Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-06-20
tcOpys;;4ghs, 1865, By Sathl C. Fowler, Jr.,

iItNiIC, OCNOlCo l1l1iC W SOiuGt OuG us
tease, or class of diseases. Compare
Itively few physicians have the pecul-
lar ability necessary for becoming
successful specialist The majority of
physicians will do better, especially
financially, to continue their family
Epractice.
!, 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 50 rate being the
usual one. The country center ply
/ sieian seldom receives more than 81
+ for Office calls, nor more than 81 for
Routside calls, although the most sue
cessful may command SO for outside
Twists. In some of the smaller places
l:the Office fee is as low as SO cents,
land the outside call rate not higher
Hthan 81 or $1.25.
I Nearly every doctor of ability can
learn his living. The specialist, if ex-
ltremely 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 it 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
its practitioners as does the medical
profession. The practicing physician
is the slave of his work; ne is liable
to be called any hour of the day or
i night; in rain or in blizzard The lit
i tle time he has at his disposal he must
pse for study, for without continual
4 study he cannot keep up with the
/ progress of his profession.
i Adaptability is essential to medical
i success. Anyone can learn the ele-
i luents of the technique of medicine,
| and surgery, almost anyone can be-
1 come a "book DOCTOR" and any we'll
I. 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
/ out this proficiency, he is little better
tnan medical book. Unless the boy,
4 some time during his common school
! career, shows indications of a dag
i nostic instinct. he is not likely to be-
II come a good physician, and should not
I he allowed to enter the profession.
Il Mere scholarship is not an indication
tofi adaptability. While he must have
II passed through the courses of medical
/; study, he must also have had actual
experience, hospital and laboratory
+ practice, and know, from observation
land from feeling, much that no book,
Flor any amount of theory, can teach
him;
II It 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
Icent. of our leading physicians are
graduates of the classical college, and
that about half of the rank and file
tof 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 AID the more general knowl-
hdse which is not obtainable in the
coltmon schools. It is true that MANY
of sour most sue .>ssful practitioners
never entered col;r> but few, If anv
of them would refuse college educa-
ten if they c,,uld start again.
Ii 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
it IS much more economical to build
the general educational framework of
success before enc has established him
| self in any calling.
! George NJ Gould. NJ D., of Phfladel-
phia, editor of American Medicine
I and author of many medical works. in
I a letter to the author says:
Il 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 SOFAS to
become physicians. since by the! time
l Of the sons majority, life has demon
y strated to the 40 or 50-yeaT-old father
thas the world has little thanks and
thoaght for the true doctor OF his
/ work.
HFor 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.
In no other calling, not even in
pure science. is there such an oppor-
tun5ty to make great discoveries of