In the autumn of 1784 he took his departure from Norwich, experiencing to the full those feelings of melancholy so natural under the circumstances. However, the anticipation of one day becoming a great man, and the attractions of the wondrous city to which he was journeying, tended to dissipate any disagreeable reflections. He was only sixteen; but his appearance and manner were particularly prepossessing, his conversation pleasing and animated; and he had within him the energy and perseverance which are, above all, necessary to the achievement of success in any walk of life. No doubt, also, he showed something of the attention to his attire, which afterwards won him the reputation of being one of the best-dressed men in the city of London.

His uncle, not finding it convenient to receive the young aspirant to medical distinction into his own house, managed to obtain for him a residence in that of Mr. Cline, an eminent surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital; an arangement most auspicious to his professional prospects. At the following Christmas he was transferred from the pupilage of his uncle to that of Mr. Cline, described by him as "a man of great judgment, a slow and cautious operator; and a moderate anatomist."

It is related that one day Mr. Cline brought home an arm, and throwing it on the table of his private dissecting-room, desired Astley to set to work upon it; whereupon the latter bent all his powers, bodily and mental, to the task, and accomplished it with success, which not only highly satisfied his instructor, but created in him the en-thusiastic devotion to his profession, by which he was characterised. At all events it is certain, that on being placed under Mr. Cline, he totally abandoned his juvenile habits of trifling and carelessness, and applied himself to the acquirement of his professional knowledge by diligent study in private, by labour in the dissecting-room, and by an earnest, attention to the lectures delivered at the hospital. He had previously been elected, on the nomination of his uncle, as a member of the Physical Society, then one of the oldest and most valuable institutions of the kind in London. By the rules of the society, every member had to read an essay in the course of the session, the subject being a matter of choice to himself. Sir Astley took that of malignant diseases in the breast, or cancers; and he thus at once became interested in a subject, the investigation of which continued to occupy his attention and his pen to the close of his life. So great was his industry in his new pursuit, that, by the following spring, his proficiency in anatomy far exceeded that of any other pupil of his standing in the hospital, and gave sure presage of the wide-spread celebrity he was to attain. While visiting his father during the vaca-tion, he attended at the surgery of Mr. Turner, a relative of his, who resided at Yarmouth, with the view of gaining information in the practice of pharmacy, and his evident change of character, from gay to grave, conveyed sensations of the most pleasing kind to the hearts of his parents.

During his second session at the hospital he applied his mind intensely to the study of anatomy, making himself fully conversant with the structure of the human body, and paving the way for those discoveries in "pathological anatomy" which have been so beneficial to his profession.

In the winter of 1786 he contrived to attend a course of lectures delivered by the philosophical and scientific John Hunter, whom he regarded with great interest and admiration, and from whom he derived his knowledge of the principles of physiology and surgery, which he afterwards found so valuable.

Next year his thirst for knowledge carried him to the University of Edinburgh, where he immediately attracted notice by his zeal and diligence in obtaining it. For seven months he prosecuted his studies there with great diligence; and having been elected an ordinary member of the Royal Medical Society, he so highly distinguished himself in its discussions, that on his leaving he was offered the presidency in case of his returning.

At the termination of the session he resolved to banish all study for a time, and undertake a journey in the Highlands—then no easy matter. He prepared for it in almost as primitive a fashion as Bailie Nicol Jarvie had done nearly a century before; and having purchased two suitable nags, and hired a servant, he extended his tour to the Western Isles.

Shortly after his return to London, he received the well-merited appointment of demonstrator at St. Thomas's Hospital, and, later, was made joint lecturer with Mr. Cline. In this capacity he established with success a distinct course of lectures on surgery, which had hitherto been treated in conjunction with anatomy.

Sir Astley had even, when a roving boy at Brooke, indulged in a romantic courtship with a young lady of his own age; and so ardent was his love, that after leaving the neighbourhood he one day, still only thirteen, without the knowledge of his family, made a journey of forty-eight miles to pay her a visit, which very much pleased the fair damsel, and very much surprised her reverend father. But however deep their vows, they were destined to come to naught; and he now found a bride in the new sphere of his exertions, and set off on a trip to Paris. On arrival, he seized the opportunity to attend the lectures of Desault and Chopart, and compare the practice of the French surgeons with that pursued by those of his own country. In 1793 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy to Surgeons' Hall. He had already appeared as an author on those subjects to which his attention was directed, with great credit for ability and for the scientific manner in which he had discussed them; and in 1800, on the resignation of his uncle, he succeeded him as surgeon to Guy's

Hospital. Thenceforth his career was brilliant. He was created a baronet by George the Fourth in 1821, and afterwards became President of the College of Surgeons, Vice-president of the Royal Society, Member of the French Institute, and of the Academy of Sciences. He died in February 1841.

Sir Astley was the architect of his own fortune. His advancement was the result of steady exertion. He thought for himself and worked for himself, with an assiduity and diligence, which rarely fail to bring their rewards—professional eminence, public esteem, and the ennobling consciousness of duties faithfully and iudefatigably performed.