g descriptions.

"Of moving accidents by flood and field;
And of the cannibals that each other eat;
The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders!"

I was led to confess there were worse places in the world than the
Liverpool Infirmary.

After a week's delay I came into possession of a pair of crutches, and
could move around the room at pleasure, take exercise in the hall, and
even visit an acquaintance in either of the other apartments. The garden
attached to the establishment was thrown open to the patients at stated
hours on particular days. The season was not inviting; nevertheless,
one sunny day, accompanied by my lame friend of pugnacious reputation, I
visited the garden, and rejoiced at finding myself once more in he
open air. The ramble on crutches through the lonely walks was truly
refreshing. Our spirits mounted to fever heat, and as we returned
towards the building through the neatly gravelled avenue, my companion
proposed a race, to which I assented. I have forgotten which won
the race; I know we both made capital time, and performed to our own
satisfaction, but not to the satisfaction of others. The gardener
grumbled at the manner in which his walks were perforated and disfigured
by our crutches. He complained to the authorities, and greatly to our
regret a regulation was adopted by which all persons using crutches were
forbidden to enter the garden.

I remained six weeks in the Infirmary, and became accustomed to the
place, and made myself useful in various ways. I held the basin when
a patient was let blood; I took charge of the instruments and bandages
when a serious wound was closed by sutures and afterwards dressed; and
was particularly busy when a fracture was examined or a dislocation
reduced. Indeed I took a strange kind of interest in witnessing and
aiding in the various operations, and was in a fair way to become a
good practical surgeon, when I was discharged, and found myself a poor
sailor, friendless, penniless, and lame. But the surgical knowledge,
inaccurate and desultory as it was, which I acquired in the Liverpool
Infirmary, and the power to preserve coolness and presence of mind,
and minister relief in cases of wounds and dangerous diseases, when no
medical adviser could be applied to, has often since been of valuable
service to myself and others.

I took an affectionate farewell of my friends and acquaintances in the
establishment, not f