His mode of relating cases which involved some important principle, showed how really interested he had been in them. A gentleman having recovered from a very serious illness, after having failed a long time in getting relief, was threatened, by the influence of the same causes, with a return of his malady. "He thought," said Abernethy, "that if he did not drink deeply, he might eat like a glutton." He lived in the country, and Mr. Abernethy one day went and dined with him. "Well," said Mr. Abernethy, "I saw he was at his old tricks again; so, being a merchant, I asked him what he would think of a man who, having been thriving in business, had amassed a comfortable fortune, and then went and risked it all in some imprudent speculation?" "Why," said the merchant, "I should think him a great ass." "Nay, then, sir," said Abernethy, "thou art the man." On another occasion, a boy having suffered severely from disease of the hip, Abernethy had enjoined his father to remove him from a situation which he was unfitted to fill, and which, from the exertion it required, would expose him to a dangerous recurrence of his complaint. The father, however, put the boy back to his situation. One day, Abernethy met both father and son in Chancery Lane, and he saw the boy, who had a second time recovered, again limping in his walk. After making the necessary inquiry—"Sir," said he to the father, "did I not warn you not to place your son in that situation again?" The father admitted the fact. "Then, sir," said Abernethy, "if that boy dies, I shall be ready to say you are his murderer." Sure enough, the boy had another attack, and did die in a horrible condition. This story, and others of a similar kind, were intended to impress the paramount importance of keeping diseased parts, _and joints especially_, in a state of _perfect repose_; and to prevent a recurrence of mischief, by avoiding modes of life inappropriate to constitutions which had exhibited a tendency to this serious class of diseases. He was remarkably good on the mode of examining and detecting the nature of accidents; as fractures and dislocations. In regard to the latter, he had many very good stories, of which we will presently cite a ludicrous example. He could, however, throw in pathos with admirable skill when he desired it. The following lamentable case he used to tell to an audience singularly silent. He is speaking of the course of a large artery.