3G MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IL 



to me, of the patient's occupation relieved my feelings ; and its 

 perfect appropriateness, as it seemed to himself, relieved his ; 

 for, as I learned more fully in subsequent conversations, his 

 great concern was to count the hours till he should reach a 

 fishing village in the South of England, where his mother and 

 sister longed for his return. He made an excellent recovery, 

 and reached his home in safety. After this experience I be- 

 came a constant visitor on my own account to all the wards, 

 and in the course of four years made many a strange acquaint- 

 ance. I refer here to the circumstance, that it may become the 

 ground of recommendation to the young student, who is dis- 

 tressed by the spectacle of suffering, to interest himself in the 

 welfare of the sufferers. A feeling which may otherwise readily 

 grow morbid, is turned into a wholesome and profitable moral 

 exercise. The text sculptured on the front of the Edinburgh 

 Infirmary, ' I was sick, and ye visited me,' has a blessing in it 

 for the visitors as well as the visited, as our Saviour emphati- 

 cally teaches, and as all who have obeyed its implicit command 

 have realized." 1 



This Wilson, the sailor, became the object of many kind 

 attentions from his young namesake. For some time sailor- 

 friends visited him, bringing tobacco wherewith to while away 

 the weaiy hours. When they left for another port, George so 

 fully sympathized with the sailor without tobacco, coffee, or 

 friends, that money given to purchase a much coveted copy of 

 Coleridge's ' Aids to Eeflection,' was cheerfully sacrificed to 

 supply lacking comforts. Nor were books, newspapers, or deli- 

 cacies forgotten in the frequent visits, till the time of release 

 drew nigh. Then it transpired that so far from possessing the 

 means to reach home, his very clothes were detained for arrears 

 of lodging. This difficulty was speedily surmounted by a sub- 

 scription raised by George, and with the aid of the Strangers' 

 Friend Society, and private help, thirty shillings and a free 

 passage to London were obtained. To crown all, as it happened 

 that the vessel did not sail till the day beyond that of his exit 



1 ' On the Character of God, as inferred from the Study of Human Anatomy.' Ad- 

 dresses to Medical Students, by request of the Medical Missionary Society in 1855-56, 

 pp. 43-49. A. & C. Black, Ed'inlninrh. 



