The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-24
WELCOME TO THE DOCTORS OF NORTH CARO-.
LIMA.

be "a faint memory, but L think he
upon to keep the world good, and to
bless little children by his gentIeness
and purity and checrfulness.
These We're the words the clergy
man used at the burial of the cele-
brated DIR. John Claggett," the hero
of when / Practised Medicine" the
best story in the Atlantic Monthly for
April. 1t is a story that every young
! doctor should read to teach him how
to win place in the hearts OF the
people and how to be worthy men,
Der Of the noblest profession among
men. 1t is becoming somewhat fash
ionable, in these days, when we'll fur
nished offices and modern comforts,
with trained nurses, and every con-
venience and help, are near at hand
to under-rate the "old fashioned doc
tor" and his primitive and "folksy"
ways.
We hope never to see the day in
North Carolina when the relations of
physician and patient will become
purely a commercial and professional
, relation, when the doctor is thinking
of his fee while taking the tempera-
ture, when the patient feels that the
payment of the fee ends his obligation
to,>fhe physician, when the kindly So
cial and friendly relation that has long
subsisted between the doctor and the
family he visits is lost in professional
red tape and commercial transa ctionS.
The tendency i'm the direction of
making merchandise Of everything is
so great H. this generation that the
doctors will not escape it unless, While
they go forward in modern equipment
land methods, they reach backward and
keep a firm grip upon the old fash
toned devotion to humanity and TO
the ethics of love and kindness.
The man who is blessed by the min
istrations of a skilled physician, is an
migrate who refuses to pay the ply
sician. But the physician who turns
a deaf ear to the call of suffering be-
cause the fee is his chief object in
practising medicine is an unworthy
member of the noble profession Like
the minister of the gospel, the ply
the minister of the gospel, if the finan-
cial consideration dominates, the noble
calling of healing is debased. The
Great Physician healed the poor and
lowly, as We'll as the rich and the
powerful. The greatest physician is
he who comes nearest the example of
Him who IS the clar of the ply
sician and the preacher-the two pro-
fessions that ought and do in their
membership Illustrate the highest vir-
tues and purest <unselfishness. Your
doctor and your preacher come nearer
to you than any others and III many
ways the physician is nearer aid en-
ters into the affairs of the family
more Intimately than even the preach
er Their steady hand, their wise
counsel. their innate sense of SYM
patty and help have been felt bless
and lift uo in every home.
1t is not only in the home that the
influence Of the physician is felt, but
he might say with Homer: Il am a
man and am interested in whatever
concerns man" Into whatever as
sembly he enters he takes rank with
the foremost, for his training is OF
the sort to Ct him for leadership. As
IA politician, he is invincible. Seldom
DO doctors go into politics. But when
they do. they exert al influence not
e6ualled by any ether class of men,
for, without asking it, they are as
sured of the interest and support OF
all the women in their bailiwick. The
country doctor has made and un-
made many aspirants for political
honors. The doctors should take deep
er interest i'm civic affairs and should
make their views felt more than they
do AS TO The doctor in his relation as
d citizen, DR.. Hubert A. Register, dean
Of the University Medical School, in
n recent address before the Raleigh
Chamber of Commerce, said:
mot often do physicians receive
honorable service entities them. And
this is Quo largely to the faults of
the physicians themselves; who So fire.
-ouently fail to perform their civic
functions. Every member of the med
ical profession should strive every day
to make himself better doctor; it is
also his duty to be good citizen.
That means being interested in and
working for everything that tends to-
ward the moral. social or commercial
up-building of his community l
might discourse further upon the doc
tor as a citizen and not serve to make
it any clearer to your mind that 1t is
a part of the physicians role in life to
be of as well as in the body poltlc,
to be useful as a citizen and to take
his share OF responsibility in pubic
relations. No class in any community
is more honorable, more intelligent,
more upright more respected than
the doctors. Let them always eXer-
else their great influence wisely and
vel.
Raleigh is glad to welcome to the
capital of this noble Commonwealth
the doctors who are among it's chief
IT,