The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-05-03
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OThtHV Men.
Some as question in political economy,
some as material for political rhetoric,
and others, again, as a subject for phi
lanthropie zeal, speaking of the working
classes as of those alone who are en-
gagged in manual labor and handicraft
employments. In contradistinction to
those who are engaged in commerce, the
exercise Of the learned professions, and
tbs fine arts. In the first division the
physical, in the second the mental DOW
ers are chiefly exercised. But the differ
ence IS more apparent than real. The
MIND acts through corporal organ,
the brain, which in the various processes
of thought, invention, discovery and
solutions of great problems in science,
labofs more, is more tasked and strained,
than are the limbs in agricultural and
mechanical labor.
Brain work when continued, as il
often is, beyond measure, brings on
the worker more numerous and more
serious disorders, ending in loss Of life
itself, than any muscular work. II we
measure the severity Of the work by the
fatigue which follows, the man who has
labored all day in paving the streets, or
in pipe-iaying, does not feel so entirely
done up as the merchant, banker, or ae-
countant, who has spent hours over the
desk i'll planning, devising and calcu-
lating, or the lawyer who has Just es-
capped the pestiferous air OF court
room, after a long and arduous mental
contest, in which all his faculties have
been strained to the utmost. Many
person, III humble life, seeing a ply
stefan Who rides in his carriage When
visiting his patients, may say to him
self: What an easy life is that Of doc
tor. Little does he know the professions
al inner life, the wear and tear of
body and mind, of the man whose pe-
sition he thinks is SO enviable. We
will take case-and it is not an extra
ordinary one, OF an eminent London
physician, DR.. Baltic, who, at the be-
ginning of the present century, was the
recognized head Of the profession.
Baltic was not q man of great physi-
cal powers; and he found exertion,
either OF body or mind, beyond a GER
tain point, always inGonvenient and
painful. When he had become fully
engaged in private practice his labors
were very arduous. He rose at six
O'Clock in the morning, aud was occupied
until he brealfasted, at eight O'Clock, in
answering the letters of his correspond
ents; from that time he was employed
O'Clock, when he returned home to
dinner. He had to take another round
: OF professional visits in the evening and
seldom retired to rest much sooner than
twelve O'Clock. If we deduct two hours
and the allowance is Il large one-tor
meals, there are left sixteen hours Of
hard brain work in the tWenty-iour,
Few men in the working classes, so call
eel, could or would go through the same
amount OF labor. Baltic was OF ner-
vous and irritable temperament; and
while others looked, if not with envy,
at least with some sort OF admiration, at
his large practice, he complained CT It
as II it WAS great hardship, and there
Is no doubt that at the time he felt il 10
be Sc. The celebrated John Hunter the
felermer OF modern Surgery, used to
rise AZ four O'Clock to pursue his obser-
vati0ns and dissections in comparative
anatomy Dupuytren, called the Ma
p0leob q surgery, began at six O'Clock
every morning his round of the wards
Of the large hospital, the IIotei Dieu.
I Paris, going rom bed to bed, question:
ing, examining. and prescribing, and
sometimes applying apparatus and per-
forming minor operations, AND also
those on the eye. lie would then de-
scend 70 the amphitheabre and lecture
before the students on the more impor-
tant cases which they had seen with him
in the wards. The lecture was followed
by his performing the larger or more
serious operations, such as amputations,
lithotomY, &c. He would then receive
and prescribe for the ward as is now
done in our dispensaries. Ten and
eleven O'Clock would even come before
the great surgeon could leave the h0spi-
tai and allow himself 10 hasten home.
snatch a hurried repast, and begia his
visits 10 his private patients in the city.
FIVE O'Clock in the afternoon found him
again at the hospital, when he would
visit the patients on whom he had ope-
rated IN the morning, or whose situation
he believed to be critical. Were not
Baiille and Dupuytfen working men,
and very hard workers tee,o