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Milverton in Somersetshire, and was the eldest of ten children. In 

 his school days he manifested great powers of application and 

 memory ; even then his linguistic acquirements were something extra- 

 ordinary ; and a little later, besides the humanities, he had acquired 

 a knowledge of Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic. It was his uncle, Dr. 

 Brocklesby, who directed his attention to medicine. In London, he 

 joined the Windmill School, where he attended the lectures of 

 Matthew Baillie, and Cruickshank those of John Hunter, perhaps, 

 read by E. Home at any rate in 1793 the year in which Hunter died. 

 Later on he joined St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1794 he went to 

 Edinburgh, where at that time Black already somewhat infirm 

 Monro (II.) and Gregory were his teachers. To the town of Heine 

 and Haller, to Gottingen, in 1795, where he heard the lectures of 

 Blumenbach, and took his degree of M.D. At the end of his 

 Dissertation, to till up some blank pages, he gave 



"An alphabet of forty-seven letters designed to express, by their combination, 

 every sound which the organs of the human voice are capable of forming, and thus 



adaptable as an alphabet for all languages It is evident, from reference to it 



in his correspondence, that this subject was much in his thoughts ; and he assures us 

 that it was in connection with inquiries upon the powers of vocalization of the organs of 

 the human voice, and in order to form a perfect conception of what a sound was, that 

 he was conducted through a series of experiments and observations on the theory of the 

 formation of sound and the laws of its propagation, to the consideration of analogous 

 propositions respecting the theory of light, which became the foundation of .his greatest 

 discovery." (Peacock's Life, p. 90.) 



At his examen he had as co-students Niemeyer and the 

 famous Treviranus. It might be well to take a glimpse at a not too 

 distant past, as to the conduct of examinations in Gottingen. 



" I made ," ays he, "no preparatory study, as is usual here and also at Edinburgh 

 not uncommon under the name of grinding. The examination lasted between four and 

 five hours ; the four examiners were seated round a table, well furnished with cakes, 

 sweetmeats, and wine, which helped to pass the time agreeably ; the questions were well 

 calculated to sound the depth of a student's knowledge in practical physic, surgery, 

 anatomy, chemistry, materia medica, and physiology ; but the professors were not very 

 severe in exacting accurate answers. Most of them were pleased to express their appro- 

 bation of my replies. We were all previously obliged to give a summary account of the 

 manner in which our lives had been spent. 



"The lectio cursoria on the human voice was given in the auditorium. He disputed 

 according to the forms ; was complimented on his performance, and after reading some- 

 thing like a prayer, Young was married to Hygiea, and created Doctor of Physic, 

 Surgery, and Man-midwifery." 



He returned to England in 1797, took a house in Welbeck Street, 

 and commenced practice. Owing to the laws then in force, in order 

 to become a Fellow of the College of Physicians, he had to keep terms 

 at either Oxford or Cambridge to enable him to obtain the degree of 

 one of these Universities, and by means of this instrument (Cambridge, 

 1803, set. 30), he was enabled to join the College of Physicians. 



