"Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg.
- Irvin S. Cobb
- Date:
- [1915], ©1915
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: "Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
25/78 page 19
![knuckles, and each time, on doing this, would apply his ear to my chest and listen intently for a spell, afterward shaking his head in a disappointed way. Apparently there was nobody at home. For quite a time he kept on knocking, but without get¬ ting any response. He then took my temperature and fifteen dollars, and said it was an interesting case —not unusual exactly, but interesting—and that it called for an operation. From the way my heart and other organs jumped inside of me at that statement I knew at once that, no matter what he may have thought, the premises were not unoc¬ cupied. Naturally I inquired how soon he meant to operate. Personally I trusted there was no hurry about it. I was per¬ fectly willing to wait for several years, if necessary. He smiled at my ignorance. “I never operate,’- he said; “operating is entirely out of my line. I am a diagnosti¬ cian.” He was, too—I give him full credit for that. He was a good, keen, close diagnosti¬ cian. How did he know I had only fifteen [19]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29817675_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
