[136] See a History of this curious discovery in "A Memoir on the Life and Scientific Labours of the Rev. William Gregor, by J. A. Paris, M. D."—London, 1818.
APPENDIX.
PART I.
A DIALOGUE
Between Dr. A.—a Physician, and Mr. B.—an Invalid, on the comparative merits of different Climates, as places of Winter residence.
"Ne quis error loci nascatur—"
Mr. B.—In a conversation which we held together in the early part of the summer, you will remember the promise you then gave of affording me such advice, relative to the choice of a winter's residence, as the declining state of my health might require. The autumn is now rapidly advancing, and I feel that no time should be lost in making such arrangements as may enable me to pass the approaching winter with the greatest prospect of benefit.
Dr. A.—I fully acquiesce in the propriety of your resolution, and shall readily afford you any information in my power; but you well know that to a physician there is not a question which he approaches with so much diffidence, or dismisses with such little satisfaction.
Mr. B.—I am well aware of the difficulties to which you refer; circumstances of a moral nature, with which the physician can rarely become sufficiently acquainted, must necessarily have considerable weight in directing the decision; but in my own case it is fortunate that no such embarrassment can impede your judgment. My only object and care is the restoration of health, and my means are sufficient to enable me to pursue it in any way which may give the fairest promise of success.