discharges instead of almost hermetically sealing them up, as was so frequently done. In 1827 he gave another evidence of his remarkable operative skill by successfully removing a huge tumour involving part of the lower-jaw bone, an operation which no other surgeon would undertake. Sixteen years afterwards the patient was met with, having his deformity well covered by a vigorous beard. It was natural that the lack of a hospital appointment should be keenly felt by Mr. Syme, and that he should apply for one when a vacancy occurred at the Royal Infirmary; but his action when this was refused to him, in view of the rivalry existing between himself and Liston, was eminently energetic and commendable. He started a small hospital for twenty-four patients at Minto House on his own responsibility; but although he fortified himself with an influential committee and received a certain amount of annual subscriptions, the principal part of the expense throughout fell upon himself. Thus in the first year the public subscribed £217 and Mr. Syme £779, including £400 which he received in students’ fees. About this time, too, he married a sister of his old schoolfellow Robert Willis, afterwards the biographer of Sydenham, and set up a carriage. These expenses led him into pecuniary difficulties, which were not easily surmounted at first, but in a few years his circumstances became easy through the rapid increase of his practice. Syme’s clinical lectures became remarkable from the novelty of the method he employed. It had been customary in Edinburgh to lecture on a certain number of cases somewhat resembling each other, without the patients’ presence or anything to emphasise the instruction. The young innovator brought the patients one by one into the lecture-room, questioned them, demonstrated the principal features of their complaint, and then explained the principle of his treatment, in the presence or absence of the patient, according to circumstances, and finally operated, when necessary, in the presence of the pupils. Syme was a man of few words and earnest manner; he illustrated his remarks by few but well-chosen personal experiences, but gave nothing superfluous; and it is not to be wondered at that his success was marked.