Genre:

Serial—Essay, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Education, Colleges, Lecturing, Anatomy, Botany, Textbooks

    Describes social and intellectual exploits of Joseph Muff, a medical student at the University of London. Notes that the student is now mature because he takes notes at each lecture but intersperses them with 'a larger proportion of portraits of the lecturer, and other humorous conceits'. At this point the student beings 'an steady course of imaginary dissection'—a 'chimerical account of extremities whose minute structure he has deeply investigated'. Describes the student's lecture-room pranks and inventions, and how his conversation turns from anatomy lectures to pub exploits. The student 'gets' his anatomical prize 'by stealth, cribbing his answers from a tiny manual of knowledge'. Copies Joseph Muff's letter to his father in which he boasts about his conscientiousness, his purchase of several leading medical text-books and his hiring of a 'private demonstrator'. Describes the experiences of a student at 'Botanical Lectures' in the Society of Apothecaries Chelsea Physic Garden, and how students conducted themselves during 'botanical excursions'.