Three Men in a Boat, (to Say Nothing of the Dog) #223189

I sat and pondered. I thought what an inter esting case Imust be from a medical point of view, what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to walk the hospi tals, if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and, after that, take their diploma. Then Iwondered how longi had to live. I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating. I have since been induced to come to the opinion that it must have been there all the time, and must have been beating, but I cannot account for it. Ipatted myself all over my front, from what I call my waist up to my head, and I went a bit round each side, and a little way up the back. But I could not feel or hear anything. I tried to look at my tongue. I stuck it out as far as ever it would go, and I shut one eye, and tried to examine it with the other. I could only see the tip, and the only thing that I could gain from that was to feel more certain than before that I had scarlet fever. I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.