A SURGICAL DILEMMA.

We have commented¹ on the outcome of a case in which a surgeon was sued because he performed an operation which was not on the program when he first began to operate. Though the procedure was entirely in her interest, the patient considered herself damaged because her consent had not been asked, and wanted to get something out of the surgeon as remuneration. Another case is of interest in this connection. A surgeon diagnosed appendicitis calling urgently for interference, but on preparing for operation he had reason to change his diagnosis and allowed the patient to return home. She thereon went to another hospital and was successfully operated on for an entirely different condition, and afterward brought suit against the first surgeon for not having been operated on, or, for what is practically the same thing, the correction of the wrong diagnosis. If the surgeon had proceeded and done