The credence granted to the powerful reciprocal relationship between mind and body in the early nineteenth century encouraged careful analysis of moral, i.e. non-physical, factors in diagnosis and treatment. Evidence gathered from the patient's narrative was balanced with that gained from physical examination. In the above excerpt from the ‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ dialogues, the Shepherd, the ‘Noctes’ alter-ego of James Hogg (1770–1835), advocates narrative competence in medical practice through the study of the fine arts. The ‘Noctes’ were a series of dialogues written primarily by John Wilson (1785–1854) and John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854) for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine between 1822 and 1835, and the series exemplifies the dialogic exchange, beyond modern concepts of disciplinarity, promoted by this literary magazine. Within the catalytic chaos of the Edinburgh periodical press, the connection between published and private selves was, however, perhaps as mysterious as that between the body and the soul. The Shepherd makes this speech in honour of the singular appearance of two physician-writers: the Modern Pythagorean and Delta. The Modern Pythagorean was the Blackwoodian and later Fraserian pen-name of the Glaswegian surgeon, Robert Macnish (1802–37). His playful use of the ancient Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, within his first contribution to Blackwood's in 1826 earned him this title. D. M. Moir, pen-named Delta (1798–1851), is best known for his serialized novel, The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch, collected together in 1828.