end are still so quietly observant and searching that they seem never to
be quite content with what they have learned. Not to know surely is to
them a form of unhappiness.

I remember well a consultation in a case of great obscurity, into which,
many years ago, the late Dr. G. was called, after three of his
colleagues had failed to reach a conclusion. It was suspected that
poisoning by lead was the cause of a singular and unusual train of
symptoms. Now, in such cases, a blue line around the junction of the
teeth and gums is a certain sign of the presence of that poisonous
metal. The patient, a man of seventy-five years, was known by his own
physician to wear full sets of artificial teeth, and he so said. This
having been stated no one looked at the gums. At the close of the second
meeting Dr. G. turned back unsatisfied. "Let me see your gums. Ah!" he
said. There was the stump of one incisor left, and around it the blue
line told a tale which ended all doubt.

On another occasion, a young physician well known to me, fell by a
chance into a consultation with Dr. P., the physician I have mentioned,
and the late Professor P. The case was one of a young man who several
times had been found at morning in a stupor. The attacks were rare, and
what caused them was unknown. The young physician, much embarrassed, was
civilly asked to examine the case, and did so with a thoroughness which
rather wearied the two older men. When they retired to an adjoining
room, he was asked, as our custom is, to give, as the youngest, the
first opinion. He said, "It is a case of epilepsy. He has bitten his
cheek in the fit." Dr. P. rose without a word and went out. Returning in
a few moments, he said, "You are right. I did not look far enough back.
You will reach, sir, a high rank in our profession." The case was
thenceforward plain enough. These are rare illustrations of my meaning,