Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/575

 no meetings were so agreeable to him as those which were held by them in connection with the business of the Medical Benevolent Society of Birmingham, of which he was a very zealous member; or of the Medical Library, in the institution of which he had taken a very great interest. Among his numerous memoranda, are notes of the subjects of conversations in a society in which he frequently met with some of his most accomplished medical friends; including some curious circumstances illustrative of the effects of imagination on the fœtus; and of feigned defects or diseases. These are but insignificant instances of his continual mental activity; but to me, looking over his unfinished manuscripts, even such instances appear characteristic of one who never allowed an opportunity of acquiring knowledge to pass unprofited by, and who was daily increasing his information,─

“ And hiving wisdom with each studious year.”

The result of all was, that to every requisite in the character of an accomplished practitioner, Dr. Darwall united extensive learning, a large acquaintance with modern literature, and no small knowledge of several branches of science; for, in truth, there was no subject which had ever occupied the human understanding, on which he could be said to be quite uninformed, whilst with many he was very fully acquainted. His great general attainments, and his professional proficiency, were owing, doubtless, in the first place, to extraordinary mental capacity; and, in the second, to his never having allowed his time to be encroached upon by what less ambitious men consider pleasurable engagements. He was