50 REMINISCENCES OF 



curator for a season at the museum of the Manchester 

 Natural History Society, and, that if I would go, it 

 need make no serious break in my preparations for 

 a medical career, because Mr. Ransome, my previous 

 visitor, was prepared to have my indenture trans- 

 ferred from Mr. Weddell to himself, without any fee, 

 by which arrangement great medical privileges would 

 be available to me in Manchester. But all was in 

 vain. I was so stupidly wedded to the idea that it 

 was my fate to remain in Scarborough that I declined 

 even to entertain the proposition. Thus the move- 

 ment Manchesterwards apparently again terminated. 

 But now came one of those trivial so called accidents, 

 far from uncommon in life, and that are so often 

 turning points. A day or two later I was carrying 

 a bottle of medicine to a patient who resided out- 

 side " The Bar." On approaching this venerable 

 structure, I saw the York mail standing at the door 

 of Millar's Inn, to pick up a passenger. 



Hearing some one call my name, I looked up and 

 discovered Dr. Phillips on the top of the coach. 

 He inquired whether my views had undergone 

 any change ; but before I had time to answer his 

 query, the coach started. Shouting hastily back, 

 he asked, " May I write to you ? " Seeing no reason 

 why he should not do that, I simply nodded assent, 

 and in another moment the coach was alike out of 

 sight and out of hearing. 



This little incident, so accidentally brought about, 

 was scarcely remembered by me, until one day my 



