The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-06


ing mob of frenzied men stood out
side waiting to kill him should he fail.
But the hand of God follows and dl-
reefs the hand of genius employed in
a mission of mercy. Perforce should
you cast your lots in the country, you
must be men of emergency. You
must be able at times to make frac-
ture SplintS from cigar boxes, or the
bark of trces.-bandages from bed
sheets, a catheter from goose quill,
an esmarch from a pair of suspenders
snatched from the shoulders of the
nearest by-stander These, the re-
sourceful, are the men who succeed
in medicine. 1t was that quality in
an emergency that heralded the name
of Sims to the world as a blessing to
suffering womankind. Surely we
would not decry a full armamentari-
UNI of surgical instruments and APP
planes, but a man can not at all
times be a walking hospital. Nor is
it in good taste to decorate yourselves
with surgical instruments. A case of
instruments bulging out OF one coat
pocket, a stomach pump dangling
from another, while q StethoScope
adorns. a third, may impress only a
few innocent people with the import
ance and necessity of your presence
in the community. A doctor must be
Il.
man, for his whole life is long chap
ter OF emergencies. Only short time
ago a young doctor fresh from the
hospital was called on to see man
bleeding from a Slight scalp wound.
His nerve, if he ever had any, left
him at once when he saw what to
him was a CHASTITY sight. Without
waiting to make any examination
whatever he hurried off to borrow a
ther Misunderstanding up to the drug
gist in the most excited manner, he
exclaimed that Il man was bleeding
terribly and he wished to take his
temperature at once. While our
medIco was off on his urgent mission
looking for thermometer, a drug
clerk washed off the wound with hot
sterile water and snugly bound it up
with some antiSeptic gauze, complete
~ staunching the blood.
1t may not be impossible, but it is
rather improbable, that this young
fellow wished to impress the COM
mon people with his methodical pro-
cedure, and if he did, he should have
gone one fool-step further, pulled out
his case book and leisurely taken
down, hospital or life insurance FASH
ion, the patients family and medical
history. And perhaps he would, had
not the patients regular attendant
arrived on the scene. That little cpl
sode is liable to follow him a long
time, for q failure is remembered and
recited after many successes are for
gotten. Then a doctor should learn
early the difference between the APP
pearance of an angina and hyster1a,
between the symptoms of enteric
parasites and an appendicitis. A mis-
take here would bring about many
painful recollections. 1t is good
plan always to have some other doc
tor to share a mistake.
Close habits of observation are es-
sential to a doctors success. lie must
be an observer not only of men, but
of methods The author of Sherlock
Holmes, an accomplished medical
teacher, often urged this upon MS
classes. He declared that a doctor
should be able to make a correct
diagnosis of many diseases from ac-
curate observation alone. To impress
this, he handed around a little jar,
containing some bitter and nauSeatlng
mixture, asking the students to dip a
ringer into it, taste and tell him what
it contained. They obeyed without
hesitation. After much spluttering
and wry faces no one could tell MN.
He smilingly assured them thal hau
they observed more closely, tlty 1ouiN
have seen that the finger that ne
thrust into his own mouth had never
been dipped into the jar at all. by
observation alone doctor must De
able to tell if a crying baby is sleepy,
being pricked by pin, smothered UP
by too many hot, stuffy clothes, or
gnawed at by a fit of indigestion.
While you are waiting, read while
you have the time, and study much. ,
That complex machine called hu-
man nature furnishes vast fieid Tor
study, and he who has the best knoWl-
edge of its component and intricate
parts will in many respects be the
most successful physician. Snakes
peare should be studied industrIously.
A few months with Dickens VIII give
you many X-ray photographs OF the
characters of the people around you,
but bear in mind, that while you are
studying the dear people, they are
as carefully scrutinizing you and max
ing uo opinions from every view point.
And many of them can readily tell
who's who They have a set stand
ard by which to gauge you and your
attainments This standard is often
the old doctor, whose successor you