The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-08-07
TRIALS OF A DOCTOR
Mental Woes the Lot of Every
Busy and Humane
Physician.
Stories Of Experiences Told by
One Of the Pro-
fession.
From the Cincinnati Enouirer)

Wnen see young men enter the profess
sion, and yet those who follow it are not
melancholy lot" said a doctor in an
swer to the query propounded. OF course
1t is commonly supposed physician be-
comes used to scenes Of suffering and the
presence of the invisible angel of death
and does not allow his personal feelings
to become involved as would men unac-
customed to such experiences, but there
are many exceptions. I can tell you one
! that happened twenty years ago, which
| has never ceased to haunt me. A very
| intelligent, cultivated lady called upon
me one night, and asked me to go with
| her to see her husband. They lived in a
modest cottage, tastefully, even elegant
| ~ furnished. AS soon as l saw the man
I knew that he could not recover. At
| best his life could be prolonged but few
weeks. l told the wife, and she urged me
| to spare no efforts to sustain him as long
| as possible. Day after day I called, and
| the noble womanhood of the lady at
| tracted me greatly. She had two child
rem, boy or 5 years of age, and a babe,
and the silent grief with which she would
| look at her dying husband and then at the
| little ones so soon to be left fatherless
was pitiful, and I feared for her sanity.
knew nothing of her circumstances, but
1 learned that neither she nor her nus
| band had living relatives.
I'm few months my patient died and
was buried. My fee was paid, and dis
missed the case from my thoughts. 1t
was not long before the widow called for
me to attend her little boy. I went and
| left some simple remedies, not thinking
that he was seriously i'll. But the next
| day he was dead. What complications
| had set in I do not know. and could not
| have learned without a post mortem eX-
animation. Something impelied me to
| offer my services to make arrangements
| for the funeral, and. handing me $40
hi !, y oro1y nd 7
| charge of the remains. The next day the
| mother and her babe were gone. A chat
| tel mortgage loan concern came and took
| the furniture, upon which the money to
pay me and the undertaken had been bOr-
| rowed, and the house was left bare. I
| could obtain no trace of the mother and
her babe. Three weeks later a woman
| and infant were found dead underneath
a culvert, and their remains were taken
| to the morgue
STARVED TO DEATH.
Through a strange curiosity, that I
never had at any other time, 1 went to
view the bodies. The woman was my
former patron, and examination showed
the cause of death to have been starva-
ton. I had taken her last dollar with
which to bury her child. The memory
Of that case haunts me to this day, and
every physician has instances of the
deaths of patients that have given him
trouble as though they had been rela-
tives. Their are times when telling a pa
tent and his family that his case is hope
less entails acute mental suffering upon
the part of the doctor
but I suppose it is the daily annoy
ances and vexations that would interest
you the most. A frequent trouble comes
from charity patients, by whom do not
mean the work done era tuitously for hos
pitfalls and the charitable institutions
where every physician is glad to contrib
Io;c TO-
humanity. The class I refer to is one
who calls on a doctor at all hours of day
| and night, always with exaggerated ac-
| counts of the danger attending the ILL
ness, and the doctor would not be true
| to his profession if he did not go. I
| have had to ride for miles in the middle
| of the night where 1 knew I could ex-
pect no fee, to find that the patient had
already recovered from the slight indi-
| gestion that caused the pain The in
| gratitude of this class is shown by an
| instance in my own practice. I had at
| tended a family for three years, even
| supplied medicines and proper food. They
| lived where it was impossible for them
| to be healthy, and were too poor to pro-
vide themselves with the necessaries of
life. They had seen better days ard were
not fitted for a rugged life. I doctored
them and helped feed them, while my
| wife took such an interest in them that
for one year she furnished clothes for
the family. One day l saw in the news
papers that by the death of the mans
uncle he had come into possession of a
fortune. 1 heard nothing from them for
year, when one day the man drove to
my office in a handsome carriage and
called for my bill, saying that he had
concluded to settle with me, as another
physician whom he had employed seemed
to understand his constitution better and
that he had been sick for six months on
] l,nV c,.HA
he had received. I made out the bill,
which he paid after eliminating about one
half of it, which was for attendance upon
a grown daughter who he said was Of
age and must pay her own bills.
CHRONIC PATIENTS.
"There are the chronic patients. about
whom the humoristS make 80 many Jokes
It is a decided mistake to suppose that
physicians do not try to cure them. A
doctor doesn't want the reputation of
keeping his patients sick, and every ply
stefan knows that his reputation is worth
far more to him than any immediate fees
The chronic patients who give physicians
trouble are those afflicted with the pecul-
lar mental complaint named hypochon-
dria. I once had one of these cases for
over fifteen years, and during the last
fifteen years a friend of mine has been
treating the patient, who is neither bet
ter nor worse. There is nothing what
ever the matter with her, except the hal
Iucination that she is sick. and yet I
have had to stay up all night to chafe her
hands and give her medicine At least
twice a week for many years she was
taken with what she called a turn and
would fall back as If dying. This always
occurred in the night, and I could never
get away before morning.
''Then there are patients who will not
follow the physicians advice and die of a
complaint that everyone familiar with
the case know@should have easily been
cured I have walked the floor for hours
worrying about what my brother physi-
clans would think of my losing a case
of this kind, realizing that they could not
be familiar with the circumstances
Then there are rules of ethics neces-
sary to maintain the dignity and honor
of the profession, and that entail a great
many petty annoyances. At times a
physicinan is precluded from recognizing
another who perhaps is. a warm personal
friend At other times he must confer
with his worst enemies and join hands
with them. Then there are family conf
dences where the physician must listen
to matters that he does not want to know
and that some day the person telling
them will hate him for knowing. Some
people go to their family physician with
secrets that it would be supposed were
too sacred to be told even by a devout
believer to his pastor.
eff you are looking for a class of men
who are without troubles you do not want
to find physicians, no matter how sue
cessfuL"
A DISTINCTION WITH A DIFF