250 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



while retaining such litheness of 

 development. His only reply was 

 a learned disquisition upon the 

 minutise of animal economy, by 

 which it appeared that, given cer- 

 tain conditions of physical be- 

 ing, certain concomitant phenomena 

 must ensue, or some equally lucid 

 thesis of the kind, leaving me more 

 perplexed than ever. 



Doubtless the discourse was in- 

 tended to produce in the mind of a 

 layman that veneration he was wont 

 to receive from those to whom this 

 erudition was the credential of all 

 knowledge possible to man; and, 

 rather than betray sign of dissent, 

 I suffered the worthy orator to fin- 

 ish his grandiloquent harangue. It 

 was nevertheless a relief to my 

 mind when, rising from the table, 

 he led the way to his office, bidding 

 me follow him. 



In an apartment of moderate di- 

 mensions were collected the visible 

 insignia of his profession, forming, 

 as I remember them, a motley ar- 

 ray of odds and ends, some of them 

 of obvious import, but by far the 

 greater part, crowding the shelves 

 and suspended from the ceiling, 

 corresponding to no purpose within 

 my comprehension. Human anat- 

 omy in its harmonious entirety may 

 truly command our grateful admi- 

 ration it is well for us indeed that 

 we have been so carefully devised 

 and put together; but I could never 

 experience a proper awe when con- 

 fronted with dismembered rem- 

 nants of mortality, steeped in em- 

 balming fluids, or finding melan- 

 choly sepulture in some ticketed 

 recess, to be exhibited as "beauti- 

 ful specimens" from time to time. 



As I surveyed the ghastly as- 

 semblage of commemorative reli- 

 quiae around me, I could not but 

 suspect that the neighboring de- 

 pository of departed townsmen was 

 in the fullest sense the palladium 

 of the doctor's conquests, and the 

 possibility of his depredations in 

 behalf of science recalled an an- 

 (jatenimec of my acquaintance who, 



during a revolution in an adjacent 

 province, stealthily exhumed the 

 remains of a departed parent and 

 deposited them in a soap-box, laid 

 upon the hallway shelf, awaiting 

 an auspicious occasion for reinter- 

 ment. 



Yet in this weird laboratory 

 where I stood had dwelt and la- 

 bored and aspired a human soul, 

 thirsting for the verities of life, 

 discarding non-essentials aod, from 

 the harvest of fruitful years, win- 

 nowing the precious grain in happy 

 service to mankind. And if occa- 

 sionally, beneath the kindly influ- 

 ence of the good doctor's ministra- 

 tions, some fellow-mortal was laid 

 to rest before his time, or a super- 

 fluous anguish was visited upon 

 some too sanguine subject of ex- 

 periment, it must be admitted that 

 these derelictions from virtue, if 

 such they really were, found ample 

 atonement in the reflection that 

 they did but mark the boundary of 

 the physician's wisdom, and were 

 compensated by the vast amount 

 of misery actually mitigated by his 

 skill. 



As we took seats in the front 

 patio, the doctor descanted upon 

 various themes touching medicinal 

 aid, elaborating his thoughts as he 

 proceeded, but always adhering to 

 primitive methods and theories in 

 connection with pathology and 

 treatment. I could not but note the 

 elegance of his diction, and his 

 frequent use of pure Latin words, 

 which give to the Spanish language 

 so concise and impressive a tone. 

 His command, too, of provincial 

 apothegms was remarkable, many 

 of them conveying in graceful inu- 

 endo the philosophical thoughts 

 to which his countrymen are 

 prone. 



The afternoon was fine; the sun's 

 heat was tempered by a cooling 

 breeze from^he south, and we saun- 

 tered forth towards the limit of the 

 town where the doctor was accus- 

 tomed to gather certain herbs of 

 subtle curative properties, the se 



