1832-37. LAST YEAR OF MEDICAL STUDY. 79 



" Mr. Campbell departed for Eothesay at five o'clock, by the 

 steamboat. I hoped to have compassed the great object of all 

 visitors to Arran, the ascent of Goat Fell; and a young, pretty, 

 gazelle- eyed invalid, whose acquaintance I had made, was to 

 have accompanied me on Monday forenoon ; but her ruthless 

 relatives unexpectedly demanded her return home on Monday, 

 and I was left at six o'clock A.M., utterly alone. I was kept a 

 prisoner all day, the rain falling in torrents. I earnestly 

 requested something to read ; they gave me two old news- 

 papers. One of them was an ' Edinburgh Advertiser ; ' I read it 

 through, every notice from beginning to end. I then took the 

 other, a ' Glasgow Herald/ and quickly devoured it, and then 

 my breakfast. For the rest of the day I walked about the room 

 with my hands in my pockets, repeating all the scraps of poetry 

 I could think of. Most gladly did I hail the arrival of the 

 Ardrossan steamboat ; and who do you think I met in it, fortu- 

 nate that I am ? I by the merest accident found myself in the 

 company of the celebrated traveller in Palestine, Eae Wilson. 

 We had a long conversation. He gave me several tracts on 

 cruelty to animals, and the like, and I got a scrap of his writing 

 too. I w T as very much amused to see him ' licking,' as he called 

 it, some noisy pigs in the vessel who disturbed us. This is my 

 last letter. In two days I shall be in Greenock, and in two 

 days more you shall see your affectionate son, GEORGE." 



Eeturning to work, he entered on the last year of his medical 

 studies in November. His apprenticeship in the Infirmary 

 having now ended, much to the regret of nurses and patients, 

 the needful time for study was more attainable, but many of the 

 classes and duties were uninteresting to him. "I can testify 

 from experience," he says, referring to Edward Forbes' disincli- 

 nation to go up for examination, " they form an irksome burden 

 to such as only desire to make medicine a door of entrance to 

 the prosecution of the physical sciences." l 



The classes of this closing session w^ere, Professors Jameson 

 on Natural History ; Alison on Clinical Medicine ; Hamilton 

 on Midwifery ; and Mr. Kenneth Kemp's Practical Chemistry ; 



1 ' Life of Edward Forbes/ chap. v. 



