Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-08-07
THE SHIP SURGEON.
kILLIoMAIRes AND PEASANTS ARE HIS
PATIENTS.
He Is an Information Bureau For Passen-
gers-His Salary Is Not Large, but There
Arc Perquisites That Make the job Gen.
orally Worth Having.

| gers-HIs Salary Is Not Large. but There
Arc Perquisites That Make the job Gen.
orally Worth Having.
The duties of n ship surgeon while at sea
are combination of those of doctor and
q sanitary inspector. AS physician, he
| is thrown completely and entirely upon
| his own resources He has no one to con-
| suit in case OF doubt or anxiety on his
| part He has no option about taking or
| leaving case. 1t is his duty to attend
with equal devotion and impartiality every
passenger on board the vessels, without
regard to race, color o. the necessity Of
| bath. In fact it is most obligatory for him
| to minister to the Storage passengers, for
| there are usually one or more doctors in
| the first and second cabins, especially in
summer, who can be called upon for their
| fellow travellers in emergency cases.
AS health officer, he must visit every
part of the ship to sec that everything Is
clean; disinfect, if that is necessary;
watch the food that is prepared for the
crew, the steerage and cabin passengers
A ship surgeon is generally supposed by
the passengers to know everything about
the vessels from the height of the mast to
the number of revolutions of the screw
"Once," said the surgeon of one of the At
lantic liners. "a young woman asked me
what they did with the ashes. You smile,
but that is by no means an unusual ques-
ton. 1t Is so common, in fact, that the
stereotyped answer to 1t is that they make
tho coal beavers cat the ashes. People at
sea ask all sorts of silly questions, to the
disgust, annoyance and amusement of tho
officers. The best plan when you are at
sea is to keep your eyes and ears open and
your mouth shut. Just have q little pa
thence. Some other inquiring mind will
ask the question you have on your tongues
end. If he gets snubbed by your golden
silence you have saved yourself that If he
gets reasonable explanation, you also arc
enlightened without having exposed your
Ignorance"
All the steerage passengers pass before
the ship surgeon as they go on board. II
there is any just cause why they should
not be taken, they are sent back. When
they go on board, they frequently carry
their babies done up in shawls-head, eyes
and ears covered up, until one cannot tell
whether the bundle is child or Il long
loaf of bread Many a time, " continued
the surgeon, II have made one of them
open bundle only to find it contained
articles of food or clothing The clothing
is often not up to the standard of that
cleanliness which stands close to godlincss,
but 1t is not so Objectionable as a child
with scarlet fever"
"How is the berth of surgeon on board
a ship obtained?''
"A man may not be less than 90 years
old though ono SO young as that Is seldom
accepted, the Judgment of tho companies
being that the surgeon, deprived as he is
of consultation with other doctors, should
have had somewhat considerable actual
practice. The doctor applying must, of
course, be q graduate from some recognized
and accepted school of medicine. In order
to obtain the position it is well to have
friend at court"
"What is the salary?'
THE salary, of course, varies according
to the vessel tho doctor is on. Tho salary
Of a surgeon, oven on one of the finest pas
senger steamers that cross tho ocean, Is
seemingly small. "
lis there anything behind that seem
inglyT"
Eyes. The actual salary paid by the
company wowill assume to be between $40
month and $40 u week. Now, $40 %
month for professional man, whose cdu-
cation has cost him thousands of dollars,
would seem ridiculous. But can assure
you that II surgeon on some of those pa
latlal ocean steamers only got n salary Of
$40 year neither he nor his family need
go hungry or out at the elbows.
The law prohibits u ship surgeon from
making out II bill or from naming any spc-
ciiio price for his services He is supposed
to be there for the purpose of serving tho
passengers. In fact, he must attend the
call of everybody on board even the mean
est Neglect of the stcerage passengers
charged against ship surgeon, if the com
plant were sont in to the company proper
ly, would certainly be investigated and if
1t should be sustained the doctor would DO
dismissed. When he has done his full duty
III the Storage, there is no law against his
being very kind and thoughtful and atten-
tive to Mr. and Mrs. Millionaire in tho
1rst cabin, nor Is there the slightest OBJ
lection ON the part Of the company If Mr..
millionaire shows his substantial apprecia.
ton of the doctors skill and gentlemanly
conduct While the position of ship sur
geon on a fine passenger steamer is pot ex-
actly sinecure, and there are other things
than signing the pay roll to do, the man
who holds such "a place need not ask his
pastor at home to take up collection for
his suffering family. Nor is this substan-
tlal recognition by any means confined to
the 1irst cabin. 1t is quito universal in tho
second cabin, with a sporadic case here
and there in the steerage
mo doctor on land has, in social point
OF view patients who represent so many
grades of society as those who como under
the care of q ship surgeon. When young
man on land first sets up his sign as an NJ
D., he has generally some idea rs to the
social stratum from which his patients arc
to come, some fixed principle, some limit
beyond which he will not go. Some doc
tors wish to practice only among the very
wealthy; some prefer the respectable mid
die GLASS; some wish to have principally
singers and actors for their patients; others
work in the slums and rattle off prescrip-
lions like bullets from u repeating rifle.
At sea, all these classes arc attended by
the surgeon. / am afraid that there, as on
land, the doctor frequently fingers tho
longest at tho side of the patient from
whom the latest fee can with reason bo
,b-Nayy Work uribuna