I talents and their classical learning; and of host of the present lecturers, it may be said, observes Stark,) that the laurels of fame which have been gained by the sires, still bloom with unfading lustre on the brows of their ons. It would appear that the professorships were hereditary in this University, for most of he chairs have been filled by the ancestors of the present lecturers. Drs. Gregory, Hope, Home, Hamilton and Monro have succeeded to chairs in which their fathers flourished for many years, and all of them, except Dr. Monro, deserve the flattering compliment paid by Mr. Stark. The late Dr. Alexander Monro, who succeeded his illustrious father in 1760, was heir to his brilliant talents, with which he adorned the University for more than 40 years. The present professor of that name will probably be the last of the Monroian dynasty: he has succeeded neither to the talents nor the virtues of his predecessors. With the students he is extremely unpopular, and he does not varnish over his vices by those splendid qualities which serve to render vice less repulsive, and even virtue more endearing. On no medical brow are gray hairs more finely contrasted with the evergreen of a laurel chaplet, and on none are the wrinkles so completely hidden by its leaves, as that of Dr. Gregory. This gentleman unites profound learning with the most engaging manners; he thus not only honours his profession, by the splendour of his talents, but gives it a degree of popularity which it seldom possessed before. To him might be applied the beautiful line of Voltaire, "Il sait l'art de guérir autant que l'art de plaire." Dr. G. employed the early part of his life in visiting the most celebrated Universities of Europe. He spent a long time in Paris, just before the revolution, and in Holland, where he attended the lectures of the famous Albinus: so that, when he returned from his travels, he was capable, though at an early age, to fill the chair left vacant by his illustrious parent. Henry Kirke White says, in one of his letters, that " medical Greek and Latin would act as a soporific upon any man who should hear their tremendous technicals pronounced with the true ore rotundo of a Scotch physician!" If he had enjoyed the advantage of hearing Dr. Gregory read Latin, he would have lost sight of the "tremendous technicals," in the pleasure he would have derived in hearing the Dr.'s truly classical pronunciation. Dr. Thompson styles himself, (for what reason God only knows!) professor of Military surgery. He has a great difficulty in expressing his ideas, much confusion and want of arrangement in his plan, and awkwardness in the use of the knife. The students tell a curious anecdote of him, which reflects no credit on his surgical skill. After cutting into the blad der in the operation of Lithotomy, he found that the calculus was too large to come out by the opening he had made; he immediately dressed the wound, and sent the patient to bed, telling his class, that, most probably the stone would come out 66 sua sponte!" In his private lectures on surgery, he preaches a great deal against the use of mercury in syphilis; he pretends to cure it by the antiphlogistic plan alone! but you may easily imagine that his cures are not much to be relied on, and that he only smothers for a while the "ignes suppositos cineri doloso." Dr. Home's clinical lectures are excellent. This gentleman is one of the most learned professors, and best practitioners in the University. Dr. Hamilton's lectures on midwifery are highly instructive and amusing. The doctor is extremely diverting, and sometimes rather indecent, in his anecdotes, which often excite roars of laughter among the students. In my opinion, there is no course of midwifery which could be attended with more pleasure and advantage than that of Dr. Hamilton, and no clinical practice more useful than that of Dr. James Hamilton of purging memory. The students distinguish these two celebrated lecturers by two dirty epithets; and of the old doctor they tell certain stories, which would have figured very well in the amusing, and sometimes filthy pages of Smollett or Le Sage! LETTER XII. Languebam; sed tu comitatus, protinus ad me TO THE SAME. Edinburgh, March 26th, 1819. EDINBURGH derives not, perhaps, its present character so much from the name of this or that professor, as from its being known as a place of education, admirably fitted to form the mind to habits of early study and application. A love of labour is so general, and some sort of useful occupation so common, that one is ashamed not to be industrious like other people, and none but the privileged worthless, and the idolaters of stays and stiff neckcloths, are idle and contemptible. When I first came to Edinburgh, and began to read over the guide book, I was struck with the number of hospitals mentioned; but on inquiry I found that most of them are mere asylums for poverty or misfortune. Thus Heriot's Hospital is destined for the maintenance, relief and bringing up of poor and fatherless boysWatson's is for the decayed members of the merchant company of Edinburgh-Gillespie's is for the instruction of boys, &c. The Royal Infirmary receives patients with medical and surgical diseases. The medical department is admirably conducted, and is vell calculated to convey practical instruction o the student. Journals of all the cases in the vards, stating the symptoms of the patients, re kept with care; the important cases are commented on every day at the bed side of he patient-the symptoms of the disease, the remedies employed, and the progress of the disorder, are noted with accuracy. The re ports of the various cases are read in Latin, and wo to those who have forgotten, or never acquired that classical language! They look about as wise as I did at the synagogues in Amsterdam, where the singing (or rather bel lowing) of hymns, was in Hebrew! Drs. Home, Rutherford and Duncan jr., attend the medical wards successively this winter. Dr. R. is such a miserable dotard, so totally devoid of talents for so important a station, and speaks so unintelligibly low, that most of the eleves have deserted him for purging Hamilton. He still, however, walks through the wards with two or three of his inflexible admirers, and, (to use a homely phrase) looks as busy as a hen with one chicken! To the student of Anatomy, I would by no means recommend Edinburgh. It is a difficult matter to procure subjects for dissection, owing in great measure to the well known superstition of the lower classes of the ScotchA great deal of disturbance was lately excited against the resurrection-men, who, in this speculating age, do not disdain trading in human carcasses! Some of them have been caught in |