Meaning of “It is a most extraordinary thing, but I…”

After reading through a medical reference alphabetically, the narrator is disappointed to find only one illness missing, making hypochondria funny through impossible comprehensiveness.

Nothing physical has changed, but the narrator’s interpretation has transformed completely; the comic contrast shows how anxious reading can alter felt experience without new evidence.

The narrator exaggerates imagined illness into an entire teaching hospital, using absurd scale to expose how thoroughly he has mistaken reading symptoms for medical diagnosis.

Social appearances repeatedly exaggerate or contradict reality, making ordinary life look like an ongoing parody of its own pretensions.

The line distinguishes anticipated suffering from what is actually happening, challenging imagination when it magnifies uncertainty.

Regular reading is compared with physical exercise because repeated intellectual use can strengthen attention, knowledge, and mental capacity over time.