MEDICAL STUDIES 39 



The hysterical scream which so strongly affects 

 other women is a forcible instance of the power of 

 sound, whose limits are, as yet, imperfectly explored. 

 The tones of a great actor or orator may thrill the 

 whole being. An unemotional elderly gentleman 

 told me years ago, that he was haunted by the re- 

 collection of the resonance of Pitt's voice when 

 speaking of some event (I forget what it was) that 

 gave him a ''pang." There are many kinds of 

 shrieks of a blood-curdling nature, of which that of a 

 wounded horse on a battlefield is said to be one. 



Kings College. After a brief vacation I was sent, 

 again through Mr. Hodgson's ever active interest, for 

 a year to King's College and to live as an inmate of 

 the house of Professor Richard Partridge (1805-1873), 

 together with four or five other pupils. His house 

 was in New Street, Spring Gardens, now demolished 

 through the extension of the Admiralty Buildings and 

 the newly constructed entrance from Charing Cross 

 into St. James's Park. My social surroundings were 

 of a far higher order than those at Birmingham, and 

 I rejoiced in them. Professor Partridge was, at that 

 time, a brilliant man of about thirty-four years of age, 

 yellow-haired, full of humour and of quips, as well as 

 of shrewdness and kindliness ; his intimate friends 

 were all growing into distinction. He had known 

 Charles Lamb well, and the genius of Elia seemed to 

 haunt the house, though Charles Lamb had died four 

 or five years before. I listened with admiration to 

 the brilliant talk and repartees when Partridge had his 

 bachelor dinners with fellow-cronies as guests. They 

 included G. Dasent, later Sir George, the author and 



