Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/263

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BAILLIE. 243 was not at the expense of generosity ; his kind- ness and even his munificence are preserved in the memory of many of his survivors. He was in the constant habit of refusing fees, when he thought they could be ill afforded ; and not a few of his patients have become his pecuniary debtors. He had no taste for splendour, but he lived in the manner of an affluent English gentleman. His person was below the middle size, his countenance was plain, but frank ; he retained the dialect of his country, and was blunt in his address, but, when excited into earnest conversation, his fea- tures became illuminated with vivacity and intel- ligence. His personal habits were particularly simple. He preserved through life that tender interest towards his native land which invariably animates superior minds. From his habit of pubhc lecturing, he had acquired two great advantages: First, a minute and accurate knowledge of the structure of the human body ; and, second, the most perfect dis- tinctness and excellent arrangement, in what may be called the art of statement. For this latter quality he was very remarkable ; and even when he was compelled to rehnquish lecturing (by which he had acquired it), in consequence of the grow- ing extent of his practice, it continued to be of daily advantage to him. In examining a patient, for the purpose of learning the symptoms of the complaint, the questions he put were so few as to give an impression of haste and carelessness ; in conversing on the case with the physician whom he met in consultation, he was very short and clear ; and it was not until the relations or friends r2