DR. BILLROTH'S JOKE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 26, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 37.

DR. BILLROTH'S JOKE.

THE eminent Viennese surgeon, Theodor Billroth, began one of his lectures by telling his students that a doctor needed, above all things, two gifts: He must be free from all disposition toward nausea, and he must be a good observer. "I want you to show me right away," he added, "whether you can meet these demands." He then poured a nauseous fluid into a glass, dipped one of his fingers into it and licked it off; whereupon he invited the students to follow his example. Without flinching they did so. With a broad grin, the surgeon looked at them and said: "You have stood the first test brilliantly. Not so the second, for none of you observed that I dipped my first finger into the glass but licked the second."