Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLIN'IC, or CLIN'IC-AL, a. [Gr. κλινικος, from κλινη, a bed, from κλινω, to recline. See Lean.]

In a general sense, pertaining to a bed. A clinical lecture is a discourse delivered at the bedside of the sick, or from notes taken at the bedside, by a physician, with a view to practical instruction in the healing art. Clinical medicine is the practice of medicine on patients in bed, or in hospitals. A clinical convert is a convert on his death bed. Anciently persons receiving baptism on their death beds were called clinics. – Coxe. Encyc. Taylor.