Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05

| cause ne Is exter1oriy such a swell. He be-
| longs to the group of worldly and fashion,
able Paris doctors. of WHICH Poirier is one,
Pozzi another and Berger still another. ali
| these three latter being surgeons
| Pozzi who went to St Louis at the same
| time that Mr. Croker returned to the
United States, Is typical high-priced sur
gical swell, a clubman, diper-out and first
nighter at the great theaters. He is young,
slender and good looking; while PORTER is
slender not young and not bad looking In
| university circles 1t is, after ALL Poirier who
is imagined to be the height of elegance and
daintiness, being always dressed in the new
to students holding big red or white rose
In his hand, which he sniffsl luxuriously and
waves in gesticulating.t m
! Poirier has also great Partisan reputa-
ton for conservative Judgment. For exam
pie, when the late Waldeck-Rousseau was
on his deathbed he had for chief doctors
Babenski of the Pitie Hospital and Gallipe,
the great specialist of the mouth. Poirier
being called in, pronounced against the
operation which was finally made by the
German doctor; and he was thus far JUS
titled by the event, that the operation did
not save Waldeck-Rousseau's life
Two years ago Poirier was named pro-
fessor of anatomy against the violent oppo-
sition of Tillaux, a remarkable surgeon,
now old, and regularly spoken of by Pa
risans as 1.-The best of men,! He is still
professor of clinical surgery and enjoys
great influence in the faculty. In the fight
over Poriers professorship, both he and
about each other and each others follow
ing that made agreeable reading for young
er practitioners, outside the magic circle.
Outside the Magic Circle.
That there are great men outside the
magic circle is fact that discloses slow
change coming over medical Paris. The
Pasteur Institute had it's beginnings and all
its early successes outside the circle; but
the circle had the wisdom to absorb it, and
it is now intimately connected with the
faculty.
known in the United States from his not
having cured the wife of the California
millionaire for $4,000. is a typical example
of success outside faculty circles.
What some of the great ones reproach
DR.. Doyen for is, they say, not his indepen-
dence, but his methods. For instance, three
years after he graduated. he OBJ
scure young doctor at Reims. An aunt of
his had a small champagne vineyard, so
small and doing so i'll that she finished
her champagne in the cave of a neighbor.
Young Doyen, they relate, suddenly be-
came converted to the principles of social
ism. He ran with the push. He got him
self elected socialist mayor of Reims. Then
he began boosting his aunt's champagne
He gave it his name-his aunt was not a
Doyen. He found capital to advertise 1t, as
specially wholesome champagne for sick
folks-a great doctors wine, and he was the
great doctor. Within five years the Mar
que DOyeH WIS selling StupenQOuSly, ana
you can today go nowhere in France, on the
mountain roads of Dauphiny or in the lost
meadows of Brittany, without reading
painted on rocks and fences-"C Champagne
Doyen." Long ago the aunts vineyard ceas-
ed to produce enough; its makers therefore
buy up raw champagne at Reims, according
to the demand.
There Are Others.
Doyen long ago cut completely loose from
the faculty; but there are others. Such
one is the really great surgeon, Fort, of
whom Parisians-with their habit of putting
a tag-name-say of late, "he has no luck"
This recent lack of luck is summed up in
two ludicrous lawsuits brought against the
surgeon, one by the widow of an army Off
Ger on whom he operated, and the other by
patient who still lives and wants back the
fee of 1000 francs he paid him.
Dr. Fort operated on the army officer for
a disease of the stomach. The lated dying,
an autopsy brought to light the rubber
cap of sound which the surgeon had left
III the stomach before sewing it up! Il know
it perfectly WE'LL DR.. Fort answers, the
cap came off when the sound was with
crawn, and l judged. it better not to in
flame the stomach by hunting for it. That
little rubber cap could have had no influ-
ence on the PATIENTS health and would
have passed out of the ,tonfach in the usual
way" The court is now waiting for an ex-
pert report before deciding the case.
The other case was that of a wealthy pro-
vincial, operated by DR.. Fort for the blad-
der. This time it was only a piece of a
sound-cap that was LEFT behind Il knew
it." says Fort, "und asked the patient to
come AMI have it taken out of his bladder
But he never came
lieu, heu.' say Parisians; I'VE don't
blame him. But, to be just we ought to
remember that 1t is said on the other side
that these cases have been hunted up and
pushed on to trouble the eminent surgeon
who works outside the charmed circle BY
whom? | don know.
With Diamond Rays.
third such eminent Independent is a
really great electrical specialist, whose
name escapes me; but it is he who is Just
now making extraordinary cures of the
blind with diamond-rays. Yes, diamond
rays-thar is to say, if understand it cor
rectly, rays of light focused on a diamond
and so reflected to the spot desired. 1t
seems they have a strange curative effect
event. is said-on the worst cases. This
is extremely new and is being kept quiet for
the moment.
1t is being kept quiet for the moment!
Does it sound bad? Think a moment The
physician, be he eminent or not, is in
cruel position when he hits on some great
new discovery. On the one hand he must
make the discovery known in order that
paying patients may learn of it's existence
On the other hand, If he tells all about it,
the whole medical world falls on it and uses
it,
Medical ethics declare that he must tell.
The theory is that his own discovery is but
a continuation of all the worlds medical
progress; that as he was freely allowed to
learn the discoveries of the, past, he ought
to contribute all that he may discover to
the common fund. One might inquire in
passing how the doctor or psychologist diff
fers, after all, in this respect from the or
binary inventor who takes out patent. He
too. has profted by the common fund of the
worlds knowledge!
Medical ethics are medical ethics never
theless. The physician who makes a great
discovery ought to tell it. Here is the Sc
cret. Everything is in the telling. The
temptation is to tell just enough and to tell
that in just the right way
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS