A Post-Mortem Discovery

A Scrap From a Physician's Diary

by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. 

Note—“Upon one condition,” said Dr. Lord, as I sat in his cosy study with his Diary open before me. “I am perfectly willing that you shall transcribe for the Ledger whatever of interest you can find in my journal; but you must not put the names in print as you find them. Whatever is opened to me in my capacity as physician becomes a secret which I have no right to divulge. I could have wished that my own name might have remained unknown; but since you exposed it in your story of ‘The Penknife Blade,’ you may as well let it go. But remember—the identity of my patients must be religiously concealed under assumed names. Of course you comprehend and appreciate.”

“Certainly,” said I. And when I had assured the old amputating and dissecting Trojan that I would be very careful, he allowed me to carry his ponderous journal away with me; and here is what I found among the records:

The Physician’s Story

It was in November—the thirteenth—that Dr. Turner sent for me to meet him in consultation upon a case in B—. On the following day I answered the summons. B— was fourteen miles distant from my residence, and when I reached the place designated I found Turner already there, and with him was Dr. Prescott, of S—. Our patient was a man of about sixty, named Ebenezer Varney. He was a farmer by occupation, though of late years he had turned his attention particularly to stock-breeding and money-lending. He had been fortunate in his… Read More