DRUNKENNESS 35 



task of replacing the necessary dressings. Gratitude for 

 having preserved his life seemed to he uppermost in the 

 hero's heart, till, finding he was likely to suffer from his 

 Bacchanalian habits, and that advice and remonstrance 

 were equally vain, he was obliged to call in the services 

 of his own surgeon ; and on the arrival of the ship at 

 Spithead, the Doctor was ordered to return to his own 

 brig, since which time my brother had not seen him. 



Their meeting, as might be anticipated, was a very 

 jolly one. The two friends seemed to vie with each 

 other in their gratulations, and in asking and answering 

 questions as to their mutual wanderings. The Doctor's 

 did not amount to much, as he left the service at Ports- 

 mouth, had formed a matrimonial connection with a 

 sister of one of their messmates, had settled at Redbourn 

 as a medical practitioner, and Avas at that time a 

 widower. 



I could but observe the marked deference he paid to 

 my brother's staid and gentlemanlike deportment, as 

 well as the restraint he at first put on his inclinations ; 

 and as he was possessed of good conversational powers, 

 and had a general knowledge of worldly afiairs, the fairer 

 side of the Doctor's portrait was developed. Open and 

 ingenuous, with a good natural capacity, he had studied 

 anatomy and surgery with ardour and advantage ; but 

 had failed to discover that to ensure success in its 

 practice a study of the amenities of life, and the posses- 

 sion of a polish a little beyond what he was likely to 

 acquire in the cockpit of a man-of-war, were absolutely 

 necessary before he could attain that rank in his pro- 

 fession which men of far less pretensions then occupied. 



