Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  } 
November,  1909.  J 
Charles  Darwin. 
513 
sent,  in  October,  1825,  to  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  where  his 
brother  was  completing  his  medical  studies,  and  he  remained  there 
for  two  years.  The  University  teaching  at  that  time  was  altogether 
by  lectures,  and  it  is  stated  that  Darwin  found  these  to  be  intoler- 
ably dull,  with  the  exception  of  those  on  chemistry  by  Hope.  His 
own  expression  regarding  them  sufficiently  confirms  this  view. 
"  Dr.  Duncan's  lectures  on  materia  medica  at  8  o'clock  on  a  winter's 
morning  are  something  fearful  to  remember.    Dr.    made  his 
lectures  on  human  anatomy  as  dull  as  he  was  himself,  and  the 
subject  disgusted  me."  Later  in  life,  however,  he  regretted  that 
he  did  not  practice  dissection  more  diligently,  and  that  he  did  not 
attempt  to  develop  a  capacity  for  drawing.  It  was  at  Edinburgh 
that  Darwin  took  his  first  lessons  in  stuffing  birds,  and  his  preceptor 
was  a  negro  who*  at  one  time  had  travelled  with  Waterton.  While 
there  he  also  once  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Edinburgh  Royal 
Society  when  Sir  Walter  Scott  took  the  chair  as  President. 
During  the  year  1828  it  was  perceived  that  Darwin  did  not  like 
the  idea  of  being  a  physician,  and  his  father  therefore  proposed 
that  he  become  a  clergyman.  For  this  purpose  it  was  necessary 
that  he  should  go  to  one  of  the  English  Universities  and  take  a 
degree.  He  accordingly  entered  into  residence  at  Christ's  College, 
Cambridge,  in  1828,  and  graduated  in  1831.  The  rooms  occupied 
by  him  at  this  College,  where  Milton  also  had  studied,  were  shown 
to  the  visitors  during  the  recent  celebration.  Since  Darwin's  time 
they  have  been  occupied  by  the  present  Dean  of  Westminster  and 
successive  College  Deans. 
With  regard  to  the  instruction  received  at  Cambridge,  Darwin 
does  not  appear  to  have  entertained  a  very  high  opinion  of  its 
educational  value,  for  he  has  written  in  this  connection  as  follows : 
"  During  the  three  years  which  I  spent  at  Cambridge  my  time  was 
wasted,  as  far  as  the  academical  studies  were  concerned,  as  com- 
pletely as  at  Edinburgh  and  at  school."  Notwithstanding  this  view, 
which  was  doubtless  a  somewhat  exaggerated  regret  of  maturer 
years,  it  is  believed  that  Darwin  had  a  real  love  for  Cambridge,  to 
which  University  he  sent  all  but  one  of  his  five  sons,  for  in  his 
autobiography  he  has  also  not  failed  to  give  expression  to  the 
following  more  appreciative  sentiment:  "Upon  the  whole,  the 
three  years  I  spent  at  Cambridge  were  the  most  joyful  of  my  happy 
life."  It  was,  moreover,  through  the  influence  of  one  of  his  teachers 
at  Cambridge,  Professor  Henslow,  who  occupied  the  chair  of  botany, 
