_Sophistical in argument._--One of the pieces of sophistry on which Wakley seems chiefly to have depended, inasmuch as he went over it _six times_ in the course of his speech, was, that if his account of the operation had been incorrect more of those who were present would have been brought forward to prove it so. But, as we stated in our last Number, to have objected to Wakley bringing forward pupils, on the ground of their being incompetent, and then to have done the same thing, would have been grossly inconsistent. Lord Tenterden, in his charge, said, "he did not see whom he (Mr. Cooper) could, with propriety, have called besides Mr. Callaway; the others were all young men, only pupils, and probably too young and inexperienced to form any judgment on the case that could be relied on." There is also another person who has objected to these witnesses whom we may mention--not, indeed, one for whose authority we have the highest possible respect, but of whom the defendant in this case probably thinks more favourably--we mean Mr. Thomas Wakley, who, speaking of the Letter formerly published by Mr. Cooper's pupils on the subject of this operation, says, "their united opinion of the skill, dexterity, and self-possession exhibited by Mr. Bransby Cooper on this occasion, is not likely to influence the judgment of the profession, whatever it may effect with the public." The use made by Wakley of Sir Astley Cooper's expression, "give him time," is another specimen of sophistry. Sir Astley evidently meant merely to say that, _ceteris paribus_, a man who had been twenty years surgeon to an Hospital would be more experienced than one who had held the situation but one-fourth of that period. This we believe to have been his sentiment, though nothing was ever less happily expressed. Accordingly it was not lost upon the defendant, who exclaimed, "Is that the way in which our hospitals are to be conducted? Is that the mode in which your poor patients are to be treated?--that young and inexperienced men are to be placed there to _learn their profession_--not to know it before they get there, but are to go there to learn it--and learn it upon whom?--upon individuals who are as much entitled to the best and most scientific practice of surgery as any nobleman in this land." All very fine--but we should be glad to know how or where a practical acquaintance with surgery is to be acquired but in public hospitals--and if no man is to be appointed till after he has gained experience, where are such men to come from? Where are ready-made surgeons to be found fit to operate even before Lambert, without his being able _to make a hole_ in their reputation?