“Now,” continued the patient, very naïvely, “supposing I did, what the devil was that to him?”
Another gentleman, who had a most unfortunate appearance on his nose, exactly like that which accompanies dram-drinking, used to be exceedingly irate against Dr. A. because, when he told the doctor that his stomach was out of order, Abernethy would reply,—
“Ay, I see that by your nose.”
The Duke, or the poor Gentleman.
One day, just as Dr. Abernethy was stepping into his carriage to make a professional visit to the Duke of W., to whom he had been called in a hurry, a gentleman stopped him to say that the ——, at Somers Town (mentioning a poor gentleman whom he had visited without fee), would be glad to have him visit him again at his leisure.
“Why, I cannot go now,” Dr. Abernethy replied, “for I am going in haste to see the Duke of W.” Then, pausing a moment before stepping into his carriage, he looked up to the coachman, and quietly said, “To Somers Town.”
The fidgety irritability of his first impression at interference, and the beneficence of his second thought, were very characteristic of Dr. Abernethy.
A pupil, who wished to consult him one day, took the very inauspicious moment when the doctor (and professor) was looking over his papers, but a few moments before lecture, in the museum.
“I am fearful, sir, that I have a polypus in my nose, and want you to look at it,” said the student.
The doctor made no reply; but when he had completed the sorting of his preparations, he said, looking up,—