advice of the doctor, was not at that time so completely obsolete
as in this advanced age I hope it is, and ought to be. I remember,
during the time of my own articles, that I frequently performed
venesection five or six times in a day on persons who requested and
fancied they required it; and I seldom indulged in the liberty of
asking, wherefore.

In 1851, I took my son to London to show him the Great Exhibition.
His chief attractions there, were the instruments and mechanical
inventions. If, after a day or two, I chanced to deviate from the
leading thoroughfares and missed my way, he would set me right in a
moment. This was rather mortifying to one who fancied himself well
acquainted with London from frequent visits, but he smiled when he
saw I was not a true guide. I asked him how he acquired this apt
knowledge. "On the second day," he replied, "when you were out, I
took the map and studied it for two hours, so that now I am well
versed in it." My subsequent experience made me think he had some
instinctive power in matters like these, such as horses and
carrier-pigeons possess, for the darkest night never baulked him.
On a visit to Windsor, being told that it was considered a feat to
climb the statue of King George the Third at the end of the long
walk, he accomplished it in a very short time. At Hampton Court he
unravelled the mystery of the Maze in ten minutes and grew quite
familiar with all its ins and outs.

In the following spring, 1852, I took him again to London, at the
opening of the session for medical students. As there was no
anatomical class he studied that branch of science by visiting the
museum at Guy's. Having myself been a student at that school, I
introduced him to my late respected teacher, Charles Aston King,