Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-07
APPLYING A MAXIM.
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish in Pro-
fession, Trade and Home.
THOROUGHNESS In AN EDUCATION,
lncompetents Saving Bones and Striplings
in the Pulpit.
SUPPLIES FOR THE FAMILY TABLE
WRITTEN FOE THE DIsPArcH.I

WRITTEN FOE THE DIsPArcH.1
Public schools, seminsries, academies and
educational institutions in general are OPEN
ing their doors, letting in the sunlight and
removing the accumulated cobwebs from
the ceilings and walls. Vacation days are
over. and with renewed energies and an ac-
cumulation of gray matter in the brain and
vitality In the nerve cells. the youth of the
nation is turning to books and states, verbs
and adverbs. This is well. But are there
not thousands of young men and women,
well able to reach into the, to them, un-
known realms of higher education, who have
decided to stop and take short cut into
some profession or business with only q
superficial knowledge of the classics, lit
tie daub of culture here, and a little shade
Of knowledge there?
Why is this thus? It is the result of q
false ambition to be getting along in life.
1t is mistake. A man was trying to cut
wood by the road side. He made poor prog
ress. A pedestrian said: "Why don't
you sharpen your az, neighbor? Your work
would be easier and you could do it
quicker"
"Oh, was the reply, II have no time to
fool away grinding the AZ. want to get
this cord of wood cut"
That's just the way it Is with the super
hcial scholar. A few more years, or possi-
bic months of study in school, would save
him years of irksome labor, and a vast
amount of humiliation in after life. A
smattering of mathematics does not make q
man mathematician. A cursory knowl-
edge OF medicine does not qualify a man as
physician. A glimmering of theology
does not create theologian. A rapid read
ing of Aristotle, MacauIay, Seneca and
Herbert Spencer never germinated phil
osopher. And 50 on ad libitum.
The Impatient Young Doctor.
In many of our ordinary towns may be
found number Of young physicians strug-
Cling for practice. They have listened to
scores of lectures, have unstrung wire
jointed skeletons without number, and pos
sibly have made themselves faint and sick
over some stolen cadaver, but an over
anxious desire to practice medicine and
gain paying business has brought disas-
ter, if not to themselves, at least to some of
their unfortunate patients. Never until the
judgment day (and possibly not then), will
it be known how many untimely graves have
been filled by malpractice or lack of knowl-
edge on the part Of new-fedged doctors.
Medical colleges are, some of them, too
liberal with their degree of "M. D." A
man may read medicine, and delve into
anatomy and physiology until his eyesight
is prematurely impaired, but he knows lit
tie about actual practice and correct diagno-
sis until he has had experience. A year or
two in some we'll conducted hospital should
be demanded Of all men who presume to
enter that profession, which, next to the Cos
pei ministry, is the most sublime calling on
earth. A really competent physician
never or seldom waits long for recog-
milton, but he who pushes himself
into practice on the strength of his theoretic
knowledge is 'penny wise and pound fool
ish." He will possibly kill a good many
people in learning to cure few and bring
a shadow Of doubt and contempt upon the
noble calling he has chosen. This would
not matter SO much if subjects could be Sc
lected for him to practice upon. There are
men, and possibly few women, who could
be spared without much loss to the State
and Nation, but they are not easily availa-
BILE for such a purpose.