32 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



and instantly life rushed back. The man continued 

 a sentence that he must have begun before the 

 accident ; then he stared wildly, and said, " Where 

 am I ? " The clock of life had stopped through a 

 temporary obstruction, the obstruction was removed 

 and the clock ticked on as before. He was soothed, 

 a silver plate was inserted over the hole, the scalp 

 was replaced and stitched together, and he was sent 

 into the ward. In due time he wholly recovered, the 

 scalp having grown over the plate. 



I had the option of accompanying any of the 

 surgeons or physicians on his morning round. Each 

 had his clinical clerk, who made notes of the case and 

 wrote the treatment prescribed from time to time, 

 upon a paper affixed to a board at the bed-head. I 

 appreciated from the very first the high importance 

 of careful study and record of every case. My feeling 

 is now fully developed which was then in embryo, 

 that it is our duty to avail ourselves of the oppor- 

 tunities that arise from the apparently unmoral course 

 of Nature, of rendering similar events less dangerous 

 and painful in the future. Blind Nature seems to 

 vivisect ruthlessly, let us as reasonable creatures 

 elicit all the good we can from her vivisections, for 

 which we ourselves are in no way responsible. I 

 became a clinical clerk in time, but felt acutely my 

 incompetence to act up to my own high ideals. 



It was a surprise to me to notice so few signs of 

 pain and distress in the wards, even among the 

 mortally stricken. I met with no instances of terror 

 at approaching death, while the ordinary interests of 

 life seemed powerful up to the close of consciousness. 

 But it must be terrible to a sensitive and stricken 



