Cir. II.] EDINBURGH. 11 



in the tool-house in the garden, and I was allowed to aid him 

 as a servant in most of his experiments. He made all the gases 

 and many compounds, and I read with care several books on 

 chemistry, such as Henry and Parkes' Chemical Catechism. 

 The subject interested mo greatly, and we often used to go on 

 working till rather late at night. This was the best part of 

 my education at school, for it showed me practically the mean- 

 ing of experimental science. The fact that we worked at 

 chemistry somehow got known at school, and as it was an 

 unprecedented fact, I was nicknamed M Gas." I was also once 

 publicly rebuked by the head-master, Dr. Butler, for thus 

 wasting my time on such useloss subjects ; and he called me 

 very unjustly a " poco curante," and as I did not understand 

 what he meant, it seemed to me a fearful reproach. 



As I was doing no good at school, my father wisely took me 

 away at a rather earlier age than usual, and sent mo (Octobor 

 1825) to Edinburgh* University with my brother, where I 

 stayed for two years or sessions. My brother was completing 

 his medical studies, though I do not believe he ever really 

 intended to practise, and I was sent there to commence them. 

 But soon after this period I became convinced from various 

 small circumstances that my father would leave me property 

 enough to subsist on with some comfort, though I never 

 imagined that I should be so rich a man as I am ; but my 

 belief was sufficient to check any strenuous effort to learn 

 medicine. 



The instruction at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and 

 these were intolerably dull, with the exception of those on 

 chemistry by Hope ; but to my mind there are no advantages 

 and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading. 

 Dr. Duncan's lectures on Materia Medica at 8 o'clock on a 

 winter's morning are something fearful to remember. Dr. 

 Munro made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was 

 himself, and the subject disgusted me. It has proved one of 

 the greatest evils in my life that I was not urged to practise 

 dissection, for I should soon have got over my disgust, and the 

 practice would have been invaluable for all my future work. 

 This has been an irremediable evil, as well as my incapacity 

 to draw. I also attended regularly the clinical wards in the 



* He lodged at Mrs. Mackay's, 11, Lothian Street. What little the 

 records of Edinburgh University can reveal has been published in the 

 Edinburgh Weekly Dispatch, May 22, 1888 ; and in the St. James's Gazette, 

 February 16, 1888. From the latter journal it appears that he and his 

 her Erasmus made more use of the library than was usual among the 

 atudents of their time. 



