gard to the feelings of men of his own rank; and his language
towards them was rather emphatic, than delicate or well chosen. In his
progress round the ward, he came to the bed of a man suffering from a
diseased leg. He removed the bandage from the part, and asked, "what
fool had tied it up so clumsily;" _the fool_, as he well knew, being the
house surgeon at his side. Again, another practitioner at the hospital
had recommended a particular treatment in a particular case. This
gentleman, the baron's colleague, was referred to as--"a child who had
yet to learn the alphabet of surgery--who would have been laughed at,
twenty years ago, had he prescribed such antiquated nostrums--a weak
child--a mere baby, gentlemen."----"How much," I exclaimed mentally,
time after time, "must this man have altered since H---- parted with him
as his respected friend!" And yet in some regards he was not altered at
all. There was the same consideration for the poor sufferers--the same
attention to their many complaints and wants--the same tenderness and
kind disposition to humour and pacify them, which H---- had dwelt upon
with so much commendation. There was no hurrying from case to case--no
sign of impatience at the reiterated unmeaning queries of the
patients--no coarse jest at _their_ expense--not a syllable that could
wound the susceptibility of the most sensitive. Did one poor fellow
betray an anxiety to take up as little of the baron's time as possible,
and, speaking hurriedly, almost exhaust his little stock of feeble
breath, it was absolutely touching to mark the happy mode in which the
surgeon put the flurried one at ease. Had these creatures, paupers as
they were, been rich and noble--had they, strangers as they were, been
brothers every one, he could not have evinced a tenderer interest on
their behalf--a stronger disposition to do them service. In spite of
myself, I loved the baron for his condescending to these men of low
estate.

It will not be necessary to dwell upon the proceedings of the place: I
could extract from my note-book pages that would delight the medical
reader, necessarily dry and tedious to the uninitiated. Suffice it to
say, that many hours were spent in the surgical wards by this
indefatigable surgeon: every individual case received his best
attention, and was prescribed for as carefully as though a noble fee
waited upon each. The ceremony being at an end, I was about to retire,
agreeably surprised and gratifie