SOME ESSEX DOCTORS. 95
"or took the coach or omnibus which passed through in the
"morning, summoning its fares with a horn. An idea of the
"rusticity of the neighbourhood may be gathered from the
"facts that this very year (1827) a red deer was run down in
"the garden of Upton House, and that flocks of golden plover
"were for long afterwards constant winter visitors to the
"neighbourhood. Hainhault Forest was not far distant, and
"Epping Forest close at hand. The Barking marshes were a
"fine botanizing ground and the haunt of wild fowl, and it
"was a pleasant country walk along the banks of the Thames
"to London."
It was here at Upton House on 5 April, 1827, that the
Listers' fourth child and second son, Joseph, was born. He
was educated at two private schools, the first at Hitchin in Herts.
and the second Grove House, Tottenham. Even thus early in
life Lister's mind was bent upon entering the medical profession,
and from this intention he never swerved. Many of his school
essays are preserved, including four on "The Human Structure—
Osteology," and one on "The Similarity of Structure between a
Monkey and a Man," illustrated with the family's artistic facility
by beautiful pen and wash drawings. He also began dissecting
small animals and articulating their skeletons. Schooldays
ended, he went in 1844 at the age of 17 to University College,
London. He graduated B.A. in 1847, and had an attack of
smallpox, to recover from which he spent a holiday in Ireland,
beginning his preliminary medical studies in the winter of 1848,
taking his M.B. degree in the session 1849-50, becoming house
surgeon of the Hospital and passing his examinations to become
F.R.C.S. in 1852. In 1853, when he was 26 years of age, he
determined before settling down as a consulting surgeon in
London to gain more experience by visiting Edinburgh for a
month to see the work of Professor Syme. This month extended
to seven years, during which he assisted Professor Syme in many
ways before starting as a consulting surgeon in Edinburgh, and
in 1856, on 25 April, he married Agnes Syme, the eldest daughter
of his friend and teacher, their honeymoon being spent in a
Continental tour visiting the most celebrated surgeons and
medical schools in Europe. On 28 January, 1860, he secured the
appointment of Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow.
In 1869 Professor Syme had a paralytic stroke, and resigned