Page:Illustrations of Madness.djvu/39

18 have much practical experience, and are competent judges of all systems of error but their own.

It appears, these Doctors generally visited him in conjunction : perhaps they might have succeeded better, if they had examined him separately ; for it is within the range of possibility that the judgment may have been warped by the courtesy, or clouded by the formality of a consultation—

It may here be allowable to state, that if Drs. Birkbeck and Co. had, in the first instance, made application to the medical officers of the hospital, and announced their object, they would have been received with the urbanity due to professional gentlemen, and furnished with every information ; but they preferred a silent approach and secret inquisition.