The most important person in the expedition, however, after Dr. Livingstone, was John Kirk, an enthusiastic and ambitious young doctor and naturalist from Edinburgh, who, after obtaining his degree in the Edinburgh University, started for the Crimea, and was appointed physician to the British hospital at Renkioi in the Dardanelles, in which capacity he so far distinguished himself, that he found it not difficult to obtain one of the leading positions in Dr. Livingstone's expedition to the Zambezi . To this post he was appointed almost more as naturalist than as physician, because he had already evinced considerable qualifications as a botanist. His was the one appointment in this expedition which proved an unqualified success. Others failed from want of capacity, or bad temper, or weak health, or else circumstances were adverse to the display of their good qualities.

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