Memorials of John Flint South

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1884 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. APPRENTICESHIP, WITH DESCRIPTION OF THE HOSPITAL SURGEONS: 1813-14. SOON after leaving school, in June 1813, I was introduced to Mr. Henry Cline, who afterwards became my dear and respected master, and it was agreed between him and my dear father that for a few months I should go round the hospital on his visiting days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and that I should attend the anatomical lectures in the coming October, which were given by Astley Cooper and Henry Cline, that I might get an insight into what the professional life of a hospital surgeon was, and whether I should like it, before the final step of apprenticing me, as it was then--and, as I think, wisely--called. Accordingly for the following six months I went round, occasionally saw operations, and attended the lectures, and spent an hour or two daily in the dissecting-room. I was not however allowed to be idle in the intervening time, but spent my mornings in keeping up and improving my classical knowledge, as a private pupil with the Rev. William Fancourt, then head master of St. Saviour's Grammar School, and well known as a first-rate scholar. I was however stuck fast in Cicero's 'De Oratore,' and was obliged to decline more than a very short acquaintance as it was one of the toughest, driest and, as seemed to me then, most unsatisfactory books I had ever encountered. I did not however find this the case in commencing the study of the Hebrew Bible, which however I deeply regret that, in consequence of my being fixed at the hospital, I was compelled after a short time to give up. What my teacher's name was I cannot now recall, but, though he was a very dirty and unsavoury Jew, he was an able and painstaking master, and he was not in fault if his pupils did not learn. During the three m...