The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-02-05
The Great Doctor and the Little Priest.

Baron Dupuytren, a famous French doctor in
the latter years of Napoeons reign, was for long
time surgeon-in-chef at the Hotel Dieu the prin-
cpal hospital in Paris probably in the world where
every morning in the year a free consultation of
the most eminent surgeons in existence is still open
and free to all, rich or poor, black or white French
or foreigner. Wonderfully keen at diagnosis, ex-
tremely firm of nerve, remarkably ingenious in the
invention of operating instruments for the allevia
ton Of human suffering, Dupuytren had the repu-
tation of being habitually brusque and even unfeel
ing towards most of his numberless patients. New
ertheess the following story is told of him by
who knew him well:
Few men have had life more busily occupied
than Dupuytren. Winter and summer he rose at
o'clock; at o'clock he was in the hospital, which
he never left before II. He then made his APP
pointed visits through the city, and on his return
home usually found his office packed with the pa
tients that had from all directions to consult
the famous doctor In spite of his unseemly haste
in getting rid of most of Them they were so numer
that it long after nightfall when the last
one was packed off.
One evening, when the consultation had lasted
long beyond the ordinary hour, the doctor, hadead
with fatigue, retiring for little rest when the
door Of his Office suddenly opened and belated Wis
itor appeared.
He was of small, stout figure, evidently adj
vanced in years, but regarding his exact age you
would have some difficulty in coming to decided
kes you could discern the line of small mouth and
the prominence of a small nose, slightly aquiline.
Hands and feet, in miniature, were quite in
cordance with the rest of the body. When a child
he would have reminded you of one of those plump
cherub faces that we see in church pictures, float
ing on wings around head of the Madonna. In
his blue eyes, in his gestures, in his whole phvsiog
nomy, there was timidity, a gentleness and be-
nightly altogether touching. His one of those
fortunate faces on which our eyes can long rest
with delighted satisfaction. While looking at the
calm and peaceful countenance of that little old
you would have felt yourself almost becoming
better, irresistiby attracted towards him, and
forced as it were to love him. He held in his right
hand a black raven-headed cane and his small body
small suit of Clothes completely black.
While bowling in salutation to the doctor, he
vealed a wide tonsure round his head. 1t easy
to see that the attractive little man priest.
Dupuytren's eyes rested on him with cold,
weary, almost forbidding look. "What is the mat
ter with you!" he asked in a harsh voice.
Doctor replied the priest gently, 81 must
really ask your permission to take seat; my poor
limbs already rather stiff and pretty weak. Two
years ago l felt swelling in the neck under the
left Jaw. The health officer of village am
the cure of La Madeline, near Nemours- me
at first that it was of no account But it grew
worse and at the end of five months the gathering
broke of itself. / kept in bed long time, but
without the trouble ever getting better. Then |
had to get up, because you see / the only priest
to othciate in four villages, and"
Show your neck"
Not, DOCTOR" continued the old man while duti-
July obeying orders-"not that these good people
We're unwilling to come together every Sunday, the
whole four congregations, to hear Mass in La
Madeleine. But / know poor people work hard all
me week; they are often sick themselves and they
have only Sundays for quiet rest. So [ said to
myself: 1t is not fair to have many put to in
convenience on my account And them you know,
doctor, there is the catechsm-the First Commu-
mons Monseigneur the Bishop certainly prom
iSed TO send me an assistant in a short time, but
The Pensioners insisted on my coming at once to
Paris to consult you. / was pretty slow in decid-
ing because travelling costs a good bit of money
and / have a good many really poor people in my
parish But, having to do as they wished, l took
The train, and here is my trouble doctor" he con-
tnued. showing his neck.
Dupuytren looked at it long and fxedly. The
neck showed a hole nearly an inch wide and very
deep. 1t a gathering of the gland of the under
Jaw, complicated by ugly tumor of the artery.
he wound already mortified in many places
III was indeed so serious case that Dupuytren was
profoundly amazed at the sufferers indomitable
iortitude in maintaining for any time a standing
Position
The doctor lost no time He separated at once
The lips of the wound and touched the neighboring
parts with pressure painful enough to make an
ordinary sufferer faint with the agony, but the lit
tie priest never WINGED, though the doctor himself
as he afterwards expressed it, felt the little frame