At Edinburgh he quickly distinguished himself by his diligent study of anatomy; he was recognised as a student of the first rank, and was chosen senior president of the Royal Medical Society in 1811. Dr. Bigsby says of him: “Few men have changed during their progress through life so little as Marshall Hall. As he began, so he ended, delighting in the labour—the labour itself—of investigation.... All the stores of knowledge which his predecessors had either gathered or created, Marshall Hall was eager to acquire; a hardy, enduring constitution seconding all his efforts.... All his energies were directed to the formation of the skilful bedside physician, that is, to the alleviation and cure of disease.” It was said of him, “Hall never tires.” During his three years’ studentship he never once missed a lecture. He graduated in June 1812, and was almost at once appointed resident house physician to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Here his love of order, his zeal, and spirit of inquiry found full scope, and he took extreme pains in the study of diagnosis. He gave a voluntary course of lectures on the principles of diagnosis in 1813, which were the basis of his well-known work, first published in 1817. His usefulness to the younger students in the hospital was very great, and equally striking was his good example of purity of life and conversation, and constant cheerfulness. His puremindedness was characteristic through life; Marshall Hall never attached himself to any man of coarse mind or manners.