The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-03-10
T6s Ias aud 1ps<luEsacsn
BEL AIR, Md, MARCH 10. 1905.

the heat in the stokehole and another
afflicted with vertigo ended the labors
of the surgeon for the night.
Such was sample days routine
Happy was the medical man when on
reaching port after busy week he
was able to land every person on the
! ship. Two went to the hospital, but
both were ''out of the woods before
the vessel again turned her PROV home
ward.
A very general msconception seems
! to exist among the medical profession
and indeed among many of the laity
also as regards the professional attain
! ments of surgeons on the transatlantic
| steamships. There is widespread no
| ton that to be ships doctor one need
only have a smattering Of medicine, to-
| gether with the vaguest IDEAS of sur
gerry, and that, possessing these, a man
| is amply qualified to watch over the
health of several hundred people among
the passengers and crew of his vessel.
IN point of fact, the average steam
ship surgeon is at least as we'll quail
| fed as the average physician on shore.
Many of them indeed are men of the
highest scientific attachments. The
number of men who would like to go to
sea as surgeons is so great that steam
ship companies may pick and choose
among the ablest of the younger men.
1t is extremely difficult nowadays for
any but an exceptional physician to OBJ
| tain regular berth aboard a transat-
lantic liner.
| To secure place as physician on one
| of the ships it is essential to have had
ample hospital experience. AS rule,
| tie management gives preference to
! men who have been in private practice
! after completing their hospital work.
| All steamships sailing under the Eng
| fish flag are required to carry as reg
ular surgeons men who have been
| trained in England Scotland or Ire
| land.
The ship surgeon, however he may
| devote some of his time to the ameni-
ties of civilized life, cannot be the So
| ciaI butterfly he is sometimes repre-
| scented as being. Indeed, most sur
geons see the passengers only at the
| table over which they preside and oc-
casionally OH the promenade deck. The
| ship surgeon leads, in fact, practically
| the same kind of life as his confrere
| ashore He is a busy man. The larger
| vessels seldom carry fewer than 800
| people on each trip, and in the summer
months / 800 would be nearer an ay-
erage number.
Each one of these persons, in what
ever class. is privileged to call on the
surgeon at any time, day or night. And
| the average passenger feels free to eX-
| ercise his privilege His ailments are
| the same at sea as ashore, augmented
by the troubles peculiar to the sea, and
| if anything he is more particular when
| on the water than when ashore. Prob
| ably the ships doctor listens to more
tales of woe in one trip than he would
hear i'll six months ashore.
1t will be seen that the surgeon of
| the big transatlantic liner is no drone
| His working hours are long, and much
| of his leisure time is taken up in the
study and the perusal of the medical
| literature. of which he usually has a
generous supply. The surgeons library
is ample and up to date and his med
ical and surgical equipment of the best.
He therefore who supposes that the
doctor at sea is not the peer of the doc
| tor ashore should at once disabuse his
mind of that impression. The medical
| profession has no more high minded,
earnest and Woodworking representa-
tives than the ones who go down to
| the sea in Ships-New York Times.