“The next trouble I had was a little redness of the eyes, for which
my doctor gave me a wash; but my wife would have it that I must see an
oculist. So I made four visits to an oculist, and at the last visit the
redness was nearly gone,--as it ought to have been by that time. The
specialist called my complaint conjunctivitis, but that did not make it
feel any better nor get well any quicker. If I had had a cataract or any
grave disease of the eye, requiring a nice operation on that delicate
organ, of course I should have properly sought the aid of an expert,
whose eye, hand, and judgment were trained to that special business; but
in this case I don't doubt that my family doctor would have done just
as well as the expert. However, I had to obey orders, and my wife
would have it that I should entrust my precious person only to the most
skilful specialist in each department of medical practice.
“In the course of the year I experienced a variety of slight
indispositions. For these I was auriscoped by an aurist, laryngoscoped
by a laryngologist, ausculted by a stethoscopist, and so on, until a
complete inventory of my organs was made out, and I found that if I
believed all these searching inquirers professed to have detected in my
unfortunate person, I could repeat with too literal truth the words of
the General Confession, 'And there is no health in us.' I never heard
so many hard names in all my life. I proved to be the subject of a long
catalogue of diseases, and what maladies I was not manifestly guilty of
I was at least suspected of harboring. I was handed along all the way
from alopecia, which used to be called baldness, to zoster, which
used to be known as shingles. I was the patient of more than a dozen
specialists. Very pleasant persons, many of them, but what a fuss they
made about my trifling incommodities! 'Please look at that photograph.
See if there is a minute elevation under one eye.'
“'On which side?' I asked him, for I could not be sure there was
anything different on one side from what I saw on the other.
“'Under the left eye. I called it a pimple; the specialist called it
acne. Now look at this photograph. It was taken after my acne had been
three months under treatment. It shows a little more distinctly than in
the first photograph, does n't it?'
“'I think it does,' I answered. 'It does n't seem to me that you gained
a great deal by leaving your customary adviser for the specialist.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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