The Portland daily press., 1883-10-26
DR.. Holmes at Harvard.
Extracts from His Oraton at the Centen-
NAL Of the Medical School.

What is there in the hour of anguish like
the gentle presence. the quiet voice, the
thoroughly trained and skillful hand of the
woman who was meant by nature and has
been taught by careful discipline to render
those services which money tries to reward.
but only gratitude can repay? I have al
ways felt that this was rather the vocation
OF woman than general, and especially sur
glcal practice. Yet / myself followed a
course OF lectures given by the Younger
Madame Lachapelle in Paris, and if here
and there an intrepid woman insists on TAX
ing by storm the fortress of medical educa-
tion, would have the gate flung open to
her as II 1t were that of the citadel of Orle-
ans ana she were Joan of Arc returning
from the field of victory. / have ofte1
wished that disease could be hunted by lis
professional antagonists in couples-a doc
Tor and Doctors quick-witted wife making
JOINT vislt and attacking the patient-I
mean the patients malady, of course-with
their united capacities. For am quite sure
mat There is natural clairvoyance in
woman which would make her as much the
superior OF man in some particulars of dag
nosls as she certainly is in distinguishing
shades OF color. Many suicide would have
| been prevented il the Doctors wife had visit
ed the day before it happened. She would
have seen in the merchants face his i'm
| pending bankruptcy, while her stupid hus-
Dand was prescribing for dyspepsia and in
| dorsing his note; she would recognize the
love-lorn maiden by an ill-adjusted ribbon
line in the features,-a droop in the atti-
tude,-a tone in the voice.-which mean
nothing to him, and so the brook must be
dragged tomorrow. The dual arrangement
OF which have spoken is, l suppose inn
practicable, but a oman's advice, 1 SUSPECT.
often determines her husbands prescription.
Instead OF curtain lecture on his own feel
ings, ne gets clinical lecture, on the puz-
zlng case, 1t may be, of a neighbor suffering
from the complaint known to village nosolo-
gy as "a complication of Diseases which
ner Keen eye can see into as much better
than his as they would through the eve of a
small-sized needle. She will find the right
end OF case to get hold of, and take the
snari out as she would out of skein of
thread or ball OF worsted which he would
speedily have reduced to hopeless tapgle
on dissection.
Among the large number of students who
have worked in the department of which l
am speaking during my long term of service
nearly 1900 are on the catalogue as gradu-
ates-there must have been some who were
thoughtless, careless, unmindful of the pro-
prieties. Something must be pardoned TO
the hardening effect of habit Something
must be forgiven to the light-heartedness of
youth, which shows itself ia scenes that
would sadden and solemnize the unseasoned
visitor. Even youthful womanhood has
been known to forget itself in the midst of
solemn surroundings. well remember the
complaint of Willis, lover of the gentle
sex, and not likely toshaye told lie against
charming young person IL quote from
memory, but believe correctly
She trihed ay, that angel-maid =,
She trided where the dead was laid
NOR are Older persons always so thought
Ial and serious in the presence of mortality
as 1t might be supposed they would show
themselves Some of us have encountered
congressional committees attending the re-
mains of distinguished functionaries to their
distant place Of burial. They generally bore
up well under their bereavement. One
might have expected to find them gathered
In silent groups in the parlors of the Conti-
mental Hotel or the Brevoort House, to meet
tne grlef-stricken members of the party
smlleless and sobbing as they sadly paced
the corridors of Parker's, before they set. off
III mournful and weeping procession. It
was not SO; candor would have to confess
that it was far otherwise; charity would
suggest that curiosity should withdraw her
eye from the key-hole; humanity would try
ID excuse what she could not help Witness
ing; and tear would fall from the blind
eye of oblivion and blot out their hotel bills
forever.