Round the fountain.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Round the fountain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    189/238 (page 79)
    THE LOST NOTE. I WAS seated one day at the bedside, I was weary and needing rest, And my fingers wandered idly Over the patient’s chest; I had mapped out the cardiac dulness. And was gently percussing the lung, When I struck one note that resounded Like a song from an angel’s tongue. It may have been up at the apex. It may have been down at the base. But the source of that note that thrilled me I have never been able to trace ; It wasn’t exactly skodaic. It certainly wasn’t dull. But it fell on my jaded spirit With a kind of infinite lull. It wasn’t dilated stomach. For the gastric resonance smote On my ear like a horrible discord After this heavenly note ; I don’t think ’twas over the sternum. It can’t have been over the spine. Yet it came from the chest of that patient. And hit me full in mine.