xvm 



is at present (September, 1833) much repressed by the fear of insub- 

 ordination among the students ; and that there is great difficulty in 

 publishing or procuring scientific works." 



At Naples, with Dr. Yulpes, he met Dr. Asalini, of Messina, and 

 visited the Museo Borbonico, the collection of antiquities from Pompeii 

 and Herculaneum. He then visited both those places, and ascended 

 Mount Vesuvius, the craters of which are minutely described in his 

 carefully written journal. At the Grotto del Cane he saw the usual 

 experiment of asphyxiating the dog. " The animal fell into a faint 

 without convulsions, and the pupil dilated at the same moment that 

 the voluntary motions ceased, which took place in from two and a half 

 to three minutes after the animal was placed in the cave." Genoa 

 and Montpellier were next visited. There, he notes, a " capital series 

 of sterno-hyoid bones, bones of the skull, &c, for anatomical demon- 

 stration, of which we ought to have some." 



At Lyons he met Dr. Bennett, who was travelling with Lord 

 Beverley and the Percy family, and renewed his acquaintance with 

 M. Bouchet and M. Gensoul, who had both been in Edinburgh. 



A very detailed but concise account is given of the anatomical, 

 pathological, and comparative anatomy preparations in Meckel's 

 Museum, illustrated with some very beautiful pen and ink drawings, 

 especially one of the heart in a case of partial inversion of the viscera, 

 in which there was no veva cava inferior, but the cava superior was 

 joined by the vena azygos before entering the auricle, the vence hepa- 

 ticos going directly into the auricle through the diaphragm. There is 

 also a specimen with the aorta on the right side. Similar detailed 

 records are given of Yrolik's Museum at Amsterdam in 1831, and of 

 the Berlin Museum. 



Lastly, out of the experiences of these travels he formulates an 

 extensive list of preparations "to be made" for teaching purposes. 



At Paris, he met Bayer, Lerminier, Bouillaud, B,oux, and Dalmas ; 

 and visited a separate ward for cholera patients in La Charite, where 

 he " saw three women who were recovering under the influence of 

 opium, ice, and bleeding !" 



It was by such Continental travel, with the one object before him 

 of preparing himself for his duties as a teacher of anatomy and 

 physiology, that he devoted himself with the greatest diligence and 

 care to literary and scientific study, and to the study of languages. 

 As travelling physician with the Duke of Bedford, he again spent a 

 considerable time on the Continent, thereby perfecting his knowledge 

 of German, French, and Italian. 



Of the men who mainly influenced the scientific life of Allen 

 Thomson (besides his father's influence) there are three especially 

 to be noted, namely, John Allen, Dr. John Gordon, and Dr. Sharpey. 



While still a house surgeon in the Boyal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 



