Alexander Monro "tertius" (1773-1859)

Portrait of Alexander Monro "tertius" by Sir John Watson Gordon (1788-1864)

Alexander Monro "tertius" (1773-1859) was the third member of the 'Monro Dynasty' which occupied Edinburgh University's Chair of Anatomy uninterruptedly for almost 150 years. He shared the Professorship of Anatomy with his father Alexander Monro ''secundus'' (1733-1817) from 1798 to 1808, then held the post separately until his retirement in 1846.

His students included Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) who asserted that Monro 'made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself'.