Alexander Monro III of Craiglockhart, FRSE FRCPE FSA (Scot) MWS (5 November 1773 – 10 March 1859), was a Scottish anatomist and medical educator at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. According to his detractors, Monro was an uninspired anatomist who did not compare with his brilliant father or grandfather as a teacher or scientist. His students included Charles Darwin who asserted that Monro "made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself."
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Life
Born at Nicolson Street in Edinburgh on 5 November 1773, he was the son of Alexander Monro (distinguished as "Secundus") and grandson of Alexander Monro (distinguished as "Primus") who had both preceded him in the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, close to his home, then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh receiving his doctorate (MD) in September 1797. On 5 November that year he became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and 25 days later became a Fellow of the College. He then briefly studied in London under the Scottish born anatomist James Wilson, and then in Paris, returning to Edinburgh in 1799. During his absence he had been appointed conjoint Professor of Anatomy and Surgery with his father and in the academic year 1799/1800 he joined his father in delivering the anatomy lecture course at the University of Edinburgh.