Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-05-08

them more or less concisely as they seem to re-
qure, but | shall utter them magisterially, for
the place in which | stand allows me to speak
with a certain authority
Avoid all habits that tend to make YOU un-
willing to go whenever you are wanted at any
time. No over-feeding or drinking or narcotic
must fasten ball or chnin to your ankle. Sem
per Pdrdtus is the only motto for physician
The necessity of punciu0iay is generally well
understood by the profession in cities In the
country it is not unusual to observe a kind of
testudinous torpor of motion, common to both
man and beast, and which can hardly fail To
reach the medical practitioner. Punctuality is
so important, in consultations especially, to the
patient as well as TO the practitioner, that moth
ing can excuse the want of it-not even having
nothing TO do-for the busiest people, as every
body knows, are the most punctual. There is
another precept which borrow from my wise
friend and venerated instructor, the Emeritus
Professor of Theory and Practice and you NAV
be very sure that he never laid down n rule he
did not keep himself Endeayor always to make
your visit to patient at the same regular time,
when he expects you. You will save him great
deal Of frctting. and occasionally prevent his
sending for your rival when he has got tired of
waiting for you.
think am not the first to utter the follow
ing caution beware how you take away hope
from any human being. Nothing is clearer
than that the merciful Creator intends to blind
most people as they pass down into the dark
valley. Without very good reasons temporal
or spiritual, we should not interfere with His
kind arrangements.
1t is the height of cruelty and the extreme of
impertinence to tell your patient he must die,
except YOU are sure that he wishes to know it,
or that there is some particular cause for his
knowing it. | should be especially unwilling to
tell child that it could not recover If the theo
logians think it necessary let them take the re-
sponsibility God leads it by the hand to the
edge of the precipice in happy Inconsistencies
and | would not open its eyes to what lie wise
ly conceals.
1t is not pleasant thing to find that one has
killed patient by slip the pen. ] am afraid
our barbarous method of writing prescriptions
in what is sometimes fancfully called Latin, and
with the old astrological sign of Jupiter at the
head of them to bring good luck, may have
helped to swell the list of casualties. We un-
derstand why plants and minerals should have
technical names, but | am much disposed to
think that good plain English, written out at
full length is good enough for anybody's use.
Why should | employ the language of CELSIUS !?
lie commonly used none but his own. How
ever, if we must use a dead language and sym
bols that are not dead, but damned, BY all sound
theology, let us be very careful in forming those
medical quayers and semiquayers that stand for
ounces and drachms, and all our other enlight-
ened hieroglyphics. One other rule may ven
ture to give, forced upon me by my own cx-
perlcnce. After writing recipe, make it an in
variable rule to read it over, not mechanically,
but with all your faculties wide awake. One
sometimes rrites prescription as if his hand
were guided by a medium-automatically, as
the hind legs of a water-beetle strike out in the
water after they are separated from the rest of
him. If all of you will follow the rule ! have
given sooner or later some among YOU will very
probably find himself the author of homcidal
document which but for this precaution might
have carried out his intentions.
With regard to the exhibition of drugs as a
part of your medical treatment, the golden rule
Is, De spd'1ng. Many remedies you give would
make well person SO i'll that he would send
for you at once if he had taken one of YOUR
doses accidentally. 1t is not quite fair to give
such things to sick man, unless it is clear that
they will do more good than the very consider
able harm you know they will cause. BE very
gracious with children especially. / have seen
old men shiver at the recollection of the rhu-
barb and jalap of infancy. You may depend
upon 1t that half the success of Homoepathv is
due to the sweet peace it has brought into the
nursery. Between the gurgling down of loath-
some mixtures and the saccharine deliquesence
of a minute globule, what tender mother could
for a moment hesitate?
1t is time to bring these hurried and crowded
remarks to close. Reject what in them is
false, examine what is doubtful, remember what
is true and so, God bless YOU, Gentlemen, and
farewell