1、Of Human bondage William Somerset Maugham At the beginner of the winter session Philip became an outpatients clerk. There were three assistant-physicians who took outpatients, two days a week each, and Philip put his name down for Dr. Tyrell. He was popular with the students, and there was some comp
2、etition to be his clerk. Dr. Tyrell was a tall, thin man of thirty-five, with a very small head, red hair cut short, and prominent blue eyes: his face was bright scarlet. He talked well in a pleasant voice, was fond of a little joke, and treated the world lightly. He was a successful man, with a lar
3、ge consulting practice and a knighthood in prospect. From commerce with students and poor people he had the patronizing air, and from dealing always with the sick he had the healthy mans jovial condescension, which some consultants achieve as the professional manner. He made the patient feel like a
4、boy confronted by a jolly schoolmaster; his illness was an absurd piece of naughtiness which amused rather than irritated. The student was supposed to attend in the outpatients room every day, see cases, and pick up what information he could; but on the days on which he clerked his duties were a lit
5、tle more definite. At that time the outpatients department at St. Lukes consisted of three rooms, leading into one another, and a large, dark waiting-room with massive pillars of masonry and long benches. Here the patients waited after having been given their “letters” at mid-day; and the long rows
6、of them, bottles and gallipots in hand, some tattered and dirty, others decent enough, sitting in the dimness, men and women of all ages, children, gave on an impression which was weird and horrible. They suggested the grim drawings of Daumier. All the rooms were painted alike, in salmoncolour with
7、a high dado of maroon; and there was in them an odour of disinfectants, mingling as the afternoon wore on with the crude stench of humanity. The first room was the largest and in the middle of it were a table and an office chair for the physician; on each side of this were two smaller tables, a litt
8、le lower: at one of these sat the house-physician and at the other the clerk who took the “book” for the day. This was a large volume in which were written down the name, age, sex, profession, of the patient and the diagnosis of his disease. At half-past one the house-physician came in, rang the bel
9、l, and told the porter to send in the old patients. There were always a good many of these, and it was necessary to get through as many of them as possible before Dr. Tyrell came at two The patients streamed in. The men came first. Chronic bronchitis, “a nasty aching cough” was what they chiefly suf
10、fered from; one went to the H.P. and the other to the clerk, handing in their letters: if they were going on well the words Rep 14 were written on them, and they went to the dispensary with their bottles or gallipots in order to have medicine given them for fourteen days more. Some old stagers held
11、back so that they might be seen by the physician himself, but they seldom succeeded in this; and only three or four, whose condition seemed to demand his attention, were kept. Dr. Tyrell gave each of his clerks a case to examine. The clerk took the patient into one of the inner rooms; they were smal
12、ler, and each had a couch in it covered with black horsehair: he asked his patient a variety of questions, examined his lungs, his heart, and his liver, made notes of fact on the hospital letters, formed in his own mind some idea of the diagnosis, and then waited for Dr. Tyrell to come in. This he d
13、id, followed by a small crowd of students If there was anything interesting to hear students applied their stethoscopes: you would see a man with two or three to the chest, and two perhaps to his back, while others waited impatiently to listen. The patient stood among them a little embarrassed, but
14、not altogether displeased to find himself the center of attention; he listened confusedly while Dr. Tyrell discoursed glibly on the case. Two or three students listened again to recognize the murmur or the crepitation which the physician described, and then the man was told to put on his clothes. Wh
15、en the various cases had been examined Dr. Tyrell went back into the large room and sat down again at his desk. He asked any student who happened to be standing near him what he would prescribe for a patient he had just seen. The student mentioned one or two drugs. “Would you?” said Dr. Tyrell. “Wel
16、l, thats original at all events. I dont think well be rash.” This always made the students laugh, and with a twinkle of amusement at his own bright humour the physician prescribed some other drug than that which the student had suggested. When there were two cases of exactly the same sort and the st
17、udent proposed the treatment which the physician had ordered for the first, Dr. Tyrell exercised considerable ingenuity in thinking of something else. Sometimes, knowing that in the dispensary they were worked off their legs and preferred to give the medicines which they had all ready, the good hosp
18、ital mixtures which had been found by the experience of years to answer their purpose so well, he amused himself by writing an elaborate prescription. bondage 束缚 prominent 突出的，杰出的 condescension 屈尊，俯就 gallipots 药罐 tattered 破烂的 odour 气味 disinfectants 消毒水 mingling 混合 stench 恶臭 bronchitis 慢性支气管炎 dispensary 药房 stethoscopes 听诊器
