"A queer kind of patients!" you exclaim.
Yes, very queer. One class of them go round from office to office, to
"just inquire about a friend" (themselves), "if they could be cured," how
long it would require, and, ten to one, even ask what medicines "you would
give for such a case."
Such persons, if females, usually come into the city for the double
purpose of seeing a doctor, or a dozen, and shopping,--doing the shopping
first; tramping from one end of the city to the other, visiting the doctor
last, with bundles and boxes by the score, "in a great hurry; must catch
a certain train; all tired out;" making the opportunity for diagnosis an
unfavorable one, and not unusually asking the doctor--a stranger,
perhaps--to trust them till they come again.
[Illustration: A SHOPPING PATIENT.]
Whoever "O. SHAW" may be, he knows a thing or two. Hear him.