Arizona republican., 1906-02-04

ness, which makes such demands upon it's practictioners as does the medical profession. The practicing physician is the slave of his work; he has little or no time for diversion or recreation; he is liable to be called any hour of the day or night in rain or in blizzard. The little time he has at his disposal he must use for study, for without con- tinual study he cannot keep up with the progress of his profession.
 The boy who sincerely wants to be- come a doctor and who has the neces- sary ability, cannot be turned away from it. But the boy who says he wants to be a doctor, or who wants to be a doctor because some of his friends are going to be doctors, and who can be talked out of it as we'll as Into It, is not likely to make a good physician, and probably will never more than moderately succeed in any direction. No one unfitted for the medical pro- fesslon should attempt to enter it; first because he cannot legitimately make a success of it; second, because he is not likely to earn more than a moderate living: and third, because he will be a positive menace to the community
 Adaptability is absolutely essential
 
 can learn the elements of she technique of medicine and surgery, almost any one can become a book doctor" and any well read book doctor can success fully treat a case when he knows ex- actly what is the matter with the pa tient and what the patients constitu- ton requires. In the skill at diagnosing lies the physicians real success and his real value. Without this proficiency. he is little better than a medical book. Un- less the boy, some time during his conn mon school career, shows indications of a diagnostic instinct he is not likely to become a good physician and should not be allowed to enter the profession. Mere scholarship is not an indication of adaptability. The successful phy- sician is more than q scholar. White he must have fundamental education and must have passed through the courses of medical study, and have answered questions put to him by the seVerest examiners. 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.
 It is impossible to state, with any degree of accuracy the proportion of college educated physicians and those whose higher education began with the medical school. but it is said at a venture. that probably sixty per cent of our leading physicians are gradu ates of the classical college, and that about half. or a little more. 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 phys iciah. 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. It is true that many of our most successful practitioners never entered college; but few, if any, of them would refuse a college educa- tion if they could start again.
 The discipline of the higher educa- tion. with it's environment, fits man the better to grasp the perplexities of life. The business man can get along without the college. and sometimes he Is better off without it. The doctor. or other professional man. can succeed without the higher education. but he will feel the lack of it constantly. IL is not so easy to reach the pinnacle of success without it. 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 it is much more economical and satisfactory to build the general edu- cational frame work of success before one has established himself in any pro- fessional calling.
 George M Gould. A. NJ, M. D., of Philadelphia, editor of American. Med