Biographical Memoir ofDr Thomas Young, 233 



appeared, and which, it must be confessed, would have cut rather 

 a* ridiculous figure on the title-page of this colossal work. 



Dr Young then, either in London, or at Worthing, where 

 he used to spend the summer months, had never an extensive 

 practice. The public regarded him as over-wise ! We must 

 even state, that his lectures in medicine, those, for example, 

 which he gave at St George's Hospital, were never popular. In 

 explanation of this, it has been remarked, that the lectures were 

 over-full, and too substantial, and that they exceeded the capa- 

 city of ordinary intelligences ! But might not this want of suc- 

 cess rather be attributed to the freeness, but seldom met, with 

 which Young pointed out the inextricable difficulties which are 

 encountered at every step in the study of the numerous disor- 

 ders to which our feeble frame is subject ? 



Could it be thought, especially at a time when every one is 

 anxious to gain his end speedily, and with little fatigue, that a 

 lecturer on medicine could retain a numerous class, if he com- 

 commenced with such words as we now quote from Dr Young : 

 *' No study is so complicated as that of physic. It surpasses 

 the limits of human intelligence. Those physicians who rush 

 forward, without attempting to comprehend what they see, are 

 often as near the mark as those who engage in acute generaliza- 

 tions, based upon observations, in regard of which all analogy 

 is defective." And if the professor, continuing the same strain, 

 were to add : " In medical lotteries, the chance of him who pos- 

 sesses ten tickets, must evidently be greater than that of him 

 who has only five." When they believed themselves engaged in 

 a lottery, those of his auditors whom the former sentence had 

 not dismissed, would be but little disposed to make great exer- 

 tions to procure more tickets, or, to explain the thoughts of our 

 learned associate, the greatest possible quantity of knowledge. 



In spite of all his knowledge, and perhaps even on account of 

 its immensity, Dr Young had no confidence at the bedside of a 

 patient. At that moment, the troublesome effects which might 

 eventually result from the action of the medicine, which was 

 most clearly indicated, would crowd upon his mind, — would 

 equal the favourable eifects which might be anticipated from it, 

 and would overwhelm him with indecision, perhaps not unna- 

 tural, but which the public interprets greatly to the prejudice 



