BOB SAWYER'S NOT YET DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 252, 17 October 1908, Page 4

808 SAWYER'S NOT YET DEAD.

•cite i)in;iii-;s of hoiTous xu IM'KfAsE TIIEIK PPACTTCE.

j Most people wl„. have read "The Picky wick Paper-" have bee u amused at the devices adopted by that enterprising and unscrupulous young doctor, Mr. Bob Sawyer, io improve his unremunerative ;, practice, and they have probably ining'l ined that tiio-e liltle dodges were, eiiI liroly invented l.v Charles Dickens, aud Ji have no parallel in real life. . . This is a fallacy. Duelurs-parlioii-I larly young doctors struggling for a liv|i ing— very often are quite as resource- - fill as Bob Sawyer, only they are not nearly so communicative. I for example, many years ago a l "cheap" doctor in file East End of Eondon took into partnership another ineui- ; eal man, who professed to practise also ' in Harley Street. To a thinking person it seems ridiculous that a thriving Harley Street physician should go into the ' East-end to practise as a sixpenny doctor; but the fiction seemed to go down ' .very well in the uneducated East, and , the joint practice to flourish on the \ strength of it. ' Pasted up inside the surgery for the \ awe and information of the waiting poor j .was a large printed notice, setting forth the hours at which the doctor could be consulted in his Hurley Street home! . The fact that uo such name figured at such an address ill the medical list never ' disturbed the legend. The medical list is not a book of reference in the East-end. This doctor was one who believed in . the axiom: "the worse the disease, the . more marvellous the cure." With him 1 an ordinary feverish cold was always ' influenza, lie sent his patients to bed, 1 and kept them there, for visits meant t double fees. He had a charming nian- ' nor, and was a great favourite with the women. His medicine for influenza was preferred io his partner's; it was said lo taste like wine. In. fact, one patient playfully oll'ereil to buy a gallon of it from him for a Christmas party. y "Mum's the word," said the partner, , with a grin, some lime after. "But the 1 fact is, it was wine—cheap port and r water." f Eor some unexplained reason the ,' partnership was eventually dissolved, r and then more incidents concerning the s "Harley .Street" man were forthcom- -- ing. > He would examine lite sore throat of 3 sonic youngster, pronounce his diagnosis, 1 and then delight the parents by assuring , litem that the child had a wonderful j throat development, and would live to i thrill the world with its voice. 1 Pleurodynia—a neuralgic afl'ectioii of 1 the chest, wall—he invariably pronounct ed to be pleurisy. The two things are very similar as lo symptoms, except . that with the loriuer there is no fever, 1 and, of course, while pleurisy is a seii- . j oils disease, pleurodynia i„—'.ike n -u- ----' -ralgia of the face—a painful, but not [j a grave, mailer. So the rapidity will : which he eared "pleurisy" caus"d . ; ! general admiration and astonishment. , The practice of another meil.cn eon- ; .sist-iug largelv of luiihvifcrv, it seemed . natural enough that the walls of ids' surgery should be covered with the ! photographs of graleful nioiher., and ; . their bouncing- oli-priug. \\ hat nrettier ; compliment, could be paid to Inn? VVk.ii boiler advertisement could lie display? ! ■ 'The only rill wiihin iho lute was his ' .confession thai he had bought the' . nucleus of Hie colledion before he open- '. I ed the praeiice. and had begged, bur- ' i rowed, or stolen most 01 the 'remainder I j lieveriing lo the more serious side of .doctor's "dodgery." a certain doctor 'noted for his "marvellous cures" was ! consulted by a man win, was suffering from a pain in the righi side of his ' abdomen. '.])„. doclor professed to be ' much concerned about ii finally dinnosing il as appendiciii-.. 'The paliciil, who was ;i nervous man. pa--ed a sleepless niiilii, the pivv to all manner of forebodings: but in the morning he bad lie- good sense to seek the opinion of another practitioner, who was more expensive, but less sensational. The re.siilt justilied his action, for, to his immense relief, he found that his "appendicitis" consisted merely of a chill on the liver!

Another man. having a violent cold accompanied by « pain on his left side, was persuaded by some friends to go to a doclor. who had done niiinv reniaiknblo things for their family. He. went, and was horrified to hear ■that he had inllaniniation of the lungs near the heart. The doctor told hiin he must stay with his friends while he pulled him through; but this 111:111, having faith only in his own particular physician, decided to go home at all costs. Arriving there late at night, he crawled 0:1 to his doctor's house. After an examination, (he doctor informed him that he certainly had a bad cold, with, perhaps, just a suspicion of bronchitis about it. But. as for inflammation of the lungs, near Ihe heart, or anywhere else !