A second-year man must attend anatomy and physiology over again with the first-year men, but the other hours of his day are thus occupied :

10.15 to 11.30 A. M.-Dissection.

11.30 A.M. to 12.45 P. M.-Dissection and demonstration on alternate days.

5 to 6 P.M.-Lecture on medicine and surgery on alternate days.

April is occupied by the Easter vacation, the whole of which can be enjoyed by first-year men; but second-year men's holidays are shortened by the examinations at the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.

First Year-Summer Session, May to July.

8 to 9, or 9 to 10 A.M., according to the lecturer's convenience each year-Lecture on Materia Medica.

10 to 10.15 A.M.-Chapel.

10.15 to 12 noon-Practical chemistry.

12 to 1 P.M.-Lecture on botany.

For a second-year man this is the variation:

9 to 10 A. M.-Lecture on obstetric medicine. 12 to 3 P. M.-Hospital practice.

The long vacation consists of August and September, during which many of the advanced students take practices in the country for medical men who want a change. The Christmas vacation is very short, only from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day; but it cannot easily be made longer while the present defective system for the supply of bodies continues.

Third-year men have in the winter none but clinical lectures, which occur during hospital practice, and a second course of medicine and surgery from five to six o'clock on alternate days.

In the summer they have only clinical lectures, and fourth-year men have only these both in winter and summer; but they are occupied all day in the hospital "taking cases"-that is to say, taking notes of the patients' diseases in preparation for the visit of the physician or surgeon, who listens to the reading of the notes, corrects these, and prescribes for the patient. The prescriptions are then added to the notes, which are afterwards fairly copied into the "Case-Book ;" so the students are always busy.

At the end of the fourth year they go up for the final examinations at the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and receive diplomas, giving the titles of L.R.C.P. and M.R.C.S.-Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

These examinations are far more severe now than they were formerly, and to this we must attribute the improvement in the character of medical students, for fewer men can enter the profession now; and these are necessarily better educated, as they are not allowed to begin attendance on professional lectures until they have passed a preliminary examination in the general subjects of a liberal education. This amelioration is due to the exertions of the profession itself, which in 1858 obtained from Parliament the "Medical Act."

One of the results of this Act was the establishment of the "Medical Council," which is, in fact, the medical parliament of the nation.

It consists of some nominees of the Crown, and of dele

gates from every medical examining board in the kingdom, and meets in London for a fortnight every summer to regulate medical affairs.

Each member is paid ten guineas a-day from funds raised in the profession itself; and the Council has worked hard to raise the standard of education among students by making regulations which tend continually to increase the severity of the examinations; and it is satisfactory to hear examiners and lecturers on all sides declare that a corresponding improvement is observed every year in the men who enter the profession.

To insure the regularity of the class, a "marker" comes into the theatre at the beginning of every lecture, and marks the names of those who are present. The same precautions are observed at the hospital; and if the Dean be not satisfied with a student's attendance, he must go to the neglected lectures again next year, before he can receive the Dean's leave to apply for the lecturers' certificates, without which he is not admissible to any public examination.

Punctuality at early morning lectures is incompatible with dissipation on the previous evening; therefore, reader, if you see in the papers that "a medical student was brought before the magistrate at Police Court, charged with," &c., pay no attention to the report. On inquiry it will almost always be found that the defendant in such cases is no student at all, but some officeclerk who has had wit enough left to call himself a medical student, being aware of the general prejudice against us.

Now let us take the reader through the various scenes of our student life, beginning with the systematic lec

tures.

CHAPTER II.

OUR LECTURES.

Lecture-theatres-Lectures and lecturers-The "rising man -The "good man"-The "stick"-"Regretting "-Discipline-Synopsis of lectures-Varieties of students-Hats -First-year men-Class examinations-Brilliant students -Student-critics.

THE lecture-theatres are all very much alike-large rooms with several tiers of seats, sometimes provided with desks to write at, sometimes not. Sometimes the rows of seats are curved like a horse-shoe, the lecturer standing at the open end. This we prefer, and it is the plan adopted in the best theatre we know—at the Royal School of Mines in Jermyn Street; you can hear Professor Tyndall in every part of it with the greatest distinctness. The lecturer stands at a table covered with specimens of various kinds, in accordance with the subject of his lecture, and behind him is a screen covered with large, ugly, water-colour drawings, called diagrams, to which he continually points with a wand something like a sexton's. Below the screen there is the inevitable "black-board," which, however, is in many places "board " no longer, for slate is much easier to draw upon, and to clean.

At the time for lecture there are a few men in the lowest rows, but many of them prefer to come in after the lecture is begun. They give a plausible enough reason for this-they declare their abhorrence of "vain repetitions;" they profess to be tired with the incessant, "In my last lecture, gentlemen, I explained," &c. &c., which always precedes a recapitulation of the said lecture before that of to-day begins. It is a nuisance occasionally, we must admit; for the résumé sometimes lasts half an hour, especially if it be on some pet theory of the worthy man's own invention. But lecturers are sometimes irregular, as well as students, for they "regret." Nothing is more annoying to a student than to leave something on which he is particularly engaged, because it is time for lecture, and to find, when he reaches the theatre, a notice posted on the door to the effect that "Dr So-and-so, having received a telegram suddenly summoning him to the country, regrets that he cannot meet his class to-day."

Of course, only the best men are appointed lecturers, and how are you to know who is a "best man," unless he has done something to distinguish himself? The favourite way of distinguishing one's self nowadays, and the quickest way to arrive at the "dignity of F.R.S.," seems to be by copying Ishmael, whose "hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him,"-in short, write a book, and flatly contradict everything that everybody else has ever said on the subject which you deign to take up; "repudiate the theory" of this man, "ignore the conclusions" of that, tell the other that "his views are really too absurd," pat some great don on the back, pronounce Liebig a "capital chemist," call Virchow an "enterprising physiologist,"