Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/574

 mind astray from the principles of the most delicate honour.

Of the medical profession and character he took high and correct views; and although he distrusted, as well he might do, the common hands by which plans of reform were most likely to be moulded, he regretted the singular blindness of the highest association of physicians in England, to what their position might be, and to what it was. As was the case with Dr. Thackeray, he was not a Licentiate of the College of Physicians; and he thus added one more distinguished name to the many which would have reflected honour on the College, if, instead of an imbecile anxiety to preserve useless privileges, that College had exhibited an enlarged ambition, and sought to collect, within its walls, the learning and science and worth possessed by the great portion of the profession whom its constitution repelled; and who would have given it new strength now in the day of its need. His views of reform, as connected with the College, were such as appear to me to be entertained by all respectable provincial physicians: he did not seek to destroy, or to deface, but to liberalize, improve, and preserve an ancient institution. The day for so doing is, perhaps, gone by. The storm, which has so long been gathering, is at hand; and they who despised its early indications must abide its force.

Dr. Darwall always felt it to be a great advantage to reside in a town possessing so many intelligent and highly-educated men as were to be found in so large and important a place as Birmingham; and