. Recollections of a Rebel surgeon, and other sketches : or, in the doctor's sappy days . themselves or their family; and when interro-gated on that head, the invariable reply is tol-lible, or just tollible. I have been told of anold farmer who looked up the word in the dic-tionary, and vv^as much disgusted to find itspelled, as he said, entirely wrong, and hav-ing a meaning altogether different from the ac-ceoted one; and he said: Webster is away off on tollible. He spells itVvith an er, and says it means that which canbe endured or tolerated, when you and I andevery other fool knows that it
. Recollections of a Rebel surgeon, and other sketches : or, in the doctor's sappy days . themselves or their family; and when interro-gated on that head, the invariable reply is tol-lible, or just tollible. I have been told of anold farmer who looked up the word in the dic-tionary, and vv^as much disgusted to find itspelled, as he said, entirely wrong, and hav-ing a meaning altogether different from the ac-ceoted one; and he said: Webster is away off on tollible. He spells itVvith an er, and says it means that which canbe endured or tolerated, when you and I andevery other fool knows that it dont mean anysuch thing. I say my health is tollible. Dontany fool know that good health is not endured orborne or tolerated? Notwithstanding what has been said about en- RECOLLECTIONS OF A REBEL SURGEON. during or tolerating good health, there is a largeclass of Southern people who invariably speak ofenjoyin very poor health, in a sense of hav-ing poor health. Of this class of expression I must mention thevery general use of *I used to could, or *I usedto couldnt, do a certain DOCTOR, IS THAT A PORGIE OR A TROUT? There is another peculiarity of the Southernvernacular: It is the pronunciation, or rather themispronunciation, of certain words. For in-stance : We do not say corn, but cawn; NewYork is New Yawk; Saturday is Saddy,and dog is dawg. INTRODUCTORY. Some years ago while attending a meeting ofthe American Medical Association in Washing-ton city, as a delegate from Texas, I had thehonor to be the guest of my distinguished friend,the late Doctor Baxter, Surgeon-General of thearmy. He, like myself, was very fond of fishing;and after the business was finished which tookme to Washington, we went down the Potomacto Tour-Mile-Run fishing for porgies, thedoctor called them. I didnt know what a por-gie was; they dont grow in Texas. Presentlytlie doctor caught a fish that was new to me, andI asked: Doctor, is that a porgie or a trout? He laughed immoderately at my pronunciat
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