There is no better authority for the truth of the many queer stories told
about the rough benevolence of Dr. Abernethy, the great English surgeon,
than the author of his memoirs--Sir George Macilwain.
[Illustration: PHYSICIANS' CHARITY.]
"His manner [Dr. Abernethy's], as we shall admit, was occasionally rough,
and sometimes rather prematurely truthful. One day he was called in
consultation by a physician to give an opinion in a case of a pulsating
tumor, which was pretty plainly an aneurism. On proceeding to examine the
tumor, he found a plaster covering it.
"'What is this you have on it?' asked Abernethy.
"'O, that is only a plaster.'
"'Pooh!' exclaimed the doctor, pulling it off and flinging it aside.
"'The "pooh" was all well enough,' said the attending physician,
afterwards, 'but it took several guineas out of my pocket.'"
"UP THREE PAIR, BACK."
A surgeon--pupil of the above--was requested to visit a patient in a low
quarter of the suburbs of the metropolis. When he arrived, and mounted
several flights of crazy stairs, he began searching for the designated
number, which was so defaced by time that he was only enabled to determine
it by the more legible condition of the next number.
[Illustration: SEARCH FOR A PATIENT.]
An old woman answered the shake of the dilapidated knocker.
"Does Captain Blank live here?"
"Yes, sir,"--trying to penetrate the darkness.
"Is he at home?"
"Yes, sir. Please, may I make so bold as to ask, are you the doctor?"
"Yes."
"O, then please to walk in, sir."
In the ill-furnished, narrow room sat an old man, in a very shabby and
variegated _déshabille_, who rose from his chair, and, with a grace worthy
of a count, welcomed the stranger. His manner was extremely gentlemanly,
his language well chosen, and the statement of his complaint particularly
clear and concise.
The surgeon, who like most of us see strange things, was puzzled to make
out his new patient, but concluded that he was one of the many who, having
been born to better things, had become reduced by misfortune to these
apparently very narrow circumstances.
Accordingly, having prescribed, the surgeon was about taking his leave,
when the gentleman said,--
"Sir, I thank you very much for your attention," at the same time offering
his hand with a fee.