"So whilst you two doctors argued, the patient died?"
"It was too late for us to save her life. The coma was too deep. It was a hopeless case."
"Now, then, Doctor, let us come to those symptoms. You enumerated a list, and claimed that you observed them all. The first is cold sweat. Did you notice that specially?"
"The cold sweat was present, but not very marked. It would be less so with morphine than with other forms of opium."
"Oh! So there was not much sweat after all? Now was there more than would be expected on a warm night such as that was?"
"I think so. It is only valuable as a diagnostic sign in conjunction with the other symptoms."
"Next we have slow pulse. This was a half hour before death. Does not the pulse become slow in many cases just before death?"
"Yes."
"Very good. Not much sweat, and slow pulse does not amount to anything. What next? Oh! 'stertorous breathing.' That is not uncommon in diphtheria, is it, Doctor?"
"No."