CULLEN. 205 minds entered into a partnership. Their principal ambition, at this time, was to procure the means of improving their medical education and grade ; and in order, mutually, to further this honourable object, it was stipulated, that one of them should be alternately allowed to study, during the winter, in some medical school, while the other should continue to carry on the business in the country, for the profit of both parties. Cullen took the first turn, and passed his winter at Edinburgh, William Hunter chose London for his place of study, when h s season arrived, and the selection was propitious to his future progress, since he soon recommended himself, in that metropolis, to Dr. Douglas, a lec- turer on anatomy and obstetrics, who engaged him as an assistant. Thus ensued a premature dissolution of partnership: Cullen was not the man who could throw obstacles in the road to his friend's advance- ment ; he readily cancelled the articles, and they maintained ever after a cordial communication by letters, although the accidents of hfe seem never more to have granted them a personal interview. How full of interest would such a meeting, in after life, have proved to two such individuals, who had parted in poverty and obscurity, and who would have greeted each other again at the head of their respective professions, and in the meridian of for- tune and of fame. During this period of country practice, Cullen formed an union of a more permanent nature, which, happily for him, was not dissolved until very late in his hfe. Early in his career he had formed a strong attachment to Miss Johnston, the amiable daughter of a neighbouring clergyman.
