136 MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. 



The amiable and respectable feelings which prompt-* 

 ed these exertions, induced him to place a higher 

 value on the efforts of the youthful mind than is com- 

 monly ascribed to them ; not so much, perhaps, from 

 their intrinsic merit, as from the indications they af- 

 forded of future excellence. The inaugural disser- 

 tations which it is necessary to prepare and defend 

 with a view to graduation, do not always, it is true, 

 present a satisfactory or even sometimes an authentic 

 criterion of the talents of the ostensible authors ; and, 

 with some little modification, their merit may perhaps 

 be said to be as variable as the minds of the graduates 

 themselves. Among the brightest ornaments of the 

 healing art, there are few who have combined, like 

 Dr Gregory, the highest professional attainments 

 with the purest Latinity. And now that graduation 

 is accomplished at so early a period of life, the proba- 

 ble number is proportionally diminished of those who 

 rely exclusively on their own resources for preparing 

 for this ordeal. There was no one, however, who could 

 better judge than Dr Wright of the necessity or ex- 

 tent of such foreign assistance. Although the the- 

 sis itself may not be a sufficient test of individual me- 

 rit, it is chiefly because these juvenile productions are 

 supposed to be above the reach or experience of an 

 unpractised student ; but, if taken in the aggregate, it 

 is clear that their average merit affords a satisfactory 

 ground on which a comparison may be instituted be- 

 tween one school of medicine and another. Dr 

 WRIGHT was probably actuated by some considera- 

 tion of this kind, in collecting the medical theses of 



