seven o'clock
in the morning
On the way out one looked at a collection of paintings , and talked about artists . This was something novel and interesting , but what connection had it with Titus Livius and the history of philosophy ? But then came the details of surgery . One was roused at seven o'clock in the morning , came into the doctor 's dark room , and manually assisted at the cauterising of a syphilitic sore . The room reeked of human flesh , and was repugnant to an empty stomach . Or he had to hold a patient 's head and felt it twitch with pain while the doctor with a fork extracted glands from his throat . `` One soon gets accustomed to that , '' said the doctor , and that was true , but John 's thoughts were busy with Goethe 's Faust , Wieland 's Epicurean romances , George Sand 's social phantasies , Chateaubriand 's soliloquies with nature , and Lessing 's common-sense theories .