42 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. II. 



frequently alluded in after life to the influence this meeting had 

 on him." 



The Session of the succeeding winter, 1834-35, besides con- 

 tinued study of anatomy under Mr. Lizars, brought Surgery and 

 Materia Medica into the field. Two years previously, Dr. 

 Christison, the present accomplished Professor of Materia 

 Medica, had been transferred from the Chair of Medical Juris- 

 prudence to that which he still holds. " In his hands the 

 subject soon became one of the most attractive to the students. 

 A museum, still in many respects unrivalled, was, by indefatig- 

 able exertions, furnished step by step with illustrative specimens. 

 Many of these were botanical, a few mineral, gathered from all 

 quarters of the globe. A large number were chemical, and 

 were chiefly prepared in the laboratory attached to the lecture- 

 room, where, assisted by some of the more zealous lovers of 

 chemistry among the students, the Professor spent many hours 

 each day in chemical research." 1 Of this laboratory we shall 

 hear again. Mr. Turner, the Professor of Surgery, " was a most 

 uninteresting lecturer ; a timid, shy man, who could not look 

 his class in the face, and seemed fitted by nature for anything 

 rather than the duties and responsibilities of an operating 

 surgeon." 2 



The following letters to Mr. William Nelson, then in Glasgow, 

 speak for themselves. It will be remembered that Mr. Nelson 

 was a school companion, and the friendship then formed con- 

 tinued through life. 



" EDINBURGH, 6th December 1834. 



" MY DEAR WILLIAM, Convinced that had you had any infor- 

 mation of interest to impart, I would have received a letter from 

 you, and feeling assured that any information from Edinburgh 

 will be acceptable, I take the pen to communicate to you all 

 that I conceive will prove interesting. My time at present is 

 fully occupied in the active acquirement of my profession ; from 

 nine in the morning to nine in the evening, the Infirmary and 

 classes leave me scarcely a moment to call my own, and it takes 



1 < Life of Edward Forbes,' chap. iv. 

 a Ibid., chap. v. 



