Brown-Sequard, when the
night bell was pulled violently.
It was winter, and I confess I grumbled as I rose and went
downstairs to open the door. Twice that week I had been aroused
long after midnight for the most trivial causes. Once, to attend
upon the son and heir of a wealthy family, who had cut his thumb
with a penknife, which, it seems, he insisted on taking to bed with
him; and once, to restore a young gentleman to consciousness, who
had been found by his horrified parent stretched insensible on the
staircase. Diachylon in the one case and ammonia in the other were
all that my patients required; and I had a faint suspicion that the
present summons was perhaps occasioned by no case more necessitous
than those I have quoted. I was too young in my profession,
however, to neglect opportunities. It is only when a physician
rises to a very large practice that he can afford to be
inconsiderate. I was on the first step of the ladder, so I humbly
opened my door.
A woman was standing ankle deep in the snow that lay upon the
stoop. I caught but a dim glimpse of her form, for the night was
cloudy; but I could hear her teeth rattling like castanets, and, as
the sharp wind blew her clothes close to her form, I could discern
from the sharpness of the outlines that she was very scantily
supplied with raiment.
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