ase, or what might be called the preventive
practice of surgery, is something they cannot understand. First, and not
the least, among the incentives to skepticism on this subject is the
unwelcome fact of a surgical operation, which, no matter how trivial it
may seem to the surgeon, is a matter of considerable magnitude to the
patient, his parents, or friends; there are risks, pain, worry,
annoyances, and expenses to be undergone,--considerations which, either
singly or unitedly, often lead one to reason against the operation, even
when otherwise convinced of its need or utility.

The hardest to convince are those, however, who insist on having a
four-and-a-half-foot-gauge fact driven through their two-foot-gated
understanding, without it ever occurring to them that the gate, and not
the fact, is the faulty article, Some of these gentry are very
unconvincible. They at times remind one of that description given by
Carlyle in regard to one of the Georges, who found himself, when Prince
of Wales, leading an army in Flanders, and actually engaged in a
battle. His Royal Highness was on foot, and was seen standing facing the
enemy, with outstretched legs, like a Colossus of Rhodes, impassive and
stolid,--the very impersonification of Dutch courage and aggressiveness.
There he stood, unconscious whether he was at the head of an army or
single attendant; he might be overridden and annihilated, overturned and
expunged, but there he would most assuredly stand and fall, if need be;
overwhelming squadrons, by their impetus and weight, might ride him down
and crush him; but one thing was most certain, this certain fact being
that he never could be made to retreat or advance, as no impression from
front or rear could convince him of the necessity of either.

Then, there is our statistical friend, who cannot discriminate between
the exception and the rule by any common-sense deductions. He must have
all the authentic, carefully-compiled statistics before he can allow
himself to form any opinion. As long as there is the smallest fraction
of a decimal unaccounted for in a mathematical way, this individual is
inconvincible. These men pride themselves upon being methodically exact;
they express their willingness to be convinced if you can present
acceptable proofs; but, trying to present simple rational proofs to
these individuals is considerably like presenting a meal of boiled pork
and cabbage to a confirmed and hypochondriacal dyspeptic