Williams seems both cynical and sentimental about the "good old days" of doctoring. The narrator acknowledges that drugged-up Rivers is a danger to his patients, yet he admires the man's doctoring skills (to some extent) and the confidence he inspires in patients. The story illustrates the power of the physician--in this case, a physician who is neither up-to-date nor up-to-snuff--in the patient-physician relationship; the sick are vulnerable. Yet, Doc Rivers' charismatic power is often effective in healing. For those reading Williams in a literature and medicine context, Hugh Crawford's book, Modernism, Medicine, & William Carlos Williams (annotated in this database), may be of interest.