The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-08
CONFESSION OF DOCTORS.

I was talking one day with medical friend
lie complained that the public treated th'
doctor very unfairly. ''They expect him, sir
to be omnipotent. They send for him in
illness. and expect that medical man viii
Immediately be able to do every thing. They
foroet that he has to watch the case and Learn
something OF the constitution of the patient
was calling on another medical friend one
day, and lie was telling me something OF
some new cases. 81 am giving them a
mixture of peppermint and water just
now-that will do them neither good nor
harnl-untii / can find out what is the best
for them. Besides, I am proposing to make
some interesting experiments on them" |
thought of the esperiment,Gn IN co1proTe uh
mentally resolved that my own 0~e corpus
should not, If knew il" be Experimental
on. They say that every great orator Is
formed at the expense Of bis hearers, ana
perhaps it would not be too much to say that
every great doctor is also formed at the ex-
pense Of his patients. W,
1t is IA great thing to meet with medical
man of genial nature and Of candid mind,
nan who understands that candor is danger
Gus, and We. chooses to be candid. He will
discuss his kills and cures, his worries and
Successes. ia the frankest possible way. His
life is IL campaign and he will confess to a
few casualties in the way of killed and
wounded. at is not so much, old fellow,
that We ever directly kill man off in the
way of an overdose of poison. But some
times man makes an utter mistake. He has
gone wrong in his diagnosis. His whole
line Of treatment has been a mistake. The
terrible conviction comes over him that he |
has m',ddled the whole business, that if he
mad taken the right line he would have been |
all right, but that now the life is irretrievably
lost" Such mishaps are not necessarily those |
of ignorant and stupid men. The greatest |
surgeons have performed unnecessary ampu- |
tations, and the greatest physicians have
utterly mistaken symptoms. The greatness
of doctor, like that of a commander, con-
sists in his making the smallest possible |
amount of blunders.
Even when a doctor understands you
thoroughly he may not be good doctor,
after all. There was a good doctor who was
3 perfect hero at diagnosis. He could trace
ont the most difficult and obscure diseases
There were no pains he would not take in
order to arrive at the correct diagnosis Of
case. But the diagnosis being accomplished,
anybody might try any curative process.
The case ceases to retain its interest. The
greatest powers Of doctors are, after ell, ex- /,
tremely limited, and the medical man who is
able IN one department may be
extremely weak in another, and though he ,
may know your illness, he may not know how ,
to treat it.
II have worked hard great many Years,
said William Hunter once, land yet don't 6
know the principles Of art" am afraid that ,
Hunter killed himself by getting into vio-
lent passion. great physician was once
dining at the Kit-Cat Club. One of his
friends yentured to remind him that it was
time that he should 60 and visit his patients.
The doctor picked out list that contained {
fifteen names. lit is no great matter whether
| see them tonight or not, said he. ''Nine {
Of them have such bad constitutions that all {
he physicians in the world can't save them 6
Ind the other six have such good constitu- {
ions that all the physicians in the world v
ant kill them" The doctor might
lave added that though he could nei- f
her kill or cure, yet his visits might have s.
cen of the greatest use. There is an acute a
emark Of Coleridses somewhere, to the eff d
ect that man who is vaguely i'll is wonder
uiIy toned down, and indeed consoled, when G.
10 is made to understand clearly the nature re
# his ailment. This kind of comfort, al r.
'eit somewhat dreary, the physician is GER .
alnly enabled to give; and no man does Il
lore good by his talk than the physician.
is frequently the one comfort of the day IL
, which the Responding patient looks for a,
ard, and often finds it an elixir of COM af
'rt. Sometimes also, when he knows that tr
seless calls are daily registered against him,
Is very much the reverse. l have known M
families, who have been almost broken in ar
urse and spirits, and compelled to leave as
on account of this too great tn
ltimacy with an expensive doctor. l have
nown doctors, on the other hand, who will bu
tend one most carefully, and the only fee co
icy will take is that one should accept their ca
ivitations to dinner. The general moral for
$ all to take the best care to keep ourselves tn
ell; and if we should have the misfortune to ~,
II into the doctors hands, to take all he VI
yes us that we may keep ont Of his hands 81;
ILL., But yet must gratefully record that
I'VE had illnesses in which it has been almost NJ,
that | should be able to see HI,
methlnS OF the kind and skillful friend who
Is my doctor. Harper's Bazaar. an
M. j.. Byrne 81 Co. have commenced their th.
eat clearance sale of winter dry goods. arr
Tn. \, .,--n-------. - C.-. res