MEDICINE AND MORALS 



once, as a boy, the subject of an operation 

 without anesthesia, the head surgeon in 

 which was old, fidgety, nervous and cruelly 

 kind. He made no progress, trembling 

 and suspending work at every scream. After 

 a time his assistant took charge, a man firm, 

 composed, insistent, kindly cruel. He did 

 not heed cries, but in the shortest possible 

 time cut, sewed up and relieved the patient. 

 Commend us to that type of operator always. 

 A good surgeon, called almost daily to be 

 the chief actor in deep tragedy, must culti- 

 vate steady nerve, must hold himself in 

 physical, mental and emotional equipoise. 

 Aware that the pain he causes is unavoid- 

 able, he does well to ply his knife strongly, 

 but he never forgets that pain is pain. He 

 does not permit his phlegm, in itself per- 

 fectly benign, to assume vicious strength. 

 The best thought of recent years places in- 

 creased value upon the feelings. The high- 

 est culture, like the highest education, tests 

 the soul by its affections. The finest prac- 

 tice of physic or of surgery includes philan- 

 thropy. A surgeon who views his patient 



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