THE ROMANCE OF MEDICINE. 423 



questions of medical life and science, one desires not only to look at 

 the subject on its abstract and literary side, but to aim at some con- 

 crete good. I will propose, lector benevole, that we attempt a compro- 

 mise ; that while, in random, discursive talk, I am permitted, as here- 

 tofore, to cull some anecdotes, thoughts, and illustrations, such as out- 

 siders may care to gather from a particular science, I may yet dwell on 

 matters that may be of essential home interest to us, and hope there 

 may be a somewhat serious design and meaning underlying our olla 

 podrida. 



In Medicine, the first object of interest and attention is the medical 

 man himself. An author is to me something more interesting than 

 any thing he does in authorship ; a great classic's works are only the 

 fossil remains of a vanished world of intelligence. When patients 

 ponder on pills and potions, I the rather wonder why they do not ex- 

 amine into the nature and idiosyncrasy of their medical man. They 

 may depend upon it that, if he is worth much, he will be examining 

 into their nature and idiosyncrasy. The great question for the patient 

 to solve is, whether his doctor has got the mystic gift. He may be 

 chuckful of science ; tap him anywhere, and there will be a clear-run- 

 ning stream of fact and comment ; but the practical question is, wheth- 

 er he will prove a healer to me. High science may leave a man very 

 stupid for practice. The knowledge of things is but an adjunct to the 

 knowledge of ends. The physician, aware, in the first instance, of all 

 the dangers his patient is liable to, should, then, from his own knowl- 

 edge, select the best means of obviating them ; but, though he had the 

 whole materia medlca by heart, he would not be nearer his mark if he 

 knew nothing of disease ; and this is essentially the full-gotten knowl- 

 edge of good and evil impressed on him through a susceptibility of his 

 mind altogether distinct from the acquisition of natural history and 

 chemistry. To remember well the pains and the moments of relief of 

 all the sufferers he has witnessed is the first requisite of a physician ; 

 to couple these with their attendant circumstances, and to store them 

 up too, is a further extension of the practical intelligence. On this 

 foundation he ought to build a store of Nature-knowledge, of book- 

 knowledge, and of logical acumen. As a man, prudent for himself, 

 should remember adequately all his own pains, so a man, skilfully pru- 

 dent for the sick, should remember all their pains and weaknesses in 

 the first instance ; his head should be more full of misery than the box 

 of Pandora, and his only solace should be the hope at the bottom. 

 This is a wise set of sentences, which I have found stored up among 

 my medical notes and reflections, and, I believe, goes pretty deep into 

 the heart of things medical. 



If a medical man shows at great advantage in your home or in his 

 own, there is one place in which he is too often uncomfortable, and 

 makes other people uncomfortable as well. This is the witness-box. 

 There is hardly any great trial for murder, but doctors and counsel 



