I remember you!" and
after a few vigorous puffs of smoke he went on; "It is all very well
for the rest of the men to be proud of their book learning, but they
don't even try to follow nature, as Sydenham did, who followed no man.
I believe such study takes one to more theory and scientific digest
rather than to more skill. It is all very well to know how to draw
maps when one gets lost on a dark night, or even to begin with
astronomical calculations and come down to a chemical analysis of the
mud you stand in, but hang me if I wouldn't rather have the instinct
of a dog who can go straight home across a bit of strange country. A
man has no right to be a doctor if he doesn't simply make everything
bend to his work of getting sick people well, and of trying to remedy
the failures of strength that come from misuse or inheritance or
ignorance. The anatomists and the pathologists have their place, but
we must look to the living to learn the laws of life, not to the dead.
A wreck shows you where the reef is, perhaps, but not how to manage a
ship in the offing. The men who make it their business to write the
books and the men who make it their business to follow them aren't the
ones for successful practice."
Dr. Leslie smiled, and looked over his shoulder at his beloved library
shelves, as if he wished to assure the useful volumes of his continued
affection and respect, and said quietly, as if to beg the displeased
surgeon's patience with his brethren: "They go on, poor fellows,
studying the symptoms and never taking it in that the life power is at
fault.
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