MEMOIR OF JOHN BARCLAY. 83 



Copy — Dr. Barclay's Answer to the foregoing 

 Letter. 



Gentlemen^ 



I have had the honour of receiving your address, 

 and have perused it with emotions of gratitude I can 

 hardly describe. If your approbation, which I highly 

 value, does not incite me to farther exertions, it shall 

 never, be assured, have any tendency to make me 

 less zealous than I hitherto have been in the plea- 

 sant discharge of every duty which I owe you. 



On receiving occasionally anon}Tnous hints that 

 little more of anatomy was necessary than what 

 might enable the student to obtain a diploma or 

 license, I have often looked forward and tried to 

 imagine the melancholy picture which medicine 

 would present in a few years, if these sordid and 

 groveling ideas were to be generally encouraged by 

 the teachers. I thank God that, through the me- 

 dium of those sentiments which you have expressed, 

 I can see many pupils who are far above those mean 

 and unworthy considerations, and who, looking on 

 physic and surgery not as trades but as liberal pro- 

 fessions, are preparing to adorn them by their manly 

 sense and superior acquirements. 



I am also particularly gratified to learn that you 

 feel a pleasure in contemplating those works of un- 

 paralleled design aud consummate foresight that are 

 everywhere displayed in the admirable mechanism 

 of the human body. The genuine impressions of 

 c 



