I read
everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all
sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was
very largely my own fault, but the only instruction from which I ever
obtained the proper effect of education was that which I received from
Mr. Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing
Cross School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his knowledge
impressed me greatly, and the severe exactness of his method of
lecturing was quite to my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so
much respect for anybody as a teacher before or since. I worked hard
to obtain his approbation, and he was extremely kind and helpful to the
youngster who, I am afraid, took up more of his time than he had
any right to do. It was he who suggested the publication of my first
scientific paper--a very little one--in the Medical Gazette of 1845, and
most kindly corrected the literary faults which abounded in it, short as
it was; for at that time, and for many years afterwards, I detested the
trouble of writing, and would take no pains over it.
It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my obligatory
medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination at the London
University,--though I was still too young to qualify at the College
of Surgeons,--I was talking to a fellow-student (the present eminent
physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I should do to meet
the imperative necessity for earning my own bread, when my friend
suggested that I should write to Sir William Burnett, at that
time Director-General for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an
appointment.
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