MEDICAL STUDIES. n 



To R. L. Carpenter. 



London, October 24, 1835. 

 I am now a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 a Licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company. I passed through 

 the latter examination a month ago, and the other last night. 

 In both cases I had the felicity of kicking my heels in the 

 waiting-room for more than five hours, and you may suppose 

 the state of agitation I was in when summoned into the awful 

 room. . . . The College was much the most awful of the 

 two, as only one candidate was examined at a time, whilst ten 

 of the first surgeons in London were weighing every word I 

 said, sitting at a long cross-table, so that all looked me in the 

 face. However, I did not see any of them through fright, 

 except Sir Benjamin Brodie, who examined me. ... It was 

 rather curious that I spent the last week before going up to the 

 Hall in getting up a quantity of technical knowledge of which I 

 was asked nothing, Avhilst the subject I was most questioned on 

 at the College I had looked over just before leaving Regent 

 Street, and therefore had it all pat. Indeed, Sir Benjamin 

 Brodie complimented me upon the attention I had paid to the 

 subject, which I really knew little of compared with other 

 points, and I was continually afraid lest he should get out of 

 my depth. So much does chance govern affairs of this kind. 



He was on the eve of starting for Edinburgh, where 

 new companionships were to be formed, which would pro- 

 foundly affect his subsequent course. But he had already 

 his own plans, for he confided to his brother his intention of 

 publishing the next year a little work on the philosophical 

 study of Natural History. And he had just received what 

 was to be one of the most powerful and enduring of the 

 intellectual impulses of his whole life. It was a somewhat 

 curious coincidence that it should come indirectly through 

 the American philanthropist whose recent visit to Bristol 

 had so deeply stirred his sister Mary.* 



* See the "Life and Work of Mary Carpenter," chap. ii. 



