44 
there was any good education to be had 
there?” The porter, perceiving perhaps 
the actual situation of affairs with a single 
glance of his eye, like a prudent man, in- 
troduced them to the master, and the 
usual fees being paid, the young stu- 
dent’s name was actually registered on 
the books! 
But the adventure did not conclude 
here ; for the master, struck with the no- 
velty of the circumstance, kept them 
both to dinner, when, in the course of 
conversation, 1t came out that the two 
strangers were provided with letters of 
recommendation to Dr. Surgrove, master 
of Pembroke, and that the uncle had 
imagined there was but one college in 
the university. On this, the money was 
yeturned with great politeness and libe- 
rality, and young Mr. Beddoes matricu- 
lated in due form at Pembroke, accord- 
ing to bis original destination. 
‘Of the exact year when this occurred 
we cannot speak with any degree of cer- 
tainty, but suppose it to have been in 
1778, or 1779. Certain it is, that on the 
49th of July, 1783, he proceeded master 
of arts, and on the 13th ef December, 
4786, obtained the degrees of B. and 
SED: 
As it has generally been supposed, that 
a modern medical education is incom- 
plete without a visit to Scotland, Dr. 
Beddoes accordingly repaired to Edin- 
burgh, about the year 1781, or 1782, in 
ursuit of those liberal attainments, by 
which both himself and the public were 
afterwards to profit; for, as is hinted in 
the motto, he was eminently repiete with 
zeal, and never wished to do or'to learn 
any thing Ne halves. While there, he 
attended the lectures of the most famous 
professors of the day, was noticed as a 
youth of great promise, and, if we are 
not greatly misinformed, lived in intima- 
cy with the celebrated Dr. Brown, whose 
new system for a while seemed to bear 
down every thing ‘before it. Sir James 
Macintosh; who was also intended to be 
a physician, and actually took a degree 
for that purpose, was one of his contem- 
poraries and friends. 
. It does not appear, however, that the 
subject of this memoir, at a more minature 
period of his life, considered the system 
then prevalent in North-Britain as inca- 
pable of being amended; for we find him, 
but the year before his dedth, while treat- 
ing of the meloration of ‘his favourite 
science, expressing himself as follows :— 
- Flowever the pupils of -Edinburgh 
may succeed ti the world, and fair as it 
é 
Memotrs of the late Thomas Beddoes, M.D. 
[Feb. i 5) 
may be for an advocate to avail himself 
of the fact, I doulst exceedingly whether 
the public would, if called upon to act 
with deliberation, yield its confidence ta 
one of their three years’ graduates. In 
case, for instance, of an election to an 
hospital, would not the shortness of his 
standing, and the. necessary immaturity 
of his experience, operate as a fatal ob- 
jection? Well then! if he is not. fit to 
have pauper-patients committed to him, 
why should others be allowed to commit 
themselves? Tt may be said, that a five 
or six years’ graduate would ‘be thought 
equally incapable of the charge. I be- 
lieve quite the contrary; provided the 
electors should have both information 
and integrity enough to vote acoending 
to the merits. 
“Tt always seems invidious, and in 
many cases is arrogant in an dividual 
to adduce his opinion of a public body in 
argument ; but as the merits of the Edin- 
burgh school are opposed in this manner 
to the projected improvement ‘of medical 
education, those who take a part in the 
question, seem called upon to declare 
themselves, if they have any propabie 
cause of knowledge. 
“Let me, therefore, briefly state that 
I went to Edinburgh as an Oxford ba. 
chelor of arts, passed there three winters 
and one summer, was perpetually at the | 
lectures of the professors, and in the so» 
cieties of the students. You may, think 
it probable that I have no humiliating 
associations connected with Edinburgh, 
if I add that I can never hope to be of so 
much consequence among my equals any 
where else, siace the students heaped up- 
on me all those distinctions which you 
know it isin their power to confer. Few 
individuals, certainly, have ever had a 
better opportunity of knowing any school, 
{have seen other schools of niedicine, 
conversed and corresponded much, from 
that time to the present, with pupils and 
professors, studied their methods. and the 
productions as well.of the youth as of 
the seniors. So that I cannot accuse 
myself of having omitted any thing by 
which I might be enabled to form an 
opinion concerning this grand question 
of medieal instruction. - 
“ After comparing, on the spot, the 
means with the end, I certainly did con- 
ceive that a more deliberate process 
would be preferable, and that a method 
of instruction, in some other respects, 
materially: different, would form physi- 
clans far more trustworthy. This opi 
TOD, various “igen of ‘the medical 
, ie 
