1837-38. ACQUAINTANCE WITH EDWAKD FORBES. 127 



They are known by their care-worn, anxious looks, and by 

 having a huge folio of anatomical plates before them, and a 

 Dublin Dissector lying hard by. You peep over their shoulders, 

 and find them tracing the course of the vidian nerve, the rela- 

 tions of the external carotid, or the like ; and you know that 

 before the eye of each floats, like the Mirage of the desert, a 

 japanned tin-case, which, when attempted to be grasped, fades 

 like Macbeth's visionary dagger into viewless air. Eeader ! 

 these unhappy mortals are aspirants to the name and honours 

 of Surgeon. You will join us in wishing them a chirurgical 

 exit from the inquisition in Nicolson Square. 



" We pass over the stray Divinity students, who have wan- 

 dered from their own library ; the Law students, digesting 

 Digests of Scotch Law ; the students of Humanity murdering 

 Latin, et hoc genus omne, to notice a strange crew, whose occupa- 

 tion we could never divine, or the exact object of their frequent- 

 ing College. We think naturalists would style them the aber- 

 rant types of the genus Student. We observe them stalk up to 

 the librarian, and ask the ' Small ' favour of some huge Greek or 

 Hebrew tome, over which they bend for hours together. From 

 the want of ' Attic salt ' in their conversation, as well as from 

 direct proofs, we believe that the object of their studies is to 

 restore to its ancient glory the forgotten Doric dialect. 



" B. I." 



It may have been shrewdly surmised by our readers that 

 DOULL'S temple was a pastry-cook's shop ; and as the name of the 

 college librarian is Small, we can understand what a huge book 

 had to do with the smallness of the favour. So fully did the 

 preceding communication " meet the approbation " of the Edi- 

 tor, that it induced him to seek the personal acquaintance of 

 B. I. Those two genial spirits found in each other many points 

 of sympathy, and the friendship then formed soon ripened into 

 true regard and affection, which only terminated with life. 



The second contribution of B. I. was not inserted ; its quiet 

 satire was abundantly appreciated, but it did not seem to the 

 wise editor prudent to turn the peculiarities of the College 

 Museum into ridicule, and thus offend the Professor of Natural 



