Another pupil of John Hunter, a man of very different mould, in several respects more akin to the master than Sir Astley, now claims our attention. Unlike many of the great men whose achievements we have recorded, JOHN ABERNETHY was born in London, in the parish of St. Stephen’s, Coleman Street, on the 3d of April 1764. He was the second son of John Abernethy, merchant, descended from an Irish-Scotch family which had furnished more than one noted man to the Protestant dissenting ministry in Ireland. While very young he was sent to the Wolverhampton Grammar School under Dr. Robertson. Here he was reputed studious and clever, but was evidently passionate as well as humorous. The severe discipline common at that time does not seem to have worked very well with Abernethy, for he came out of it more excitable and impatient than he had been previously. School days were over at fourteen, however, and at fifteen the youth was apprenticed to Mr., afterwards Sir Charles, Blicke, his father’s neighbour in Mildred’s Court, one of the surgeons to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. His own desire was to enter the legal profession, in which his fine memory would have rendered him important service; but his father did not agree with this choice, and the medical profession was selected. His master was an empiric; but Abernethy early determined to get to the bottom of things as far as possible, and engaged in investigations on his own account. The bent of his mind towards treatment by diet is shown by the following statement. “When I was a boy,” he said, “I half ruined myself in buying oranges and other things, to ascertain the effects of different kinds of diet in this disease” (of the kidney). Abernethy’s interest in anatomy and surgery was first effectively stimulated by Sir William Blizard, who lectured at the London Hospital, and he warmly acknowledged this in his introductory lecture at the College of Surgeons in 1814, when he succeeded Sir William as professor. He was soon selected to dissect for Sir William’s lectures; he derived much benefit from Pott’s surgical lectures at St. Bartholomew’s, and from Dr. Marshall’s lectures in Holborn; but was most powerfully influenced by John Hunter, who noted him among his most intelligent pupils. The opportunity of becoming an assistant-surgeon, being reserved to apprentices of the surgeons to St. Bartholomew’s, came early to Abernethy, for his master’s promotion to the surgeoncy led to his election as assistant-surgeon in July 15, 1787, when only twenty-three years old, by a majority of fifty-three to twenty-nine votes. But he was under the necessity, owing to his senior’s remaining so long in office, of continuing as assistant-surgeon for the long period of twenty-eight years.