We know a hard-drinking old fox-hunter who abused Dr. Abernethy roundly; but all that he could say against him was this:-- "Why, sir,--will you believe me?--almost the first words he said, as he entered my room, was, 'I perceive you drink a good deal.' "Now," continued the patient, very _naïvely_, "supposing I did, what the devil was that to him?" Another gentleman, who had a most unfortunate appearance on his nose, exactly like that which accompanies dram-drinking, used to be exceedingly irate against Dr. A. because, when he told the doctor that his stomach was out of order, Abernethy would reply,-- "Ay, I see that by your nose." THE DUKE, OR THE POOR GENTLEMAN. One day, just as Dr. Abernethy was stepping into his carriage to make a professional visit to the Duke of W., to whom he had been called in a hurry, a gentleman stopped him to say that the ----, at Somers Town (mentioning a poor gentleman whom he had visited without fee), would be glad to have him visit him again at his leisure. "Why, I cannot go now," Dr. Abernethy replied, "for I am going in haste to see the Duke of W." Then, pausing a moment before stepping into his carriage, he looked up to the coachman, and quietly said, "To Somers Town." The fidgety irritability of his first impression at interference, and the beneficence of his second thought, were very characteristic of Dr. Abernethy. A pupil, who wished to consult him one day, took the very inauspicious moment when the doctor (and professor) was looking over his papers, but a few moments before lecture, in the museum. "I am fearful, sir, that I have a polypus in my nose, and want you to look at it," said the student. The doctor made no reply; but when he had completed the sorting of his preparations, he said, looking up,-- "Eh?" To which the pupil repeated his request. [Illustration: AFRAID OF A POLYPUS.] "Then stand on your head; don't you see that all the light here comes from the skylight? How am I to look into your nose?" (This was true, for there were no side-lights in the amphitheatre.) "Where do you live?" continued the doctor. "Bartholomew Close, sir." "At what time do you get up?" "At eight." "You can't be at Bedford Row" (where Abernethy resided) "at nine, then?" "Yes, sir, I can." "To-morrow morning, then." "Yes, sir; thank you." The pupil was punctual. Dr. Abernethy made a very careful examination of his nose, found nothing of the nature of polypus, made the pupil promise never to look into his nose again, and he, in after years, said, that there never was anything the matter. Dr. Abernethy never took a fee from a student, brother doctor, nor full fee from a clergyman. His great labors seemed to be in the hospitals, and on his resignation as surgeon to St. Bartholomew, he presented for its use five hundred dollars. He never neglected his poor hospital patients for the richer ones outside.