Dr. Gheist : an Autobiography from the Midlands. (E. and
S. Livingstone, Edinburgh.)—" Dr. Gheist" professes to be a country doctor retired from practice ; "now a very old man," he says of himself, in his preface. One soon begins to doubt the accuracy of this description, and the doubt is confirmed when we find him, ap- parently early in his practice, called in on occasion of an accident which had occurred when "the Empress of Austria was out with her suite," and young enough to fall in love with the lady whom he attended. If an author assumes a disguise, he should adapt it to himself a little more cleverly. Apart from this, there is plenty of sound sense.in this volume. The writer, in fact, is evidently keenly interested in the practice of medicine, as it is carried on at present. Nothing in his volume is more manifestly in earnest than his com- plaints of the way in which London " consultants " (i.e., physicians or surgeons whom patients are sent up or go up to consult) appro- priate cases that belong to country practitioners. There is no mis- take, again, about the earnestness with which a very unflattering description of a lady doctor—Dr. Mary Molliere—is given. We may commend to the notice of oar readers what the writer says of the "Club" system. It is,—" A young doctor may think it infra dig. to be paid a small salary for attending the members of a Club; but he should reflect that he is helping to carry out a very valuable applica- tion of the provident principle, and that there is nothing in which there is more pauperisation than in the practice of medicine."
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