Life of Count Rumford. 33 



" Four Journeys down to Ich? Richardsons Shop. 



<l Three Journeys to Cowdreys. 



" One Journey to Boston, Aug st i6th, as I think." 



A heading is made over a column for the entry of the 

 pecuniary estimate of these specifications, but no sums 

 are set down. It would have interested us to be told 

 what valuation he fixed for a day of his own time. 



But young Thompson was at this time a student of 

 medicine and anatomy. The article devoted to him as 

 Count Rumford, in the Nouvelle Biographic Generale, 

 very properly describes him before he left this country 

 as " Chimiste et Physicien [Physicist] Americain." The 

 memorandum-book has its full share of entries recogniz- 

 ing his interest and his devotion to the professional stud- 

 i^es for which he was making his home with Dr. Hay. 

 Besides a few entries in cipher which may be regarded 

 as containing professional secrets, there are medical 

 recipes, in the approved cabalistic style, for the com- 

 position of doses, pills, and clysters. The ingredients 

 of a special preparation are set down as " for Phillis 

 Walker," in which assafoetida enters alike at the begin- 

 ning and at the end. As these recipes have doubtless 

 been very much improved upon, it is hardly advisable 

 to copy them here. The pupil's interest and skill in 

 anatomy are attested by an all too faithful drawing of 

 the body of a malformed and monstrous infant, with 

 a whole page of minute description "of the following 

 Cut," dated April i6th, 1771, "a Club-foot," "a 

 Compleat hare-lip," and " toes growing in pairs," being 

 the least revolting among the aberrations noted. 



An undated entry gives the following arrangement for 

 the disposal of his time during each period of twenty- 

 four hours. Beginning at eleven o'clock at night, 

 3 



