St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1868-01-10

uo" Ii otieet, anu at the door OF an no
tel was smiling landlord, porty, fresh
colored, and apparently robust. Tn
friend made some casual remark to tn
effect that there was typical Briton, O.
something of that kind. s.You thinI
so, said the doctor. That man is SAT;
to die within twelvemonth." The di
agnosls, sometimes easy enough, is occa
sionally perplexing in the extreme. Th,
great majority OF cases are patent enough
an experienced ply siclan will see it al
in five minutes but others are exceed
ingly obscure, and the medical man i.
never quite able to clear up the obscurity
Sometimes there is some little circum
stance, unexpected and out of harmony
with other circumstances, which battle
all the calculations. SIN every respec
the patient is going on extremely well, >
said the doctor TO an anxious member o
a family; ''but | confess there is little
twitching over the eye which do not al
all like" The case terminated fatally
1t sometimes happens that when a pa.
tient, by all the rules of art, ought to be
getting better or worse, he persists in
worse or better. 1t is question of the
patients previous history and conStitu-
ton; slight attack in one case being
more dangerous even than dangerous
attack i'll another. | remember being
very much amused with the case of Il
young doctor and his first patient 1t
was Il child afflicted with hydrocephalus.
According to all the rules the child ought
to die. Nevertheless the untoward in
tant persisted in not dying. The doctor
went from his books 10 the bedside, and
from the bedside to his books. He con-
fidentially asseverted to me that the in
FAINT ought to die, and manifested not
altogether friendly feeling towards the in
FAINT because it did not die. His treat
ment was altogether better than his prog
nosis at the time when my knowledge
of the case terminated, it was going on
well.
1t is very hazardous for doctor to
give prognosis; if he openly gives an
unfavorable prognosis, and the case ter
inmates favorably, his reputation is we'll
nigh gone But YOU will not often find
medical man doing this sort of thing.
As rule the doctor always takes the
most cheerful view possible of the case,
and even hopes against hope. In the
last illness OF George ". the physicians
were also pronouncing him better, and in
the midst OF the ''betterness" he died.
Other doctors, however, there are, NOR
bidly disposed, from whom you may take
every grain of comfort they give, and
something more. 1t is curions that n
doctor cannot always be trusted with the
diagnosis and prognosis of his own case
The great DIR. Railie is said to have been
a case OF this. He il said TO have died
of consumption, and yet to have denied
that lie was consumrtive. lie did not
experience any difficulty in breathing,
and argued that, while his breathing " as
good, his lungs could not be bad. But
no medical man now takes this as decls-
i've. Nature, in her bounty, provides a
larger space of lung than is necessary,
and will long 90 on with very small
amount of lung: and with very little DIFF
ticulty in breathing. Another notewor-
thy case of lung disease is n very different
person. the notorious empiric, St. John
Long. He profcssed to cure consump-
ton, but in reality, like other similar
quacks, he only cured cases of cough and
bronchitis with symptoms initiative OF
those in phthisis. He unquestionably
caused death in several instances by q
treatment which would be perfectly
harmless in most cases, but which was
fatal to many delicate women. He was
himself struck down by consumption, and
died at the early age Of thirty-seven.-
One of our most promising doctors in
chest complaints, DIR. Hope, who, at an
early age, had reached almost the sum-
nit of his profession, was prematurely
cut off by consumption. There are few
volumes more affecting than the narra-
tive of his life; and it is impossible to
resist the impression that his fatal illness
was i'll great measure due to extreme and
unmitigatcd devotion to intellectual la
Dor.
Medicine has often very startling sur
prises in store, which are frequently
gloomy enough, though sometimes of i
pleasant nature. We will, in the fret
place, select some of the former. y
clergyman in the neighborhood of Mount
Edgecumbs was one day walking very
fast, when he was met by his DOCTOR
He explained, III conversation, that he
was suffering from pains of indigestion,
and was in the habit of taking long
walks in order to get rid of them The
medical man insisted on examining him,
and then explained to him that he was
in fact suffering from aneurism of the
heart. and that these long walks were
the worst things possible for him; and
was obliged to add that the disease would
some day prove suddenly fatal. The
statement was sadly verified. In the
midst of a sermon, at very emphatic
passage, the preacher fell down from his
pulpit, and life was found to be quite ex-
tinct. The congregation broke up in the
utmost CONSERVATION and terror A man
was in company with another and from
some casual circumstance he took off his
stockings. His friend took the liberty
of observing that one of his feet was
really very black. 1t was discovered
that from some cause the foot was NOR
titled. In former times it would have
been thought necessary to amputate it,
but medical art has contrivances where
by this is avoided. A very remarkable
case is mentioned by the pious Bishop
Newton, in the valuable fragment of the
autobiography" which has come down
to u.s. Ayoung nobleman in the country
was dangerously ill with fever. Ply
siclans were summoned from different
quarters, and the bishop relates that no