"There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. Were there no positive command which enjoined it, nor any recompense laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it, for the natural gratification which accompanies it."—Addison.

Sir William Blizard was an eminent surgeon and an enthusiastic student of the profession, as studied in his day. He had a certain bluntness of manner, which was not unkind neither. He was very straightforward, which Abernethy liked; and he had nothing of a mercenary disposition, which Abernethy held in abhorrence. He was a kind of man very likely to excite in one of Abernethy\'s tone of mind many agreeable impressions. He early perceived the talents, and was probably the first to encourage the industry, of his distinguished pupil. Enthusiastic himself, he had the power of communicating a similar feeling to many of his pupils; and he appears to have contributed one of those impulses to Abernethy which are from time to time necessary to sustain the pursuit of an arduous profession.

Some men seem to like anatomy for its own sake; examinations of structure merely, by dissection, or the microscope, have a kind of intrinsic charm for them. This was not the case with Abernethy. Mere anatomy had few charms for him. He regarded it in its true light, as a means to an end; as the basis on which he could alone found, not only the more common or handicraft duties of surgery, but also those higher views which aim at developing the uses and relations of the various organs; and in this way to ascertain what the processes of nature are in the preservation of health and the conduct of disease; in short, a knowledge of what he called physio-pathology.

Sir William, therefore, in exciting Abernethy\'s enthusiasm at26 this time, was probably of great service. He was thus impelled to pursue the study of anatomy, which perhaps might otherwise have failed to interest him sufficiently, whilst his attention was by no means diverted from the real purposes of that study. On the contrary, he always saw anatomy, as it were, through a physiological medium. This threw a pleasure into his anatomical pursuits, and was one of the means by which, in his own lectures, he contrived to impart an interest to the driest parts of our studies.

Many years afterwards, he was fond of illustrating the true relations of anatomy and physiology, and at the same time contrasting the attractions of the one with the comparatively repulsive requisitions of the other, by saying, with Dr. Barclay, of Edinburgh, that "he never would have wedded himself to so ugly a witch (anatomy), but for the dower she brought him (physiology)." The impressions which he derived from Sir William Blizard were deep and durable. More than thirty years after, when he himself was at the zenith of his career, we find his grateful feeling towards Sir William still glowing warm as ever. He seems to have considered the expression of it as the most appropriate opening to the first of the beautiful lectures which he delivered at the College of Surgeons in 1814. It must have been a moment of no small gratification to Sir William, who was present, now venerable with age, to have found that the honourable course of his own younger days, and the purity and excellence of his precepts, had all been garnered up in the heart of his grateful and most distinguished pupil. Nor could the evidence of it be well made more striking than when heralded forth before an audience composed of the most venerable and experienced, as well as of the most rising members of the profession; and, to crown the whole, with an eloquence at once modest and emotional, impressive of the depth and sincerity with which the eulogium was delivered.

It is difficult to imagine a scene more moving to the master, more gratifying to the pupil, or more honourable to both. As the style was very characteristic, we select a few passages. He commences the lecture by saying, of Sir William Blizard, that "he was my earliest instructor in anatomy and surgery, and I am27 greatly indebted to him for much valuable information. My warmest thanks are also due to him for the interest he excited in my mind towards these studies, and for his excellent advice. \'Let your search after truth,\' he would say, \'be eager and constant. Be wary in admitting propositions to be facts, before you have submitted them to the strictest examination. If, after this, you believe them to be true, never disregard or forget any one of them, however unimportant it may at the time appear. Should you perceive truths to be important, make them motives of action. Let them serve as springs to your conduct. If we neglect to draw such inferences, or to act in conformity with them, we fail in essential duties!\'" Again, in remarking how Sir William excited his enthusiasm by the beau-idéal which he drew of the medical character, Mr. Abernethy observed: "I cannot tell you how splendid and brilliant he made it appear; and then he cautioned us never to tarnish its lustre by any disingenuous conduct, or by anything that bore even the semblance of dishonour." Abernethy, then proceeding in a strain, warm, yet apologetic (Sir William being present), at length concluded his public thanks to his venerable instructor, by saying, "what I have now stated is a tribute due from me to him; and I pay it on the present occasion in the hope that the same precepts and motives may have the same effects on the junior part of my audience as they were accustomed, in general, to have on the pupils of Sir William Blizard."14

Abernethy then proceeded to advocate similar lofty views of the nature and duties of our profession in the following manner: "That which most dignifies man, is the cultivation of those qualities which most distinguish him from the brute creation. We should indeed seek truth for its importance, and act as the28 dictates of reason direct us. By exercising our minds in the attainment of medical knowledge, we may improve a science of great public utility. We have need of enthusiasm, or of some strong incentive, to induce us to spend our nights in study, and our days in the disgusting and health-destroying duties of the dissecting-room, or in that careful and distressing observation of human diseases and infirmities which can alone enable us to alleviate or remove them; some powerful inducement," he adds, "exclusive of fame or emolument (for, unfortunately, a man may attain a considerable share of reputation and practice, without being a real student of his profession). I place before you the most animating incentive I know of—that is, the enviable power of being extensively useful to your fellow-creatures. You will be able to confer that which sick kings would fondly purchase with their diadems, which wealth cannot command, nor state nor rank bestow:—to alleviate or remove disease, the most insupportable of human afflictions; and thereby give health, the most invaluable of human blessings."

When Abernethy entered the London Hospital, he soon gave proofs that Sir William\'s lessons were not unfruitful. He was early employed to prepare the subject for lecture. Anatomy is usually taught by combining three plans.

In one, the various structures—muscles, vessels, nerves, &c.—are exposed, by the removal of their covering and connecting-tissues, and so displayed as to be clear and distinct. This is "dissecting for lecture;" and it is the duty of the lecturer to describe the connections and immediate uses of the parts so displayed.

The body is then laid on a clean table, covered with a white cloth, and everything is ready. There is some difference in these matters in different hands; but attention to order and cleanliness goes a long way in facilitating anatomical pursuits. To many there may be much that is disagreeable in anatomy; but we are persuaded that a coarse and vulgar inattention to decency has often alone rendered it disgusting or repulsive.

The other plan is not materially different from the foregoing, excepting that it is generally done by the anatomical assistant—technically,29 the "demonstrator." The parts, having been somewhat exposed, are left, as much as is consistent with clearness, in their natural and relative positions; and the vessels, nerves, muscles, &c. which have been for the most part described separately by the lecturer, are now "demonstrated" (as the phrase is) together. The relative positions of all parts are thus more especially impressed on the student. In these "demonstrations" there is the same attention to covering the body with a cloth, &c. as in the lecture.

Lastly, the pupil is required to make out the parts by dissecting them himself, with such occasional assistance as may be at first necessary, and which is given by the demonstrator, who attends in the room for that purpose.

Now these duties (the lecture only excepted) were early performed by Abernethy. We may safely infer from this, that he was distinguished by his industry and zeal in the pursuit of knowledge, and that he began thus early to cultivate that power of communicating what he knew to others; in the exercise of which he ultimately acquired a success, a curiosa felicitas, in which he excelled all his contemporaries. That special qualifications were already discernible, we may infer from the post he occupied being invariably filled by a pupil of the hospital to which the school belongs; whereas Mr. Abernethy was an apprentice of a surgeon of St. Bartholomew\'s. On the testimony of a contemporary and fellow-student, Mr. W. W. Cox, late of Wolverhampton, we learn that he began to individualize himself very early. That, at the London Hospital, "he was for the most part reserved, seldom associating with any of the other students, but sitting in some place or corner by himself, diligently intent on the business of the lecture." Sir William Blizard is known to have felt proud of him, and to have soon indulged in great expectations from his character and talents.

I have already observed that Abernethy had the advantage of attending also the Surgical Lectures of Mr. Pott, at St. Bartholomew\'s. Mr. Pott was a gentleman, a scholar, and a good writer, and seems to have been a spirited and attractive lecturer. In an oration delivered by Sir William Blizard, in 1815, it is30 said that "it was difficult to give an idea of the elegance of his language, the animation of his manner, or the perceptive force or effect of his truths and his doctrines"—a character which is by no means inconsistent with Mr. Pott\'s more sustained compositions.

Such opportunities were not lost on Abernethy. He soon became possessed of what was known in the ordinary business of anatomy and surgery. His diligence too had afforded him an opportunity of testing those powers of communicating what he knew, to which I have just alluded. As an apprentice of a surgeon of Bartholomew\'s, his views were directed to that hospital; and it was not long before the resignation of Mr. Pott, and the appointment of Sir Charles Blicke, who was assistant surgeon, to succeed him, opened to Abernethy an arena in which he might further mature his peculiar aptitude for teaching his profession. This had been, as we learn from his own testimony, an early object of his ambition, and one for which he had already begun to educate himself at the London Hospital.