The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1879-11-27
SHALL he BECOME APnys,oiAMa

SHALL TIE BECOME 4 PHYSlClAN?
New York Sou.
A school teacher who is desirious of
coming physician thus asks our i'd
vice as to what he shall do:
"SIR: That you may fully under
stand my case, and thereby be the bet-
ter prepared to give me the information
SO much desire, it will be necessary
for me to make known to you few
facts relative to myself.
Il entered my S0th year yesterday.
BY frugality earned money enough
to enter first-class college, and COM
pleted the sophomore year. 1 stood
head in my classes, after which COM
menced teaching. Since leaving col
lege l have managed to save near four
hundred dollars. Now, from boy
hood, have desired to study medicine,
but as my mother opposed it, on the
grounds that my constitution was in
adequate to undergo severe exposure
tried to give up the idea but find
this difficult to do. Please tell me if /
am too old to begin the study OF this
profession? shall teach this winter,
80 If you think the study of medicine
advisable, what study had best pur-
sue FOR the winter?
Can 1 possibly graduate in a good
medical school ON so small capital?
Would you recommend a course Of
reading under some good practitioner
About how long will it take one to
graduate if he applies himself dill
gently? TYRO."
1t is unfOrtune that i'm this country
the important and honorable business
of teaching is SO generally looked on
as only temporary emplOyment-as
= makeshift, undertaken from neces-
sity and to he abandoned at the first
opportunity. The country district
schools especially suffer from frequent
changes in their teachers and from
their lack of enthusiasm and of expe-
rience. Ostentimes, too, the peda-
gogue needs to go to school himself,
for though he may have passed an ex-
examiners were unfit to test his quail
ficatiOns for teaching.
Our correspondent is one Of those
teachers who are following the bust
ness simply as means of making a
living. 1t is \ means disagreeable to
him anf an occupation he ID anxious
to get out of, for he regards himself AS
fitted for higher things. But why the
country doctor should Outrank the dis
trict school teacher it is hard to see
The one needs to be fully asintelligent
as the other, Ger .ainly rs well educat-
ed, and he is engaged in a profession
which is as high rs any.
1t is remarkable that though our
friend stood at the head of his classes
at ''first-class college and completed
the sophomore year." he has not yet
acquired the habit of spelling correct
ly. He gets the spelling of some very
common words all wrong. Yet he has
been two years at college, and he in
tends to teach boys and girls this win
ter how to spell! He may he one Of
those people to whom correct spelling
comes neither by nature nor by Ordi-
nary discipline; but between now and
the opening of the school term upon
which he is to engage we advise him
to set him to work first 10 get his Or
biography straight, and he can do 1t
ifhe is industriOus a teacher who slips
i'm his spelling is likely to make him
self ridiculous i'm the eyes If bright
pupils, and sets bad example for all
his scholars.
AS to his studying medicine, he is
rather old to begin, and the number
of doctors turned out by our medical
schools is very great nowadays, and
increases from year to year. Besides,
what special fitness has he for medi-
cine that he should take up its study
at thirty? At that age, when he is
just beginning, the ordinary doctor
has had six or eight years of practice,
and has, perhaps, established himself
more or less comfortably i'm one of the
slOwest professions in which to gain
| advancement.
But if he is determined to become d
doctor let him go to the best practitiOn.
er he can find, and get his advice
about what he shall read and study
A course at medical college covers
from two to three years, and with
close economy his money might carry
him through at a country schOOl-and
there are good ones both at the West
and in the East-since the term is on.
~ for a portion Of the year. We
| should, however. not advise our friend
under any circumstances to try medi
cine, unless lie has acquired the habit
of close application, and can study Il
good purpose.