HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 323 



his eager search for the truth; they were so filled with admiration of 

 his noble life that they went back to their work with a higher sense 

 of personal duty and professional obligation. Not the least of his ser- 

 vices to his profession was his condemnation of a narrow medical eti- 

 quette, and his untiring insistance that the interests of the patient 

 should be tiie physician's first and most sacred obligation. He knew, 

 of course, that he lost consultations thereby, just as he lost patients, 

 by always refusing to compromise his self-respect. But he was can- 

 did and generous to his colleagues, ready to be convinced if his 

 way were not the best, and quite willing to allow a wide latitude for 

 differences of opinion. He did more than any other man of his gen- 

 eration to lift the medical profession above the imputation of being 

 merely a trade, because he more than any other could divest himself 

 of his personality, and look at his patient from the point of view of 

 the patient's interest. The conduct of his life was above the thought 

 of any gain to his personal reputation. 



In No. 46 of the Bibliographical Contributions published by Mr. 

 Justin Winsor, the distinguished Librarian of Harvard University, 

 comprising the work of the Class of 1828, of which Dr. Bowditch 

 was Class Secretary after the death of his classmate Barnard, there is 

 a list of one hundred and sixty-six titles of Dr. Bowditch's writings 

 since his graduation iu medicine. This list, compiled by him in the 

 last years of his life, when his health no longer permitted active work, 

 includes a very great variety of subjects, a few of which are in manu- 

 script, or consist mainly of collections of cuttings from newspapers, etc. 

 Those of permanent professional interest are on pulmonary consump- 

 tion, reports of medical cases, on thoracentesis for pleural effusion, 

 and on matters of public health, including his Centennial Address de- 

 livered at the Medical Congress in Philadelphia in 187G. This address 

 was, by vote of the Congress, sent to the Governors of all our States 

 and Territories, to be transmitted to all the Legislatures and to all 

 the Sanitary Boards and State Medical Societies in the United States 

 and Canada. Throughout these writings, most of them prepared in 

 odd moments snatched from a busy life, one sees the quick response 

 to every fine sentiment, the "greater force from a certain inspiration 

 which comj^els me to act and to speak." 



During our civil war, Dr. Bowditch was an untiring worker in 

 numberless ways. As enrolling surgeon his examinations of recruits 

 were thorough, made in a kind and tender way, with an affectionate 

 " God bless you ! " as his parting word, given with the same intense 

 earnestness as he marked with nitric acid a D on the back of a de- 



