THE WAVE THEORY. 279 



Young himself,* I may be excused for saying nothing 

 more about it. The essay drew Young into a con- 

 troversy with the illustrious Laplace, in which the 

 Englishman exhibited that scimitar-like sharpness of 

 pen which more than once had drawn him into con- 

 troversy. 



Young resigned his post at the Koyal Institution, 

 believing that devotion to work alien to his profession 

 would be sure to injure his prospects as a physician. 

 In the summer of 1802 he visited Paris, and at one 

 of the meetings of the Academy was introduced to the 

 First Consul. In March, 1803, he became M. B. of Cam- 

 bridge six years after entering the University while 

 five years more had to elapse before he was able to take 

 the degree of M. D. In June, 1804, he married Miss 

 Eliza Maxwell, the daughter of J. P. Maxwell, Esq., of 

 Trippendence, near Farnborough, in Kent. 



As regards medical practice, Young, to be a popular 

 physician, was probably too cool and cautious in the 

 examination of his data, and trusted too little to the 

 lancet and the calomel invoked in the vigorous prac- 

 tice of his time. After a somewhat strenuous contest 

 he was appointed Physician to St. George's Hospital. 

 The appointment was a strong proof of the esteem in 

 which he was held. His lectures, however, were not so 

 well attended as those of his colleagues, for he lacked the 

 warmth and pliancy which usually commend a lecturer 

 to young men. Young's medical works, embodying the 

 results of great labour and research, were received with 

 high consideration and esteem. 



By the force of his sarcasm and the glamour of his 

 rhetoric, Brougham had succeeded in inflicting a serious, 

 if not an irreparable, wound on the science of his 

 * Sir William Thomson. 



