Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-01-03
DIFFERENT DOCTORS


nowadays as heated argument on the
claims of Calvanism and Arminianism.
People bold their medical faith at the
present day, through no exercise of tho
reasoning faculty, but by sheer pig
headedness, as the old theologians were
wont to hold their dogmas; and they en-
rertain toward patrons of the opposing
school, whatever it be, contempt COM
pared with which tho ''odium theolog-
icum" is as brotherly love. Tho two
schools to which reference is now to be
made are not recognized in the cyclopc-
d!a; nor among tho profession; but they
Exist all tho same, and the line which
separates them is drawn clearly and
sharply across I'LL the old medical scots
and ''pathies."
There arc all sorts of good names for
these two classes of the medical faculty,
writes Arthur L. BoStwick in the New
York Saturday Rev. ". We may call
thom the Reconcile and the Familiar;
the Mystic and the Frank; the GrandloSe
and the Simple: or the reader may
choose new designation to suit him
self. The physician of the former
school or class bears the same relation
to his patients that an oracle of old did
10 its suppliants. His utterances are
positlvc-oftcn monosyllabic. His man.
ner leads you to conclude at once that
ne knows absolutely what ais you
at a glance, or at least by the
aid of few skillfully directed
questions. His bearing is commonly
high and mighty; if no descends to
familiarity it is only too evident to
those about him that he is conscious of
the vaStneSS Of such descent. Some of
tho most skillful and able physicians
in tho various branches of the profession
arc numbered in tniS class, and it is not
TO be denied that the effect of their
p bearing upon certain kind of patient
is beneficial. Some people like to have
authority exercised over them: they
like to feel that they arc in the hands
If one greater than they, who holds
over them the wand of life or death.
and by twist of it can losl or care
Thoy do not want to know what they
are taking. If they arc told aught
about their ailments they wish it to be
done i'll the most learned language pos
Eible; the more Latin the better. Pa
tients Of this class are largely Of the
gcntlcr sex, but plenty of the So-Gallcd
Sterncr sex are to- be found in its ranks.
The other school of medicine acIInowl-
edges, to start with, that Il physician is
rarely certain FIN his diagnosis; that he
must usually experiment littlo at
first. lie tells his patient at the utSot
all he knows Of the case, outlines the
prospective treatment, with alb lis pos
SlblliticS of change, and, in short. takes
tho patient inbo his confidence. His
manner is free from grandeur, authority
or mysticism, and his language is col
loquial AMI simple.
I Is q disgrace TO the human race
but VIC shall be forced to ADMIT it-that
for probably the majority of patients
this kind of treatment, carried to its
logical end, will not do at all.
Only man of tho greatest good
sense, combined with high educa-
lion and liberal culture, can profit
by the extreme variety of this treat
mont; and even such q ono, under
tho pressure Of physical pain, may re-
vert to the condition Of the majority.
In practice most physicians of this
school, much as many of them would
like to be consistent and logical, are
forced to adopt " halfway course, lean
ing moro or less toward the mysticism
and grandi1oquonco Of the opposite
party. A skillful practitioner will often
vary his manner and methods according
to his patient, thus achieving tho best
results.
therefore, in practice, there is
pretty even gradation from the extreme
mystical to the extreme radical ply
kician, ovon some OF tho former admit
ting the theoretical correctness of the
radical views, but maintaining that
they are not practical. 1t must DO adj
E,tttcd, however, that most of the nys-
sics appear, outwardly at least, to have
complcto confidence in themselves, and
20 believe fully in the preternatural
powers they seem to claim. Whatever
sncy may confess to themselves in tho
scCTot reccsses- OF their professional
closets, the pubic never hears thon
acknowledge esen the. possibility of
their making q mistake. II tho disease