John Lizars

The son of Daniel Lizars Sr (1754–1812), a publisher and engraver, and his wife Margaret Home, he was born in 1792 at the "Backstairs" on Parliament Close in Edinburgh, off the Royal Mile.

He obtained his doctorate (MD) in 1810, then acted as surgeon on board a man-of-war commanded by Admiral Sir Charles Napier.

[6] Returning to Edinburgh in 1814, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and became a partner with John Bell, his old medical tutor, and Robert Allan.

With this appointment he combined that of senior operating surgeon of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where Robert Liston was his colleague.

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.

[3][6] He is buried with his grandparents and family in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street Gardens.

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.