y which their brains are fattened, by
abstinence from liquids and an increase of dry food (some of it _very_
dry), like the livers of Strasbourg geese. There are grinders in each of
these three professional classes; but the medical teacher is the man of
the most varied and eccentric knowledge. Not only is he intimately
acquainted with the different branches required to be studied, but he is
also master of all their minutiae. In accordance with the taste of the
examiners, he learns and imparts to his class at what degree of heat water
boils in a balloon--how the article of commerce, _Prussian blue_, is more
easily and correctly defined as the _Ferrosesquicyanuret of the cyanide of
potassium_--why the nitrous oxyde, or laughing gas, induces people to make
such asses of themselves; and, especially, all sorts of individual
inquiries, which, if continued at the present rate, will range from "Who
discovered the use of the spleen?" to "Who killed cock robin?" for aught
we know. They ask questions at the Hall quite as vague as these.

It is twelve o'clock at noon. In a large room, ornamented by shelves of
bottles and preparations, with varnished prints of medical plants and
cases of articulated bones and ligaments, a number of young men are seated
round a long table covered with baize, in the centre of whom an
intellectual-looking man, whose well-developed forehead shows the amount
of knowledge it can contain, is interrogating by turns each of the
students, and endeavouring to impress the points in question on their
memories by various diverting associations. Each of his pupils, as he
passes his examination, furnishes him with a copy of the subjects touched
upon; and by studying these minutely, the private teacher forms a pretty
correct idea of the general run of the "Hall questions."

"Now, Mr. Muff," says the gentleman to one of his class, handing him a
bottle of something which appears like specimens of a chestnut colt's coat
after he had been clipped; "what's that, sir?"

"That's cow-itch, sir," replies Mr. Muff.

"Cow what? You must call it at the Hall by its botanical name--_dolichos
pruriens_. What is it used for?"

"To strew in people's beds that you owe a grudge to," replies Muff;
whereat all the class laugh, except the last comer, who takes it all for
granted, and makes a note of the circumstance in his interleaved manual.

"That answer would floor you," continues the grinder. "The _dolichos_ is
used to destroy w