of the fellowship of the London College of Physicians, speciali gratiâ, in 1771. He resigned his office at St. George's hospital in 1786, and died June 9, 1802, in his seventy-first year.—F. C. W.
MONRO, John, a physician eminent in the treatment of insanity, was born at Greenwich, November 16, 1715, o.s. He was the son of Dr. James Monro, physician to Bethlehem hospital. He studied at St. John's college, Oxford, where he
