The weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1869-18??, 1870-05-18
MIIekkln Sfanharh
Wednesday, Hay Is, 1870.
Remarks on the Physician" x

Y
About one year ago the Medical Society
-oi this STATE held its sixth annual meeting
in Salisbury. We have just been handed a
copy of the proceedings OF the Society, and
cannot refrain from publishing extracts from
the valedictory address delivered by DR.. E.
Burke Haywood, of this city, on that occa-
sion The entire address is replete with
sentiments of uncommon interest, such as
che following. We regret our inability to
publish the entire address:
Consecrated to life of sacrifice, the
Physician sees no grief that does not meet
the deepest pity, no misery that does not
excite the attempt to relieve it. With no
desire of applause or expectation of reward !:
often of sensibilities keen even to agony,
tremblingly alive in every fibre to pain and
wretchedness, yet with moral heroism to
steel his nerves to familiarity with the
most revolving scenes of suffering, he dis
dams, alike, all aspirations to personal ease,
the attainment of creature comforts, and
pecunlary reward, occupied solely with the
anlmating hope and confident assurance of
being the honored instrument of blessing
him who is ready to perish, and contribu-
ting In some degree to the common sum of
human happiness. So quiet, however, so
nolseless, so unostentatlous are the lives and
labors of those who exercise the medical art,
that the busy world around absorbed in pur-
suits, and occupied by schemes of gain and
pleasure, does not appreciate the amount of
real substantial good accruing to society
from their never ending labors."
"A Physicians life is one of toll, of
seli-denial, of inadequate pecuniary compen-
satlon. He has no time he can properly
call his own. Other men engaged in labo-
nous pursuits are permitted to partake of
their food without interruption, and to sleep
quietly at night. Not so with the Physician
For him no season is sacred. He is liable
to be called at any hour. The Sabbath. a
day of rest to Others, is to him often day
OF incessant toll"
No description, simply, can por-
tray, no tongue can tell to the uninitiated,
the agony, the bitter disappointment, the
continued care and anxiety, the fearful sense
of responsibility, the heart sinking, which it
is the lot of every enlightened and truly
sensitive physician to experience to great
er or less extent, during his career.
lone of the greatest trials a physician
has to bear is the ingratitude OF those upon
whom he has conferred the highest iavors,
perhaps those which are entirely gratuitous
1t is indeed, notorious that charitable SER
vices are very seldom repaid by gratitude,
and that, of all the means by which ply
sician's practice is increased. the rccomlnen-
dation of those whom he has befriended is
the most Insignificant"
X X g 49, L
thread the labyrinth of human progress; the
law-giver ask for light upon the dark and
hidden phase of natural laws, or municipal
power grope in vain for guidance when pes
thence and death overshadow the land, who
is it that elucidates and instructs2 1t is the
scientific physician whose eye no form visi-
bic eludes; whose ear no sound audible
escapes, beneath whose hand the mystic law
resolves itself into shape, and in whose cru
chile of untiring exploration, elements appa-
rently indivisible are simplifed and distin-
guished. The forest and the cave, the ocean
and the air, things animate and inanimate,
yield up their properties at his behest, and
their recondite virtues are by his knowledge
brought forth, that man should triumph
over pain.
"An advantage OF the pro-
fessinn, and one which contributes largely to
the happiness of the physician, is that it
compels him to possess or to assume cheer
fitness of disposition, kindness of demeanor
and readiness to perform acts of benefi-
cence. He must be kind to his patients,
considerate of their feelings, patient of their
complaints, though they may often seem un-
reasonable, and ready to afford them conso-
lation and relief He must, therefore, cult
waite these feelings until they become a part
of his very constitution. He who commences
Q course of this kind from the necessity of
his position, will soon learn to continue it
from the love of it The influence of this
state upon his own happiness can hardly be
oYerestimated. 1t Is Law of our nature
as definite and as operative as the law of
grayitation in its effects upon material
bodies, that to do good to Others, is to gain
it for ourselves, and that our own happiness
is very nearly in proportion TO the active eI-
ertions, which are made to promote the hap
piness of our fellow men"
mo banner waves for the ply
stefan save the winding sheet and the pail,
no martial trumpet pours forth its inspiring
notes; the passing bell alone tells of the
combat, until consideration for the living
causes the dead to be borne in silence to the
tomb, and the voices of the mourners are
heard not in the streets, for natural grief is
lost in selfish apprehension.
The triumphs of our profession are won in
the pestilential wards of hospitals. and in
the gloomy chambers of the poor, where no
reward can stimulate to exertion, no trophy
beckon to fame
If glory and patriotism have had their he
roes, religion her martyrs, neither have he
roes and martyrs been wanting among the
SONS of our science. If the history of these
has not been written, it is not because ma
terials are lacking"
"All real knowledge is based
on observation. Not single grain has ever
been added to its store, in all the ages of
the world, through the instrumentality of
theory alone An over weening attachment
to theories has been very great obstacle to
the advancement of medicine as science
1t has turned the medical mind away from
the Legitimate pathway of discovery, and the
strict observation of facts has been neglected
In the contemplation OF mere fancies. 1t is
true of medicine, as it is of every other
science, that every advancement that has
been made, has been effected by observation,
and by observation alone. 1t is the good OBJ
server and not the mere ingenious theorizer,
who has made these advances"
e "There is, perhaps scarcely
any situation in which medical practi-
toner can be PLACID. that so powerfully
meDaces his reputation, and where so much
personal uneasiness is endured. as that OF
being called upon the stand, for the pur-
pose of rendering evidence in an important
criminal case And he may IN the progress
of one important Judicial investigation,
either blast his reputation as physician, or
acquire the highest honor as a man of
science. At such time everything with
him both as to character and future success
depends upon his being ready, which readi.
ness implies thorough knowledge of him
self and his subject.
"There is a subject of the
highest Importance upon which profess
sional opinion is often demanded, viz: that
of insanity, malady which is often feigned
for the purpose of escaping punishment for
crime But alas it is too often real. And
how terrible indeed, is the widespread de-
vastation of the mental powers when it does
occur; when reason is driven furiously, and
in dreadful confusion from her proud en-
pire and not unfrequently the moral, as well
as the mental faculties, are dashed to ruins,
like some regal but dilapidated city "broken
down and without walls" with here and
there among the rubbish shining frag-
ment or IA broken column indicating its for
mer glory. When, however, it is feigned
for the purpose of concealing guilt, it de-
mands the severess Reproduction; and it is
here the knowledge of the medical jurist is
required, and here too, the man of true
science, will not fail to be recognized and
honored by the intelligent portion OF the
community, while the uncducated, and SELF
styled doctor, the emplric, will sink away in
to his native insignifcance.'
Who Named the Pacific Ocean?
1t was Ferdinand de Magelhaens, or "Ma
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