and by overtaxing him, owing to the time all such methodical studies
require, have made his work such that only the patient and the dutiful
can do it justice.

Primary examinations of chest, heart, and other viscera are long and
troublesome, and the first study of a case which is at all difficult,
demands such time as it is increasingly hard for the busy to find. A
good test for laymen in acute cases is the methodical manner in which a
physician of modern training goes over the case, nor is his preciseness
as to doses and medicines less worthy of note. I used to watch with
interest the late Professor P. at a sick-bed. The grave and tranquil
interest, the pauses for thought, the swift thoroughness of examination,
and then the delay, with, "Please, nurse, let me taste that last
medicine," were full of good lessons. Any consultant could tell you what
a rare quality is this union of precision and thoroughness.

Our profession has in its work enough of true difficulties, but we still
owe many of our worst errors to want of absolutely complete study of our
cases, and with the careless these slips are obvious enough to enable
any one who is watchful to sit in judgment on the failures. The more
delicate illustrations of the fine union of qualities which attain the
highest triumphs are, of course, only seen and comprehended by
physicians, whose general opinion on their fellows is in the end almost
always a just one. There is a potent combination of alertness in
observation, with a never-satisfied desire to know even the trifles of a
case, which, with sagacity, gives a medical mental character as rare as
it is valuable.

For such men there are no trifles, and, on entering a sick-room, they
seem to absorb at a glance matters which escape others, and yet to the