xlv 



was sent to walk the hospitals in 1801. At present the work of a 

 student is regulated, or over-regulated is divided into many sub- 

 jects, so many lectures being assigned to each. There is the first year's 

 work and the second year's work, under an arrangement so systematic 

 that the young student, whatever be his capacities or his previous 

 training, is allowed only to join the stream, and therein is hurried 

 on too fast if slow of apprehension, or wearied by useless attendances 

 if quick beyond the average. The freest scope was then given to 

 the able and well-disposed too free by far for the careless or disso- 

 lute. Brodie, nurtured hitherto only by his father's polished care, the 

 companion of the Rector's walks, the popular subaltern of a volunteer 

 corps in a county far from the metropolis, reaches London, and is 

 thrown at once upon opportunities so ruinous to some, so good for 

 him. He was not without good advice as to his future course. Dr. 

 Denman, Dr. Baillie, and Sir Richard Croft, eminent and admirable 

 men, were connected with his family by marriage. He was sent to 

 Abernethy's lectures on anatomy. If in these lectures details were 

 absent, the deficiency was compensated for tenfold by the genius and 

 heart of the man. Abernethy gave to his pupils what the living 

 teacher can best give, a living interest in their work. The Student 

 was fascinated. He determined on following the profession recom- 

 mended by the example of that popular Surgeon ; for he found that 

 he could not be a Physician without a university degree ; arid this had 

 not been provided for him. 



Brodie' s character and training must have made parts of his 

 early medical studies irksome, and some of his companions dis- 

 tasteful to him though in this he only shared the lot of other right- 

 minded youths who come from virtuous homes. Nor can it be 

 doubted that the shock which he must have experienced sixty years 

 ago at the low education and unformed habits of mind of some of 

 his class companions, helped to implant in him that strong, it may 

 be said parental concern in all that affects tbe best interests of 

 medical students, which characterized him up to the last days of his 

 long and active life. It is, however, true that, devoted, as his subse- 

 quent career proves, to his purely professional studies, he was not 

 dependent on the medical school for his companions. His literary 

 tastes did not desert him. He studied in this year the writings of 

 various masters in mental philosophy of Dugald Stewart, Berkeley, 



