Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-03-25
YOUNG PHYSICIANS.
The Hard Knocks They Receive and tn
Mistakes They Make.

YOUNG PHYSICIANS.
The Hard Knocks They Receive and the
Mistakes They Make.
A gentleman who occupies an execu-
tive position of great prominence in one
of our New York medical colleges, while
chatting amiably about young ply
sicians, said: "The most keenly envied
man is not the one who exhibits pro-
fundity of textbook knowledge, un-
wonted skillfulness at the dissecting
table or quickness of wit or memory,
but the fortunate possessor of big
beard, an impressive physique or a
mature and solemn face. Indeed, ]
think the most amusing of all character
istics of the average medical student is
in the assumption of dignity and
thoughtfulness as graduation day
approaches. AS the young men draw
near the close of their terms every day
sees a closer contraction of the eve
brows, a more pompous and ponderous
pursuing up of the Ii ps. deliberate steps,
slow movements and elaborate courtesy
toward one another. The cock
lofty and infinitely superior air OF
the ordinary college graduate
sinks into abject and lowly humil-
ity compared to the manner of the
medical student when he starts out in
life. The distrust of very young
physician is widespread and perhaps
natural in the human breast, and the
first ten years of most physicians lives
are spent in frantic efforts to overcome
this unfortunate prejudice To force
the beard to grow upon a beardless
cheek, to cause the observer to look
upon him with awe, and to impress men
with whom he comes in contact with his
profundity of thought, is the ambition
of his earlier years. On this account
he assumes manners, and, worst of all,
he tells tales.
''Take, as an instance, young man
who came from Keokuk, Ia, some time
ago with a letter from an old college
chum who is settled there. He is we'll
meaning young chap, and after his
graduation he decided to practice medi-
cine in New York. He has no acquaint-
ances outside of the few that he has
made in boarding houses, but he has the
distinctively Western gift, and he has
started in to win. He has one of those
unfortunate faces bereft of hair-smo Doth,
whitish and juvenile-lookingto the very
last degree. The temples are prominent
nobby and polished, and the hair abund-
ant. If he said to me the other
day in a gentle burst of confidence.
Il had some sort of beard, or
if, at any rate, my hair was not
SO thick and 1 could add prema-
ture badness to my other advantages it
would result in my making living; as
it is now pass my life in an everlast-
ing effort to keep up the bluff that it is
Invariably called. When [ try to wear
spectacles people laugh at me, and so 1
try to put on an appearance of age by
ton to events that occurred before the
war, and never talk with interest of any
thing that has occurred during the past
twenty years. If l had big beard it
would certainly be worth twenty thous
and dollars to me-
Zone of the commonest errors which
young physicians make is the relating
of innumerable anecdotes and expert
ences, most of which they carelessly re-
fer to as having happened last week in
their extensive medical practice. This
in the face of the fact that is perfectly
evident to every one that their whole
practice is myth, and that even the
busiest and most expert physicians
could not attend in month to one-half
of the remarkable cases which they cite
as having occurred during a single
weeks practice. 1t should be a signifi-
cant fact to these youngsters that older
physicians of prominence seldom or
never refer to cases of this sort, as the
patient is invariably skeptical of all
such reference. Every patient has an
idea that his own particular malady or
ailment stands alone and without paral
lei in the history of medicine, and it
never pleases him to be told that Mr..
Jones was similarly affected last week,
but easily cured by the astute physician.
"There is something really pathetic,
though the public never seems to think
SO, about the early struggles of most
young doctors. Poor chaps, it is almost
painful at times to think how bravely
they keep things moving year after year
on incomes that would be looked on with
contempt by an average street laborer,
and the time they keep up the bluff, to
keep up the expression of my Western
friend, with undiminished courage. They
NAV be half starved-and they are usual
ly quite destitute of all means of paving
for amusements-but they wear their
threadbare frock coats with undimin-
ished dignity, and talk constantly as
though they were being carried onward
in their profession on the topmost wave
of prosperity. wonder that the dra-
matists and novelists, who complain so
of dearth of good lay figures on which
to lay the lines of their novels and plays,
do not take up the career of some one of
these brave and courageous fellows who
struggle so long and so hard to gain rec
IGNITION. Their lives are filled with
pathos and humor. ~. Y. Sun.
A RIVER INCIDENT.