330 LETTER TO 



licentiate, and that consequently there was a 

 s.trong presumption of my being sufficiently 

 learned to be admitted to undergo the addi- 

 tional tests of knowledge, if there be any such, 

 which the statutes of the college demand from 

 those who desire to be fellows. This will be 

 the more readily granted, when it is considered, 

 that though the college contains at present 

 many learned men, and will no doubt continue 

 to contain many such, as long as the inhabitants 

 of this country are sufficiently rich to reward 

 liberally the professional labours of physicians, 

 yet the degree of knowledge which is just suf- 

 ficient to enable any person to enter their body, 

 cannot be regarded, even by themselves, as very 

 high : For, 



First, among the forty-three members who 

 have undergone the required examinations, how- 

 ever they may have differed in original talents, 

 industry, opportunities of studying their pro- 

 fession and in modesty, there is only one, whose 

 learning is said to have been declared insuf- 

 ficient upon his first application for admission : 



And secondly, the three physicians, who to 

 my poor apprehension have appeared to have 

 the weakest understandings and the smallest ex- 

 tent of knowledge, of all those with whom I have 

 happened to converse, either in this or any other 

 country, are fellows of the college of London. 



