BAILLIE. 245 was not fertile in expedients, but aimed at the ful- filment of a few leading indications, by the em- ployment of the simplest means ; if these failed, he was often at a loss what to do next, and had not the talent, for which some are distinguished, of varying his prescription every day, so as to retain the confidence, and keep alive the expectation of the patient. But this jDeculiarity of mind, which was perhaps a defect in the practice of his pro- fession, was a great advantage to him in his dis- course, and rendered him unrivalled as a lecturer. After writing a prescription he read it over with great care and consideration, for fear of having committed a mistake. During his latter years, when he had retired from all but consultation practice, and had ample time to attend to each individual case, he was very deliberate, tolerant, and willing to listen to what- ever was said to him by the patient ; but^ at an earlier period, in the hurry of great business, v/hen his day's work, as he was used to say, amounted to sixteen hours, he was sometimes rather irritable, and betrayed a want of temper in hearing the tiresome details of an unimportant story. After listening, with torture, to a prosing account from a lady, who ailed so little that she was going to the Opera that evening, he had happily escaped frora the room, when he was urgently requested to step up stairs again; it was to ask him whether, on her return from the Opera, she might eat some oysters : "Yes, Ma'am," said Baillie, " shells and all." One so engaged in the daily toil and laborious duties of a great metropolitan doctor, may easily
