312 HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 



served full notes of their lectures, and often referred to the habit thus 

 formed as having been of immense value to him in the exact knowledge 

 of his patients which his records of their cases gave him. Dr, Bowditch 

 chose medicine rather than surgery, because its problems interested him 

 more, and because he had a great repugnance to usmg the surgeon's 

 knife. 



When he went to Paris to continue his medical studies, in 1832, his 

 character and traming had prepared him for the precise methods of 

 observation, and the faithful record and accurate analysis of facts, as 

 the true basis of medical knowledge and practice, in which Louis, one 

 of the first to protest against the medical dogmatism of the day, was 

 then indoctrinating his pupils, — " My beloved master in medicine," he 

 said of him, " whose noble example will always lead every honest 

 scholar to a reverent regard for scientific truth, whose works have been 

 to me a stimulus to patient labors in my profession, and whose friend- 

 ship was to me a lifelong delight.'' He received his degree of M. D. 

 in 1833, and joined the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1835. 



While in Europe, another marked influence upon his character came 

 from his study of French life, in which he found much to admire. 

 Through his father's translation of the "Mecanique Celeste," he be- 

 came acquainted with the Laplace family and others, who made a 

 deep impression upon the young American. But, of course, there was 

 already in him that which responded readily to the suggestion from 

 their example of courteous consideration to every one. As he ex- 

 pressed it, the Frenchman said with a polite gesture, " You are as good 



as I " ; but the American, " — you, I am as good as you are." This 



lesson he never forgot. His attentive and respectful consideration for 

 the opinions of others, no matter how immature or inadequate, has 

 been an encouragement to many a young doctor, for which he ever 

 held Dr. Bowditch in grateful remembrance. His poorest patients 

 received the same polite attention and thorough examination as the 

 most distinguished. They were all fellow beings needing help, and he 

 regarded it as his solemn duty, as well as his pleasure, to give them 

 his best. Whether they paid his full fee, or a half or a quarter or a 

 twentieth, or nothing, he rendered the service cheerfully. When he 

 declined to accept any part or all of his fee, it was with such delicacy 

 of feeling that the most sensitive woman could only gratefully receive 

 his gift. 



After establishing himself in Boston, in 1834, and while waiting 

 for practice, he devoted much time to benevolent work and took great 

 pleasure in helping those who needed encouragement or assistance, — 



