The days of encyclopædic knowledge may be past, but the need of a broad, general, scientific, and professional education for the medical man, even a specialist, will never cease. If, as Dr. Mackenzie says, the leviathans of omniscience loom dim and gigantic, like the megatherium and mastodon of remote geological periods, and if the type is as utterly extinct as he believes, it is all the more incumbent on the guides of medical instruction to see that their pupils pass through a broad course of study which shall fairly represent the achievements of the past and the main features of the knowledge of the present. ERASMUS WILSON was a man who undoubtedly gained a good record in general professional knowledge, and knew well the anatomy and physiology of his student days. William James Erasmus Wilson, son of William Wilson, surgeon, a native of Aberdeen, in early life a naval surgeon, who later settled at Dartford and Greenhithe in Kent, was born on November 25, 1809, in High Street, Marylebone, where his maternal grandfather, Erasmus Bronsdorph, a Norwegian by birth, resided. He was educated at Dartford Grammar School and at Swanscombe, but very soon commenced practical medical work under his father in the parish infirmary. At the early age of sixteen he was sent to London to enter John Abernethy’s anatomical class, and there is no doubt that his teacher’s individuality powerfully impressed him. But among his friends were some who led his tastes also somewhat deeply into botany and zoology, entomological facts then learnt being destined to bear fruit in his Commentary on Diseases of the Skin. Wilson was enabled to extend his studies to Paris in 1828 and in 1830, where he attended Cuvier’s and Geoffroy St. Hilaire’s lectures, and among others saw the practice of Dupuytren, Orfila, and Lisfranc. He became noted for his neat dissections, insomuch that he was nicknamed the “piocheur,” or “sap” in English slang. To his excellence in dissection young Wilson joined an equal faculty for drawing, derived from his mother. In 1826 young Wilson had become a resident pupil with Mr. Langstaff, father of a fellow-student, surgeon to the parish infirmary of Cripplegate. Here in Langstaff’s dissecting-room, where many pathological researches were carried on, Wilson made the acquaintance of numerous men of mark who resorted thither, including Jones Quain and William Lawrence. On the establishment of the Aldersgate School of Medicine under Lawrence’s régime, Wilson joined it as student, and in 1829-30 won both the surgical and the midwifery prizes. On the day when he attained his majority, November 25, 1830, Wilson took the Apothecaries’ Hall diploma.