Page 650 - of-human-bondage-

lars of masonry and long benches. Here the patients waited
after having been given their ‘letters’ at mid-day; and the
long rows of them, bottles and gallipots in hand, some
tattered and dirty, others decent enough, sitting in the dim-
ness, men and women of all ages, children, gave one an
impression which was weird and horrible. They suggested
the grim drawings of Daumier. All the rooms were painted
alike, in salmon-colour with a high dado of maroon; and
there was in them an odour of disinfectants, mingling as
the afternoon wore on with the crude stench of humanity.
The first room was the largest and in the middle of it were
a table and an office chair for the physician; on each side of
this were two smaller tables, a little lower: at one of these sat
the house-physician and at the other the clerk who took the
‘book’ for the day. This was a large volume in which were
written down the name, age, sex, profession, of the patient
and the diagnosis of his disease.
At half past one the house-physician came in, rang the
bell, and told the porter to send in the old patients. There
were always a good many of these, and it was necessary to
get through as many of them as possible before Dr. Tyrell
came at two. The H.P. with whom Philip came in contact
was a dapper little man, excessively conscious of his impor-
tance: he treated the clerks with condescension and patently
resented the familiarity of older students who had been his
contemporaries and did not use him with the respect he felt
his present position demanded. He set about the cases. A
clerk helped him. The patients streamed in. The men came
first. Chronic bronchitis, ‘a nasty ‘acking cough,’ was what