James Gregory was born in Aberdeen in 1753, and even as a child his mind always seems to have been keenly awake. He left the Grammar School of Aberdeen when he was eleven, having learned all that was to be learned there, and entered King’s College at an age at which clever boys now leave a preparatory school.
In the same year when his father removed to Edinburgh James Gregory entered that university, and there he spent the next years of his life. Later he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, of which his cousin was then dean. Oxford did not inspire him much, for indeed learning was then at a very low level there, but he continued his work at classics, and came to write Latin with fluency, Greek when there was occasion, and both ‘with classical elegance,’ if we are to believe his admiring contemporaries.
It is probable that it was at Oxford that James Gregory resolved to follow in his father’s footsteps, and become a doctor. There were of course many inducements, and all the influence of his family would be brought to bear on that side; but beyond this may we not believe that visions were given him of the golden fame that a hitherto unimagined mixture would bring to the name of Gregory unto all time? Whether the vision was vouchsafed to him or not, he returned to Scotland and began his medical studies in 1767.
It was a brilliant time in Edinburgh University. The medical professoriate contained a number of remarkable men. Cullen was there who had revolutionised medicine, Alexander Monro ‘Secundus,’ the greatest of a great family, Black who was acknowledged by Lavoisier as the pioneer of modern chemistry, John Hope the botanist and John Gregory. Under such teachers as these James made rapid progress, and although there are no tales of medals or prizes we cannot forget the instance of his medical foresight when he predicted an attack of gout for his father, which attack came, to his sorrow, so soon and so fatally after the prediction.
The Chair of the Practice of Physic was given to Cullen, and young Gregory went to St George’s Hospital, London, to gain a wider experience. He took his M.D. degree in Edinburgh in 1774: his thesis entitled De morbis Coeli Mutatione Medendis treats in detail Phthisis Pulmonalis, Hypochondriasis, and Gout, and concludes by noticing the advantage of change of air in the prolonging of human life. Startlingly wide in subject as this thesis appears to us, it was greatly admired for its style and minuteness, and thus Gregory, quitting Edinburgh for a time of study on the continent, left behind him a very favourable impression both of his talent and hard-working research.
Leyden, Paris, and Italy formed matter for enchanting letters which were the delight of his friends. Where are those letters gone to? How pleasant would it be to live through them a student’s life in these years. Whatever James Gregory could be, he was never dull, and besides in them we might have found the early tokens of that fierce temper which is the only pity of his professional career in Edinburgh.
There are two portraits of Gregory, or rather a portrait[[7]] and a bust, which were said to be very like. A tall man, large, ungainly, of a rare presence. A man having authority impressed on every feature, radiant with affection for his friends, intolerant of enemies, asking his own way and getting his own way, loving, hating, thinking, speaking, feeling, always with intensest ardour. Here was a man whom none of his associates could regard dispassionately; they either loved him as a friend or hated him as an enemy.
[7]. The portrait is by Raeburn, and there is also a miniature of the professor by the same artist, which is in the possession of Mr Philip Spencer Gregory.
Even in Edinburgh which was full of personalities, real individuals, men who were above all things themselves, Gregory stands out a great original. Lord Cockburn and Sir Robert Christison were not inclined to agree with each other on most subjects, yet about Gregory’s power there is a refreshing unanimity in their opinions.
In June 1773 he was elected to the Chair of the Institutes of Medicine. This chair had been practically vacant for three years, during which time it was offered over and over again to Alexander Monro Drummond, whose chief merit seems to have been that he united the names of the great teaching Monroes with that of Drummond, perhaps the noblest citizen Edinburgh has ever had. It has been suggested, however, that this was only done to keep the appointment open for Gregory, when he should have completed his studies, and certainly when he returned, his election was unanimous. He entered upon his duties with happy vigour. Teaching was, as with every Gregory, his greatest gift, and the classes grew steadily all the time he was professor. The university never made greater progress than it did about this time, the medical graduates rising in number from about twenty in 1776 to one hundred and sixty in 1827.