Autobiography 9 



I was extremely idle (unless making caricatures of one's 

 pastors and masters is to be called a branch of industry), 

 or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I read 

 everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and 

 took up all sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as 5 

 speedily. No doubt it was very largely my own fault, but 

 the only instruction from which I ever obtained the proper 

 effect of education was that which I received from Mr. 

 Wharton Jones, wfio was the lecturer on physiology at the 

 Charing Cross School of Medicine. The extent and pre- 10 

 cision of his knowledge impressed me greatly, and the 

 severe exactness of his method of lecturing was quite to 

 my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so much 

 respect for anybody as a teacher before or since. I worked 

 hard to obtain his approbation, and he was extremely kind 15 

 and helpful to the youngster who, I am afraid, took up 

 more of his time than he had any right to do. It was 

 he who suggested the publication of my first scientific 

 paper a very little one in the Medical Gazette of 1845, 

 and most kindly corrected the literary faults which 20 

 abounded in it, short as it was ; for at that time, and for 

 many years afterwards, I detested the trouble of writing, 

 and would take no pains over it. 



It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having fin- 

 ished my obligatory medical studies and passed the first 25 

 M.D. examination at the London University, though 

 I was still too young to qualify at the College of Sur- 

 geons, I was talking to a fellow-student (the present 

 eminent physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering 

 what I should do to meet the imperative necessity for 30 

 earning my own bread, when my friend suggested that I 

 should write to Sir William Burnett, at that time Director- 

 General for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an 

 appointment. I thought this rather a strong thing to do, 



