Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-02

! which Is not incompatible with the
| highest excellence in your own persuits
Does Misunderstanding, selling, trading, or
watching the stock-narket-fill his mind
| Should these interests predominant, the an
bition for professional excellence is e1tin-
guished in the desire for wealth. He be-
/ comes Mulberry Sellers" rather than
scientific or practical doctor. The physician
is unyersed in the methods OF business, and
any attempt 10 acquire fortune in this way
! will not only prove failure, but IS very sure
to make him a financial failure in his pro-
fession. OF the many shoals and quick
sands which beset your path, none are per-
haps more dangerous than pecunlary en-
Engagements. Debt hangs over the head OF an
! honest man like terrible nightmare. 1t is
| the cankerwOrm which viii destroy your
! happiness, your ambition, your energy. Can
whose mind is harassed by such
| affairs FIX an untrammelled intellect upon
the study of a science? Could you, under
| such circumstances, devote your thoughts,
| while passing from patient 10 patient 10 a
careful consideration Of such cases as
may demand your best efforts? l say
not. l therefore, gentlemen, warn you
to avoid debt, business entanglements and the
seductive paths of speculation. Be your in
| come small or great, live within it; deal hon.
| orably with your fellowman, and especially
| your professional brother, and that Gin
| come" will soon give you at least the COM
/ IOIlS Ol me- anu Win E0Ssc you may DC dS
| happy and as useful as the possessor OF for-
tunes. Is it the church that absorss your
attention? Piety becomes a physician and
! strengthens his devotion to duty; but when
! the doctor aspires to the work of the minis
| ter, and combines in his own person preacher
and practitioner, he will cut asorry figure in
both capacities. To have pew in fash
ionable church, we'll up in front, and 10 be
| called out in the midst of the sermon is a ira
ditional, but we'll understood trick, no longer
useful. Literary attachments, however much
to be desired, will have to be attained at the
expense of your medical knowledge. Much
ia being said nowadays Of the need of
wider culture of physicians, but you can
hardly shine both in your own sphere and in
the literary armament. 1t is true there are
doctors who write novels, translate the odes
of Horace, explore distant continents, try
new routes to the North Pole, etc. And thus
lead on, perhap', by the craving of an in
quiring intellect, or to satisfy an inordinate
ambition, the doctor may divide his energy
and powers between his professional labors
and some equally or more fascinating pur-
suit; but he who attains to eminence in any
OF these fields IL almost sure to make an
utter failure in his own. 1t is true that now
and then some trarscendent genius is at the
same time a great physician and eminent
scientist IN other departments; but this is in
deed rare exception. The late Sir James
Simpson was at the same time the foremost
physician of his day and the gre attest archg
ologist in Scotland. Such an example
should not tempt you to pass the
bounds set to your powers, for Simpson,
always working at the highest pressure, de-
voted to other pursuits the time which
should have been given to needful rest, and
paid the penalty in an early death in the
midst of his usefulness. 1t is necessary that
the physician should possess mental indus
try, habits of study, thorough knowledge of
his own tongue, and sufficient knowledge of
Latin and Greek to enable him to compre-
bend the technicalities of his science. 1t is
desirable that he should be able to read with
ease not only the English language, but
French and German, that he may be able 10
keep abreast with the advances OF his sci
ence in France and Germany. He should
also possess a knowledge of chemistry and
physics; and surely, with a field such
this, he ought to be able to satisfy the de-
mands OF the most advanced advocate for
higher culture, and also his own ambition.
hold that such preparation as this is abso-
lutely necessary to form the scientific physician;
but do not hesitate to express my convic-
ton that such a foundation is not
indispensable to the acquisition of a
competent knowledge of medicine and
to success in the practice. You
will find that some of the most able prac-
titioners in the country rose from obscure
pOEltlOu5 anu WSTc Dut IlOucEdlcly SuuOhcU
with learning. But between the ordinary
practitioner and the merely scientific physi-
clan there is a great gulf. Both are neces-
sary 10 the system. The former avails him
self of the discoveries of the latter, tests his
theories in actual practice, discards the false
and adopts the true. Experience has abund-
antly shown that the purely scientific physi-
clan is rarely good practitioner, and hence |
he is rarely a successful one. L will not |
however admit for a m fh at the former |
is at all less useful or important than the |
latter. At the present day there is a cry for |
wider culture in medicine and at the same |
time there are many who maintain the in |
ability of the human intellect to grasp and !
assimilate the vast accumulations of knowi- |
edge, embraced within the domain of medi- |
cine and who, therefore, advocate division
of labor. The latter has proved to
be popular cry. The increase OF |
specialties is proceeding at such rate
that we may soon rival the era of Galen or
of the Egyptian Pharaohs. According to
Herodotus, who reports the condition of the
medical art in Egypt, and Galen who re-
cords the medical affairs of Rome, there
we're specialists for every organ and func-
ton, and for all the conditions of life. There
were specialists for the eyes, for the eye
lashes, mouth, nose, ears, for dropsy, for tu-
mors, for ripgworm, etc. Some treated only
women; others only men. Some devoted
themselves to the diseases of old age; others
to the diseases of youth. Some used herbs
only; others gymnastics. Some cured by a
system of diet; others by precept only. So
multitudinous the number, so low and
monstrous the practices of the hordes of
hungry specialists, that medicine was de-
graded below all other arts and became the
refuge of the most abandoned characters.
Galen tells us that the great charlatan of
Rome in his day was Thessalus who boosted
that he couId teach in sig months all that |
physician need know. 1t is notsurprising that
be had an immense following, and that he
and his horde of specialists completely over
whelmed the respectable portion of the pro-
fession. Influenced by vanity and intoxi-
Gated with success, the great charlatan, in
the zenith of his notoriety, dictated the fol-
lowing inscription for his tomb: "To Thes-
salus, copqus or of physicians" The great
irruption of specialists marked the decline
of Roman and Egyptian medicine. If we
may draw any conclusion from the history
of the past, the multiplication OF speeialties
forebodes a decline in the general status of
the medical profession. Devotion to a
of its Importance and a depreciation of all
other departments of the medical science. If
not educated in all the departments of medi-
cine the specialist is apt to trace all morbid
conditions TO his special organ, and he is fire.
quently disposed to imagine this organ dis
td5Su WnSu dS u uldlleT OF 4aCt IL Is perfectly
healthy and performing its function perfectly
we'll. He imagines the morbid condition to
be due to disease of this organ, because he
Is ignorant of the functions whicl other
organs perform and of the symptoms which
will be produced by disturbance of these
functions. His field of vision is brilliant
ly illuminated, but is exceedingly narrow
A specially should be the outgrowth of
study and considerable practical
experience in all the departments; then the
mutual dependence of all the organs and
parts can be accurately traced and their re-
actions determined. Unfortunately, noyy-a-
days, the specialist is born and not made by
hard work. He acquires as little as posi-
BILE outside of his specially and seeks the de-
gree of NJ. D., not because he wishes TO learn
medicine, but to secure position in the pro-
fession. The supposed special learning in
vites patronage and secures higher fees. The
light work, greater compensation and sup
posed superior position fills the ranks of the
specialists to overlooking. and human in
genuity ia taxed to find new and attractive
specialties. Numbers increase competition,
questionable practices grow constantly, and
the standard OF the profession of medicine
is rapidly lowered. That the whole scope
OF medicine is too vast a field to be
mastered by one mind 1 am free
to admit, but a division should be N ade in
with certain natural boundaries.
We cannot much improve upon the