YOUTH AND EDUCATION 9 



drugs that were to assuage the sufferings of my 

 father's patients, we were ransacking the regions 

 of Kent Street, Borough, or Brick Lane, Spital- 

 fields, in search of a ' blue-beard hen,' ' grizzled 

 dragon cock,' or ' mealy skinnum,' that was 

 required to complete my stud." 



Not all the budding fancier's time, however, 

 was taken up with haunting the bird-dealers' 

 shops of Westminster and Seven Dials : he had 

 to devote a sufficiency to acquiring the general 

 education requisite for one who was intended for 

 the medical profession, that being the one his 

 father meant him to follow. Accordingly, at the 

 somewhat early age of fifteen he was apprenticed 

 to his father for five years, to learn his art. The 

 deed of apprenticeship, a quaint document, 

 dated July 16th, 1831, is signed by the parties, 

 the younger's signature being in a boyish hand, 

 and the surname of both spelled " Tegetmeir." 

 The fourth and final " e " was added by the 

 naturalist some years later — evidently for the 

 sake of accuracy, for in a document of 1810, the 

 earliest in the family possession, the name is 

 spelt " Tegetmeier." This document is the certifi- 

 cate of the elder Tegetmeier' s having attended the 

 course of lectures on the " Theory and Practice 

 of Physic," by Professor R. Hooper, M.D., in the 

 year 1810. As this quaint old document will 

 have an interest in the eyes ol many medical 

 practitioners, I give a reproduction of it. 



