About this period of Mr. Knighton's life, it was his custom to correspond with a very talented young friend in rhyme. The following is extracted from a rough copy of one of these letters, which was probably the last, as the composition required more time and study than could be bestowed after his professional duty commenced with Dr. Geach and the hospital:

"Since me the Muses thus forsake,
An humbler beaten track I take:
Disease in every dreadful form
Bids me the healing art perform.
Oh! how I wish for deeper skill,
For science suited to my will !
An anguish'd mother sends a prayer,
And makes her infant child my care;
The child, her languid mother nigh,
Calls tearful sorrow from my eye.
To enter still the cave of pain,
Though direful all, I ne'er refrain ;
Where crowded sons together lie,

Frail sons and heirs to misery,-
Where woes descend from race to race,
And heed not either time or place."

The weakness and infirmities of age were fast stealing on his benefactor, and he had the gratification of relieving him from

to relax the mind, and unclog the fatigued wheels of existence from the continual grinding; for I attend four lectures on anatomy, two on surgery, three on midwifery, two on the practice of physic: I take notes and transcribe from all, which is rather laborious. This is the work of the first course. To this must be added dissections and attendance at the hospitals. So you may suppose that, by the time these things are concluded, in the course of the day and night, little rest can be procured."

66 DEAR SIR,

TO ANOTHER FRIEND.

"FILLED with a due sense of the obligation I am under for your gratifying epistle, for which permit me to return my thanks, and more particularly for your care in recommending me to study the ideas. and works of these learned men, which will fit me for companionship to all ranks and degrees, from the highest to that of the clown, it now behoves me to answer your

inquiry with respect to my professional improvement.

"The study of anatomy I find truly difficult to be attained; nor had I any idea that it was so before experience taught me in this place. To obtain a thorough knowledge of anatomy requires indefatigable labour and industry; but it lays the basis for success in the practice, and unveils the mystery of the operation, of medicine. It is a noble science in itself, a lesson to man, and to be viewed not with a less degree of curiosity than wonder. The various processes pursued by nature, the wonderful combination of parts, and that noble structure throughout, replete with symmetry and beauty, I was not a little pleased to examine at first in the dead subject. Many curious and peculiar reflections with respect to man took place, as you may suppose; and perhaps the various and complicated thoughts of learned men concerning the machine and its existence. were awakened at such a time.

"Here is a field for moralising; and per

much fatigue; whilst at the same time he had the prospect of laying in a store of information, from the doctor's learning and experience. Within a few months, however, and before he had time and opportunity to be introduced to many of Dr. Geach's most important and influential friends, he was deprived of him in a moment by sudden death, and was left without patron, guide, or money, and with the additional embarrassment of a suit at law, which he had been obliged to undertake against his uncle Knighton, who, though in great affluence, refused to give up a small estate, which, having been purchased by his grandfather, and not given by will to his son, was the right of the grandson, as heir-at-law, and was in the end yielded up to him.

It now became necessary that Dr. Knighton should settle, and at the end of 1797 he purchased a small house in the best part of Devonport, and commenced his professional career, being then at the age

of twenty-one. His person was handsome, and he bore a thoughtful cast of countenance, which gave the impression of more advanced maturity; and this impression was most favourable to his immediate and rapid success, for with youth is naturally associated inexperience and his youth had been one of the objections started against him.

His learned and benevolent predecessor* was much beloved and esteemed by his patients, but, from some cause or other, was very unpopular with his medical brethren; and Dr. Knighton, as his protegé and successor, had to undergo some opposition from the least liberal of the profession. But he overcame all the ill-founded

of

* Dr. Geach had by his kindness and humanity the power strongly attaching to himself the poor sick and wounded sailors in the hospital; and to this feeling he on one occasion probably owed the preservation of his life. He was proceeding alone at a late hour one night to a patient at the outskirts of the town, where a murder and frequent robberies had been committed, when he was stopped by two men, and nearly dragged off his horse. On seeing his face, one of the men exclaimed, "It is Dr. Geach!" and they immediately left him and ran off.