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Each man has now finished his cigar, and Jones proposes a game of short whist. Brown objects, on the ground that short whist is apt to extend to a very long game. Smith seconds the objection, for he says he does. not like to be late, and being a bit of a poet, he gives his reasons in an impromptu rhyme

"Examinations are so near,

"Twould really not be prudent To taste of pleasure, which I fear Would interrupt a student."

"Bravo," says Robinson; "come, old fellow, give us your celebrated song about the spring exams., and then we'll toddle." Smith is always singing, so he readily agrees to give the following song, which accurately describes the condition of a man who is going up for his intermediate examinations at the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in April, most fickle of months.

(We were at great pains to discover who wrote this song, but, having at last succeeded, the amiable author, while kindly allowing it to be printed, declines to append his name. For all that we thank him very heartily for the pleasure his song has caused to hundreds of good companions, and more heartily still for the incitement this proved to other students to write songs for special occasions in their college career.)

and xxvi. sung in this, the only gentlemanly music-hall in London. Among other songs from these books we may mention the following as very popular among students :-Sir Henry Bishop's glee, "The Chough and Crow to roost are gone; ""The Hardy Norseman's house of yore;" "The Stirrup-Cup; " "Ye Mariners of England;" and "Rule Britannia."

One day a lecturer was late, so the whole class, consisting of about seventy men, joined in singing "Rule Britannia" with immense spirit. We never enjoyed it more thoroughly.

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7.

If e'er I hear a tale of woe
For human sympathy,

The "sympathetic nerve" alone
Suggests itself to me.

8.

In spring I'm going up,-glad spring No joy will bring to me;

No verdure then shall I behold

In flower or forest tree.

9.

In place of gathering lovely flowers From nature's glorious glens, Cramming I then must sit for hours At those "dried specimens."

10.

So come I cannot, e'en although
Full well I be inclined;

For time flies fast, and I, you know,
Must never cease to grind.

CHAPTER XI.

OUR DIPLOMAS, AND HOW WE READ FOR THEM.

Object of medical studies-Dr Latham's and Sir Thomas Watson's lectures-Choice of a hospital-General practitioners -Anagrams-" The College and Hall"-L. R. C.P. versus L.A. C.-House-surgeoncies to country hospitals-Regulations to be changed, and why-Is L.R.C.P. equivalent to Dr?-Cram-papers-Foreign medical schools.,

We have seen how a medical student is trained; now let us inquire the object of his studies. If you believed what is told you in the introductory lectures at the beginning of the winter session, you would be under the impression that there could be no chance of getting your diploma until you were well versed in

Physiology and pathology,

And all the rest that end in "ology;"

for not only are the prescribed subjects numerous, but indispensable; and as Swift, in one of his books, makes each servant act as if his master's whole income were to be spent in his own department, so each lecturer puts forward his own subject as the one on which the student's future welfare mainly depends.

One of the Queen's physicians, Dr Latham, in his published lectures, does not say as much on this sub

ject as when he delivered them; he then observed, as we are told by one of his former pupils, "I do not find astrology mentioned at present, but I have no doubt such an important omission will ere long be 'supplied!"

(Ah, Dr Latham, Dr Latham, why do you not bring out another edition of all your valuable lectures? They are not to be had for love or money; we wish you could see our copy of them: it is composed of bits cut out of medical papers, and one or two in manuscript transcribed from the library volume.

Sir Thomas Watson's lectures, also, are out of print, and sadly want re-editing, for his style is equalled by very few medical authors of the present day; and of these few the majority shrink from the labour of writing so large a work without assistance; and we are therefore obliged to fall back on Dr Russell Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' which threatens to become as ponderous as Mr Timothy Holmes's 'System of Surgery.' Will no physician of ability and experience come forward with a compendious treatise written as happily as Sir Thomas Watson's, and bringing the subject down to the present day? This seems to offer a fine field for a clever and energetic author.)

You attend the prescribed courses of lectures, and you discover that, if you are only going to take the diplomas of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, you have done all that is necessary, while, if you intend to graduate in the University of London, you must read infinitely more than you learn from your lectures. That being the case, it does not signify at what hospital you enter, for if you are a lazy man, the best staff of lecturers cannot make you study more than will

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