I was reading yesterday Mr. Charles H. E. Brookfield's Random Reminiscences…In the course of his story he tells us of his serious illness. 'My attack was a pretty bad one,' he says. 'Sir William Jenner was called in consultation. He was a delightful man, and his bedside manner was a lesson to all young doctors.
He would enter the room slowly, fold up his greatcoat, put his hat on the top of it, with his gloves inside, and then settle down into an easy chair and converse for a while upon general topics, as though you were the only patient he had in the world.'
Now here are two things—Sir William's medicine and Sir William's manner. The great doctor's manner was quite valueless in itself; but the doctor's manner, fortifying the doctor's medicine, made his treatment a delight.
This story about the manner and the means could apply to all walks of life.
F W Boreham, ‘A Philosophy of Pickles’, The Golden Milestone (London: Charles H Kelly, 1915), 186-187.
Image Sir William Jenner, Vanity Fair cartoon.
