the post held by Lizars. Syme replied with a lawsuit, in which he claimed damages for false and malicious statement. The suit was successful, but with token damages only. Syme, however, had a probable role in dissuading the College of Surgeons from re-electing a professor of surgery when Lizars's tenure of the office finished. Lizars published further criticism, in 1851, of external urethrotomy as practised by Syme. Syme retaliated with a comprehensive personal attack; this time Lizars sued, and lost. Lizars had become eccentric, and was unable to obtain further public appointment; and his private practice declined. Death Lizars died suddenly on 21 May 1860, at his final home, 15 South Charlotte Street off Charlotte Square. The suspected cause was an overdose of laudanum. He is buried with his grandparents and family in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street Gardens. The grave lies in the raised south-west section. Works Lizars in 1822 issued the work by which he is now known, A System of Anatomical Plates of the Human Body, accompanied with Descriptions, and Physiological, Pathological, and Surgical Observations, Edinburgh. The plates were done by his brother William under Lizars's close supervision. It was followed in 1835 by Observations on Extraction of diseased Ovaria, illustrated by Plates coloured after Nature, 1835, and in 1835 by a System of Practical Surgery, with numerous explanatory Plates, the Drawings after Nature, Edinburgh. His book The Use and Abuse of Tobacco was published in 1859, and is one of the first works to recognise both its addictive nature and its potential damage. References Attribution 1792 births 1860 deaths Anti-smoking activists Scottish surgeons Scottish anatomists People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish sailors Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Scottish medical writers Medical doctors from Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh