EDINBURGH. 37 



interest me in a greater degree ; for during the 

 summer before coming to Edinburgh I began attend- 

 ing some of the poor people, chiefly children and 

 women in Shrewsbury : I wrote down as full an 

 account as I could of the case with all the symptoms, 

 and read them aloud to my father, who suggested 

 further inquiries and advised me what medicines to 

 give, which I made up myself. At one time I had at 

 least a dozen patients, and I felt a keen interest in the 

 work. My father, who was by far the best judge of 

 character whom I ever knew, declared that I should 

 make a successful physician, meaning by this one 

 who would get many patients. He maintained that 

 the chief element of success was exciting confidence ; 

 but what he saw in me which convinced him that I 

 should create confidence I know not. I also attended 

 on two occasions the operating theatre in the hospital 

 at Edinburgh, and saw two very bad operations, one 

 on a child, but I rushed away before they were com- 

 pleted. Nor did I ever attend again, for hardly any 

 inducement would have been strong enough to make 

 me do so ; this being long before the blessed days of 

 chloroform. The two cases fairly haunted me for 

 many a long year. 



My brother stayed only one year at the Univer- 

 sity, so that during the second year I was left to 

 my own resources ; and this was an advantage, 

 for I became well acquainted with several young 

 men fond of natural science. One of these was 

 Ainsworth, who afterwards published his travels in 

 Assyria ; he was a Wernerian geologist, and knew a 



