I see more and more plainly that we ought to strengthen and
balance the whole system, and aid nature to make the sick man well
again. It is nature that does it after all, and diseases are oftener
effects of illness than causes. But the young practitioners must
follow the text-books a while until they have had enough experience to
open their eyes to observe and have learned to think for themselves. I
don't know which is worse; too much routine or no study at all. I was
trying the other day to count up the different treatments of pneumonia
that have been in fashion in our day; there must be seven or eight,
and I am only afraid the next thing will be a sort of skepticism and
contempt of remedies. Dr. Johnson said long ago that physicians were a
class of men who put bodies of which they knew little into bodies of
which they knew less, but certainly this isn't the fault of the
medicines altogether; you and I know well enough they are often most
stupidly used. If we blindly follow the medical dictators, as you call
them, and spend our treatment on the effects instead of the causes,
what success can we expect? We do want more suggestions from the men
at work, but I suppose this is the same with every business. The
practical medical men are the juries who settle all the theories of
the hour, as they meet emergencies day after day."
"The men who have the true gift for their work," said Dr. Ferris
impatiently. "I hadn't the conscience to go on myself, that's why I
resigned, you know.
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