passers-by have stopped, like ourselves, to
look on.

"I knew a man," says one, "who was being bled like that, and kept on
saying, 'take a little more,' till he fell back dead in our arms."

"Yes," chimes in another, "I have heard of such cases; it is very
dangerous."

Although the patient is evidently growing very nervous, our surgical
friend affects supreme indifference to all this tittle-tattle, and
after a while removes the bandage, bending the forearm inward, with
the effect of somewhat checking the flow of blood. When he has bound
up with list the cane that holds the lancets, he closes the forearm
back entirely, so that the flow is stopped. Opening it again a little,
he wipes a sponge over the aperture a few times, and closes it with
his thumb. Then he binds a bit of filthy rag round the arm, twisting
it above and below the elbow alternately, and crossing over the
incision each time. When this is done, he sends the patient to throw
away the blood and wash the plate, receiving for the whole operation
the sum of three half-pence.

Another patient is waiting his turn, an old man desiring to be bled
behind the ears for headache. After shaving two patches for the
purpose, the "bleeder," as he is justly called, makes eighteen
scratches close together, about half an inch long. Over these he
places a brass cup of the shape of a high Italian hat without the
brim. From near the edge of this protrudes a long brass tube with a
piece of leather round and over the end. This the operator sucks to
create a vacuum, the moistened leather closing like a valve, which
leaves the cup hanging _in situ_. Repeating this on the other side, he
empties the first cup of the blood which has by this time accumulated
in it, and so on alternately, till he has drawn off what appears to
him to be sufficient. All that remains to be done is to wipe the
wounds and receive the fee.

Some years ago such a worthy as this earned quite a reputation for
exorcising devils in Southern Morocco. His mode of procedure was
brief, but as a rule effective. The patient was laid on the ground
before the wise man's tent, face downward, and after reading certain
mystic and unintelligible passages, selected from one of the ponderous
tomes which form a prominent part of the "doctor's" stock-in-trade, he
solemnly ordered two or three men to hold the sufferer down while two
more thrashed him till they were tired. If, when released, the patient
showed the least sign