1737-1817

Scottish physician and surgeon, called secundus to distinguish him from his father, Alexander Monro primus (1697-1767), and his son, Alexander Monro tertius (1773-1859). All three, in succession, were professors of anatomy at Edinburgh from 1720 to 1846. As teachers they contributed immeasurably toward making Edinburgh a major center of medical learning. Secundus is generally acknowledged as the keenest scientific mind of the three. In Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System (1783) he reported his discovery of the foramen interventriculare, an important passage in the brain.