CHAPTER XXVI.
"Quidquid enim justum sit id etiam utile esse censent; itemque quod honestum idem justum, ex quo efficitur, ut quidquid honestum sit idem sit utile."—Cicero.
The first thing, in consulting Abernethy, if you were a medical man, was to be clear, and "well up" in the nature of the case; and the next thing, not to state any opinion, unless you were prepared to give a good reason for it. These conditions premised, we never saw any one more unaffectedly deferential to the opinion of another.
A surgeon took a serious case to him, in which the question was as to the removal of a large tumour in the neck, which seemed to be acquiring connections of such depth and importance as to threaten (should that step be desirable) to render the removal of it impossible. The patient was advised to allow his surgeon in ordinary to state his case, and to interrupt him only if he omitted anything in regard to it within the patient's knowledge. This was done; the general habits of the patient described, with the difference which had existed antecedent to the age of thirty, and subsequently thereto. Mr. Abernethy examined the tumour.
To the Surgeon. It is parotid, is it not?
Surgeon. I think not, sir.
Abernethy (hastily). Why not?
Surgeon. Because, sir, reflecting on the depth and situation of the parotid gland, I should hardly expect the tumour to be so moveable.