TOOTH-PULLING TIRESOME. 21 



connected with the subjects discussed in other classes 

 that it gives me a superiority over others, who only 

 obtain at second hand what I acquire by actual inspec- 

 tion." 



Young Goodsir was a thorough student, practical 

 at work, thoughtful of the hour and the aim and pas- 

 sion of his life, so that the smallest effort in the way 

 of common business matters disturbed him quite as 

 much as an adverse vote in Parliament could affect the 

 most gouty of premiers. The following quotation from 

 one of his letters shows this :— "Everything connected 

 with my studies goes on to my heart's desire, but my 

 bump of order is confused when I have to settle any- 

 thing connected with money matters, letters to be 

 written, calls, etc." He had declared in a previous let- 

 ter that he was not fit for the management of the most 

 common concerns of life. His landlady's account of 

 larder-furnishings for the week bothered him, and home 

 commissions were no less troublesome. 



After two years' experience of dentistry he got 

 tired of the work, and longed to be free, for, as he 

 argued, after so many hours of each day so spent, he 

 could not possibly keep pace with other young men in 

 the profession who had no such drawbacks. In 1833 

 he lost his temper quoad dentistry. The influenza 

 raged as an epidemic in Edinburgh, and he had an 

 attack; but tooth- pulling was vastly worst" in Good- 

 sir's eyes -almost a quotidian ague. He disliked the 

 art from the beginning, not per se, but as a hindrance 

 to the higher studies of medicine and surgery ; and, as 



