GARANTÍAS DEL CUMPLIMIENTO DE LA OBLIGACIÓN ALIMENTARIA

Meanwhile, in St. Andrews we find Brewster imposing his liberal points of view that Chemistry was one of the most important educational subjects at St. Andrews University. In 1840 he used an existing endowment to found a Chair of Chemistry."

1840 also saw the birth of Ann McCulloch Rodger, born in St. Andrews on 9th October." Unfortunately the 1841 Scottish Census Records shows no record of the Rodger family in St. Andrews. New York Cottage (where Rodger set up business in 1849) was occupied by a family named Hutton.®® This does not mean that the Rodger family did not live in St. Andrews. They may have lived in the surrounding area, or it might have been that they were not at home when the census was done.

1842 saw Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair being elected as Provost of the town, a position he held until his death in 1861.®^ Playfair's interest in the town's social and cultural evolution was expressed in many ways, from an avid will for the town to progress, to a curious intellectual stimulation in the scientific advancement of the Daguerreotype and Calotype technique.

Whilst all three of the Rodger children were at school during this time, in either 1842 or 43 Margaret Rodger was born, and on 18th August 1845 Douglas Adamson Rodger was born.®^ A fact that comes as some surprise is that Douglas Rodger is actually female. We know this because in the 1861 Scottish Census Records she is recorded as female and a dressmaker. Her

death is also recorded in 1865 as fifth daughter of Thomas Rodger. It may have been during this period of Rodger's schooling that he and Adamson first became aquainted. At Madras College, with one studying and one teaching, the two must have crossed paths on numerous occasions.

This next period of Rodger's life has in the past caused much confusion and will continue to do so. Of the few records and articles written, there appears to be many conflicting reports and evidence. I on no account make any claims to set the record straight, because on this particular period 1 have chased a never ending circle. Here 1 will only try to come up with some plausible explanation as to what 1 think might have taken place.

1846

It is said in the St Andrews Citizen in 1883 obituary that after Rodger's schooling, at the age of approximately fourteen, he became apprentice to Dr James Philp.®® Dr Philp was born in St. Andrews on the 10th February 1817. He probably then would have studied at Edinburgh University, but could not afford to qualify there and so became a Licentiate as a cheaper means of doing so. He became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh on 22nd February 1837.®^ On Dr Philp's removal from St.

Andrews Rodger finished his apprenticeship under Dr Thomas Malcolm. Dr Thomas Malcolm was born in St. Andrews. Also, in 1814, he studied at St. Andrews and later in Edinburgh. It was in 1838 that he became a Licentiate

of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.®® His obituary tells us that while in Jamaica in 1842, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, but unfortunately there is no official record of this.®® From this apprenticeship Rodger would have learnt a great deal about chemistry and its manipulation. The British Journal of Photography's article, dated 9th July 1897, tells us that at this time Rodger's fellow apprentice was Dr George Berwick. This is most interesting as this could give us a Glasgow connection with Thomas Annan. Thomas Annan (1829-87) had in 1855 set up Berwick and Annan as calotypists in Glasgow. Berwick was a medical student who joined Annan for two years, but then disappeared from the scene. Thomas Annan's second son, James Craig Annan, became an important international figure in photographic history at the turn of the century. This theory was proposed by Mr Robert Smart, Keeper of St. Andrews University's Muniments Collection, a man with extensive knowledge of the local area and photography's history in this era.

1 therefore find myself asking the question, if Rodger was supposed to have done two sessions of medicine at Glasgow before setting up business in 1849, could he possibly have run his apprenticeship along with his studies at Glasgow. Two years apprenticeship with local surgeons, along with two years of medicine at Glasgow would bring us up to 1848/49, therefore giving a reasonable chronological order of events that might have taken place. However well this fits into our search for an answer, we cannot overlook the

fact that at this time he would only have been aged 14-16. This was a very young age to have been attending University. Could he, in the first instance have been that intelligent, and also where would his financial support have come from, as we remember his father was but a house painter to trade? Whatever our thoughts may be unfortunately there are few facts to turn our fantasy into reality. The University of Glasgow has no record of Rodger, either as a matriculated, non-matriculated student, on any class list, on or around this time. Anderson's College of Medicine (now Strathclyde

University) merged with Glasgow University in 1947. Nor does Strathclyde have any record of Rodger in the remains of their archives either.'37

1848

The St. Andrews Citizen obituary in 1883 informs us that on Rodger’s

return from Glasgow, after Robert Adamson's death in 1848, Dr John Adamson persuaded young Rodger to give up his studies and pursue a career in professional photography.®® Whether Adamson actually persuaded Rodger to give up his studies for a lucrative career in medicine for a full time career in what had only previously been an affluent man's past time, is somewhat questionable. This is further highlighted by the fact that Rodger did continue his studies after returning to St. Andrews in 1848.

1849

Chemistry class due to Professor Arthur Connell's long illness.®® From the evidence we have we can build up a picture that shows that at that time Rodger was an assistant to Adamson in the Chemistry class. Not only do the obituaries tell us this, but Reminiscences by James Stuart, who later became professor of mechanics at Cambridge University, tells us,

in 1849 While living there my grandmother was poorly, and was attended by Dr Adamson, whose gig was driven by a boy called Rodger. Dr Adamson was rather scientifically inclined, and his brother had taken some part in the inventions of daguerreotyping, which preceded photography. Dr Adamson was at that time

making a number of experiments for transferring photographs from the glass on which they were first taken to paper, and he employed this boy to wash his bottles, and otherwise assist him. Rodger became afterwards one of the most famous and successful of photographers in Scotland.^®

Also in this year Rodger's name appears on the University of St. Andrews Chemistry 1849-50 Matriculation Roll, but his name is not on the class list.^^ The reason for this may have been that because he was Adamson's assistant he might have been taught free. At this period, when we know there was great activity in the advancement of photographic processing we then read an account of a fellow student of Rodger's, Rev. Patrick Stevenson of Inverarity. He describes the scenes that took place in the back garden of a small house near the east end of South Street,

Well 1 do remember to our amusement over the unfortunate beings