Year: 1875

In the full swing of medical practice the
pace Is tremendous. When once the inde-
Unable stamp of fashion is SGT upon doc
tor every one wants 10 engage his services.
You may go to the great mans house again
and again, and the great man will not be
able TO see you. You may write to his sec
retary, and the secretary may make an APP
polntment for the week after next, but II
by no means follows that he will be able
TO keep the appointment. As soon as tie
clock strikes two he makes dash from
the consulting room, swallows an apology
for lunch, and you presently observe him
driving past the windows. In vain the un-
punctuality is notorious, in vain the con-
sulting fee is doubled. People are deter
mined to have the great man, and the great
man they accordingly get; they will bring
him down two hundred miles, though they
have TO pay two hundred guineas for the
Journey. They will have him though the
patient may be ia drticuto mortfS. For
there are circumstances under which some
rich men think that no consultation Is too
costly. They will have him and no one
else, although the case, scientifically con-
SlutTtu, Ulhy Ob a. Slullib as u cut
Sometimes they resort TO him because the
case has really baf1led the average practi-
toner, and 1t not unfrequently happens
that the celebrated physician makes dag
nosis and suggests a remedy that sets his
brethren TO rights. On the other hand, the
average practitioner has his revenge in re-
peating stories of extraordinary blunders
perpetrated by fashionable physicians. But
when the fashionable physician has really
obtained this immense practice the charm
Of the practice must depart. The great
physician becomes great slave. He lives
In state of gilded captivity. He cannot
call bis house his own, or his hours his
own, or his family his own. He is at the
beck and call of the public. He takes his
meals with his loins girded or rather, he
may be obliged to exist on Liebig's ex-
tract for want Of time to partake Of solid
food. When the tide of fashion steadily
sets in he is almost submerged beneath the
wave. Ho bids farewelfto leisure, friends,
private llGe-all that makes existence en-
durable. The guneas accumulate, the
checks, the bank notes there are plethoric
investments, a lordly income. But a mans
income for all purposes of enjoyment is
not what he gets but what be spends. Ma
ny men who imagine that they are In the
enjoyment OF q stately income are often,
like children, playing with little bits of pa
per that come in and little bits of paper that
go out. There is not so much use in a
man getting 9l5,000 year il he can hardly
spend 9l500 But, as a rule, we acquit
great physicians Of any mean love of1lthy
lucre. They hardly know the sums which
roll out of their pockets when, worn out
and harassed, they tumble into the uncer-
tain bed from which the night-bell may
arouse them. They would willingly take
less OF lucre for more of leisure. This was
n strong idea Of the late Sir Henry Hol-
lands. lie early fixed the modest limits
of his professional income at G5000, and
would allow no professional business to in
terfere with his three months holiday. He
had his reward in living to HISTORIAN age,
with all the reputation of Nestor's wisdom.
The fashionable physician who reciprocates
the firm belief which the London publ:
have Ia him with corresponding belief in
himself is goaded on by two considera-
tions of supreme weight. In the first place,
he believes that he is comforting a great
amount of good on suffering humanity
which no other physician could render
equally we'll with himself In the next
place, he believes that he Is steadily en-
larging the limits of medical science. Each
patient is a book, and his practice repre-
sents the library of medical knowledge.
He is willing, therefore, to endure any
toll, although he knows bow dangerous is
such toll when carried beyond tha endura-
BILE limit. Such course is especially like
ly II he is a believer in the boundless fu-
ture Of medicine, In new methods Of dag
nosls, In new systems of therapeutics, and
has the enthusiasm OF humanity" ir his
| soul.-London Globe.