William Reid, M.D.Aberd

Abstract

his patients ; as, though he did not carry his feelings on the surface, his winning personality and overflowing kindness of heart made him an ideal mental physician. His old assistants all over the world, as well as his staff, possessed an affection for him such as is given to few men. The Chief hated humbug, meanness, self-advertisement, andpriggishnessof any kind, and expressed himself pretty forcibly at times when any examples of such came to his knowledge. Though of a forgiving nature in most instances, he never forgave anyone whom he had found out " not playing the game.'1 He lectured on psychiatry to many generations of Aberdeen University men, and was seen at his best when describing the clinical symptoms presented by the cases he brought before them.Dr. Reid did not care for the artificiality of social functions or meetings and was seldom seen at these, but he liked to entertain at his own house. He loved the open air, and his chief recreations were shooting and golf. He was passionately devoted to the latter game, and his fine figure, clothed in the favourite brown suit, was well known on the links of Balgownie, Cruden Bay, and Lossiemouth. His library contained every known book on the game ; and he showed a prevalent and forgivable human weakness in buying successively the clubs made by the greatest players of the day, and it was amusing to see the big man wielding the initial very light clubs used by Harry Vardon. He had a tendency to "slice," which he attributed to loosening his left hand at the top of the swing ; to circum vent this he had a thin metal cover, surrounded with the ordinary leather grip, made to encircle the upper half of the handle of his clubs ; this cover revolved sufficiently to allow of the left hand preserving the grip at the top of the swing. The correspondence which ensued with the editor of a well-known golfing maga zine, who did not approve of the contrivance, caused him great amusement. Needless to say, the " slice " remained, and he discarded the above invention and adopted another to cure his " slice " in the form of a strap, which, however, made it impossible for his caddie to withdraw one club from his bag without also with drawing the others. A favourite caddie took the law into his own hands and removed the club straps while his master was at lunch. The resulting interview later was something to be remembered. He fared better with a tea-urn he invented for his patients, and the writer has never seen anything to beat it for institutional use.Dr. Reid's home life was delightful, and to see the big fellow lying on the floor building brick houses with his youngest daughter is a pleasant memory. He was devoted to all children, and they to him.