An artifice, which is not unfrequently employed by the dishonorable physician after being called in consultation, is this. On meeting some friend of the patient he inquires very particularly about the case, asks whether this or that medicine or measure has been tried, expresses by word, or perhaps only by his manner, some surprise at being answered in the negative, though he really has no reason for doing so, and says that he will see the attending physician in relation to the matter. He does not see him—he has no intention to do so. His only object is to create dissatisfaction, or, if the patient dies, to produce the impression, that the measures which he alluded to were agreed upon, and ought to have been followed, and if they had been, they perhaps would have saved the patient. The selfish and cunning physician is apt to make comparisons between the cases to which he is called in consultation, and some of his own cases of the same complaint, which he speaks of as having been very severe, though they terminated successfully. His object is to set forth his own skill, and in doing this he commonly very much over-estimates the severity of the disease in his own cases. Some physicians _manifest_ a deep interest in the patients of their brethren, and make many inquiries of their friends, in regard to the nature of the disease, and the mode of treatment. And if their services are requested in consultation, they are exceedingly attentive at the time, and make some very friendly calls afterwards. This undue attention, assuming the guise of great kindness and a lively interest in the welfare of the patient, though a burdensome and pains-taking trick, is nevertheless a very common one. Sometimes a physician is called in consultation in a case which is not of a grave character, because the friends of the patient think that the attending physician places too low an estimate upon the severity of the disease. If he be an honorable man, he will under such circumstances have no hesitation as to his duty, but will at once say, that the attending physician is right in his views of the case, and that they are unnecessarily alarmed. The cunning and dishonorable practitioner pursues a different course. He makes a great show of examining the case thoroughly, asking many utterly needless questions; and, though he may sooth the anxieties of the family of the patient, and express the belief that he will recover, he does it in such a way as to favor the impression, that the attending physician was not really aware of the magnitude of the case, but that _he_ on the other hand, has estimated it aright, and has looked into it as it should be done.