408 
fearlessly compete with any of their 
own age, and with many of more than 
double their experience, and who are 
unwearied in their attentions to their 
pupils,—I mean Mr. Keate and Mr. 
Brodie. But I will not anticipate: 
you shall have all the particulars in 
due form andorder. YT would mention, 
however, that the office of dresser,* 
—which at nearly every other hospital 
is only to be purchased by a double 
fee,—is enjoyed at St. George’s by 
every pupil in rotation; an advantage 
ef material consequence, even to the 
most wealihy. 
The Medical and Surgical Schools 
of St. George’s Hospital consist of 
three physicians, four surgeons, and 
an assistant-surgeon; besides | the 
usual appurtenances of house-surgeon, 
assistant house-surgeon, apothecary, 
&e. The physicians are Drs. Pearson, 
Chambers, and Nevinson ; the surgeons, 
Sir Everard Home, Mr. Gunning, Mr. 
Keate, and Mr. Brodie. Of the phy- 
sicians, one only is a lecturer, and 
that one is Pr. Pearson, who has 
united himscif with W. T. Brande, 
esq. as ilte lecturer on chemistry. 
— By the time the elock strikes 
nine, Mr. Brande is seen at his little 
desk in the centre of the very conve- 
nicnt and well-furnished laboratory of 
the Royal Institution, with all the ne- 
eessary apparatus for his lecture within 
reach, and every thing in the highest 
possible order and condition. His 
appearance is that of a perfect gentle- 
man, rather dandyish or so, but grave, 
and somewhat sententious; very ner- 
yous, but audible, distinct, and power- 
fully impressive. His lectures are 
always good, and contain a vast fund 
ef instruction and interest. Having 
the use of the laboratory, and the va- 
rious valuable apparatus of the Royal 
Tnstitution, his illustrations and expe- 
riments surpass those of any other 
teacher. He has, consequently, always 
a good class ; and, as those who enter 
as pupils to Dr. Pearson are privileged 
toattend Mr. Brande, the yeteran doctor 
is always sure,—IL will not say of the 
* The office of dresser consists in attend- 
ing more immediately upon the surgeon, to 
receive lis instructions as to the p:oper 
dressings for the patients. Each surgeon 
has his dresser, whose duty it is to dress all 
the patients belonging to that: surgeon; 
and thus the dresser hasa more favourable 
opportunity of gaining instruction than liis 
ivliow-students. 
Letters on the Medical School of London. 
[Dec. 1, 
attendance, but certainly—of the fees 
of a large proportion of students. 
I will now turn my attention and 
your’s to the surgeons of St. George’s 
Hospital. 
The senior surgeon is Sir Everard 
Home, a gentleman who has done a 
great deal of good, and some little 
barm, perhaps by his bold and reso- 
lute innovations upon the practice of 
modern surgery. Educated under the 
eye of the great and illustrious John 
Hunter, (to whom, indeed, he was 
allied by marriage,). he had all the 
advantages of the constant instruction 
of that celebrated physiologist ; and 
became himself, with the aid of his 
national untiring perseverance, no: 
unworthy disciple of his great master. 
He made,—as every physiologistought' 
to make,—his physiology subservient’ 
to his practice; and, by keeping con- 
stantly in view the relative state and 
sympathy of one part of the body and 
the other, in disease as well) as in’ 
health, he was enabled to briny his 
calculations to bear with a precision 
as surprising as it was successful.’ 
This of course raised him enemies, 
who endeavoured at first to disprove, 
and then to diseredit, facts which 
were too firmly rooted to be readily 
subverted: so Sir Everard enjoys to 
this day his fame and his well-earned’ 
reward. Sir Everard lectures gratui- 
tously to the pupils of St. George’s 
Hospital during the winter ; but these 
lectures are confined to a few of the 
most important points in surgery, and 
are, as far as they go, most valuable. 
Next to Abernethy, I should certainly 
rank Sir Everard as a practical pliy- 
siologist ; and there is another point in’ 
which he is only excelled by “Johnny,” 
—that is, a churlish rudeness of ad-- 
dress, which is unbecoming even in a 
dustman, and quite execrable in a’ 
well-educated professional man. 
Of the other surgeons, one only is : 
lecturer, and that is Mr. Brodie, 
gentleman who is one day destined to 
rise to the very summit of pre-emi- 
nence in his profession. Never did’ 
any individual commence his career’ 
under more favourable auspices. En- 
thusiastically attached to the science” 
he had’ chosen,—unwearied ‘in his‘ 
exertions in the attainment of profes- 
sional knowledge,—gifted, moreover, 
with a powerful intellect, cultivated 
aud improved by education and study, 
—and’placed in a situation as fayour- 
> “able 
a ee 
vw 
