Thackery attempts to treat an old friend, Abigail, who has lost her nose due to untreated syphilis. Since the discovery of penicillin (in 1928), familiarity with the effects of long-term untreated syphilis have faded from public consciousness, but before that, the loss of a nose was one of the most familiar, widely recognized signals of the infection. The cosmetic surgical procedure that Thackery describes to Abigail was developed in the 16th century - and largely unimproved since then--as a way to mitigate the stigma of what was then called "saddle nose."