said no man had ever obtained so early in life as Syme the position of consulting surgeon for a whole nation; and this he owed entirely to his intrinsic merits. He referred to the collateral pursuits with which many doctors had recreated themselves. Dr. Cullen had his rural retreat; Dr. Gregory his Latin and polemics; Sir Charles Bell his pencil and his rod; Mr. Liston his hunter; Mr. John Bell his trombone. Mr. Syme had rendered his garden and conservatories conspicuous in a land of gardeners. Mr. Syme arrived in London in February 1848, and settled in Bruton Street. An amusing incident occurred in connection with his first lecture at University College. Having been accustomed to give clinical lectures in the operating theatre at Edinburgh, which was provided with seats, he supposed a similar arrangement obtained in London, and announced his intention of lecturing in the operating theatre without having previously visited it. On entering the room to deliver his lecture, he found the students were seated inelegantly on the rails which rise behind one another in the amphitheatre. This attitude shocked him at first, but was soon exchanged for a more befitting one. Difficulties, however, arose in connection with the chair of systematic surgery, which he was asked to undertake with that of clinical surgery. This he felt would occupy too much time, and require a devotion to theoretical surgery and to pathology which did not accord with his bent. On the 7th of May some discourteous demonstrations at the College prize distribution towards two of his colleagues deeply wounded him; and he wrote “that the slightest approach to any insult of the kind, whether offered in the comparative retirement of the lecture-room or inflicted publicly with the silent sanction of the presiding authority of the College (Lord Brougham), would effectually incapacitate him from ever addressing his pupils with satisfaction to himself or benefit to them.” In three days afterwards, having declined the fresh post offered him, he resigned that for which he had quitted Edinburgh. Fortunately his old position at Edinburgh had not yet been filled up, and he returned with alacrity to his familiar theatre and beloved home, his experiment having cost him £2000. He had been well received by the heads of the profession in London, and was rapidly gaining practice. His own brief comment on the change from Edinburgh to London was, that ambition made him sacrifice happiness, and that he found such a spirit of dispeace in University College as to forbid any reasonable prospect of comfort.