Many are the stories in which Abernethy’s name appears; many have been exaggerated; many are falsely connected with his name. Sometimes he would, instead of crushing a victim, become sufficiently the victim himself. A lady once said to him: “I had heard of your rudeness before, but I did not expect this.” When he handed her his prescription, she asked: “What am I to do with this?” The rough reply was, “Anything you like. Put it in the fire if you please.” The lady took him at his word, laid down her fee, threw the prescription into the fire, and left the room; nor could Abernethy persuade her to receive her fee again, or a fresh prescription. Notwithstanding all stories to his disadvantage, there is no doubt that Abernethy’s intentions were most kind, and that he never took a fee from a patient who might possibly be unable to afford it comfortably. For these two reasons, his not unfrequent roughness, and his leniency about fees, he certainly had a much smaller income than he might have secured. Yet his income was very considerable, but not carefully managed. One day calling to pay his wine merchant for a pipe of wine, he threw down a handful of notes, and pieces of paper with fees. On being asked to wait till all were accurately counted, as some of the fees might be more than he thought. “Never mind,” said he, “I can’t stop; you have them as I took them,” and hurried away. It is now time to refer to some of Abernethy’s principal publications. In 1793 he published his first volume of Surgical and Physiological Essays, including his celebrated essay on lumbar abscess, in which he details a simple and beautiful method of cure which has since been largely followed. In the second volume of these essays, a paper on the functions of the skin details some careful experiments upon the air in which the hand or foot had been confined for some time. He detected some carbonic acid in such air, and founded upon the experiments important views as to the necessity of keeping the skin cleansed and in healthy action. The third part of these essays, published in 1797, contained an important paper on injuries of the head, deprecating among other things all unnecessary interference, and so preventing many a fruitless operation. In 1806 appeared Abernethy’s Surgical Observations, including an account of the disorders of health in general, and of the digestive organs in particular, which accompany local diseases, and obstruct their cure. Whenever he wished to impress upon a patient or a practitioner the importance of attending to the general health, and the stomach in particular, if some local disease was to be cured, he always referred to his book, so that his phrase “read my book” was expected as a certainty. But it appeared sometimes as if he perceived disorder of the digestive organs in every case. A lady who had an affection outside the knee-joint occasioned by a blow against the edge of a step, went to Mr. Abernethy, and was about to show the affected part,