The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-05-08
Success as a Physician.
Dr. George of Shrady Points Out the Way for Young Doc
tors---A Veterans Advice.


contrivances must be familiar to him.
He must keep fully abreast of the RAPID
tide of medical Improvement, or elSe
drop hopelcssly and almost uselessly pc
hind. From the day that l graduated
I have never ceased to study, and 8
shall never cease to study until the END.
If your young man does not like the
prospect of lifelong labor, let him not
hone TO become Il successful physician.
THE first question DR.. Young Man
asks himself is very often this Shall l
devote myself to general practice, or
start to win fame as Il specialist: by
all means be n general practitioner, DE-
Young Man! You will never amount 10
much as specialist unless You DO.
Going out of college into speclal
branch of medicine is like beginning to
build Il pyramid at the apex. Inc doc
TOR of the future is going to be an ah
around physician: and you can take my
word for it that the very best specialists
are those that are forced by clrcuiii-
stances into their particular line of work.
No surgeon can succeed unless he has
practised as a general practitioner. Sup
pose Il disease of the eye depends, as Is
frequently the case, uDon anotner us
ease which has its seat in the kidneys
When your oculist, who is merely III
oculist. is called in, how can he cure the
disease without being familiar with k'd-
ney troubles? Or. how can surgeon OPP
crate on the stomach thoroughly unless
he is conversant with the general laws
of the stomach? 1t will be time enough
for DIR. Young Man to think of becom-
ing a specialist when he has built up
good general practice.
Now. as to the field Of labor to BIC
chosen. Large cities are poor places to
start in, unless the young doctor has
sufficient funds to keep him going dur
ing the years of dreary waiting which
must be his Go TO Il country town OF
small city. DR.. Young Man-that is my
honest advice There you will have
chance of getting noticed. Emergency
cases are possible there. In big cities the
hospital ambulance takes such cases
from YOU. while the huge army of other
practitioners prevent you from coming
to the front The life of a doctor in
country town is, to my mind, most en-
viable. He grows old with the old folk;
he sees the young folk grow up around
him. If he is the right sort of man every
body esteems and respects him. vi
course, practice in ii country town has
it's limitations. Fame does not often
come in the country doctors way, nor
does his yearly income rise beyond
certain limit. But he is. or ought to be,
very happy, the country doctor.
when you have practiced and made
some money in the country, one can fol
low the trend Of ones ambition, and set
up a metropolitan office. But it is just
as well TO be prepared for failure-flat,
miserable. Mountaineering failure. /
knew a doctor who was making ST. 900
per annum in New Jersey town. He
was discontinued. and yearned for fame
and city reputation. Accordingly he
came To New York. In three years he
had lost all his money, and now he is
back in New jersey, trying to recover
his old practice. On the other hand. /
have known of country doctors. and
even of young graduates. who started
in New York. and acquired fame and
fortune. But let me frankly confess
that there is a great deal of the chance
element in metropolitan regulations.
The young doctor should go away
from home when he begins to practice.
No man is a prophet in his own coun-
try says the old maxim. | knew of a
y
set IN in his native village, hoping that
family influence would help him along.
Quite the contrary occurred. People
would say: Why, that's old Browns
son. / once boxed his ears for stealing
to mere boy like him for advice
Within twelve months my young con-
frere found ont his mistake. packed his
firm
miles away. Now he is doing famOusly.
Your typical young doctor is doubt
less DESTROYS for advice regarding the
sort of office he should select. Some
people think that what is termed bluff
goes long way in young physicians;
Dut there never was such mistake as
this. The days of Sawyer late Mock
emorf' are over for good. People are not
going to be taken in by gaudy offices,
stylish turnouts and the pretense of
big practice. They know that young
doctors are not rushed to death by bust
ness; and such display is wasted on
them. Let your office and surroundings
be what your means will allow. Dr.
Young Man! Do not overstep that limit.
Debt is the shoal upon which many n
youthful physicians ship is lost, and
debt is unavoidable when one lives be-
yond ones means.
DIR. Young Man should work on the
legitoimate lines of his profession alone
Politics or public life belong not to his
province. When a doctor becomes a
politician, he ceases to be a conscienti-
Gus physician. With us the motto is, or
ought to be, NE sutor ultra crepidamw
shoemaker, stick to your last Con
tributing to literature on medical or
scientific subjects | regard, however, as
wholly within the doctors province. In
deed, by that means he keeps up with
the onward march all the better.
THAT reminds me that too much
stress cannot be laid on the study of
current science. Electricity, mathemat-
les, chemistry-all the exact sciences, in
fact, are useful, perhaps indispensable.
One never knows what new discovery in
any one of these highways or byways
of learning may change the whole course
of our belief. Also one never knows