The Elbert County tribune., 1906-06-07
Copyright, 1905. by sashl c. Fowler. Jr.,

tlce, ueVOteS MS time 10 some one DIS
ease, or class of diseases. Compare
lively few physicians have the pecul
lar ability necessary for becoming a
successful specialist. The majority of
physicians will do better. especially
financially, to continue their family
practice.
Regular family physicians, who are
not specialists, and who practice in
large cities. usually receive from 81
to SO per office call, the majority of
such fees being 81; and from 81 to SO
for outside calls. the 80 rate being the
usual one. The country center ply
sician seldom receives more than 81
for Office calls. nor more than 81 for
outside calls, although the most sue
cessful may command SO for outside
visits. In some of the smaller places
the office fee is as low as 30 cents,
and the outside call rate not higher
than 81 or s1.25.
Nearly every doctor of ability can
earn his living. The specialist, II ex-
tremely skillful in diagnosis, or in
surgery, receives very large fees, often
running into the hundreds and even
thousands of dollars. Yet few spe-
cialists are wealthy men, because 1t is
an unwritten law that the specialist
shall give of his time to cases where
there is little or no hope of more than
ordinary remuneration.
There is no profession, and there are
few callings. either of trade or of bust
ness, which makes such demands upon
10 or
profession. The practicing physician
is the slave of his work; he is liable
to be called any hour of the day or
night; in rain or in blizzard. The lit
tie time he has at his disposal he must
use for study, for without continual
study he cannot keep up with the
progress of his profession.
Adaptability is essential to medical
success. Anyone can learn the ele-
ments of the technique of medicine,
and surgery, almost anyone can be-
come a book DOCTOR" and any we'll
read book doctor can successfully
treat a case when he knows exactly
what is the matter with the patient
and what the patients constitution
requires. In the skill at diagnosing
lies the physicians real value. With
out this proficiency. he is little better
than medical book. Unless the boy,
some time during his common school
career. shows indications of dag
nostic instinct, he is not likely to be-
come good physician. and should not
be allowed to enter the profession.
Mere scholarship is not an indication
nf oda fol h
passed through the courses of medical
study. he must also have had actual
experience. hospital and laboratory
practice. and know. from observation
and from feeling, much that no book,
or any amount of theory, can teach
him.
1t is impossible to state with any
degree of accuracy the proportion of
college educated physicians, but it is
said at venture that probably 60 per
cent. of our leading physicians are
graduates of the classical college, and
that about half of the rank and file
of doctors are college-bred.
The medical school course is from
four to six years. A college education
will prove of great value to the ply
sician, not because he will practice the
classics, but because he needs the dis
cipline and the more general knowl-
edge which is not obtainable in the
common schools. 1t is true that many
of our most successful practitioners
never entered college; but few, If any.
of them would refuse college educa-
ton If they could start again.
The business man can get along
without the college. The doctor can
succeed without the higher education.
but he will feel the lack of it con-
stantly. He must pass through the
training of an immense amount of
study. If he does not do it in his
youth, he must do it afterward; and
1t is much more economical to build
the general educational framework of
success before one has established him
self in any calling.
George NJ. Gould, NJ D., of Philadel-
phia, editor of American Medicine
and author of many medical works. in
letter to the author says:
The choice of profession is rarely
made by young mans own free will
and still more infrequently by a due
consideration of his peculiar fitness
for the special work. Whim, accident
and circumstances usually rule. Ply
sicians seldom advise their sons to
become physicians, since by the time
of the sons majority, life has demon
strated to the 40 or 5o-year-old father
that the world has little thanks and
thought for the true doctor or his
work.
For the sake of decency, humanity
and medical art and science. do not
choose, do not allow a young man
whose character is of the commercial
or politician, ambitious, selfish type.
to choose the medical calling.