32 REMINISCENCES OF 



and contemptuously gazing at me as I lay on my 

 back in the mud. Many of the duties which I have 

 referred to, and which ought chiefly to have been 

 performed by an errand-boy, are easily explained 

 when the time and circumstances are remembered. 



Mr. Weddell had originally been chemist and 

 druggist, and entered the profession when the 

 Apothecaries' Act of 1815 afforded facilities for men 

 in similar positions to become regular practitioners. 



He, and all such, brought with them into their new 

 position ideas associated with the system of appren- 

 ticeship to retail trades in shops. Lads thus appren- 

 ticed must of course perform these menial tasks, and 

 time was required to bring about a more enlightened 

 arrangement, suitable to the better educated youths 

 who entered the medical profession at later periods. 



Still, although we learnt little of our profession 

 that could not have been mastered in a few weeks 

 spent in an apothecary's shop, the three years of 

 " medical studentship " in Scarborough were not 

 without redeeming features, in- the abundant open- 

 air exercise which I was partly compelled, partly 

 permitted, to take. During the spring and summer 

 months the coast north of Scarborough was fre- 

 quented by various sandpipers and other wading 

 and aquatic birds. The North Bay itself was 

 then a much more retired nook than it now is. 

 The construction of the pier and the stone embank- 

 ment have drawn away many of the birds, then so 

 much more abundant than they now are. We were 



