The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-10-03
THE ARr oF mn PHYaIclAl..

f 4
 loliver ". Holmes, in Atlantic Moathi,.l
 The srt of the physician can do much to remove it's subjects from deadly and dangerous influences, and something to control or arrest the effects of these in fiuences. But look at the records of the life insurance offices, and sec how uni form Is the action of natures destroying agencies. Look at the annual reports of the deaths in any ot our great cities, and see how their regularity approaches the uniformity of the tides and their varia- tions keep pace with those of the seasons. The iruudations of the Nile are not more certainly to be predicted than the vast wave of infsntile disease which flows in upon our great cities with the growing heats of July-than the levers and dysen- teries which visit our rural districts ia the months of the falling leaf.
 The physician watches these changes as the astronomer watches the rise of ihe great river. He longs to rescue tndi. viduals, to protect communities from the inroads of these destroying agencies. He uses all the means which experier ce has approved, tries every rational method which ingenuity can suggest. Some for. tunate recovery leads him to believe he kss hit upon a preventive or a cure for a malady which had resisted all known remedies His rescued patient sounds his praises, and a wide circle of his patient's friends join in a chorus of eulo- gies- Selt.love spplauds him for his saaacity. Self-interest cougratulates him on his having found the TO 4d to fortune the sense of having proved benefactor of his race smoo,hs the pillow on which he lays his head to dream of the brilliant future opening before him. If single coincidence may lead a perssn of san guine disposition to believe that he has n 4s,ered disease which had baffled all who were before his time, and on which hls contemporaries look in hopeless im- potence, what must be the effect of a series of such condolences even or a mind of calmer temper2 Such series of condolences will happen, and they may well deceive the very elect. Think of Dr Rash you know what famous man he vas. the very head and front of American medical science in his day and remember how he spoke about yell low fever, which he thought he had mas. tered.
 Thus the physician is entaugled in the mesaes of wide conspiration, in which he ard ms patients and their friends, and nature herself, are involved. What won l der that the history ot medicine should be to so great an extent record of self deiusion
 If this seems dangerous concession to the enemies of the true science and art of healing, will remind you that it is all l implied in the first aphorism of Hippoc- rates, the father of medicine. Do no, draw a wrong inference from the frank statement ef the difficulties which beset the medical practitioner. Think, rather If truth Is so hard of attainment, how precious are tke results which the consent of the wisest and most experienced among the headers of man agree in accepting Fhink what folly 1t is 10 cast them aside in favor of palpabie impostions stolen from the records of forgotten chaIiatan. ism, or of fantastic speculations spun from the squinting bralns of theorists as wild as the Egyptian astronomer.
 Begin your medical studies, then, by reading ;he fortieth and the following tour chapters of" Rasselas" Your frs, les. son will teach you modesty and caution ID tue pursuit of the most deceptive of all practical branches of knowledge. Faith will come later, when you learn how much medical science and art has actually achieved for the relief of mankind, and how great are the promises 1t holds ou, of stiii larger triumphs over the enemies of human health and happiness.