Here the
patients waited after having been given their `letters' at mid-day; and the long rows of them, bottles and gallipots in hand, some tattered and dirty, others decent enough, sitting in the dimness, men and women of all ages, children, gave one an impression which was weird and horrible.
"Remember," said he, "I am the most confiding of your
patients; remember I obey you blindly, and that consequently "
One afternoon, towards the close of the London season, the Doctor had just taken his luncheon after a specially hard morning's work in his consulting-room, and with a formidable list of visits to
patients at their own houses to fill up the rest of his day-- when the servant announced that a lady wished to speak to him.
You will see that by these figures: We touched a trifle over 700 of the 800
patients; at former rates, this would have cost the government about
He was naturally humane, but possessed of no small share of moral courage; or, in other words, he was chary of the lives of his
patients, and never tried uncertain experiments on such members of society as were considered useful; but, once or twice, when a luckless vagrant had come under his care, he was a little addicted to trying the effects of every phial in his saddle-bags on the strangers constitution.
My page who admits
patients is a new boy and by no means quick.
Patients who had chronic diseases or whose lives had long been worn threadbare, like old Featherstone's, had been at once inclined to try him; also, many who did not like paying their doctor's bills, thought agreeably of opening an account with a new doctor and sending for him without stint if the children's temper wanted a dose, occasions when the old practitioners were often crusty; and all persons thus inclined to employ Lydgate held it likely that he was clever.
In his Indian captivity, moreover, he had gained much knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots; nor did he conceal from his
patients that these simple medicines, Nature's boon to the untutored savage, had quite as large a share of his own confidence as the European Pharmacopoeia, which so many learned doctors had spent centuries in elaborating.
Mosey, Doctor Allday entered his consulting-room, punctual to the hour at which he was accustomed to receive
patients.
Levin did not approve of all this; he did not believe it would be of any good to the
patient. Above all, he feared the
patient would be angry at it.
A soothing prescription (I have his own authority for saying it) was all that was required to meet the
patient's case.
The physician laughed at his own pleasantry, but narrowly watched his
patient from the corner of his eye.