I proved to be the subject of a long
catalogue of diseases, and what maladies I was not manifestly guilty of I
was at least suspected of harboring. I was handed along all the way from
alopecia, which used to be called baldness, to zoster, which used to be
known as shingles. I was the patient of more than a dozen specialists.
Very pleasant persons, many of them, but what a fuss they made about my
trifling incommodities! 'Please look at that photograph. See if there is
a minute elevation under one eye.'

"'On which side?' I asked him, for I could not be sure there was anything
different on one side from what I saw on the other.

"'Under the left eye. I called it a pimple; the specialist called it
acne. Now look at this photograph. It was taken after my acne had been
three months under treatment. It shows a little more distinctly than in
the first photograph, does n't it?'

"'I think it does,' I answered. 'It does n't seem to me that you gained
a great deal by leaving your customary adviser for the specialist.'

"'Well,' my friend continued, 'following my wife's urgent counsel, I kept
on, as I told you, for a whole year with my specialists, going from head
to foot, and tapering off with a chiropodist. I got a deal of amusement
out of their contrivances and experiments. Some of them lighted up my
internal surfaces with electrical or other illuminating apparatus.
Thermometers, dynamometers, exploring-tubes, little mirrors that went
half-way down to my stomach, tuning-forks, ophthalmoscopes,
percussion-hammers, single and double stethoscopes, speculums,
sphygmometers,--such a battery of detective instruments I had never
imagined. All useful, I don't doubt; but at the end of the year I began
to question whether I should n't have done about as well to stick to my
long tried practitioner. When the bills for "professional services" came
in, and the new carpet had to be given up, and the old bonnet trimmed
over again, and the sealskin sack remained a vision, we both agreed, my
wife and I, that we would try to get along without consulting
specialists, except in such cases as our family physician considered to
be beyond his skill.'"

The Counsellor's story of his friend's experiences seemed to please the
young Doctor very much. It "stirred him up," but in an agreeable way;
for, as he said, he meant to devote himself to family practice, and not
to adopt any limited class of cases as a specialty. I liked his views so
well that I