Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/472

 teacher in the university. In 1903 he succeeded Sir William Turner as professor of anatomy in the University of Edinburgh where he laboured with enthusiasm and success until his premature death on 23 June 1909. He married in 1878 Elizabeth Gumming, eldest daughter of Andrew Browne, minister of the parish of Beith in Ayrshire, and had by her three sons and two daughters.

As a lecturer Cunningham had the faculty of illuminating all scientific subjects by illustrations drawn from every field of science. His enthusiasm and perseverance were contagious, and roused the latent powers of both colleagues and pupils. He published much original research in human and comparative anatomy, as well as in the wider field of anthropology. In addition to numerous papers in the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,' of which he was the acting editor, and in other scientific publications, he issued 'Report on the Marsupialia brought home by H.M.S. Challenger' (1878), and 'The Dissector's Guide ' for students (1879), which subsequently developed into his 'Manual of Practical Anatomy' (2 vols. 1893-4; 4th edit, revised, 1910). A 'Cunningham Fund,' founded in memory of Timothy Cunningham [q. v.], for the publication of work of special merit connected with the Royal Irish Academy, issued two papers by Cunningham: 'On the Lumbar Curve in Man and the Apes' (1886), and 'On the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres' (1892). To the 'Transactions' of the same academy he contributed a 'Memoir on Cornelius Magrath, the Irish Giant; a Research into the Connection which exists between Giantism and Acromegaly' (1891); and to the 'Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society ' a 'Memoir on the Microcephalic Idiot' (1895). He delivered before the Anthropological Institute in 1902 the third Huxley memorial lecture, on 'Right-Handedness and Left-Brainedness,' for which he was awarded a memorial medal. In conjunction with Edward Hallaran Bennett [q. v. Suppl. II] he wrote 'The Sectional Anatomy of Congenital Caecal Hernia' (1888). Of the 'Textbook of Anatomy,' published in 1902 (3rd edit. 1909) by the pupils of Sir William Turner, he acted as editor and joint-author.

As a man of affairs, he exercised great influence in the councils of the universities and of the learned societies with which he was connected, and he played a chief part in the establishment of post-graduate instruction at Edinburgh. He was a member of the commission to inquire into the management of the sick and wounded in the South African war, of the war office committee on the standard of candidates and recruits for the army, and of the vice-regal commission on the inland fisheries of Ireland. He was largely responsible for inaugurating the medical department of the territorial army in Scotland. He received many honorary degrees M.D. and D.Sc. Dublin, LL.D. St. Andrews and Glasgow, and D.C.L. Oxford in 1892, on the celebration of the tercentenary of Trinity College, Dublin. He was elected F.R.S. on 4 June 1891, and was president of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, and vice-president of the Royal Dublin Society. A memorial bronze bas-relief has been placed, in duplicate, on the walls of the anatomical departments of the University of Edinburgh and of the University of Dublin.

 CURRIE, DONALD (1825–1909), founder of the Castle Steamship Company, born at Greenock on 17 Sept. 1825, was third son of ten children of James Currie (1797–1851) and Elizabeth (1798–1839), daughter of Donald Martin, all of Greenock. His parents removed to Belfast in 1826, and Currie was sent at seven to the Belfast Academy, and subsequently to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution; at both schools he distinguished himself. As a boy he interested himself in the sea and shipping, and at fourteen entered the shipping office of a relative in Greenock. After four years there, he joined in 1844 the Cunard Steamship Company, Liverpool, owners of the only regular line of steamers sailing between Europe and America, which numbered no more than three the Caledonia, the Arcadia, and the Britannia, all of small tonnage. Currie became head of the company's cargo department. In 1849, in order to take advantage of the abolition of the navigation laws, the company sent him to establish branch houses at Havre and Paris, and in a short time they had a steamer running between Havre and America via Liverpool. He also established branch offices at Bremen and Antwerp, returning to Liverpool in 1854.

In 1862, determining to start for himself, he established the 'Castle' shipping company, which consisted at first of sailing ships plying between Liverpool and Calcutta, owned by a circle of personal friends. Currie first introduced the plan of despatching sailing ships on fixed dates. 