Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/541

 which he took in the profession in which he was now to be educated, and of the industry which even then characterised him. The earliest notes of cases witnessed by him, are dated in March, 1815, when he was but nineteen years of age. A few are surgical, but it would appear, both from his notes, and from the abstracts of works which he read, the habit of making which seems to have been acquired at this time, that the study of medical cases and writings soon proved more attractive to him. Whilst he appears to have been a very diligent medical pupil, he was by no means inattentive to general science and literature. There is a list of his own books, made, I believe, about this period, which shews that he endeavoured in all subjects to select the best; and his memoranda display many traces of his having been a most attentive and reflecting reader.

Even in this early part of his life, he was remarkable for a gravity of deportment, strongly contrasted with the vivacity of his intellect. He possessed few of the light accomplishments which render young persons acceptable in society; and he was heedless of any associates but such as could improve him by their greater knowledge and experience. Several years afterward (in 1824) when he was himself settled in practice, he tells me, in reply to an invitation to a ball, that he “ never had been in a public ball-room in his life.” He had participated, indeed, in none of the gaieties of youth; but in their place had courted meditation and wisdom, He had very early acquired the habit of proposing to himself some particular subject, on which he would occupy