I 4 2 REMINISCENCES OF 



sessions ; but at length even this system had to be 

 abandoned. 



The number of our students who sought the degrees 

 of the London University steadily increased, and it 

 became indispensable that my full course should be 

 included in one session. Adequate teaching of so 

 wide a range of subjects in so limited a period was 

 an impossibility. Such a demand was too absurd to 

 be credited, yet I was informed by the authorities 

 that it must be done. The amount of my time 

 required by the college was thus doubled, and the 

 requisite leisure could only be obtained by abandoning 

 some portion of my work elsewhere, and so I resigned 

 my office of Surgeon to the Manchester Ear 

 Institute. But the inevitable inadequacy of such 

 hurried teaching compelled the council to obtain for 

 me efficient relief, and in 1872 Mr. Boyd Dawkins 

 was appointed lecturer in and subsequently Professor 

 of Geology. This step, whilst on one hand it afforded 

 the much needed relief, introduced me to a pleasant 

 and lasting friendship. 



Social life among the professors was very different 

 in these earlier days of the college from anything 

 possible now. As I have already stated, shortly 

 after the college began its work we found the need 

 of periodic meetings of its small staff. We arranged 

 to hold them at our several houses in turn, on each 

 fourth Saturday evening of the month. The early 

 part of the meeting was devoted to business, the later 

 hours to supper and sociality. This method of 



