AT EDINBURGH. 17 



That he was a keen observer for his age is clear 

 from the fact that, when he was only ten, he was 

 much interested and surprised to notice that the 

 insects he found on the Welsh coast were different 

 from those in Shropshire. His most valuable educa- 

 tion was received out of school hours — collecting, 

 and working at chemistry with his brother Erasmus, 

 although this latter study drew down upon him 

 the rebukes of Dr. Butler for wasting time on such 

 useless subjects. 



He was removed from school early, and in 1825 

 went to Edinburgh to study medicine — a subject for 

 which he seemed to be unfitted by nature. The 

 methods of instruction by lectures did not benefit 

 him ; he was disgusted at dissection, and could not 

 endure to witness an operation. And yet here it was 

 evident, as it became afterwards at Cambridge, that 

 Darwin — although seeming to be by no means above 

 the average when judged by ordinary standards — 

 possessed in reality a very remarkable and attractive 

 personality. There can be no other explanation of 

 the impression he made upon distinguished men who 

 were much older than himself, and the friendships 

 he formed with those of his own age who were 

 afterwards to become eminent. 



Thus at Edinburgh he was well acquainted with 

 Dr. Grant and Mr. Macgillivray, the curator of the 

 museum, and worked at marine zoology in company 

 with the former. Here, too, in 1826, he made his 

 first scientific discovery, and read a paper before the 



