To speak plainly, the symptoms are characteristic of the
initiatory stage of the germination of a morbid state of the phenomena of
intelligence.
His unprofessional hearers only stared.
"In one word, then," said Dr. Wycherley, waxing impatient at their
abominable obtuseness, "it is the premonitory stage of the precursory
condition of an organic affection of the brain."
"Oh!" said Mr. Hardie, "the brain!* I see; the boy is going mad."
* What a blessing there are a few English words left in all our dialects.
The doctors stared in their turn at the prodigious coolness of a tender
parent. "Not exactly," said Dr. Wycherley; "I am habitually averse to
exaggeration of symptoms. Your son's suggest to me 'the Incubation of
Insanity,' nothing more."
Jane uttered an exclamation of horror; the doctor soothed her with an
assurance that there was no cause for alarm. "Incipient aberration" was
of easy cure: the mischief lay in delay. "Miss Hardie," said he
paternally, "during a long and busy professional career, it has been my
painful province to witness the deplorable consequences of the
non-recognition, by friends and relatives, of the precedent symptoms of
those organic affections of the brain, the relief of which was within the
reach of well-known therapeutic agents if exhibited seasonably.
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