Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-26
A COUNTRY DOCTORS PRACTICE.
The Many Hardships and Peculiar
Experiences He Hns.

The Many Hardships and Peculiar
Experiences He Hns.
From the Journal of Medicine and Science
A continuous practice of twenty-seven
years, even in small community and by
physician who claims only ordinary skill
or success must necessarily afford many
leases of medical interest The clientele
Gees not change so rapidly as in cities. and
one gets better acquainted with family
traits and peculiarities. These are some
times very marked. 1 am acquainted with
certain families in which the prognosis in
any serious disease is bad from the start
while 1 know other families in which 1
should never think of giving a patient up
unless recovery was impoSSible-until actu-
ally moribund. l wish it were in my power
to describe adequately some of the more
important cases that have come under my
notice.
The early years of my practice in this
town were peculiarly hard. There were
two other physicians in it, but they were
both advanced ir ENTHUSIASTICALLY older
than the writer himself is today. They
were both Of excellent repute in the COM
munity, and when the infirmities of age
would allow them to attend they were sure
to be called upon AS a consequence of this
the greater part of my business was in the
adjoining towns. Living on the seacoast
where the land is much intersected by estu-
aries, a large part of my practice was
reached by crossing the water or by trav-
cling on foot Many time have I been
routed from by bed at u and 1 o'clock
at night in the dead of winter and been
rewed a mile or more across the water, and
then had to walk up to my knees in snow
for several miles. When 1 came here there
were but five horses in the village, and
very few in the surrounding towns so that
walking was often necessity. 1 did not
ride bicycle. because there were none;
re ads were too poor. l remember ON two
occasions after crossing the water had to
IL five vail in, t1na
solely as matter of duty. I undoubtedly
saved the life of my patient, and he paid
me with a promise to bring me some fish.
Much of my early practice was on some
what distant islands. and though the trip
was enjoyable enough in pleasant summer
weather in good yacht, it was decidedly
the reverse in an open boat in winters
gale. The trips in a summer fog though
not dangerous were not exactly agreeable.
On several occasions 1 have spent nearly
the entire night on the water rowing aim
lessiy about and unable to find my desti-
nation.
The hardest time that I ever experienced
Was once in the spring when the ice was
breaking up. 1 had distance of bat three
miles to go-two by water and one by land.
1 reached the place after some delay but
on my return to the shore I found the
stream so full of floating ice that it was
impossible. / was so anxious to get back
that l offered twenty-five dollars to any
one who would undertake to get me across.
The amour. offered was five times that of
my fee. I could find no one who would
risk the attempt I then got a man to take
me in his sleigh to point where the ice
bad Lot broken up. so that 1 might walk
across started for a house that I saw,
but lost my way on the ice and landed in
thick woods. There had been a heavy
storm a day or two before and / noundered
around in the snow, one minute on a rock
or boulder and the next up to my neck in
a drift, until l became so exhausted that
after I at length got sight of the house
could not get to it until had lain down
On the snow and rested nearly half an
hour. left my home at am and did
not get back until pm. I lost twenty
dollars by being away and have never fully
recovered from. the exposure and fatigue
1 underwent. Fortunately advancing years
bring some allevia tionS-I leave all such
trips now for my juniors.