It seems to be considered by many as the chief object of a consultation to decide the question, whether the patient will die or recover. We hear ignorant people talk about a ‘jury of doctors,’ and they ask ‘what they gave in,’ as if a sort of verdict was to be pronounced of a decisive, almost a binding, character, in regard to the result of the case. The same erroneous ideas are, to some extent, to be found among sensible and well informed people, though they are expressed in a different way. Let me not be understood to say, that the question, whether the patient will probably recover, should not come up for consideration at all. But it is certainly a gross error to suppose, that the decision of this question is a principal object of the consultation. It is in fact a merely incidental object, and it is profitable only as it may have some bearing upon the treatment, as it sometimes does, though much less often, and to a less extent, than is commonly supposed. Sometimes, I may say often, nothing like a decision of this question can be arrived at. Farther developments in the progress of the case must be waited for before this can be done. Neither is it the object of a consultation to have the physician who is called in prescribe to the attending physician what he shall do; though this is often considered to be the object, especially when the consulting physician is much older than the one who is in attendance upon the case. _Dictation_ is certainly very far from being consultation. Again. It should not be among the objects of the friends of the sick, in calling a consultation, to obtain the opinion of the physician who is called in upon the course of treatment which has been pursued. He has nothing to do with the past, except so far as it will aid him in discovering the true nature of the case, and in fixing upon the course to be adopted at the present time. He steps out of his province altogether, if he says anything to the friends in regard to what _has_ been done. This general rule applies not only to criticisms upon practice, but to all expressions of approbation also. The patronizing air, with which some physicians utter their commendations of the course, which has been pursued by the attending practitioner, is a most flagrant insult. It generally involves an unwarrantable and ridiculous assumption of superiority. It is a common trick resorted to by the dishonorable, to impress upon the by-standers an idea of their greatness.