1832-37- IMPRESSIONS OF HOSPITAL LIFE. 13 



repose he can in his uneasy posture. He has, as the senior 

 explains, 'disease of the heart;' certain of its valves are 

 not fulfilling the purpose they were designed to fulfil, and 

 hence his sufferings, which death only will terminate. 



" Here is a second, trembling lest you touch his bed- 

 clothes, and quivering from time to time with' scarcely 

 endurable agony. He has disease of the knee-joint, and, 

 the senior whispers, will have his leg taken off to-morrow. 

 And so that articulation on which the professor of Anatomy 

 expatiated in special lectures, as abounding in the most 

 skilful arrangements for combining strength, flexibility, and 

 rapidity of easy motion, has suffered such destruction, that 

 it is not only useless, but so injurious, by neutralizing or 

 deranging all the otherwise healthful, life-sustaining arrange- 

 ments of the body, that it must be removed, however harsh 

 and perilous the process be. 



" Here is a third, haggard and wan, beseeching the doc- 

 tor for more laudanum, as he has no rest night or day. He 

 has cancer of the stomach, and will linger long before death 

 release him from his sufferings. 



" Here is a fourth, a virtuous and once a beautiful woman, 

 but lupus has eaten away half her face, and the disease is 

 still spreading. 



" We will look at but one case more. It is a relief to the 

 student to turn to it, for the patient has a bright eye, and 

 says with a smile, though his breath catches a little, * that 

 he is better, and feels he needs only the air of his native 

 hills, to which he is presently going, to make him all well 

 again.' He is far gone in Consumption, and has not many 

 days to live. . . . 



" The facts I have mentioned are unquestionably start- 

 ling and sad. They drive some altogether from medicine 

 as a profession j they tempt such as prosecute its practice 



