Alexander Monro Secundus

Alexander Monro of Craiglockhart and Cockburn, known as Alexander Monro secundus, was a Scottish anatomist, physician and medical educator, born at Edinburgh in 1733 and dead there in 1817. He was the second of three generations of physicians of that name, succeeded his father Alexander Monro primus as professor at the University of Edinburgh, and took his medical degree in 1755 before studying in London, Paris, Leiden and Berlin. He lectured every year from 1759 to 1800, introduced clinical medicine into the curriculum, and served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1779. His publications include two observations on the lymphatics of 1758, in which he claimed to have first described the lymphatic system correctly, a claim the article notes was disputed by William Hunter and predated by Francis Glisson. He is known for the Monro-Kellie doctrine on intracranial pressure, developed with his former pupil George Kellie.