"You will see in the medical students of Paris a different set of men to that which you have been accustomed to mix with here. There are some fine fellows amongst them--hard-working, bold, enterprising young men; but they are a strange body taken as a while. Don't cotton too quickly with any one of them." "Very well, sir." "I am afraid you will find many highly improper notions prevalent amongst them--immoral, shocking, disgraceful. Pray, don't assume the manners of a Frenchman, Mr Walpole--much less his vices. There are very few medical students in Paris who do not lead, I am sorry to say, a very disreputable life; and make it a boast to live in open shame. You must not learn to approve of conduct in Paris which you would have no hesitation in pronouncing criminal in London."[28] "Certainly not, sir." "And let me, as a friend, entreat you, my dear sir, at no time to forget that you are a Christian and a Protestant gentleman. Be sober and rational, and, if there be any truth in religion at all, do not make a mockery of it, by converting the Lord's day into a monstrous Saturnalia. Here is your letter." I took the document, bowed, and read the superscription. It was addressed to Baron F----, chief surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, &c. &c. &c. "I introduce you, Mr Walpole," continued the anatomist, "to one of the most extraordinary men in Europe--and, what is more to the purpose, to one of the best. Warmer benevolence, a more eager anxiety to relieve and benefit his fellow-mortals, never burned in the heart of man. He is, unquestionably, incontestably the first surgeon of the day; as a man of science he is appealed to by the whole learned world--his practice is enormous, and the fortune he has amassed by his unwearied industry and perseverance immense; especially considered in reference to the career of the most successful surgeons in Paris, who, if I mistake not, have lived and died comparatively poor. Looked up to, however, as he is by the learned and the great, you will, I think, when you know him, agree with me in regarding his kindness to the helpless--his earnest solicitude for the disabled poor who come under his care--his unremitting attention to their complaints and wants--as constituting the worthy baron's chief excellance. We are old friends; and for my sake I am sure he will receive you well, and afford you all the assistance and information in his power. He will put you on your mettle; and you must be no lie-a-bed if you would profit by his instruction. At six in the morning you will find him daily at his post in the hospital; and, whilst sluggards are turning in their beds, he has prescribed for a hundred sick, and put them in spirits for the day by his words of tenderness and support." "Did you study under the baron?" I enquired.