XXII 



PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



medicine. During this period, he took great interest in chemical 

 and mechanical pin-suits, and is said to have constructed several 

 ingenious machines. 



His earliest predilection in natural history was for the study 

 of entomology, and he made an extensive collection of the insects 

 found in the neighbourhood of Worcester ; but though he was 

 doubtless animated by a strong love for this branch of knowledge, 

 the scientific principles by which he was guided are not very 

 obvious, when we find it recorded that he would not admit any 

 insect into his collection but such as had been described by Lin- 

 naeus ; auy new forms apparently being regarded by him as un- 

 authorized interlopers. To entomology he soon added botany, 

 as it was then understood, as an object of pursuit ; and these tastes 

 appear to have been beneficial to him in more ways than one ; for 

 besides the useful and instructive training his mind thus received, 

 his pursuits were the means indirectly of introducing him to a 

 more refined and intelligent, or at least more learned society, than 

 might otherwise have been accessible to him. 



At the end of his apprenticeship, and when he had reached the 

 age of 21, Mr. Clark proceeded to London, with a view, apparently, 

 of pursuing his medical studies. Through his guardian, Mr. 

 Zachary, he was introduced to the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 under whose auspices, probably, he was elected a Fellow of this 

 Society on the 15th of January, 1793 — that is to say, within 

 about five years of its foundation. 



His medical studies were commenced under John Hunter, whose 

 place, however, in Windmill Street, was about that time supplied 

 by Sir E. Home, and he had for fellow-students amongst the famous 

 dead, Thomas Young, Anthony Carlisle, Abernethy, and Astley 

 Cooper, and of the illustrious living Mr. Lawrence, who still remains 

 amidst us in almost unimpaired vigour and activity of mind and 

 body. But, although Mr. Clark appears to have regularly attended 

 the medical classes, his choice from an early period was to devote him- 

 self to the veterinary art, to the practice of which his medical and 

 scientific studies were the best possible introduction. To this he 

 was incited by his elder brother Mr. Henry Clark, who was a lover 

 of horses, and noted in the sporting circles. In the pursuit of 

 his special branch, he early attached himself to the Veterinary 

 College, about that time established in St. Pancras, and into which 

 Mr. Clark used to mention with delight, that he officially led the 

 first horse as a patient. 



I ii the year 1707, he resolved to visit one of his sisters, who was 



