I was
perfectly willing to wait for several years, if necessary. He smiled at
my ignorance.

"I never operate," he said; "operating is entirely out of my line. I am
a diagnostician."

He was, too--I give him full credit for that. He was a good, keen, close
diagnostician. How did he know I had only fifteen dollars on me? You
did not have to tell this man what you had, or how much. He knew without
being told.

I asked whether he was acquainted with Doctor Y--Y being a person whom I
had met casually at a club to which I belong. Oh, yes, he said, he
knew Doctor Y. Y was a clever man, X said--very, very clever; but Y
specialized in the eyes, the ears, the nose and the throat. I gathered
from what Doctor X said that any time Doctor Y ventured below the thorax
he was out of bounds and liable to be penalized; and that if by any
chance he strayed down as far as the lungs he would call for help and
back out as rapidly as possible.

This was news to me. It would appear that these up-to-date practitioners
just go ahead and divide you up and partition you out among themselves
without saying anything to you about it. Your torso belongs to one man
and your legs are the exclusive property of his brother practitioner
down on the next block, and so on. You may belong to as many as half a
dozen specialists, most of whom, very possibly, are total strangers to
you, and yet never know a thing about it yourself.

It has rather the air of trespass--nay, more than that, it bears some
of the aspects of unlawful entry--but I suppose it is legal. Certainly,
judging by what I am able to learn, the system is being carried on
generally. So it must be ethical. Anything doctors do in a mass is
ethical. Almost anything they do singly and on individual responsibility
is unethical. Being ethical among doctors is practically the same thing
as being a Democrat in Texas or a Presbyterian in Scotland.

"Y will never do for you," said Doctor X, when I had rallied somewhat
from the shock of these disclosures. "I would suggest that you go to
Doctor Z, at such-and-such an address. You are exactly in Z's line. I'll
let him know that you are coming and when, and I'll send him down my
diagnosis."

So that same afternoon, the appointment having been made by telephone,
I went, full of quavery emotions, to Doctor Z's place. As soon as I was
inside his outer hallway, I realized that I was nearing the presence of
one highly distinguished in his profession.

A