Former Pupil Biographies

Professor William McIntosh (1838 - 1931)

After graduating in 1860 McIntosh took up a position as an assistant physician at Murray's Hospital, a Mental Institution in Perth. The Physician Superintendent, Dr Lauder Lindsay, was a keen botanist, and he had equipped the hospital with a Natural History Museum where McIntosh gave lectures in Zoology for the benefit of the patients. McIntosh published several papers and started experiments on the development of salmon eggs using tanks set up in his bedroom. His museum displays and publications greatly benefited from the artistic talents of his sister Roberta who was to later assist him in many of his most important projects. McIntosh was appointed Superintendent of the new Murthly Mental Hospital, outside Perth, in 1863 thus acquiring the stability and financial resources needed to continue his interests in Zoology. He was never to marry, and something of his single minded pursuit of knowledge can be judged from his assertion that "No man who joined Bonhomie to wine and women could qualify as a true votary of Science". McIntosh was a Founding member of the St Andrews Temperance Society.

After several failed attempts to gain an academic position, McIntosh was finally appointed Professor of Civil and Natural History in his home town at the age of 44 in 1882. The following year he was recruited to the Trawling Commission which was chaired by Lord Dalhousie and included Thomas Henry Huxley as a member. At that time, traditional sail-powered yawls and small boats which fished using baited hooks were being joined by steam boats which could drag heavy trawls. The Trawling Commission was charged with assessing the impact of these technological advances. At St Andrews, McIntosh set about analysing trawl contents from the east coast of Scotland and rearing fish to describe their developmental stages. He discovered that the eggs of most commercially important fish floated and that therefore the spawning grounds were not destroyed by trawling. The Commission proposed the setting up of a 3 mile limit reserved for line fisherman and scientific trawling. At the time there still was a significant fishing fleet operating from the harbour at St Andrews.

In 'The Madras College' Dr Thompson wrote:

"Professor William Mclntosh, the founder of the Gatty Marine Laboratory, is remembered by Mclntosh Hall. "

The Madras College Magazine for June 1931 reported:

Professor William Carmichael Mclntosh was, probably, the oldest pupil of the College. He remained true to the Madras until his death. The following is an appreciation by an old St. Andrews student :—

It was with intense regret that I read in this morning's Scotsman of the death of my old friend and former teacher in Zoology, Professor McIntosh. Born, I think not actually within the Burgh, but certainly within full sight of the waters of the famous bay, Mclntosh remained to the end of his long days an enthusiastic St. Andrean.

Often have I thought of him as a boy, wandering through the woods of Feddinch and Mount Melville observing the sequence of the seasons the death and desolation of winter, and the splendid renovations of spring. Below, remote for his little feet, lay the shining sea, continually changing, always old, yet perpetually new. With what delight would the juvenile naturalist first tread the yellow sands and gather the shells and urchins and corallines that were to kindle within him the fire but only now extinguished.

A first-class anatomist, and one who had disciplined himself in the hard school of rigorous comparative morphology, Mclntosh was an encyclopaedic zoologist.

Theoretical matters seemed little to interest him, and these he rarely touched. Others with the requisite qualifications will testify to his colossal labours in monographing the Nemerteans and British marine annelids, as well as his magnificent contributions to the embryogeny and life-histories of the food-fishes. Yet though a prince of researchers, Mclntosh as a Professor was not entirely successful. He was a fluent and clear speaker, packed with his subject, but it seemed to be difficult for him to realise how easily a student's notebook could be thrown into confusion. Thus, often after starting a discourse, he would suddenly remember something that he ought to have incorporated in the previous day's lecture, and thereupon he would digress, not always, be it stated, with profitable results to his class. In the laboratory or at examinations he delighted to come in wearing a black velvet skull cap and carrying a diminutive pointer, which he used effectively in oralising the students, either about their dissections or the multitudinous drawings that ornamented the walls. Then it was that his range and facile mastery were most potently conveyed.

A curious and sustained formality of manner quite concealed Mclntosh's personality form the public view. Hence it was often averred that he seemed to lack any generous endowment of a sense of humour. Hut such an impression was wholly erroneous, better acquaintance invariably revealing how readily a joke could vitalise his expression and deepen the blue of his eyes. And many are the stories of a rare flavour that could be related of old happenings at the "Gatty," or of the days when a Battery inspection at the Kirkhill was a regular event of the academic year. The ballast of common sense he carried in ample measure. The clue to his success was the virtue of perseverance.

Of the highest character and most honourable in all his activities, Mclntosh was universally esteemed. His distinction as a zoologist was unchallenged and worldwide. .Fame ho brought beyond common knowledge to his native land. His career, of his own selection, was a strenuous one. Life's continent lie traversed at its widest part. Now that his spirit soars into the in Unite, let us who knew the man stand to attention in respectful and affectionate farewell.