ll glass,--all
these are but looser outside garments which we have worn until they seem
a part of us, and we do not like the thought of changing them for a new
suit which we have never yet tried on. How well I remember that dear
ancient lady, who lived well into the last decade of her century, as
she repeated the verse which, if I had but one to choose, I would select
from that string of pearls, Gray's 'Elegy'!

"'For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?'

"Plotinus was ashamed of his body, we are told. Better so, it may be,
than to live solely for it, as so many do. But it may be well doubted
if there is any disciple of Plotinus in this Society. On the contrary,
there are many who think a great deal of their bodies, many who have
come here to regain the health they have lost in the wear and tear of
city life, and very few who have not at some time or other of their
lives had occasion to call in the services of a physician.

"There is, therefore, no impropriety in my offering to the members
some remarks upon the peculiar difficulties which beset the medical
practitioner in the discharge of his laborious and important duties.

"A young friend of mine, who has taken an interest in medical studies,
happened to meet with a very familiar story about one of the greatest
and most celebrated of all English physicians, Thomas Sydenham. The
story is that, when a student asked him what books he should read, the
great doctor told him to read 'Don Quixote.'

"This piece of advice has been used to throw contempt upon the study of
books, and furnishes a convenient shield for ignorant pretenders.
But Sydenham left many writings in which he has recorded his medical
experience, and he surely would not have published them if he had not
thought they would be better reading for the medical student than the
story of Cervantes. His own works are esteemed to this day, and he
certainly could not have supposed that they contained all the wisdom of
all the past. No remedy is good, it was said of old, unless applied at
the right time in the right way. So we may say of all anecdotes, like
this which I have told you about Sydenham and the young man. It is very
likely that he carried him to the bedside of some patients, and talked
to him about the cases he showed him, instead of putting a Latin volume
in h