"
* * * * *
SCOTCH DEGREE.
A few years since, a vain old country surgeon obtained a diploma to
practice, and called on Dr. H----, of Bath, with the important
intelligence. At dinner, the doctor asked his new brother, if the form of
diplomas ran now in the same style as at the early commencement of those
honours? "Pray Sir, what might that form be?" says the surgeon, "I'll
give it to you," replied our Galen, when stepping to his daughter's
harpsichord, he sung the following prophecy of the Witches to _Macbeth_:
He must, he must,
He shall, he shall
Spill much more blood
And become worse,
To make his title good.
"That, sir, was the true ancient mode of conferring a Scotch degree on Dr.
Macbeth."
G.J.Y.
* * * * *
THREE FACES.
Three faces wears the doctor; when first sought
An angel's--and a god's the cure half wrought;
But when, that cure complete, he seeks his fee,
The devil looks then less terrible than he.
This epigram is illustrated by the following conversation, which passed
between Bouvart and a French marquis, whom he had attended during a long
and severe indisposition. As he entered the chamber on a certain occasion,
he was thus addressed by his patient: "Good day to you, Mr. Bouvart; I
feel quite in spirits, and think my fever has left me.
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