The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-01-24
DIFFERENT. DOCTORS.
Physicians of the Radical and Mys.
teal Schools
Their Methods In the Treatment OF Theif
Cases, and Personal Bearing Toward
Their Patients-Phys icians" Faith
In Themselves.

\ Their Patients-Physicians' rain
In Themselves.
NoHthe- Regulars. andTthef Homeo-
paths4 Discussion as to their respective
merits Is quito as much out OF place
nowadays as heated argument on the
claims OF Calvanism and Arminianism.
People hold their medical faith at the
present day. through no exercise of the
reasoning faculty, but by sheer pig
medicines. as the old theologians were
won't to hold their dogmas; and they en-
terrain toward patrons of theopposing
school, whatever it DO, acontempt COM
pared with which the sodium theolog-
icum" is as brotherly love. The two
schools to which reference is now to be
made arc not recognized in the cyclope-
dias nor among the profession; but they
exist all the same, and the limo which
separates them is drawn clearly and
sharply across all the old medical sects
and "pathies." ssss.:-,sy a s g ssss1S
There are all sorts of good names for
these two classes of the medical faculty,
writes Arthur Il. Bostwick in the New
York Saturday Review. We may call
them the Recondito and the Familiar;
the Mystic and the Frank; the Grandiose
and the Simplc: 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
to its -suppliants. His utterances are
positive-often monosyllabic. Ills man
ner leads you to conclude at once that
he. knows absolutely what"nilst you
at q glance, or at least by tho
aid of few skillfully directed
questions. His bearing is commonly
high and mighty; il 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 the various branches Of the profession
are numbered in this class, and it is not
to be denied that the effect of their
bearing upon q certain kind of patient
is beneficial. Some people like to have
authority exercised over them: they
like to feel that they are in tho hands
of ono greater than they, who holds
over them the wand OF life or death,
and by twist OF 1t can kill or cure.
They do not want to know what they
are taking. If thoy arc told aught
about their ailments they wish it to be
done in the most learned language pos
sible; the more Latin the better. Pa
tients of this class are largely of the
gentler sex, but plenty OF the so-called
sterner sex arc to be found in its ranks
The other school of medicine acknowl
edges, to start with, that physician Is
rarely certain in his diagnosis; that he
must usually experiment little q
first. He tells his patient at the outse
all he knows Of the case, outlines thu
prospective treatment, with all its pos
sibilities of change, and, in short, takes
the patient into his confidence. Hi
manner is free from grandeur, authorit.
or mysticism, and his language is col
loquial and simple. go sa~ss
1t is disgrace to the human race
but we shall be forced to admit it-tha
for probably the majority of patient
this skind of treatment, carried to 1t
logical end, will not do at all
Only man OF the greatest goo
sense, combined with high educa
ton and liberal culture, can prof
by the extreme variety of this treat
ment; and even such one, unde
the pressure of physical pain, may re
vert to the condition of tho majority
in practice most physicians of thi
school, much as many of them woul
like to DO consistent and logical. ar
forced to adopt halfway course. lear
ing more or less toward tho mysticism
and grandiloquence of the opposit
party. A skillful practitioner will ofte
vary his manner and methods accordin
to his patient, thus achieving tho bes
results.
Therefore, in practice, there is
pretty even graduation from tho cxtrcm
mystical to the extreme radical phi,
stefan, oven some OF the former admi
ting tho theoretical correctness OF tn
radical views. but maintaining thu
they are not practical. 1t must BIO az
mitaed, however, that most OF the my
tics appear, outwardly at least, to ha,
complete confidence in themselves. an
to believe fully in the pretcrnatur
powers they seem to claim. Whatev'
they may confess to themselves in Il
secret recesses of their profession
closets, the public never hears the
acknowledge oven the possibility
their making mistake. II the disea
does not yield to their Establishments
whether allopathic, homeopathic, G
lectic or herbalistic--so much the wor
for the disease. Let it be anathcma +
existing when it ought not to exist.
the treatment DO altered, there is no q
acknowledgement that new theory of Il
ailment is to be tested; tho patient
led to infer that the change of medicil
is part of plan formed within tho de-
recesses of the mystic's brain at the o,
set.