The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-12-08
The Morning Visit.
BY o. W. HOLMES.

o. HOLMES.
sick mans chamber, though il often boast
The grateful presence of literal toast,
Can hardly claim amidst its various wealth
The right, unchallenged, TO propose health;
Yet though its tenant is denied the feast
Friendship must launch his sentiment at least,
As prisoned damsels locked from lovers lips
Toss them kiss from Oft their fingers tips.
The Morning Visit-not till sickness falls
In the charmed circle of your own safe walls;
Till fever's throb, and pains relentless rack,
Stretch you, all helpless, on your aching back;
Not TIL you play the patient in your turn,
The morning visits mystery shall you learn
IT'S a small matter in your neighbours case,
To charge your fee for showing him your face;
You skip up stairs, inquire, inspect and touch,
Prescribe, take leave and of TO twenty such
But when at length, by fate's transferred degree,
The vister becomes the visitee,
q them indeed il pulls another string,
Your OK is goreJ and that's different thing!
Your friend is sick; phegmatic as Turk,
You write your recipe and let it work;
Not yours to stand the SILVER and the frown,
And sometimes worse, with which your draught
goes down.
Calm rs a clock your knowing hand directs,
Rhei, JdlapG, ana grdna ser,
Or traces on some tender missive's back
Scruptilos duos pilreris Lpecac;
And leaves your patient to his qualms and gripes,
Cool sportsman banging at his snipes.
But change the time, the person, and the place,
And be yourself the ''nteresting case"
You'll gain knowledge which it's well to learn,
In future practice it may serve your turn.
Leeches, for instance, pleasing creatures quite,
Try them, and, bless you don't you find they bite
You raise blister for the smallest cause,
But be yourself the great sublime it draws,
And trust my statement, you will not deny,
The worse of draughtsmen is your Spanish Fly!
It's mighty easy, ordering when you please,
Infusa SennG, cdpiat uncias tres;
It's mighty different when you quackle down
Your own three ounces of the liquid brown.
I'ilula, pulvis--pleasant words enough,
When other jaws receive the shocking stuff;
But oh, what 1attery disguise the groan
That meets the gulp which sends it through your
own!
Be gentle, then, though Arts unsparing rules
Give You the handling Of her sharpes tools;
Use them not rashly sickness is enough
Be always ssready," but be never "rough.'
OF all the ills that suffering man endures,
The largest fraction liberal Nature cures;
of those remaining, tits the smallest part
Yields to the efforts of judicious Art;
But simple Kindness kneeling by the bed
To shift the pillow for the sick mans head
Give the fresh draught to cool the lips that burn,
Fan the hot brow, the weary frame to turn;
Rindness-untutored by our grave M. DIS,
But natures graduate whom she schools to please,
Wins back more sufferers with her voice and smile,
Than all the trumpery in the druggists pile.
Once more, be qliet-coming up the stair,
Don't be pantigrade, human bear,
But stealing softly on the silent toe,
Reach the sick chamber ere you're heard below.
Whatever changes there may greet your eyes,
Let not your looks proclaim the least surprise;
It's not your business by your face to show
All that your patient does not wish to know;
Nay, use your optics with considerate care,
And don't abuse your privilege to stare.
But if your eyes may probe him ovcrmuch,
Beware still further how you rudely touch;
Don't clutch his corpus in your icy fist,
But your fingers ere you take the wrist;
If the poor victim needs must be percussed,
Don't make anvil of his aching bust;
doctors exist within hundred miles,
Who thump "A thorax they'd hammer piles.)
If you must listen to his doubtful chest
Catch the essentials and ignore the rest
Spare him the sufferer wants of you and art
A track to steer by, not finished chart;
Soof your questons-don't in mercy try
To pump your patient absolutely dry;
He's not mollusc squirming III dish
You're not Agassiz, and he's not a fish.
And last, not least, in each perpexing case,
Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face;
Not always smiling, but at least serene,
When grief and anguish cloud the anxious scene.
Each look, each movement, every word and tone,
Should tell your patient you are all his own;
Not the mere artist, purchased to attend,
But the warm, ready, self forgetting friend,
Whose genial visit in itself combines
The best of cordials, tonics, anodynes.
Such is the Visit, that from day to day
Sheds DER my chamber its bcnignant ray.
/ give his health, who never cared to claim
Her babbling homage from the tongue OF Fame!
Unmoved by praise, he stands by all contest,
The truest, nobest, wiscst. kindest, best
BosToS, May 80, 1919.