20 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. n. 



to which he was often reduced in Africa. But the im- 

 portance of the medical qualification had taken a firm 

 hold of his mind, and he persevered in spite of difficulties. 

 Though it was never his lot to exercise the healing art 

 in China, his medical training was of the highest use in 

 Africa, and it developed wonderfully his strong scientific 

 turn. 



It was in the winter of 1836-37 that he spent his first 

 session in Glasgow. Furnished by a friend with a list of 

 lodgings, Livingstone and his father set out from Blantyre 

 one wintry day, while the snow was on the ground, and 

 walked to Glasgow. The lodgings were all too expensive. 

 All day they searched for a cheaper apartment, and at 

 last in Rotten Row they found a room at two shillings 

 a week. Next evening David wrote to his friends that 

 he had entered in the various classes, and spent twelve 

 pounds in fees ; that he felt very lonely after his father 

 left, but would put " a stout heart to a stey brae," and 

 "either mak' a spune or spoil a horn." At Rotten Row 

 he soon found that his landlady held rather communistic 

 views in regard to his tea and sugar ; so another search 

 had to be made, and this time he found a room in the 

 High Street, where he was very comfortable, at half-a- 

 crown a week. 



At the close of the session in April he returned to 

 Blantyre and resumed work at the mill. He was unable 

 to save quite enough for his second session, and found it 

 necessary to borrow a, little from his elder brother. 1 The 

 classes he attended during these two sessions were the 

 Greek class in Anderson's College, the theological class of 

 the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, who trained students for the Inde- 

 pendent Churches, and the medical classes in Anderson's. 



1 The readiness of elder brothers to advance part of their hard-won earnings, 

 or otherwise encourage a younger brother to attend College, is a pleasant feature 

 of family life in the humbler classes of Scotland. The case of James Beattie the 

 poet, assisted by his brother David, and that of Sir James Simpson, who owed so 

 much to his brother Alexander, will be remembered in this connection. 



