The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-19

Ol9eago.
There are several bastard diseases, compare.
lively harmless, which closely initiate the
peouliarities of very serious ailments IL is
the most delightful part of the physicians
duty to give the assurance of health. to dis
abuse the patients mind of harrasing fears,
and TO guide him safely on the pleasant yet
often perilous path of convalescenoe.
The limits of our subject might be in1ef-
nitely enlarged if we entered on the personal
history of physicians, and discussed the Incl
dents, often romantic enough of their careers.
Sometimes men look with admiration and
envy on the career of the great ply
sician. His name is high on the roll of fame
They hear that he has just been made
barOnet. They see his carriage flashing
through the street. They see the portals OF
the greatest houses thrown open to hlm, as
with the familiarity of intimacy he penetrates
to its most sacred ddytum. For our own part
we lean to the belief that the profession OF
medicine is not sufficiently rewarded, why
should the peerage, so often conceded TO law,
and NOT denied to literature, be never conferred
upon A medical man? There is no other pro-
fession so occupied with incessant benevolenoe,
and with active scientific advance. AS Carlyle
saws in his own peculiar way, "The profession
of the Human Healer being naturally a sacred
one and connected with the highest priest
hoods, or rather being in itself the out
come and acme of all priesthoods and divinest
conuuests here below" For the few who
really succeed, there are many who make
either a com paTative or superlatlVe tallure.
How many there are who are conscious OF
high training and great abilities, who wait on
year after year for the chances which never
come or which come so late. How often has
the young man left the obscure country town,
where he might have achieved prosperous
mediocrity to try for greatness in London, and
has been worsted in the trialP Even the
great physician is not always to be envied.
Every guinea has been hardly earned by ex-
penditure of brain and nerve; and we must
think of the guineas which he constantly
refuses as we'll as the guineas which he takes.
No rich man should grudge paying his doctor
with most liberal mind, for in the medical pro-
fession is very large amount of unremunerated
work, and only most rarely is any tax ON be-
nevolence declined. The successful physician
has often fallen victim to his own success.
The work is enormous and incessant. Early
in the morning he has to transact a laborious
correspondence, whore every word must be
diligently weighed. Then the tide of visitors
sets in, and it is calculated that, with all the
rapidity a man has a right to use, the ply
sician can hardly see more than four patients
in an hour. Then he goes abroad, and can
never be quite sure when he can return
home. When at home he can never be sure
that he will not be called out. He can only
most rarely reckon upon a holiday, and his
holiday is always liable to be abruptly cut
short.
Some men break down under the excessive
strain, especially if they are men of delicate
organization and very sensitive. There are
several cases in which the distinguished
physician has been found dead in his car
riage. medical man who met DR.. Todd in
one OF the last years of his overworked life,
seemed to think that he was dying visibly
before his eyes. Some men, who are endowed
with iron constitutions, firm nerves, strong
will, and excellent tact in the management Of
themselves and others, breast the full tide of
adverse circumstances, masters of themselves
and their position. But such cases are rare,
and even those afford illustrations of the hard
rule that the rewards of this world are in in
verse proportion to the deservings.
There is much more illness in the world
than the world often thinks of. In the con-
slant roar and animation of the London
streets we lose sight of this, aud are apt to
obtain false impression of human life.
Here in Cheapside the other day
marvelled at all this buoyant life and exube-
rance of health and energy, and was tempted
to think of those who are ailing in
hushed and darkened rooms as an ininitesi-
NAL minority of miserables; but this is not
the true view of the facts. Of this surging
crowd there are not few who are carrying
about with them malady in its germ or full
blown existence; not few who tomorrow will
be on sick-bed; not few who in a few days or
weeks will be in their graves. | have seen 1T
calculated that on an average every man has
ten days illness in the year. 1t is as well that
the healthy man should keep before him these
dreary possibilities that are always fitting
about. Such a thought will teach him to
prize the priceless boon of health, and not
disregard and waste it. This may give
him a practical sympathy with the vast
multitude of the mourners, sympathy
also with the whole army OF those whose
lot is cast almost exclusively among the
sufferings and shadows of life. This may also
give him an intellectual interest in those great
departments of human knowledge which are
concerned with medicine, whose mere romance
has been touched upon in these random notes
l may, perhaps, appropriately conclude, as
a well-knOwn learned judge concludes his
speeches, with bit of poetry. In that re-
markable work, "The Autocrat of the Break
fast Table," Oliver Wendell Holmes has ;
4 noble poem called ''The Anatomist's Hymn
or the Living Temple cannot resist quoting
i a few of the verses; and never has physiology
4 been made more beautiful. 1t is q true Religit
i 1ledici, such as would have delighted the Nor
! witch philosopher
4 ''The smooth, soft air. with pulse-like waves
Flows murmuring through It's hidden caves,
Whose streams of Frightening purple rush,
4 Fired with a new and llvelier blush;
While all their burden Of decay
The ebbing current steals away,
And, red with Natures flame, they start
From the warm fountains OF the heart.
''No rest that throbbing slave may ask,
Forever quivering DER his task;
While far and wide crimson jet
Leaps forth to NIL the woven net,