New-York tribune., 1902-07-06
An EXALTED PROFESSION.
,r4vslCIANS OVERWHELMED WITH HON
oRS AND DIGNITIES BY MON
ARCHES AND REPUBLICS.

aignities Of kind and another. In the list of
tonors granted ten days ago by King Edward
!, the day set for his coronation, the medical
,,fession figures more largely than any other
Ealing \ physician has just been ntrusted by
.to President Of the French Republic with the
antics Of Premier. while here il the United
c,ates We find a medical on the high road
20 the command of the army, after having filed
with such signal success offices of exceptional |
5iaiculty delicacy and responsibility to lead
20 his being publicly extoIled by the Chief Mag
ietrate Of the Commonwealth as the most valued |
and valuable Of the latter's servants.
# Is difficult under the circumstances to real
ize that as recently the early part of the
reign of Queen Victoria physicians had virtually |
no place in European society. They mere
- tolerated when eminent and neither in Lon
don nor yet in any of the leading capitals of |
Europe. would members of the great world ever
9ream Of inviting their doctors to their dinner |
.-tiae Their position was indeed most in |
i5ioue To put the matter in plain English |
tbev were not regarded, socially speaking as |
gentlemen Nor did they receive treatment as |
such. This due in part to survival in the |
oIden days when the surgeon and the apothecary
etood on the same social level as the barber |
the three offices being often united in one and
the same person. 1t was due, also, to the very
natural awkWardness which a hostess might
feel receiving ner IdDe on terms or SOCIAL
equality the medico whom she had feed in the
morning and consulted about her health. All
these ideas, however, belong to a bygone gen.
Grafton To-day We find doctors being ennobled
by nearly every one of the sovereigns of Eu-
rope.
There are some twoscore baronets and knights
in the medical profession of Great Britain, as
wen as a peer in the person of Lord Lister
Emperor William has conferred patents of no
bility upon DR.. Ernest Leyden, the famous Ger
man physician who attended the deathbed of the
late Gar; upon DR.. Koch. of bacillus celebrity,
and upon a number of other stars of the medical
profession in Germany and abroad. To the Re
gent of Bavaria belongs the credit of having
converted Dr. R0ntgen, the inventor of the y
rays into a full fedged baron. In republican
France physicians have in late years received
the highest grade of the Order of the Legion of
Honor, and not only several princes of royal
blood have adopted medicine calling des
tined to enhance their usefulness to their fellow
citizens, but there is likewise a fun hedged
Queen, namely the French consort of King
Carlos Of Portugal, who. having passed all the
requisite examinations is entitled TO add
the letters M. d. 10 her name, III addition TO
the word Regina"
That this should be the case need furnish
ground for surprise. On the contrary it is
astonishing that so many years, nay, even cen
turies should have elapsed before the medical
profession came TO be appreciated at its true
worth. It is a calling to which all others, save
those perhaps of a religious character must
necessarily give way. For even the greatest
and most powerful in the land not exempt
from human ills, and when prostrated and rem
dered helpless by sickness or by physical in
jury are compelled to yield obedience to the
directions of the physician, no matter what his
birth or origin. There is no empire more vast
in extent than that of Great Britain. Yet dur
ing the last fortnight the ruler of than
3e0000000 OF human beings embracing one
fifth Of the population of the entire globe, has
been obliged to submit in the most absolute
fashion to the behests Of his medical attend
ants who have not hestated to exercise their
authority in the fullest measure, realizing the
burden of responsibility that rested upon their
shoulders II has not been merely that their
professional reputation at stake-for any
error Of a disastrous character in the treat
entail, OF course the ruin of their medical
careers-but it has likewise been because they
have felt that their countrymen, and not alone
their countrymen bat the entire civilized world,
have looked them and to their skill TO avert
the domestic and international crisis that is
necessarily involved by the death Of the eX-
ecutiye Of a great power, be he emperor, king
or president Of a republic. SO strongly do ply
silians realize this that in several instances
where mistakes in the treatment Of their royal
PATIENTS resulted fatally, they took their own