Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/571

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The report here referred to bore the names of Sir John Robinson, chairman; Mr. M. P. Brown, advocate; Prof. James Russell, Dr. Alison, Sir George Ballingall, Sir George Sinclair, Sir William Hamilton, and Mr. Thomas Allen, banker; and completely and absolutely exonerated Dr. Knox from the charges that had been made against him. The public advocate went to the bottom of the case, and declared that there was no ground of suspicion; and one of the ablest representatives of the British bar. Lord Cockburn, who had a personal knowledge of all the facts, wrote in the "Memorials of his Time" as follows: "All our anatomists incurred a most unjust and very alarming though not unnatural odium; Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not only the anger of the populace, but the condemnation of the more intelligent persons, was specially directed. But, tried in reference to the invariable and the necessary practice of the profession, our anatomists were spotlessly correct, and Knox the most correct of them all."

Dr. Knox was a man of pluck, and he went along about his business, paying little attention to the storm of abuse and vituperation that rained upon him. But the savage injustice of which he was a victim was, nevertheless, not without its effect. It clouded his prosperity, darkened his life, and gave a cynical turn to his disposition.